Eclipse of Hearts ✔

Chapter 111. [Alyssae]

The last years she had gone through a lot, but the horror she saw right before her eyes now, surpassed everything. Desperately she looked around, trying not to look at the dish, but his staring eyes seemed to have possessed the face of every person present. Innocent, blue eyes.
Thranduil's voice cascaded like a waterfall, but she didn't hear a single word. It felt like a thick mist had ascended, troubling her thoughts. She wished it would also cloud her sight, but the head of the dwarf kept grinning at her in a macabre way. It didn't look natural at all and she bet Thranduil had carved his grin himself, for she had never seen the poor dwarf shown any sign of unkindness. The first tears rolled down her cheeks, but they did not hide Bombur's face. Although the dwarf always had had a sufficient size, his face was hollow-eyed now. His orange hair was colored dark red on the underside by the bed of blood in which the head laid. 
Alyssae stood up. She wanted to leave this place.
Fingers glided as poisonous snakes around her wrist and pulled her down again. "If I sense the slightest disobedience, we will enjoy more heads. Now, my dear. Don't look ungrateful."
Alyssae stared at him with empty eyes. She couldn't believe this was real and that Thranduil forced her to eat a dwarf. A dwarf whose soul had been so pure and innocent as she had never experienced before. He had not deserved this fate. 
"I can't do this."
Thranduil chuckled, softly. "I can make it easier for you? Our king under the mountain certainly has some body parts that might not be unknown to your mouth?"
Furiously Alyssae looked to the other side of the table, where elves were talking to each other as if nothing horrible was happening. 
"They don't mind, dear. You won't find any help here. They plighted their troth, knowing more bowls will be filled when they behave improper." 
Alyssae's eyes were directed to the head of Bombur again. Only the thought of pricking with a fork in his face, made her stomach turn around. She bend forward and started to cry, wishing someone would save her from this nightmare. Thranduil's hand brushed between her shoulder-blades, comforting, and his touches seemed to leave behind deep notched in her skin. 
She didn't know what to do. Thranduil would not permit her to die. She would only see more dead friends on the table. A new wave of nausea struggled up and her vomit clattered on the ground. Sobbing she kept sitting, hoping someone would save her. Kíli, Raphael or Eldinòr... Oh, I should have gone with him...

Alyssae wasn't able to notice what was going on. Thranduil fed her and she refused to think about the food. She cried, chewed and swallowed, there was no end in sight. She felt hollowed, as if she was nothing but an empty shell. No word penetrated her thoughts, not even when they stood at an elevation while Thranduil said he wanted to take her as his wife. 
There was nobody who gave them their blessing, nobody who felt exalted above the elf king. With his ice cold fingers he grasped her lifeless hand to shove a ring around her finger, until there was a sudden whisper. 
"No."
Thranduil looked up in surprise. With disgust he stared at the small creature that had appeared before them. "You are not invited."
"I don't need to be invited," the girl with her silver white hair softly answered. Her hands were colder than those of Thranduil when she grabbed their wrists and put an end to their touch. 
Thranduil gesticulated his guards, but the winged girl went up from the ground, floating before the face of the elf king. 
"You made me this way," she whispered. "And I won't allow you to change your mind. I want to live." Her hand run forward and drilled into the chest of the man.
Alyssae was filled with abhorrence when she recognized her daughter in a haze of recognition, who held a bloody, still bouncing heart in her hand. 
Thranduil wobbled and fell on the ground, Alyssae did not look at him, only to the white eyes of her daughter. 
"Farewell, mother," she said softly. For a moment Alyssae got a glimpse of a golden ring Niamh put around her fingers, but before she could say anything, she disappeared within the blink of an eye.