Chapter 3
Iasbelin found Arwen sitting on her balcony reading a book in the common tongue. When Iasbelin entered Arwen rose from her seat and closed the distance between the two of them.
"My dear Iasbelin. It feels as if an Age has gone by since I have last saw you." Arwen said. Arwen and Iasbelin had known each for two thousand years. Their friendship was one of trust, caring, and intellect. Iasbelin found solace in Arwen's knowledge of the world. They bonded over books, philosophy, art, and music. Arwen's music was the closet to Iasbelin's mother that she ever found. Rivendell and Arwen were a place of great rest and happiness for her.
"I know. It has been far too long. The Valar has not blessed me with much energy to travel in these past centuries. I hope you can forgive me." Iasbelin answered pulling away from the hug. Arwen nodded and gestured to two chairs overlooking a small fountain. Iasbelin took a seat and Arwen followed her. "How is Aragorn? I hear that he is here for the council."
"He is well, but I fear for him. He has much weighing on his heart." Arwen sighed.
"He has a great burden." Iasblein answered "All men do. But nothing lives up to the burden of the woman-folk."
"Yes. We bear the greatest of burden." Arwen laughed quietly. "How is your burden? It has been five hundred years since."
Iasbelin casted her eyes away from Arwen. She knew of what she spoke but was unwilling to speak of it. There had been rumours that he had been spotted in the forest near Lothlorien. She feared that her husband would find out.
"There is trouble?" Arwen asked again.
"I am not sure. You must have heard the rumours, though." Iasbelin sighed
"I have. Unfortunately. Thranduil cannot keep unwanted ears out of his palace. There's talk of it in all the realms but that does not mean you are at fault." Arwen offered
"I have not seen him in decades. He leaves to gallivant with Aragorn and I remain in the Halls of Thranduil, fading." Iasbelin told Arwen.
"Have you told him what you told me in the letters? We both know that it is possible for him to have found what he was looking for after the Battle of Five Armies." Arwen inquired
"No! How could I? He's been gone, and I do not write to him. Thranduil and I both agreed to leave him alone." Iasbelin said astonished
"He has a right to know, Iasbelin. You already lost one child." Arwen advised
"Arwen, I fear the worst. You know of the feelings he had for Tauriel all those years. I feel that I simply stand in the way of his happiness." Iasbelin mumbled
"My friend, do not fear. When we marry they promise eternity. There had never once been an elf that strayed. Marriage is not something they take lightly. He will never love another because he is married to you. You have a union of souls and no amount of hardship can break that. Of course, he may have feelings for another, a bond of soldiers, but never what he has with you." Arwen assured
"I do hope you are correct, Arwen." Iasbelin sighed. She knew the answer to all of this, but it was too much to bear.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Aragorn said politely as he strode in the door.
"Not at all, my Lord, I was just leaving." Iasbelin answered, as she rose from her chair.
"You can stay if you would like." Arwen said.
"No, I will leave you two alone." Iasbelin told the couple as she walked out the door. Aragorn grabbed her arm as she passed him. She looked into his eyes and saw great sorrow.
"You should to find Legolas. He needs to speak with you." Aragorn told Iasbelin. He let go of her arm and Iasbelin bowed.
"Thank you for informing me, my Lord." she said.
Iasbelin walked out the door and floated back to her room. She knew exactly what this conversation would comprise of and she was at her wits end with it. He would not dare leave her again to rot in the dark palace.
"You're leaving?" Iasbelin said intensely as she walked through the doors of her chambers.
Legolas was sitting at his desk with a few papers in his hands. He looked up at his wife and sighed. She was the smartest elleth he ever met. That was her greatest draw but also the greatest wall she put up. He knew she would find out before he had the chance to tell her. He rose from his seat and walked over to his seething wife by the door.
"I have offered my help to the Hobbit taking the Ring to Mordor. I need to do this, it is a journey that I must go on." Legolas told her. He knew it was not the answer she was looking for, but he gave it nonetheless.
"You cannot leave. You've only just returned. You left me for sixty years in the darkness of your father's palace. I faded away while you went to do what? Find yourself again? You did not even say goodbye. Your bloody father had to tell me where you went." Iasbelin said. She did not raise her voice, however.
"I…" Legolas looked intensely at the elleth in front of him. Despite her immortality the centuries had not been kind to her. She was tired, grey, and meek. Legolas knew what plagued her.
"Leaving was not the greatest course of action, I agree. But there were things in this world that I needed to be a part of. Aragorn needed my guidance in those years. My father all but sent me on that errand." Legolas said, ashamed. He wanted to tell her the real reason he left all those years ago. He wanted to tell her why, but he knew the pain would be too much for her to bear.
"You left me, you left the memory of our daughter, you left your family." She rebuked. Iasbelin pushed him aside and walked to the window. It was dark, and she could her the signing of the Elves in the distance. A song that used to warm her heart but now left her cold. She thought about Arwen and how lucky she was. She could choose to live a mortal life and die a peaceful death. She was cursed as an Elf, however.
"I did not want memories of that dreaded place. My father is but a ghost of himself and so are you. Every day I lived in the shadow of my mother, daughter, and son." Legolas told her, raising his voice slightly.
"How dare you," she sneered "We've buried too many kin for you to choose whether or not you face the grief."
"We did not even get to bury my mother." Legolas mumbled as he walked towards his wife, who was still at the window.
He stood next to her and crossed his arms. She looked up at his brooding face and sighed as she placed a hand on his arm. Her wedding band caught the moonlight as she moved. Legolas softened under her touch and looked at the elleth he married over two thousand years ago. A vast majority of his life had been spent with Iasbelin. She was the mother of his children, the bearer of his soul, and the partner he needed for eternity. Where had he gone wrong? How had a union as pure as theirs come to this?
"Did you know that you would volunteer before you came here?" Iasbelin asked meekly with her arm still on his. She could feel the sorrow fill her and hoped for a different answer than what she knew was to come.
"I had a feeling. Elves need to be a part of this alliance and I need to honor those who fell before me at the hands of Sauron." Legolas replied dimly. He placed a hand on Iasbelin's, feeling her ring underneath his. "I am sorry, nin mel" Legolas picked up her hand and placed a kiss on the palm. "By the grace of the Valar we will see the next age. We will sail to the West and be with our son. But I will have left Middle Earth a safer place for Men." Legolas knew he was lying. He would die on this journey and knew this full well. He only hoped their son would find her, at least that would ease her pain.
A tear slipped down Iasbelin's face. She knew he would not survive this journey either. Thousands of years on this earth taught her about the perils of evil. Sauron would let no one survive. She prayed their son would find him in their hour of need. All she could do now was to wait.
"We have time, yet?" She asked.
"Yes, we do not leave for two months yet." Legolas gave her a weak smile and embraced her fully. "There is time, nin mel."
Iasbelin nodded and leaned into his embrace. He was so familiar and yet so foreign to her. The years had not been kind to their union, but they always found each other in embraces. Each embrace brought back the feelings she had those centuries ago. She knew what she had done, lied. But he left her, alone, in her grief.
"Go if you must. But know that you have a family that will grieve in your absence. It is noble, what you do. I just may not last long enough to see you return." Iasbelin told him with doleful eyes.