A/N This chapter takes place right after chapter 3 of Marvel-Tolkien Fangirl's Spectrum: The Harpist's Tale.

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The elf had remained silent, walking some distance from me, after he had realised what I was. I remained silent as well, watching him. He did not look at me, but I saw his shoulders tense and his hands tremble. The light of the moon was bright enough that the path we were taking was clear. We were headed back towards the beach.

I cleared my throat hesitantly. "I do not know your name."

The elf seemed to startle upon hearing me speak. I supposed that he had been wrapped up in his own thoughts. He glanced at me only briefly. "Maglor."

"Maglor," I repeated, a glimmer of memory returning to me. I frowned. "You are the son of Feanor. My creator. I remember you as a child. You and your brothers. You would come with your father and... I do not know what words he spoke to you, but I sensed the love between you."

"When I first saw the Silmarils," Maglor said, haltingly, "I thought that the work of my father had surpassed even the work of the Valar. It was that pride that..."

He trailed off. We had reached the beach, and I walked to the water's edge and stared out over the ocean. Maglor stayed a distance from both me and the ocean. I turned back and studied him closer. He still would not look at me, and when I stepped towards him he seemed to flinch slightly. While there was still a trace of fear in me as I gazed at him, I knew that his fear was greater.

"Where are they, your brothers? Why are you alone?"

"We should go to the cave, stay out of sight."

I shook my head. "I will go no further until you tell me what I wish to know. I believe you when you say you never wished to serve evil, but I do not trust you, Maglor son of Feanor."

With a sigh, he sat down in the sand. I joined him, although I was careful to keep some distance between us. He lifted his gaze and for a long time contemplated me. "I thought you knew who I was when you ran from me."

"I ran because I thought you served Melkor."

Maglor flinched. "Please do not say that name."

"What would you have me call him?"

"I have long tried not to think of him by any name." Maglor laughed bitterly. "But he has always been the great enemy in my mind."

I nodded slowly. "Very well." I scooted a little closer to him on the sand, and was half-expecting him to flinch again. He tensed slightly, but didn't move away. "What happened to your brothers, Maglor? And your father."

Maglor looked down at his hands, his expression becoming hollow with pain borne over millennia. "They're dead."

I felt a cold ball sink into my stomach, and felt tears prick my eyes. "All those shining faces... gone? Dead? How? Why?"

"Because of... Do you know what happened to you? How you left Valinor?"

"I remember darkness, I remember being caged," I replied, "that is all."

"The enemy stole you and the other two like you," Maglor told me softly, looking up at me. "He spilled the first elvish blood, killing my grandfather in his quest. And he killed the two trees, Telperion and Laurelin, whose light the Silmaril were filled with. My brothers and I- we made an oath, a rash, terrible oath, that we would reclaim the jewels our father created. That we would stand against any, elf, Maia or Valar who held them. We left Valinor, and took many of our kin with us... and slew many others whom we thought were standing in our way."

My eyes widened. Kinslayer. The word entered my mind as swiftly and terribly as had Melkor's name. It was almost enough for me to run again, but as I gazed into Maglor's grey eyes I saw regret and sorrow, and a disgust with himself deeper even then mine for him. I did not know what to do. Hesitantly, I put my hand near his on the sand, not touching, but closing the gap between us.

"My brother was freed from the enemy, I remember, long before my sister and I. I see him there, in the sky." I paused a moment, looking up at the evening star. He seemed to know that I was watching, and twinkled like a wink at me. I smiled and turned back to Maglor. "But when my sister and I were finally freed from his grasp-"

"It is my fault that you did not return to Valinor," Maglor interrupted. "My eldest brother, Maedhros, and I... we were the last surviving of us who took the oath, and we stole you."

"What happened?"

Maglor was silent for a long time. "My brother said that it was fitting that we two survivors each would possess one of the last two Silmaril. You were the one that I chose. But as soon as I held you, I knew that my crimes, that my evil deeds, had rendered me unholy, evil, unworthy to touch such a hallowed object. I had no right to possess a jewel that held the sacred light of the Valar."

"You gave me to Ulmo," I whispered.

Maglor shook his head. "I cast you into the sea, but not to return you to the Valar. I thought only to ease my own pain by... by ridding myself of the reminder of what I had become, and to protect the world from the bloodshed that desiring you had brought upon it."

I looked down at my hands, and worked through his words. For a long time, we were silent, each in our own thoughts, listening to the ocean rolling onto the shore. "You brother took my sister," I said eventually.

Maglor nodded once in silence.

"Where is she?"

"Maedhros would not accept that we were unworthy of holding the hallowed jewels," Maglor replied, and his voice wavered. "I begged him to release it, but he would not. He could not release your sister, and he could not release the oath that we had taken. It drove him made and he cast himself into a fiery chasm. Your sister will not be found until the world is reshaped."

I looked up at my brother again, wishing I could speak with him.

"I'm sorry."

Maglor's words startled me slightly. I looked back at him, pulling my knees up to my chest. I studied him for a long time. He did not look at me. "Maglor, that is your pain, not mine. Your brother died, but my sister was saved the terror of being possessed by evil, or used to justify evil. There was never so great a relief that I can remember then when the waves swallowed me. I was safe. For the first time in such a long time, I was safe."

He looked up, searching my eyes. "Do you truly mean that?"

I nodded, seeing the desperation in his eyes.

He looked away again. "Thank you, for saying that."

I put my hand over his. He withdrew it so sharply that for a moment I was afraid I had burned him, as I had Dr North. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Maglor turned over his hand, and a bit of the tenseness in his shoulders loosened. "You did not. I thought you would, but it seems that since you look Elven you do not have the same defenses against evil."

"Or there could be another explanation," I replied softly, putting my hand on his again. "At the hospital, there was a doctor, and when he touched me he was burned. Perhaps... Perhaps you are not so evil as you think."

"What happened at the hospital?"

I told him briefly of what had happened, and his gaze grew more alarmed as I went on. When I was finished, he stood. Hesitantly, he offered me a hand and I accepted his help. "We should retire to the cave. It is sheltered, and not easily accessed. I do not know what the mortals may do to you, but I do know that you must be returned to Valinor. That, above all else, must happen."

"Will you return with me?" He looked stunned by the words I spoke, and as I gazed at him my heart sunk. I knew his answer. How strange it was, that only a day ago I was terrified of him and now I sorrowed at the thought of being parted from him. I shook my head sadly. "I wish you would."

"Why?"

"Maglor, your father is my creator." I smiled briefly. "That makes you my brother."

His brows knitted in confusion. He opened his mouth, teetering on the brink of saying something but suddenly my vision clouded over. I felt my legs give out and he caught me. I heard his voice calling my name, but it faded out as a room faded into my vision. It was small, crowded by a desk on which heaped piles of paper. Doctors Brightman and North from the hospital were in the room. Dr Brightman was holding a small glass box containing the vial of blood that Julia had drawn from me.

"This emits an energy signal unlike anything I have ever seen before," she was saying excitedly. "This could change the world, it's more powerful than the sun-"

Dr North held up his hand. "You're saying that this girl has been on contact with some sort of energy source that's changed her blood?"

"No!" Dr Brightman shook her head impatiently. "She is the power source. This girl, whatever she is, is not human. Imagine! If she's from another world, just imagine what sort of things she could tell us. The company would have a power source that we could do anything with. Nuclear bombs are nothing compared to this! Just imagine what we could do, Peter!"

Dr North looked at the vial of my blood. He frowned. "You said that the nurse who drew this blood was not burned by touching the girl? Then why was I?"

Dr Brightman shook her head. "It could be that she was in a heightened emotional state with you. It could have been a defense mechanism. I don't know yet. All I know, is that we have to get that girl, and I pity the fool who thinks he can keep her from us."

I was brought out of the vision as a cold, salty water slapped my face. I gasped, jerking forward. Maglor had carried me close to the ocean, and as I blinked the water from my eyes, I heard him murmuring a soft prayer to Ulmo. He felt silent when I pushed myself so that I was sitting. Maglor moved forward, grasping my hand with worry.

I looked at him, my heart pounding against my ribcage. "They're coming after us."