A/N: The note at the end is very important, please read it!
"Who are you?"
The question resonated with her, a feeling of resignation filling her broken, battered body. She had hid so many parts of herself for so long, from him especially. She owed him her heritage, at least.
"I am Vera Koroleva, sister of Kira Byvshaya Koroleva, daughter of Lider Korol' and Luna Koroleva of the skin-changers."
The words were harsh and unforgiving, in a guttural language that sounded unnatural to the ears, and she could see the utter confusion on his face.
"Allow me to translate. I am Queen Vera, sister of ex-queen Kira, daughter of King Lider and Queen Luna of the skin-changers." He looked shell-shocked, like he was about to fall over, though he apparently reigned in his thoughts and hardened his facial features.
"As far as I know I am the last of my family line, the second sister by a few minutes. I may even be the last of my race, the queen of a non-existent species. Do you understand why I never said anything, Thranduil? Because of this reaction, because I never wanted to be known by my title. I only gained it after Kira seemed to die, when Galadriel herself crowned me in Lothlorien despite the fact that she was not WORTHY!"
Vera could feel herself screaming at the end, the fury at the elven lady filling her and drowning out the grief she felt from her own words.
"A non-shifter has no ability to crown one of my race, it was not her place to do such, yet she took it upon her own oh-so-dignified head to be the 'bigger person' and crown me despite our customs. THAT is why I hate her, Thranduil, because she has no respect for my people and our customs, because she had to fulfill what she thought to be the Valar's calling."
She had more to say, but Thranduil's long-fingered hand flew up, covering her mouth with a forcefulness that she did not expect. He looked up at her, ice blue eyes staring into her soul as he effectively shut her up. He slowly released her, backing away without dropping her gaze. He looked like he had been stabbed, betrayed in some way.
"You lumped me in with Galadriel and her ilk? That is why you refused to tell me? Well, Vera Koroleva, allow me to explain something to you." He was suddenly uncomfortably close to her, intimidating her with his physical presence. "Mithrandir was right when he said that the Mirkwood elves were less wise, and more dangerous. We are NOT our Noldor kin, believe it or not. We may be haughty, but we are not so presumptuous." He was practically hissing with cold fury at being compared to the Noldor, although she supposed that she could understand why. She could see on his face when a thought struck him, and he slowly allowed a smug grin to cross his features.
"So the healer was right. It's your royal blood that allowed you to heal, yes? If you seem to disregard the Lady Galadriel's fulfilling of the Valar's orders, then how do you reconcile that with your Vala-gifted healing powers?" She smirked back at him, relishing in the sudden fear in his eyes from her elongated canines.
"I don't hate the Valar, I hate Galadriel for misinterpreting their commands. There is nothing to reconcile with them. The Valar gave my ancestor's their gifts, yes, but if you want those answers I would advise talking with an old friend of mine. I'll send for him, I'm sure you will have much to discuss." She whipped around, hair creating a fan behind her, and attempted to stride away with as much dignity as possible.
"NO!" She froze, listening to the echoes of Thranduil's enraged shout fill her ears. She felt a claw-like hand grip her shoulder, ripping her harshly around and pinning her in place with the help of his other hand. "You, skin-changer, do not have the right to dictate to me, Thranduil Oropherion, lord of the mighty Sindar and wild Silvan elves. I don't care if you are a queen or not, you have no right to come here and disturb our way of life, to dictate to me and tell me that you refuse to give me answers. You can send for your friend, but if you dare to give me such treatment again, you will be forcibly removed from my presence and my halls. Are we perfectly clear?"
She was like a statue, frozen in a mixture of utter rage and overwhelming fear. "My lord Oropherion, we have reached an understanding, indeed. Once you get your answers, you will lose my loyalty and my presence. Have a good evening, king." She delicately removed his hands from her shoulders, stiffly walking away with fists clenched to prevent her hands from trembling. She kept her posture until she reached her room, where she gently closed the door. A moment passed of silent stillness, before she exploded into motion. A inhuman scream fell from her lips as she flew to her desk and flung it across the room in a fit of rage. Not even a minute later her room was in shambles and her rage faded into a cold detachment.
She sat down on the floor, recovering her paper and pen, along with a well sealed bottle of ink.
My dear Milui,
Thranduil is demanding answers in a way that is less than dignified. I cannot give some of them because I don't know them, but others I gave sacred oaths that you of all people know that I cannot break. How do I work through this Milui? Now more than ever I need your wisdom, your way with words that might be able to break through to Thranduil. Please, come help me, or send someone else who can. I am not eloquent, I am a fighter born and bred, you had the boys train me for that purpose. But now I am wishing that I had listened to your lessons when you were helping Kira, because now I must call on you for help.
Love,
Vera
A/N: You didn't really expect Thranduil to stay that calm forever, did you? He is a wildfire by nature, but his years of court training tamed him. To an extent. We see a glimpse of how far his rage can go in DoS and BotFA, and even then you can tell that he's holding back. I've always loved his more emotional side, particularly his anger, and I've always wanted to expand on that in this book. It was just a matter of waiting until it worked out. And we have a lovely segway to revealing who Vera's benefactor is. I've been dropping hints for those who have noticed, particularly in this chapter. And, we're also getting closer to our favorite elf-dwarf duo! Also, I wanted to get some tension between the two. They just went through a battle, Vera just killed her own sister and Thranduil just found out that she's a queen. That's a lot to take in, and both their tempers are frayed. We're moving into Act #3 here folks, with only one more to go after this. Finally, I must also mention that I took the "skin-changer language" from google translate, all credit to the Russian language for those little tid-bits! Comment all of your theories and thoughts, and vote if you liked it. Love you guys!
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You Must Have Faith
RomanceThranduil is often seen as a cold, hard, uncaring elf who is incapable of feeling love. In reality, he is broken inside from the loss of his wife, and never learned to deal with it properly, burying his emotions deep within himself and not allowing...
