Legolas felt the tears rolling down his cheeks even as the memory dissolved into mist, leaving the Shade standing there, cold and unmoving.
"So that was his story." Legolas nodded, staring his empty arms that had so recently--or it seemed recently--held his mother. "And you believed him. Why? He was lying through his teeth. Even through his story, you could see his lust for her soul."
Legolas stared blankly ahead, answering dully, "I had never before met a Shade, in all my many years. Yet, I had heard stories of them, and my people feared those whose powers of the mind rivaled even that of the Dark Lord. Rumors flew that their powers came from him. They had, after all, only surfaced after the fall of Numenor. And… he seemed so angry at the Shade--Geriswaea. I thought…"
"You thought of course, anything foreign must be dangerous. Did you not see the good we had done? Did you not see how the Darkness was spreading as our numbers dwindled? Did you even bother to look at that village, and see how the violence there had stopped and how the people were peaceful for the first time in generations?"
"Sauron once helped the elves. Then he betrayed us. I cannot read minds, Shade. I cannot tell a liar from a truthful person. And…I had been hunting so long, only to fail. I was angry, hurt, grieving. I had lost my mother." As fresh tears threatened to fall, the Shade's face softened, every so slightly. She, being a Shade, could feel the sincerity in his thoughts. She had seen his grief and his reasoning since first entering his mind, fighting her own conscience to blame him for Geriswaea's death. She could tell a liar from a truthful person, and she could feel the elf's remorse and grief beating down upon her. She spoke.
"I am sorry. I have delved into your mind without thought to your feelings and caused you much grief. I could have released you from that memory, yet I tortured you with it. However, some good has come of it. I am now certain of your sincerity, and I know that you did not murder my mentor without reason, faulty though the reason was. And I know now why you bear such hatred to my kind… to me, the last of my race." She took a deep breath. Her pride was surpassed only by her temper, and she had suppressed both with such a statement. Some wounded part of her still cried 'Murderer!' at the sight of the elf, but yet, she had been hunting Geriswaea's killer for decades without stopping for the truth. She could not hate him without hating herself. The elf looked up at her and then around himself at the white expanse of mist surrounding them.
"Where are we?"
" We are in your mind. Is it not familiar to you?"
"It is…strange. It seems almost a place, but yet, I feel that it is a part of me. Why is it so empty?"
"That is partially my fault, but in the end, the state of your mind is you own doing. You have filled your mind with hate and grief for over a century. Devoid of these feelings, there is nothing left."
"Then what shall I do? I suppose death is a just punishment for my actions…"
"Do not speak so. What your mind lacks, your heart will provide."
" My heart was filled with more grief and hatred. It too is empty."
"Not so. Hearts are unlike minds. Hearts have an endless capacity, they can never be filled to bursting and they never lose what they once had. All things remain within the heart, although they may be hidden at times. Perhaps it is time you let back into your mind what you have banished to the darkest corner of your heart. Find yourself again."
"I am not the same anymore."
"No one is. Surely one as old as you knows that change is a part of us, for better of worse. We simply evolve ourselves and mold our future from our present. But like a sculpture, if you let the clay dry, it will crack and break. Only in it's continuing change is it flexible and strong. It is never to late to become who you wanted to be, Legolas. It is never to late to change."
"How old did you say you were again?"
" I actually lost count at one hundred and sixty seven. I'm probably about two hundred now. "
"And yet you teach an elf of two thousand years so much in mere minutes."
" I have seen and heard more in two hundred years than most elves do in thir lifetime. You only get to see your own life, whereas I learn from the lives of others as well. It is the reason I know so much of the mind and heart, and the reason I am the way I am."
"Hostile?"
"Bitter. Much was taken from me. "
"But nothing can be taken from the heart." The elf smiled and saw her smile for the first time.
"That' the thing about advice. It is easy to give, but givers have a hard time taking."
"Never too late to change."
" All right, you can have your mind back now, I'm growing sick of you."
"Thank you." She looked at him strangely.
"Nothing to thank, it's what I do." Just as the memory of that day had faded into the mist of Legolas' mind, the Shade faded away; but as she did, Legolas could see pieces of his home returning to reside in his mind. The cold was warmed a bit, and the emptiness started to become a garden. It was time to return.