AN: Still Happy New Year to everyone, but now at least I am calmed down enough to remember to tell everyone that this is my New Year's gift, a triple update! Enjoy!

Chapter Seventy-Seven
(everything is spoken in Elvish)

~ Legolas ~
By now, Estel had completely relaxed at my side.

It was obvious that Queen Melian meant us no harm, and in fact, she had come with a great gift – for all of us. If the entire family was allowed to choose . . . well, it would make things a great deal easier. Aragorn and Arwen, I could see, were already a great deal more at ease, secure now in the knowledge that they were both to be immortal until the end of time, and so Arwen would have both her love and her family instead of having to choose between them. And Tinúviel and Haldir could now live together in peace as well – or perhaps they would sail, given that Haldir had already refused to sail once for her sake.

I glanced at Estel.

She was sorry, I could see, that she would lose her parents and her brother to mortality, but at the same time the same hope that churned within me blossomed within her.

She could choose immortality. She could be with me. We would not have to be separated.

"Elessarion," Queen Melian was saying, "you will still be granted the same gift as your forbearers, despite your Choice. The gift of long life and the gift to choose when to return it will still be yours, and should your descendants, if you have any, prove worthy, it shall be their gift as well."

"But not the Choice?"

She shook her head once. "You follow in the footsteps of Elros, child, and it is the fate of Elros's children that your children shall share. Long life, yes, but not the Choice."

"If I have children."

Queen Melian laughed. "That is a choice you will always have, Elessarion."

Then she turned to Lord Elessar and Lady Kiria.

"You still may sail, you know," she told them gently. "There are places across the sea where you may dwell, and where your daughter may come to see you – but you cannot pass into Valinor itself."

Lord Elessar held his wife close. "You have already given me gifts greater than many Men could ever wish for," he said by way of reply. "And now through you I have seen the light of Valinor, and know that my children shall live as they choose to live. I do not ask for anything more, for I feel I have already been gifted too much, Your Majesty."

"Nay," she countered. "It is a fitting gift for what has been done."

Her eyes rested on Aragorn.

"And, you, King Elessar – when your son is ripe of kingship, and your wife tires of her days, and when have tasted enough of mortality, kingship, and the world – then you may sail for Valinor, and upon stepping to her shores shall you be counted among the Eldar." She paused. "So I guess my only advice to you is to take care not to die beforehand, for you are not immortal or invincible. Not yet.

"And to you, my child, I would speak to your father, for I think he would like to know. . . It will ease his burden, I think, of sailing before you."

Arwen smiled. "I will tell him at once," she assured her. "For there is nothing greater I can give my father, I think, to repay him for the generosity he has given me in trying to be able to let me go."

"Yes," Queen Melian agreed. "It was a great gift, and you should do well not to squander it, for your mother awaits you."

Arwen nodded again.

The room began to fill with glow again, and Queen Melian's outline blazed suddenly with brilliant light, just as it had when she had first appeared. She appeared as once benign and terrible, and well it was that she did, for it reminded me again that despite her appearance, she had not a single drop of human or Elf blood in her. She was one of the Maia, and not to be trifled with or tested against her will.

"Farewell," she murmured, but her voice echoed like a thousand bells.

Then I remembered Estel.

I shot to my feet, so suddenly that everyone started and she nearly fell over. "Wait!"

The brilliance in the room stayed the same, but Queen Melian's outline solidified a little, as if she was ready to leave but pausing momentarily on the doorstep.

"What of Estel, Your Majesty? She is one of this family as well; why have you not offered her the Choice as you offered it to her brother and sister and parents?" I demanded, feeling bolder with every word.

I needed Estel, and I would fight to have her immortal if there was even the slightest chance of it.

The glow died abruptly, and sadness emanated from her entire person.

"Estel Elessariel," Queen Melian said slowly, "has not been granted the Choice. The Valar were quite specific, I am afraid, and I do not have the power to contest them on this decision. You . . . cannot . . . make this Choice, my child."

Eldarion rose. "Why?" he asked. "Estel has done more, been through more, suffered more than all of us put together?"

Queen Melian raised her hand. "Calm yourselves, and hear me out," she commanded.

Very slowly, I sank back to my seat.

I didn't like the sound of this. Not at all.

"Why do I not have the Choice?" Estel asked, and her voice was so soft that even I had to strain to hear it.

Queen Melian fixed her gaze on Estel. "You cannot Choice, child, because you have not dwelt here long enough. Your parents, your brother, and your sister have spent time here long enough that they have become part of this land, part of this Age – and therefore, under the jurisdiction of the Valar here." She paused, and sorrow settled even deeper into the lines of her face. "But you, child – your stay here has been like a breath of air. We cannot presume to judge your actions on such short of a time, or there would be no chance of granting you any choice."

There was silence.

Then we all started arguing.

~ Estel ~
It took a long time before Queen Melian was able to regain control of the situation, because almost everyone was protesting what she had said earlier. No one was angry; indeed, my mother was pleading with tears shining in her eyes. Well, maybe Legolas could be said to be angry, but when Legolas was angry it was not the yelling kind of anger that had everyone scrambling for cover; it was the cold, calculated anger that made his eyes seem like the ocean itself was burning.

Finally, though, the talking died down.

I gazed at Queen Melian.

There was sorrow in her ancient eyes, anguished sorrow, and I could almost believe that this was in the Elder Days and I was her daughter Lúthien Tinúviel, returning from the Halls of Mandos with a message that would destroy any mother.

But there was something else there as well.

"There is another reason, isn't there?" I asked. "Why the Valar cannot grant me the Choice."

I felt everyone's eyes on me, but I did not lower my gaze or look to any one of them. This concerned me right now, and I knew that I would have to face it on my own, just as I had faced the fatal plunge from the cliff at Dol Amroth.

Finally, Queen Melian sighed.

"Yes," she acknowledged. "You see, Elessariel, the line of Beren Erchamion and Lúthien Tinúviel was foretold never to end. And it will end, if we granted all of you the power of Choice."

With those words, everything clicked.

I understood.

And then the hole in my heart appeared for the first time, and for the first time I felt sorrow so great that I knew that if Queen Melian could gaze into my heart she would see the same sorrow she felt reflected in my eyes just as her sorrow lived in hers.

In a way, she had come to collect the life I had promised her.

Just not the way we had all thought.

Slowly, the words spilled from me, and with each word I felt as if the burden on my shoulders was getting so progressively heavier that would be no way I could ever carry it and be able to smile or laugh again.

"You need me to go back," I murmured. "You need me to go back, and finish what I started, and ensure that . . . that our line truly never ends."

I raised my gaze back to Queen Melian.

"That is why I cannot choose, isn't it? Because you know – and the Valar know – that if I could choose, I would choose to remain here, and live in immortality with Legolas. And so you cannot grant that to me."

Queen Melian lowered her gaze for the first time, closing her eyes. A tremble ran through her body, as if someone had plunged a dagger of ice into her heart.

"Yes," she agreed. "That is what we ask of you, Elessariel. For the lives of those you love, much is needed in return, and this is what the Valar desire of you. Without you to ensure that the line is continued, in kingship and in blood, the future will crumble into pieces, and although you will be immortal, no end of aid, of changes, of fighting will ever put Gondor or Rohan or Arnor or even Middle-Earth right again. It must be done."

"It must be done," I echoed sadly.

The words felt right to me. I knew of what she spoke – my path forward was clearer to me than it had ever been.

And yet, at the same time, part of me rejected it.

I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to be separated from Legolas. I didn't want to go back and face a future that was probably in as much as turmoil as I had left it in.

I did not want to.

I wanted to stay here, to live, to be loved, to be free of burdens and pain and loss for the first time in my life.

Queen Melian spoke again.

"There is still a choice before you, Elessariel. You can choose to refuse us, and deal with the consequences that fate will deal you. Or you can choose to accept the burden fate has handed to you, and return to whence you came, and leave all those you love behind, and take up the scepter and the crown and the mantel of the Queen, and be the first Queen of Gondor and Rohan and Arnor, and the last heir of Isildur, of Eärendil, of Lúthien Tinúviel.

"It is your choice to make."

I stared at her, and then for the first time I looked to Legolas.

He looked much as Arwen had when Queen Melian had pronounced her immortal and Aragorn mortal, but this time the pain cut at me as hers had not – for I was causing this pain, and Legolas meant a thousand times more to me than Arwen ever would, for he was the one I had always searched for, the one everyone searched for – he was my other half, my soulmate, my true love.

And he was in pain.

I took a deep breath and turned back to Queen Melian.

"Queen Melian, I – "

But at the same time, Legolas's face was still in my face, looming in the back of my mind, full of anguish and despair.

Because of me.

The hole in my heart grew a little bigger.

"Queen Melian, I can't do this," I said instead. "I can't."

She merely nodded, as if she had been waiting for that answer, had expected it, had perhaps even planned for it as she had planned for the rest of this.

"I know, child," she said quietly. "But the choice must be made, and soon.

"You have until tonight."

Then the entire room flashed with light, and Queen Melian grew tall and beautiful and full of power, and her words rang in my ears like time being stretched so that it would never end –

And then she was gone.

And I took one deep, rattling breath, took one look around the room, took one more glance at my Legolas . . .

And ran.