NEW LEAF (Legolas FF) | ✔️

Chapter 25.2: Encounter

TURWAITHIEL

I paced outside the room where Mantheniel had been taken into. Lord Elrond had refused to let me in, after lecturing me on and on about my recklessness in running away.

I stopped at the door, sighed and continued pacing.

"Will she be alright?"

I turned to meet Laralen's bright emerald eyes, filled with concern and worry. I smiled at her, a half-smile for I did not know how to answer her question.

"I trust Lord Elrond," was the only safe thing I could say. Lord Elrond was the best healer. My eyes travel to Ari who stood at the far end of the rectangular room. Her expression remained blank but her eyes were calculating. I wondered what she was thinking about and why she seemed on edge since we had arrived in Calaer. Her eyes kept glancing at the other room, where Lindethiel was as Elrohir tended to her. Elladan and Andriél were at the meeting held by the current leaders of the resurrected kingdom.

Raela, who I had only met briefly in my time at Imladris, had gone off in search of something. I had no idea what it was exactly but I could not help but feel she was avoiding something. A confrontation perhaps? Perhaps she and Elrohir had a feud? I have always known her to fancy the young Lord but I have never heard of it being reciprocated. Perhaps she was avoiding him.

Laralen sighs and stands by the window, a stone tightly encased inside the palm of her hand. Bleon had been sent to bed hours ago. It has been hours... I glance back at the door, stopping on my tracks, as the door burst open and Lord Elrond comes out his eyes falling to Ari. A silent message passed between them and I saw a feeling of desperation in Lord Elrond's eyes.

"Lara," Ari calls as she steps and reaches a hand out to her. Lara looks at her open palm before placing the stone on it, doubt painting her features.

"Will you..." Lara starts but Ari's determination surfaced on her face as she followed Lord Elrond into the room.

"I have to," she states as she stepped in. This time, I was allowed to go in, along with Lara whose frown remained. My heart felt heavy at the sight of Mantheniel, laid down on the bed like she was being prepared for a burial. One would mistake her to be dead by the lack of movements and the lack of the rise and fall of her chest.

Her hair still burned a bright fire but that was the only thing that seemed bright about her. Her skin had turned too pale, her cheeks hollow. I watch as Ari walked over beside her, her silver eyes filled with so much pain. Pain I would never find the reasons as to why.

Ari placed a hand on Mantheniel's stomach and her features eased into relief for a moment. The child was still alive.

"She's been marked," Ari states gravely, her voice a soft whisper in the silence that surrounded us.

"Marked?" I asked, unsure of what to make of it. Lord Elrond simply closed his eyes like he had just been told something he dreaded to hear.

Ari turned Mantheniel's head to one side and I gasped, seeing a mark I had never noticed there before. To think she had been fine yesterday. Before that cloaked figure had appeared. It was a symbol, drawn in dark ink.

"From the look of it," Ari explained, running a finger over the mark. "It was made by a head witch."

"He-head witch?" I asked, my confusion breaking my voice. Ari turned to me and made a movement of showing the stone she carried. She took another one, hidden beneath her layers of clothing. It was hanging on a silver chain and looked much refined than the egg shaped stone in her hand.

"Each of our kind carries a stone," she says. "This is mine. This has been mine for decades- centuries." She holds up the small stone, it glowed silver. "I am not entirely connected to the royal family of our people, but Lara is."