Chapter 22

Her eyes opened slowly to hum of different voices in the room. Her head still hurting but much less than it had before everything went dark. She felt the soft sheets beneath her and immediately knew she was not on the bathroom floor. Then again she wouldn't have been surprised if he left her there.

"Take it easy Lady Leanna, you are still very weak" her blurred sight prevented her from seeing clearly but the voice itself was unfamiliar. She felt a hand push her back gently as she repositioned herself on the bed.

"How gracious of you to return to the land of the living…" While her eyes were steadily adjusted to the light, that voice she knew very well.

Leanna's eyes blinked rapidly and she looked around the room, which she noted was not hers but Thranduil's. What was she doing here of all places?

"Hello Lady Leanna, I'm glad to see you awake" An elf she had never seen before spoke to her. His tone was much different from the one she was accustomed to. Kindness, his voice filled her with a sense of safety. She noted another elf in the room that had been silent, she was by far the most beautiful elleth she had ever seen and yet she could not help but feel the sense of foreboding returning to her.

"Who are you people? Why am I here?" Leanna looked at Thranduil who raised his head, staring back coldly. He was just as displeased over this situation as she was unsettled.

'You have nothing to fear, you are not in any danger'

Leanna winced at the voice in her head. The pain that followed pierced right through her head before she could fully register what happened. She gasped out and the ellon by her reached out to steady her.

"It is alright little one, I am Elrond of Rivendell and this is Lady Galadriel of Lothlorien. We are here to help" Elrond said patiently as he turned to the elleth behind him who was still watching her closely.

"What happened? One minute I'm in the bathroom and the next-"

"-You were falling limp into my arms like deadweight" Thranduil said as he shifted from his position on the wall and stared at her.

"You have not woken since four days ago, I feared your ailment may be caused by something here" Elrond said as he narrowed his eyes at Thranduil before smiling back at her. "But such is not the case, as it seems your body is unharmed"

"Then why have I been getting headaches?" Leanna said groggily, still trying to process the news that she had been asleep for days instead of hours.

"For how long have these headaches persisted?" Elrond asked, prodding for something that could help him find a solution. Leanna looked from Elrond to Thranduil and then looked away, biting her lip in contemplation.

"If you would like it, we will allow you privacy from prying eyes" the elleth Galadriel spoke just as gently and Leanna couldn't shake the memory of her voice in her head.

"N-no, I'm fine…it is fine" Leanna swallowed, her throat parched and raw from lack of use. Elrond noted the action and handed her a glass of water. They watched patiently as she drank the cup dry. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Leanna looked down on her laps and decided to speak.

"They started the week I arrived here…"

"And you did not think it wise to say anything?" Elrond asked, he wasn't condescending rather he spoke out of concern. Leanna blinked away the tears stinging her eyes, the pain in her head was getting worse.

"I didn't think it serious so I said nothing about it"

"And yet here we are, with your condition no better than it was four days ago" Thranduil said as he strolled to his desk and sat down, his glare pinned on her as though he was displeased with her the most.

"Given the nature of our interactions, I did not expect you would care about such things!" she spat out. The pain pierced her skull and Leanna tried to stay focused but could not stop herself from wincing. There was no interval of relief, no chance to brace herself against the onslaught of pain.

"Drink this, it will help with the pain" Elrond gave her a smaller cup. Leanna took it and looked over the content. It was a black green gooey sludge. She stared at it to make certain nothing was moving in it before throwing the contents in the back of her throat.

Her face grew sickly as the taste hit her tongue and could feel the bile rising up her throat. Elrond who smiled and watched with understanding, filled her cup once more with water and gave it to her. Leanna began to feel the effects of the medicine and sighed as the pain ebbed away.

"It is clear that though she suffers some form of sickness, her body is unharmed…" Galadriel said frowning as a thought came to her. She looked up at Leanna and moved closer to her, sitting by the bed as Elrond moved away to give her space.

"You are a human girl born with the gift of magic" Galadriel spoke softly as though she were speaking to a child and Leanna felt somewhat compelled to answer in honesty.

"Yes…"

"And yet you hold no elven blood in you. It is…strange, you are as mortal as the day you were born however your symptoms are closest to an elf" Galadriel said as she gently brushed hair from her face. Thranduil sat up at Galadriel's statement, surely she did not mean to insinuate what he thought she was saying.

"When men fall ill, it is a matter of the body and its strength. However when an elf falls sick, it can only mean one thing" Leanna inhaled deeply at her words, waiting with bated breath as the elleth spoke.

"You're saying she's fading?" Elrond said in shock at the words Galadriel had not yet spoken.

"Fading?" Leanna looked at their faces in confusion but it was Thranduil who spoke up.

"A less eloquent word for dying" Thranduil frowned. His heart twisted at the look of realization on her face and felt somewhat responsible for her pain.

"I'm dying?" she whispered in disbelief. She was dying…again but this time, it was slower. Leanna would have laughed at the irony of her fate were she not still in shock.

"May I?" Galadriel said as she lifted her palm to Leanna's head. Leanna blinked and wondered what the elleth wanted.

"Perhaps it is possible her fea has suffered the strain of losing a loved one but I do not see how it could kill her" Thranduil leaned back into his chair. Whatever the problem was, surely lady Galadriel exaggerated, but then the lady was never known to speak carelessly and in this situation, such a thing bode ill news for him.

"Do you grieve for someone child?" Galadriel asked Leanna who looked at her with a blank stare. She looked away, her eyes glazed over as though she was far away.

"No, there's no one" she replied looking back at Lady Galadriel.

"This might be uncomfortable but I can find a way to help you"

"How?"

"The lady has a special gift that could prove useful in finding a way to deal with your problem" Elrond responded, his gaze full of sympathy for the girl's plight.

Leanna did not have the chance to ask any further when Galadriel touched the side of her head. Both of them gasped almost simultaneously. Leanna could feel it, the force tearing through the farthest reaches of her mind. It was combing through everything however, the longer it took the more her pain grew tenfold. She tried to disconnect herself from Galadriel's frightening grasp but could not break free.

A bang was heard as Galadriel flew across the room and hit the wall. Leanna saw a white flash across her eyes as the pain at the back of her head roared back to life. She moaned loudly unable to keep herself upright.

A hand touched her shoulder and held her up firmly so she would not collapse a second time. She looked to her side and noted the pale blonde hair touching her cheek. She did not wish to dwell on the situation and still struggled against the pain she was enduring.

Once Thranduil was satisfied she would not relapse into another unconscious state, he let her go and stayed at the far end of the room. He had moved without much thought, he was embarrassed even unto to himself to think that he reacted unconsciously. He looked to Galadriel who was rising from the floor with the help of Elrond. Their eyes met for a brief moment but Elrond being considerate of the king's pride, looked away to make certain Galadriel was steady on her feet.

"Impossible…" Galadriel whispered. She walked round the bed watching Leanna as she moved.

"What is it you have seen Lady Galadriel?" Thranduil asked as he watched the scene before him in suspense. Galadriel was pale and tense as she spoke, ignoring the Elven King entirely.

"I have lived to see many things in my life time but this…I have never seen before" Galadriel said, still reeling from the force she had been hit with.

"What? What is it you see?" Elrond asked. He leaned in with restrained curiosity, for anything new to the ancient and wise Lady of Light was a thing to be learned with utmost urgency. Thranduil had been watching the scene before him with some growing dread, part of him did not desire to know what she had discovered, almost like he was content with the situation as it were.

Leanna felt fear crawling with its black hands through her body. Its claws surrounding her heart, she waited for the elf witch to reveal what she had been working hard to keep secret and did not want to imagine what would happen next. She swallowed and looked at her shaking hands clutching the soft bed covers.

"You carry a scar in your fea…as though it has been severed and rejoined again but still not yet fully healed…" Galadriel moved away from Elrond and looked over Leanna as though searching for something more. "…I know of only one other to experience such a fate but his beginning and rebirth is of Aman while yours is not" Galadriel stopped at the edge of the bed, her words weighing heavy in the room.

"You speak of Glorfindel?" Elrond quick to catch on looked at Galadriel in amazement.

"Indeed, while his fea is reforged as a whole, there is still a faint trace of it there as it is in you…the scar of death" Galadriel said. Leanna gasped out, looking sideways as her face grew pale and distraught.

"You mean to say this woman died and regained her life back when she hath done no mighty deed of legend and perhaps may be all reminded, Lady Leanna is a child of man with no elven blood to her name" Thranduil said looking pointedly at Galadriel. A part of him recoiled at the impossibility of it all while another part thought such theories were justified with what he had seen.

It was an irritating effect Galadriel had. She was far worse than a rumbling and sometimes easily paranoid wizard and he knew it well how strong her predictions were, because they forced ridiculous notions to crash with the reasoning they understood as reality. That was her most fearsome trait, one he minded to steer clear off which is why her presence here upset him greatly.

"There are many mysteries of this world ElvenKing, some of which we may never fathom. One thing is certain, Lady Leanna passed into the netherworld and somehow returned but not unscathed"

"That would explain the reason for her ailment then" Elrond said as he mulled over the plausible causes of her sickness. He had donned on his healer nature and began looking for solutions to deal with this truly strange problem.

"Not quite, Lady Leanna's case isn't quite simple, am I right?" Galadriel waited for Leanna to speak and she indicated it by turning her full gaze on her.

Leanna did not know what to think at that moment, Galadriel did not seem like she had unpleasant intentions, but what's to say she as well did not have ulterior motives? After all this was an elleth who could look into her mind and do much more.

'Your distrust may have saved you in the past, but only until you open your heart can we help you'

Leanna looked at the elves in the room and back to Galadriel who nodded. It was a gamble. One that determined what would happen to her in the long run and as such was hesitant to take it. Leanna had been surrounded by wolves and snakes most of her previous life, and now she would find out if it would be the same in this life again. She steeled her nerves and answered.

"Yes, it's true. I'm not like anything I've seen before and though I don't understand why or how, all I know is that I awoke here after-after I…" Leanna could not complete her words, it was still a hard reality to truly accept after all. Her voice was so low and ordinarily human ears would not catch them. But they all heard and listened to her with rapt attention.

"It is as I suspected, your magic is not of the source"

"Source?" Leanna looked up in question to Galadriel but it was Elrond who answered.

"Eru Illuvatar, the source of all magic"

"The transition into this realm has put a toll on your body and with no outlet for your own magic to flow freely it is rebounding upon your fea and hurting you in the process" Galadriel said. She continued to speak as everyone present remained quiet.

"If nothing is done to change this, you may not last much longer"

"What would you have us do my Lady?" Elrond asked.

"Yes…what does the Lady wish from us now that we know the matter at hand" He drawled as he sat on a chair next to his desk by the corner of the room.

"That is not for me to decide" Galadriel said as she pointedly looked at Leanna.

"What are you talking about?" Leanna asked. There was hope brimming in her eyes, perhaps there was a way to keep her living.

"It is a decision that only you can make, however your magic still requires a conduit" Galadriel at these words turned to Thranduil who looked at both women and raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"And I suppose I would be the one to provide this conduit?" He asked almost mockingly to which Galadriel glared.

"Why would I need a conduit? Much less one from him?" Leanna sneered as she asked. She did not wish to have any more connections with Thranduil. She had already had enough of him and they were just entering the second month.

"The Greenwood contains old magic, magic that could help calm the volatile magic in your fea. But it needs to be handled by hands just as experienced and there is no better option than the King of Forest himself" Galadriel said blatantly ignoring the glare Thranduil reacted with.

"Yes…while it is never in the customs of men to possess them, a heart may grant your flow of magic peace" said Elrond.

"I don't imagine you'd be talking about a heart torn out of somebody" said Leanna trying to make sense of the plan the two elves were speaking of.

"That would be a piece of your soul fashioned into a jewel. It is what we elves use as a bondpromise" Thranduil responded as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. He needed to evaluate what Galion was teaching her if she still didn't know this much after a month.

"The hour is late, we have spent much time on this. It is time we leave the lady to rest, she has been through much in one day "

"We will remain here for the time being, until Lady Leanna is well again" Elrond said to Thranduil as they stood by the doorway.

"Galion will see you to your quarters" Thranduil said as he led them through the door.

' This path you follow is one you cannot take alone, open your heart Leanna El Alvaron and be free of your pain' Galadriel cast a glance at Leanna and smiled softly before leaving.