I have been in Mirkwood for some time now and I'm fully healed. Lostariel has been at my side this whole time, never leaving my side like she promised her father. Well, adopted father. After her mother got killed and her real father took his own life after killing the dragon Smaug, not being able to bear the loss of his beloved wife. Thranduil took Lostariel in. They don't agree on anything much, just like Luthien and Legolas. Right now, I'm on my way to lord king Thranduil's study since he wants to talk to me. The door is closed and a sure sign the room is occupied. There is no need to close it when its master is absent for none in the valley would be so impudent as to trespass. I compose myself and draw in a cautiously shallow breath before knocking respectfully.

,,Come in." Says Thranduil from within. I open the door and step into the room. It's no surprise, given the implicit command for privacy, that Gandalf is seated in one of the chairs by the fire. It's lit and roaring invitingly.

,,You look better for your long slumber." Gandalf says, his voice perfectly composed but his eyes softened by sudden solace.

,,Why, thank you, dear friend. I know what stock you put in my appearance and I am pleased to be able to meet with your approval."

,,Sit with us, Neuma." Thranduil says, motioning to the empty chair beside his own. I draw nearer and sit, having to shift about somewhat until I find a position that does not amplify my aches. My hips and lower back, it seems, are still strained from the long ride.

,,I trust you have eaten?" Thranduil asks me. I nod.

,,Yes, Lostariel has taken good care of me."

,,I am glad. Gandalf has been telling me of his labors in Minas Tirith. I scarcely need to say that what he has found is remarkable."

,,Perhaps, though at the end it will prove little more than a tool of corroboration, I think." Gandalf says. ,,What we have learned from Gollum makes it almost certain that the Ring in question is indeed the One. I no longer have any doubt."

,,Nor I." I say. ,,Yet each must judge for himself. It is a strange tale and it came to be in fragments much diluted with incensed ravings - to say nothing of complaints about my conduct." Thranduil looks questioningly at Gandalf at this.

,,The creature known as Gollum - Smeagol was his name, long ago he lost himself to malice - is devoted to the craft of manipulation, though not especially skilled in it. He squandered much effort in trying to turn me against his captor, doubtless hoping to win and use my sympathy. It need not be said that he had no truth on which he might draw."

,,When I was going down the stairs of Cirith Ungol, I found one that had been broken. Assuredly less than a year before and I would guess less than eight months. The edges were little worn by the elements and even in that hated land the rains must fall. I have no hard proof, but I believe that Gollum went down that way as well, rather than into Mordor itself. If that is so, it is not unlikely that he was taken by the Ularí or their servants." I tell them. Thranduil's face drained from color.

,,Taken? Taken by the Enemy? Questioned?"

,,There can be no doubt about that. From him there can be no doubt that Sauron's servants wrung the whole tale in the end, much as we heard it in our turn. With that, the Enemy will have the name of Baggins and the knowledge that he dwells in a place called the Shire. Yet fortune has looked upon us, for neither Gollum nor Sauron know where such a land might lie." For a moment, both Gandalf and Thranduil are speechless.

,,Where did you find Gollum?" Gandalf asks me now, breaking the silence.

,,I found him in the Marshes of Dagorlad. He was crouching by the fell waters, paddling in them as if in a clear-running brook. We grappled hard in his taking, for he is strong almost beyond belief for his size and leanness. Yet I took him at last and drove him North. The only useful information I was able to extract from him in fifty days and nine hundred miles has already been told."

,,I see. We must determine what is to be done and who else to take into our confidence." He says before closing this meeting. Gandalf stands up and takes his leave, but when I want to do the same, Thranduil stops me. ,,I'd like to have a word with you, Neuma, if you wouldn't mind." I pause only momentarily before I turn to the king. ,,I have seen the ring you gave Lostariel," he starts and I can only nod. ,,years come when hope will fade, and beyond them little is clear to me. And now a shadow lies between us. Maybe it has been appointed so that by my loss the kingship of Men may be restored. Therefore I say to you: Lostariel shall not diminish her life's grace for less cause. She shall not be the bride of any woman less than the Queen of both Gondor and Arnor. I fear that to Lostariel the doom of Men may seem hard at the ending."

,,With all due respect, my lord, but I have no right on the throne since Aragorn is the first in line." I start. ,,And I have known Lostariel for eighty-one years. I know that is a blink of an eye for Elves, but not for humans. I want to spend the rest of my time on this earth with the woman I love." Thranduil says nothing and I just leave the room, happy that I stood up to him somehow. I walk through the halls with the pretty diamonds shining. I remember clearly that a young woman has been walking here, joy and pride and lofty hopes in her heart and an ancient lays upon my lips. On that night, now so long ago that it seems almost the memory of a girlish daydream, her course had been set and her fate fixed, wherever it might lead her in the end.

A gentle hand curls into the crook of my elbow and in the cool air of the hall I can feel the warmth of a slender body behind me. I have not heard her approach, for my faculties are not at their keenest and she moves with the silent grace of her people. Nor was there anything in her that might give my instincts cause to be wary. Lostariel rests her head against my shoulder, looking out with me.

,,As I walked beneath the birches in the midsummer moonlight," She murmurs. ,,a clarion voice cried out to me: Tinúviel! Tinúviel! I felt as if I had tumbled unwittingly into legend, puzzled and taken quite by surprise." I turn towards her with a tiny chagrined smile. New warmth suffused my chest. It is wondrous enough to have my beloved come upon me while I roam in that memory.

,,I was a foolish young dreamer." I say softly.

,,I was flattered to be thus mistaken." Lostariel says. She has taken a decorous half-step back so that our eyes meet with ease. She's tall, but I'm taller. ,,Amongst those who knew her when she walked in Doriath, the comparison is often drawn. Never before that twilit night had a mortal woman done so, comparing me only to the music and the enduring tales. And you were so very young and earnest." She adds fondly, with a small note of amusement.

,,I was impudent and I am fortunate you did not scorn me utterly from the first."

,,Oh, but that I could not have done!" Lostariel says with a merry glitter in her eyes. ,,It would have been cruel to mock one so sincere and unworldly - like marrying a seedling that has just begun its upward growth. I confess I did not then imagine how the image of you beneath my father's tree would linger in my mind." I reach to take her hand, entrances by the loving remembrance misting her eyes.

,,I must ask your forgiveness, my lady, for failing to come to you as we agreed. I fell to speaking of our findings with Gandalf and lord Elrond and I allowed the time to overtake me."

,,I surmised as much," Lostariel says with a knowing and most gracious smile. ,,it doesn't matter: you can go about with long, ragged tresses for a little longer. Did you learn all that you needed from the creature?"

,,Yes. Between Gollum's words and Gandalf's discovery in Gondor, we have learned all that we sought to." A host of questions rise in her eyes, but Lostariel sets her lips into a line of firm satisfaction.

,,I am glad of that," She says. I look around the halls, taking Lostariel by the arm, leading the way down its full length. We are utterly alone, no one can overhear us and I'm happy about that, because who can I better trust than my betrothed? I move to sit at the foot of one of the couches. Lostariel settles gracefully at my head, turning in towards me so that we sit almost face to face, our knees not quite touching. I'm silent for a few moments, collecting my thoughts and carefully considering my words.

,,The Ring that eventually came to Bilbo was found by Gollum in the mud of Anduin, upon the very verge of the Gladden Fields," I say. ,,There can be little doubt that it is the One, lost when Isildur was slain at the dawn of the Age. For my part, I have no doubt at all." Lostariel keeps steady eyes upon me and her exquisite features do not alter from their tranquil lines. Yet in her lap her hands are twisted about one another in a desperate, grappling grasp, and there is a whisper of her racing pulse up the length of her throat.

,,Has it been decided what must be done?" She breaths at length. I shake my head.

,,We wait upon the word of Elrond." I say. ,,Gandalf and I have carried this knowledge with us for weeks and still we do not know what should be done with it. Lord Elrond must have time at least to consider his position before we can enter into any debate. All I know is that for now, we are keeping close our counsels." Lostariel nods and then takes my hand.

,,Walk with me." She tells me and starts leading me away from the palace and into a tiny garden far out of sight. The sky above is beautiful with the stars and the moonlight shines upon us. I look at Lostariel as she smiles at me. ,,I love you so much, Neuma." She says and then she removes her moonstone necklace. ,,You bound yourself to me with this ring," she explains as she grabs my hand. ,,and now I bind myself to you." She places her necklace in my hand and then kisses me quickly before I can protest.