5. A Different Nature
…
- At Rivendell -
Once their heated exchange of stares ran its course, Reiya finally broke her gaze away from the Elvenking and turned her attention to a different elf at the table area.
"Captain Tauriel."
The younger elleth was visibly surprised when the Red Queen addressed her in front of all the Elven rulers.
"Yes, my lady?" Tauriel responded.
"I have been forthcoming about my identity, per our agreement. Thus, the time has come for us to be candid about yours too, as it concerns both your ancestry and the attack at Mirkwood." Reiya pointed out in a serious manner.
'My…ancestry?' Tauriel wondered.
The king's interest immediately peaked since the following information would pertain to both his captain and his realm.
"You were born in the Woodland Realm; however, your parents were not." Reiya emphasized looking at her attentively.
Tauriel widened her eyes following the statement, and Thranduil raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Your parents Sun-elves who survived the Fall of the Old Kingdom and came to Middle-earth seeking refuge, just like the rest of us. They must have found a new home in the Woodland Realm soon after they reached these lands." Reiya explained.
Tauriel was visibly shocked, and Thranduil's eyes widened slightly at the elleth's revelation.
"Moreover, the creatures that slaughtered your parents were no orcs, captain. They were Leapers—the same beasts that attacked Mirkwood the night that we met. I have made an extensive investigation into the events of the past, and all my sources support this notion." Reiya explained.
'Leapers… so that is what those filthy creatures were then?' Thranduil thought, remembering his fight with the horrid beasts.
The other Elven rulers remained quiet as they were pondering concerning thoughts. All of them had battled Sauron's evil forces for millennia, and yet they would have to face creatures that were completely unknown to them in the upcoming war. There was something very menacing about that thought.
"Leapers are bred for one goal only: to track and kill specific targets. Unfortunately, they will also slaughter whoever or whatever stands in the way of their pursuits." Reiya explained.
Tauriel widened her eyes in realization as she remembered the group of men traveling from Edoras who fell prey to the abhorrent beasts.
Reiya continued making her case while taking note of the captain's reactions.
"The servant of Sauron who destroyed the old kingdom of Xandor was the same entity that compelled those Leapers to attack Mirkwood in the first place. He has been on the hunt to eliminate all the Sun-elves in Middle-earth so we wouldn't make the other Elven realms aware of his existence." Reiya explained. "I'm afraid your parents were casualties of a Leaper attack at a time when I had not yet ascended the Xandorian throne. However, they managed to protect you from the beasts and helped you escape somehow, captain." She remarked.
Tauriel looked at the floor in a solemn but assertive manner as she acknowledged the bravery of her deceased parents, whom she never got to meet personally.
"Given the course of events, I am not entirely sure if you were the Leaper's sole target on the night that I was at Mirkwood. But that attack was definitely premeditated." Reiya explained.
'Hm… That would certainly explain why so many of those creatures went after Tauriel at the time. But Reiya's story regarding her parents seems a bit of a stretch to me.' Thranduil pondered as he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"In any case, here we stand before one another. There were unfortunate casualties throughout that massive hunt back then, but their attempts on your life and mine were ultimately unsuccessful." Reiya reassured her. "Now that my message for you is in the open, you must already know what I meant by my words that night, captain." She stated.
'You are one of us.' Tauriel remembered Reiya's words clearly, knowing exactly what the queen was hinting at.
"By nurture, you are a daughter of the forest; a captain born and raised in the Woodland Realm. And yet, by blood, you are a daughter of the Sun, just like me and the other ellith whose lineage lies with the Sun-elves. That makes you my kin, Captain Tauriel."
Reiya had embellished her statement to some degree, but the message behind her words was pretty straightforward to Tauriel and everybody else at the table area.
'So even though I was trained and raised as a Wood-elf, I've always been a Sun-elf all along?' Tauriel pondered, squeezing her fingers nervously as she kept her gaze on the floor.
"Sun-elves experience the world somewhat differently from Wood-elves and Sea-elves, captain. I presume that you must have sensed it somehow; the fact that you are different from those around you." Reiya pointed out looking at her attentively.
Tauriel widened her eyes, realizing how much that statement held true for her.
All the attendees, excepting Galadriel, seemed completely surprised by the Red Queen's statements, not knowing exactly what to say or how to react to the unforeseen revelation.
Thranduil glared at Reiya, looking visibly upset.
Couldn't she have waited until the hearing was over for her to disclose that information to Tauriel in private? The matter was clearly a highly personal one for it to be addressed in the open like that.
Reiya, however, completely disregarded the Elvenking's glares as her eyes remained focused on the younger elleth.
She was aware that her affirmations would be unexpected and shocking for Tauriel, however, she had to learn about her connection to the Sun-elves sooner than later. The more they'd delayed the task, the harder it would be for her to cope with the facts.
Nonetheless, the Red Queen felt some sympathy for the younger elleth, seeing how much she was struggling to come to terms with the truth.
Reiya understood the challenges of being different more than anything, as she herself was the only remaining Krisha alive, as far as they were concerned.
In an attempt to alleviate the captain's doubts, Reiya proceeded to demonstrate her point in a more noticeable manner.
"My lords and ladies, could my company step onto the platform for just a moment?" She inquired.
Galadriel nodded at the Red Queen, giving her permission to proceed.
Reiya smiled at her in gratitude, then directed her attention towards her company.
"Xandorians, step forth and reveal yourselves."
The queen's company acknowledged her orders and walked towards the area where she was standing. Once they reached the platform, all of them carefully removed their cloaks, and their identities were now on full display for everybody to see.
Thranduil and Tauriel observed the group of Sun-elves closely.
Now that Reiya's claim to Queenship had been disclosed, the structure of her company seemed to make more sense at that moment.
The ellith with spears who were around her when she first walked into Imladris appeared to be members of her Queen's Guard, respectively. The ellyn that had followed behind resembled soldiers from a watch unit, and the unarmed elf-maidens were ladies-in-waiting, he'd presume.
There was a particular trait among the elves in that group that stood out as well: the color of their hair. It varied slightly, from shades of brunette to mostly shades of autumn.
Red hair seemed to be a signature feature among the elves in Reiya's company, and perhaps all the Sun-elves by association.
The embodiment of such a trait was especially apparent in the queen herself, whose hair color was distinctively purer and more vibrant than that of the other elves in her group.
Thranduil believed that was due to the fact that Reiya was part Sinda and a Krisha on top of it all. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that red hair was a shared trait in that group, and Tauriel made notice of that as well.
The captain's eyes widened and her lips parted slightly as she subconsciously ran her fingers through her own red hair laying over her shoulder in one of her intricate braids.
Thranduil turned his face towards the younger elleth, knowing exactly what was going through her mind.
Tauriel's red hair had always been a unique trait that distinguished her from the other elves in the realm since the moment he took her in. The population of Wood-elves in Mirkwood was considerably large, and yet he did not recall seeing any other elf in the realm bearing such a distinctive feature.
Everybody's attention shifted back to Reiya when she voiced a final statement for Tauriel.
"I told you that the scroll would lead you to the truth, Captain Tauriel, and thus, the truth is what I have shared with you this night. May it lead you to clarity in moments of doubt and uncertainty." Reiya concluded, bowing her head to the captain in an act of understanding and respect.
Tauriel was surprised by the gesture, not expecting a queen to acknowledge her in such a manner. However, her expression relaxed soon after, as she finally sorted out her thoughts on Reiya's revelations.
Thranduil sighed, looking at the table, then glanced at Reiya with a neutral expression as well.
The king and his captain had conveyed the same cue with their gestures; acceptance and resignation.
Thranduil still remained somewhat cautious about the Elven realm of Xandor and its concealment. However, he fully believed that Reiya was a queen in her own right.
Per Elvish standards, she wouldn't have had access to those uniformed servants, guards, and soldiers unless she was a ruler with power and resources of her own.
Tauriel had also accepted the claim that her ancestry lied with the Sun-elves.
Just like Reiya pointed out, she had always been notably different from her peers at the Woodland Realm.
Her curiosity… Her rebellious nature… Her constant yearning to venture out of the realm…
As far as she could remember, none of the Wood-elves in her circle had showed interest in those things to quite the same degree.
Her presumed ancestry might also help explain the strange sense of familiarity that Tauriel experienced when she first met Reiya, regardless of the fact that the queen had kept her identity secret at the time.
The captain widened her eyes as she had a sudden realization.
If the queen's claims held true and fate would have played its cards differently somehow, then Reiya would have been the monarch she'd pledged her services to most likely; not Thranduil.
That certainly added a new perspective to her views.
She would always be grateful to the Elvenking for taking her in and would continue serving the Woodland Realm until the end of her days, without question. However, she couldn't help but feel somewhat intrigued by the Red Queen, since she seemed to understand some of those traits that made her different.
Thranduil glanced at his captain once again, when he had a dire realization of his own.
Now that Tauriel seemed compelled to learn more about her presumed ancestry, he was at risk of losing her to this elf-queen who had disclosed her identity just moments ago.
Was Reiya looking for ways to poach his captain away from him? The little elfing that he himself found in the forest and mentored for most of her life?
He was not entirely sure of what the queen's intentions were in that regard, but he was not going to let her have her way.
Thus, he would have to take measures fairly quickly after the hearing to prevent the undesired outcome from becoming a reality.
Reiya had shared valuable information about the attack at Mirkwood thus far. However, her claims were creating palpable repercussions for his kingdom in ways that he did not anticipate.
Furthermore, the two of them had not even spoken formally to one another as monarchs yet.
'This is just wonderful.'
Thranduil rolled his eyes in a sardonic manner while shaking his head, as thoughts of the Red Queen kept fueling a conflictive debate all over his mind.
…
A/N: Tauriel finally got to learn the meaning behind Reiya's words!
Notes on Tauriel's ancestry in the context of this story:
-Several sources hint at the fact that red hair was very rare among the Elves.
-According to Tolkien's texts, only five elves were known for having red hair, and they were all closely related. There was Nerdanel (Feanor's wife), her father (Mahtan), and three of her sons (Maedhros, Amrod, and Amras) (The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XI. The Shibboleth of Fëanor", "The names of the Sons of Fëanor")
-Since one of the themes for the Sun-elves is fire, I thought red hair was a fitting trait that could distinguish them from other kinds of elves in a more obvious manner.
-Peter Jackson and his crew deliberately made Tauriel's hair more reddish so she could stand out as one of the main characters (they mention it in the Daughter of the Forest especial available on YouTube).
-Additionally, the story of Tauriel's parents was never explored, and she didn't seem to relate to anyone in the Woodland Realm, despite Legolas's affections for her.
-Thus, I thought it would be interesting to link Tauriel to the Sun-elves (since she was already quite different to begin with) and have her see a potential mentor in Reiya, who could play more into such differences.
Note on Thranduil and his stance on this particular revelation:
As you may imagine, Thranduil is quite upset at this point lol.
We all know that everything is all jokes and games with the Elvenking, until you try to take something away from him that he considers his, of course! That pertains to his own subjects as well, especially those he holds close.
We have yet another point of contention between these two Elven monarchs (or that's how Thranduil sees it at the very least, haha).
This hearing is concluding soon. Up until the next one!