It`s harder and harder to write something now, when I must make sure that nothing I write gainsays my earlier writings. It`s probably the reason I can`t post chapters every two weeks as I thought I would and I`m sorry for that. I only hope that this story will keep you interested enough so to endure it. I`d appreciate any constructive criticism, as always.

A wind, swirling the lightweight leaves to a low dance, now rose up. Heavy clouds obscured the sky like a draperies, and a clear, crispy-fresh day turned gray and sultry. The sun hid its face. It looked like rain.

I scooted one of the narrower streets. The wind was flapping the loose pleats of my coat. I was not enveloped in it, I felt too hot already. My hair slid from a hastily formed bun and fell into my eyes when I walked into the wind. I brushed them behind my ears and turned one last time to reach my destination. I crossed quickly a few more meters and opened the door of the hunting lodge. I slid inside and slammed the door, shutting out wind and moisture. The house was much drier, but even hotter – apparently someone recently lit the fireplace.

I went through a hallway to the common room. There was no one there. In the hearth the last charred logs gave out. Around it stood a few leather chairs and a carved oak table. Alcar sat hunched by a window, his head tucked under his wing. In the morning I remade some of the strips so that he could move with healthy wing and sleep normally. I decided to leave him alone for a moment.

I took off my coat and sniffed. It did not smell so bad, but I decided to wash it anyway. I think I really wanted to do something mundane. I grabbed the pot and went outside to draw water from the well. Having done this, I went home, relit a fire, ignoring the stifling heat and hung the pot over the flames. When the water was warm enough, I poured it into a bucket, dipped my coat in it and began to rub vigorously. Elves do not use soap to wash clothes, so I had to do without it and washing took me much more time. When I walked outside to pour out the water, I noticed with some sadness that it was much less dirty than at the time when there was still normality and I could come out regularly to the forest on trips and hunting. Normality? Yes, that is how I saw it now. I wondered what would I call normality after a few more months. Sanity, maybe? Or maybe I would be dead by that time?

I sat back in front of the fireplace. I stared pensively into the buzzing flames for a moment, and then I stifled them again. I sighed. I looked at Alcar, who was still sitting in the same position. I touched his mind. He wasn`t sleeping.

"Alcar, I have to tell you something," I said aloud.

Silence.

"Look, I understand your anger. Yes, I did not do anything significant to get us out of this cesspit and to show Celebrimbor reason. But what should I have done in your opinion? It`s not like you had any plan."

Silence.

"Okay, I am sorry, happy now? Now stop pretending you are asleep and speak to me. I am tired, I have no desire to bump into your wall!"

~ You see, it wasn`t so hard, was it? "Falcon stuck his head out of his wing and looked at me with his glistening eye. "What happened?"

I switched to telepathy.

~ I went with Liria on the archery square ... "I paused when I felt his disapproval. "Stop this, she is my friend and she needed it! Besides, I did not have the slightest desire to confide with Galadriel in the same building where Cartelion walks."

~ Fine, you were right this time," he agreed reluctantly.

~ So when we finished training," I continued. "She ... invited me to go hunting."

~ And you refused politely, adding a relevant explanation?" Alcar asked sarcastically, tilting his head slightly.

I looked at him briefly. ~ No," I said. "I ... I could not lie to her, so ... as if ... I told her part of the truth."

~ Which one?" Alcar shot me a suspicious look.

~ The one about Cartelion, our investigation, suspicions, about the recent discoveries and accusations of Celebrimbor. Not much when you think about it."

He opened his beak a little, throwing me a sharp look. ~ Are you sure it was ... "

"No, actually it was a very bad idea," I answered him aloud , standing up. I carefully send my mind upstairs to see if anyone heard me, but I felt only one elf in the most distant room, Sirian probably, who was polishing his bow, singing softly to himself. I retreated quickly, before he could feel me. "But how was I supposed to foresee that he will drop me such a bomb?"

Answering his questioning thought, I told him how Liria responded to my confidences and a shocking confession, which I witnessed.

"Normally I wouldn`t suspect any elf of such an act, but then I know the history of Arda, and Cartelion is not normal, whatever that means" I finished, sitting back in the chair and folding my hands on my lap. I looked at my nails. They needed cutting and brushing.

Alcar was silent for a moment, looking thoughtfully out of the window.

~ Why don`t you want to go with this to Galadriel?" He asked gently, sensing my distress. "You said that this will be the first thing you do when we`ll return, then, when we struggled through the forest on those two horses. And now you are practically avoiding her."

I really did not want to say this, but what was the point of hiding it from him? I did not want to argue with him any longer.

"It is because I am scared," I replied so softly that I could barely hear myself. I hated telling about my weaknesses, even to my closest friend.

~ What?" He looked surprised. I made a wry face.

"Because I'm scared," I repeated loudly, looking him in the eye with an effort. "Not long after we first met the Elves, I realized that I could never be one of them. I am a loner, an outcast and I always will be, no matter how much I wanted to forget about it. I am not a human, and even if I tried to join them, travel to Númenor, do you think they would accept me? Now, maybe still yes, but soon a shadow will fall on Númenor, and then there awaits me only envy and hatred. And if I would say Elves the truth, how do you think they would react? With fear, Alcar. Fear, or worse, with a hope that I can protect them from every disaster that awaits them, because I know the future, because I am a prophet. But I am no prophet, I am not an Elf, I am not even a human! I do not even know who I am anymore!" I could no longer control my emotions. I went on, swallowing my tears, trying to unburden myself. "And I don`t even have anyone to blame. Eru? He gave me a choice, after all! The Valar? They probably do not understand this situation themselves! Melkor, imprisoned in the Void, Sauron, sitting in Mordor? No, I chose this fate for myself!"

There was a silence. I heard the rain tapping on the window`s glass - a dwarven invention, and the muffled sound of storm-torn trees. Alcar said nothing. He sensed my mood well. Listening to the monotonous clatter of drops, I began to calm down slowly. In the end I rubbed my face with a hand as if I wanted to wipe off any excess emotions and weariness and I smiled sadly.

"Forgive me. I should not have whined so much. God, this world is draining all my strength! Had I know this...

~ You would have come here anyway, wouldn`t you?" interjected Alcar with a twinkle, stretching his tail as he jumped on the ground. "Always keen to depart on adventure. I see now why you have been always so fond of Bilbo`s."

I smiled in spite of myself. He always knew how to turn me on my right mind. "Yes, that too, but he was always resminding me of Tolkien. Or maybe Tolkien was remembering him? What do you think? What was first?"

~ Add it to the list of things to ask the Valar about, when something finally kills you." I glared at him. "Though maybe not" he corrected himself after a second`s thought. "It is still future to them." He jumped to a loose part of a floor in the corner of a room and tapped his claw in it, looking at me expectantly. I opened it and reached inside in the cold hole, pulling the raw meat. I gave it to him and he tore it form my hand. He held it with his clawed leg and started to tearing the lesser straps, devouring it, while extending his head rapidly. He looked at me with a bloody scrap, dangling from his beak.

I rolled my eyes and stand up. "You know it has no effect on me, right?"

I walked to the base of stairs, leading on the floor and climbed it. I opened the door to the second room on the right. I cracked open the wardrobe and took out a spare coat. It was made of gray, soft material, embroidered with blue thread and tied with a silver belt. I used it only in town, not wanting to damage it during hunting. It cost me a skin of a white deer that was rarely seen in this area. Although the Eregion`s currency was gold, as in most lands of Middle-Earth, the Elves had a particular fondness for a barter. It was a high price, but similar coat, only made from other materials, was worn by my mom when she was still alive, before cancer took her form us. It reminded me about her and the good aspects of my old world.

A questioning touch of Alcar`s thought tore me from my melancholy musings. ~ Where are you going?"

I donned the coat and went downstairs. I looked falcon into his dark eye. "Where I should have gone a long time ago. I still do not feel like it, but no matter, I don`t have much choice."

~ She`ll understand you. If you think about it, she is in a similar situation. She also has some insight into the minds of others and I wouldn`t be surprised if she has a gift of clairvoyance. It`s like your knowledge, only less accurate and more irritating. Besides..." he trailed off. He seemed unsure whether to end that thought.

"Yes?" I encouraged him.

~ Besides," he continued. "Even if Liria is right about Cartelion, you should speak with Galadriel about him. He is dangerous and we don`t know what motives guide him. I wouldn`t wait until he performs his move, because it may be then that we won`t have time for ours."

The rain poured down as if Ulmo lifted a lake into the air and dropped it on our heads. Gusty wind for the fifth time tore my coat`s hood from my head. I pulled it back. I cursed under my breath. Here is the effect of postponing everything to the last moment.

I walked quickly through the streets of the city, heading west. I had to pass four miles, almost the entire length of the city. My coat protected me from the rain surprisingly well - streams of water flowed from it like it was made from duck`s feathers. My boots, on the other hand, had enough time to already soak through and the wet skin rubbed my sole. I'll have to remember to dry and wax them properly, otherwise they will fall apart in time.

The streets were mostly empty, though there were still more people on them than there would be in a human town this size. Several elves went unhurriedly, not worrying about the water bombarding them from the sky. I probably exaggerated a little, with all this escape from the rain.

Even though it was a late summer, it was dark out. Every few steps one of the trees growing by the road was laden with lanterns, perhaps a more widespread version of the Feanorian lamps. They gave off a surprisingly strong white light, like a cluster of small moons. They looked like a decoration for Christmas and I smiled at the sight, despite my low spirits. Not that I joyfully recalled that anniversary, but still.

Half an hour later I arrived at last to the place where I met with Liria and her brother in the morning, but this time nobody called me, when I turned in the appropriate path. It was not paved, as most of the routes in the city, but lined with flat river stones. Now it looked even more like a river, because of water, flowing between them.

The trees thinned, their whitewashed trunks glistened pale and triangular leaves whispered in whistling voices. They resembled the birch, but their trunks were high and thick, like ancient oaks. More like the entrance to a forest than part of the city.

After a moment's hesitation, I delved into the forest, trying not to slip. The rain dropped from the leaves in great drops that splashed on the path, weaving between trees. The light was more subdued than in the city centre and greenish. Among the trees grew wild flowers fighting for the surface with berry bushes, whose swollen, purple fruits leaned proudly from between small leaves.

In the end, I reached the central part of Galadriel`s "garden", where her house stood. It was a medium-sized building, a little larger than the lodge, made entirely of birch wood. The roof was covered with thatch woven with silver twigs, branches of the mallorns, probably. The house stood on a wide clearing, covered with a colourful carpet of flowers of different varieties, benefiting from the abundance of light. At the edge stood of a large fountain, water was dripping from a bowl held by a lady in a long dress, slender creature with statuesque silhouette. She stood with her head bowed, tears dripped from the corners of her eyes and into the bowl, shedding in silvery cascades into the pool below. The entire structure was overshadowed by two eminent mallorns that on sunny days were reflected on the surface of the water in golden flashes.

I knocked on the door, feeling my heart speed up and the clenching in the stomach. Oh, how I wish to have it already over with!

The second time that day, I heard someone calling me from behind. Clear voice pierced the sound of swashing rain like a lance.

I turned around. She stood by the fountain, where a moment ago there was no one. Her shady gown, flowing hair and motionless silhouette made her look very similar to the weeping statue. But her face was not sad, she looked at me impassively, surveying me with those piercing eyes of hers. I felt even more anxious.

"Good evening, my lady," I greeted her, wading toward her across the wet meadow. My voice, hesitant and low, was muffled by a wall of rain, but I think she has heard me. She hasn`t stirred, waiting for me to continue. In the end, I stood beside her. Despite knowing her for several months I felt still intimidated by her presence.

"I ... I wanted to talk to you about something, my lady," I started in the end. I paused, waiting for her response.

"Let us get out of the rain beforehand" Galadriel said at last, smoothing the fabric of her dress, flickering a water from it. "Come," she said, turning around and going deeper into the forest, in the opposite direction to her house. I followed her, surprised, though not without some relief.

We passed again into the forest`s gloom. Galadriel was barefoot, her dress made her blend with the shadows, her golden hair following like a wave of light. After a few minutes` walk we reached a large rock formation, not far from the western wall. Stones were piled on the massive heap, covered with moss and lichens and towered above us. The Elven lady turned left, and when I followed her, I saw a hole cut in the rock and stone steps leading into the darkness. Galadriel lifted the cover of the lamp, standing at the entrance, which flashed with a blue light and took it with her. We moved down.

The cave was shallow, at its bottom led just eight steps. It was a small, oval-shaped chamber carved in stone. The walls were smooth, lacking characteristic stone spikes every natural cave has. It must have been made recently, few dozens of years the most. In a corner of the room was beating a small spring, the water gathered in a small recess, flawed onto the floor and disappeared in a crevasse. A quiet splash indicated that it fell into another cave, delved probably for centuries by the water.

My attention, however, was now caught by something else. I stepped closer. At the centre of the room stood a tall pedestal, hollow and full of water. It was carved in a shape of a stone bowl, in its edges were set white stones. The dark surface reflected our faces, shining with the light glow of our feär. Galadriel's face loomed like a pale lantern, surrounded by a golden glow. By her I looked almost like a human, or rather as an Elf next to a Valië. My wet, brown hair hung in tangled pods, and dark eyes lacked lustre. My gray coat, now swollen with water, was hanging heavily from my back.

It was only when my eyes fell on arched silver pitcher, with a crescent-shaped ear, standing under the platform, that I realized what I saw.

The Mirror of Galadriel.