I smiled at my colleagues, feeling a triumphant flush spread over my features. It was over. We had done it.

Vestele came over to embrace me, and I could feel both of our hearts pounding madly against their cages as I pressed in closer to her.

Hamalitia came to me next, beaming and full of pride.

"Thank you," I whispered to her.

"You were wonderful," she said confidently in my ear. "All of you."

I sighed in relief, as much at her approval as the entire court's. My limbs trembled slightly now that the whole ordeal was over. I chanced a look over her shoulder at the rest of the hall. The gathered elves were feasting and chatting, enjoying their summer solstice. We had given them their entertainment, and now they wouldn't give us a second thought.

Legolas had turned back to his meal and quickly finished it after the entertainment portion of the evening had ceased.

Slowly, strains of music began to drift into the Great Hall from the glade outside. The attendants of the summer solstice celebration were slowly rising from their seats to meander out into the gloom of early evening. Soon the dancing would start.

He craned over beautiful elven heads bedecked with circlets and blossoms but couldn't seem to catch a glimpse of his latest quarry. He worried for a moment that she was lost to him until he remembered that this was technically her coming out celebration, and that dances and conversation with her were likely to become a highlight of the occasion.

I was famished. I hadn't been able to eat all day leading up to the event and now that it was over, my body had resumed it natural processes. I hurriedly grabbed a few morsels of food on my way out of the Great Hall, setting the small chunks of glistening swab and forest mushrooms delicately down on my deftly carved wooden trencher. The tender meat positively melted in my mouth.

Tanulia caught up with me and linked her arm in one of mine. "How are you?" she asked gently.

"Much better," I told her.

"You ought to be," she replied. "It's being said there hasn't been such a song in these halls since the days of Oropher. That was exceedingly fine, my friend. Well done."

I felt myself blush. "Thank you. Your recitation tonight…"

She smiled warmly at me.

"Magical," I finished. "Everyone is so proud of us. Can you feel them all?"

"I can."

I continued. "I'm so relieved. I don't know what I thought was going to happen this evening. I suppose I actually expected to trip and fall or fudge my song or that something terrible would happen and I'd be dispelled from court. Now that we're through, I'm not sure what to do with myself."

She grinned at me. "I know what you mean." She stole a piece of food from my plate and popped it into her mouth with long, elegant fingers. "But if you really don't know what happens next, you're thicker than I thought."

I frowned at her and was about to ask her what she meant when Tanulia disengaged her arm from mine and waved at a beautiful young ellon standing nearby. At his wordless invitation, she joined him.

I was stunned. I had apparently repressed the idea that I was… coming out—this evening.

I had reached the glade without realizing it.

Thousands of glowing crystalline fixtures shed soft light down on the gathering, silvering the leaves and branches that surrounded us.

There was an area sectioned off for a group of elven musicians—pipers, tabor, tympanon, and many other players had begun to cluster together to discuss the selections for the evening. I knew that as a singer, I would be welcome to join them if I wanted, now that I'd been accepted into Court.

Those around me seemed to float rather than walk. Tall, straight-backed, stately and beautiful, my kin rendered the clearing full of glowing skin, silken tails of hair, finely wrought fabrics, and the silver gleam of elven-wrought ornaments.

I nearly wanted to turn and forsake it all for the comfort and solitude of my rooms. Then I apparently forgot myself, because when I took a hesitant step back, my body—quite heavily—met with someone else's.

I jumped. "Pardon," I said at once, and attempted to turn around. This was a horrible idea. In my haste, I lost control of my plate, and several mushrooms and a bone flew tumbled off of my trencher and toward the ground. I then attempted to catch them somehow. Another questionable idea. I only succeeded in swatting one of the mushrooms farther away from myself and out into the clearing, where a gorgeous, mature ellon unwittingly stepped on it and then looked about himself in confusion as to why the ground was behaving in that unexpected way.

A half-crazed smirk made its way onto my face in spite of everything, and with a tiny gasp of laughter, I turned to meet whoever it was I'd irrevocably offended.

I nearly fainted where I stood.

It was Thranduil Elvenking, Mirkwood's Protector, Ruler of the Woodland Realm, King of Greenwood the Great, Son of Oropher, Sovereign of the Wood Elves and Father to the Crown Prince Legolas.

I had never been this close to him. He was magnificent.

His gleaming mane of blond, nearly white locks fell to his waist, and he wore his circlet of fine silver with the clouded blue gem at the point of his brow. He was much taller than me, and I had to look up to meet his cold blue eyes, which peered out at me from under his thick, dark brows.

I immediately looked away, frightened. There was a terrible moment of silence during which I wasn't sure what to do.

Then I berated myself for a fool and knelt, bowing my head before my monarch. I held my trencher, still with errant scraps of food on it, inanely out in front of myself.

"My King," I said reverently.

He didn't reply, and I dared not lift my eyes to his again.

"I apologize. I did not know you were here," I added.

Again, a horrible silence.

Then he spoke, his voice commanding and resonant. "Somehow, I doubt that very much."

I looked up at him, and found that he'd quirked one of his great brows almost imperceptibly at me. Humor? From Thranduil Elvenking?

"Is that for me?" he asked, looking dubiously down at my trencher.