They did, in fact, rest – it had been a long and trying day. Some of them searched around the wide open space to find a way out, but in vain – mysteriously, every path they took and every combination of routes they tried, they ended up back where they started again. Frustrated and trapped, eventually they stopped.
Nobody spoke – not through fatigue, but due to unseen barriers that had begun to separate them. Idhrenion remained within clear eyesight of his King, but Thranduil wanted very much to be left alone. Legolas had gone off in a different direction to his father – neither could speak to each other. Anié had stayed with him, though she left him be at first. No-one knew exactly where Maeglin was but they knew he couldn't have gone far – Anié made sure she was nowhere near him for the time being.
She approached her lover with caution, perfectly aware that he would probably not be in a particularly pleasant mood, as none of them due to the ambiance now surrounding them and the situation they found themselves in. Thankfully, however, although Anié was right, Legolas was not angry, an emotion she feared most of all from her husband.
She sat down next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder before she spoke:
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly in their own tongue.
Legolas did not reply, nor did his eyes move to acknowledge the fact she had spoken. After a few seconds – though it felt much longer in the dreary silence – he simply turned his head, half-looked over his shoulder and replied: "And you?"
She sighed silently to herself, knowing her lover was not at all alright. However, she could not blame him for not replying, for neither did she. Words failed her, so she just sat next to Legolas, drowning in the sadness that engulfed everyone and everything in the vicinity. Legolas, genuinely concerned for his love, looked over his shoulder a little more and asked in all seriousness:
"Are you alright?"
"I am fine" she replied honestly.
"It is you I'm worried about".
Legolas sighed again and cast his darkened eyes to the ground. Silence fell on them once again.
"Why are we here, Anié?" Legolas eventually asked.
"We'll not find our soldiers here – what kind of a trap is this?"
"It is a trap, of that we can be certain" replied Anié.
"Though not necessarily one that means us harm".
Legolas shot her a perplexed look and in the moonlight, Anié could see from the expression on Legolas' face that she would have to choose her words carefully. However she could say no more, for as far as the tunnel was concerned, she understood no more.
"I do not know what to make of this place, nor the man who brought us here" she concluded.
Remembering the man filled Legolas with more black anger and he ground his teeth:
"That man … we are such fools, following him here. We walked into this trap so readily, we might as well have set it up ourselves! He's probably laughing at us, wherever and whatever he is" and Legolas cursed him in his mother tongue.
Anié took her lover's arm in her own and tried to comfort him:
"Do not be angry, my love - we will escape this place, one way or another, for like I said, I do not think it necessarily means us harm. For the moment, I do not believe that anyone wants us dead. We just need to be on our guard and get through this as quickly as possible so that our questions may be answered".
Anié however knew perfectly well that nothing she could say would take away the pain of the freshly-revived memories and the pain they had caused amongst the company, especially in rifts caused between relationships that had once been so strong and unquestioned; even when thinking briefly about Maeglin and what he had done to that poor woman made Anié think of one of her dearest and closest friends in a very different light and she did not know in her heart if she could bring herself to speak to him just yet.
After a brief pause, she said carefully: "I'm sorry about your brother, and your mother".
The darkness grew in Legolas' face.
Placing her hand on his heart, she followed her condolences quickly with heart-felt words:
"I know you have suffered. No-one in life is free from that. But together, we are stronger".
Legolas did not respond nor did he move for a moment. Eventually, he gently took Anié's hand in his own and kissed her delicate fingers. The pair said nothing until Legolas suddenly turned to her with an urgent request:
"What will yours be?" he asked her, his eyes somewhat wider than before.
Anié did not understand and asked him to repeat himself. Though repressed so as not to be mistaken with hysterical, desperation became clearer the more Legolas spoke:
"What will yours be, your memory? It must be your deepest, darkest memory, something you will probably have never told me. Please, Anié, I beg of you to tell me; that way, I can prepare to comfort you however you may need it, and if it is about me … especially if it is about me or concerns me, I can prepare and it will not…"
Legolas paused: "…it won't hurt so much. Please, Anié – think carefully and perhaps by revealing it now, you will be spared".
Anié realised that what Legolas wanted most of all from this request was not to be hurt again, as he had done so quite badly twice that day alone. Anié took his hands and spoke straight into his eyes:
"Legolas, my love, I wish I knew what memory this tunnel would reveal for me but I honestly have no idea".
Legolas held her gaze for some seconds, waiting perhaps for a change of mind or a sudden remembrance of a long-lost event, but nothing came, so he simply sighed and remained seated. Anié thought for a while, pondering over what had happened that day, thinking about how she felt now and revelling in possibilities of what may happen the next day. Eventually she arrived at the conclusion that this was going to be a long night.