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Scarred Fate	By : Massanie Category: +Third Age > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2051 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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CHAPTER 50: Blunder

CHAPTER NOTES

SCRIPTS:

'Thoughts'; ~visions~; **mind speech**; -l-Letters-l-

Two days later Thranduil was informed that the party to the northern outpost was returning not only with lord Elrond's chief advisor but with the peredhel personally, along with his sons, Gandalf and that balrog slayer.

How he had hoped that Gandalf had been wrong. For long years he had valued Brandon's advice although his counsellor had withdrawn over the years, had been reserved even in his council chambers. Soon he would have to face the reason and look into his dark eyes. He would have to justify himself in front of those Noldor, justify why Brandon had been able to contact the people of Angmar, making them march against Imladris, why he had managed to send a whole unit along the High Pass to attack the Imladrian lords and kidnap Erestor and return to their outpost and all this without anyone noticing. And the worst was: he had no justification.

Better to get it all over and done with and meet his guests with the due respect.

With half of his court assembled Thranduil awaited the arrival of the five boats on the piers of his city. Silence enveloped them like fog, oppressive and chilling. None of the king's subjects dared to speak, not even whisper, unwilling to draw Thranduil's attention as the blond king had seldom been that disagreeable.

It was therefore to everyone's relief as the long boats came into sight, flowing nearer with the Forest River's current.

Elrond sat behind his advisor, holding him close with one arm. Erestor had not talked much through their journey and had aside from one occasion not asked any questions about the last week's happenings and they had not told him either, granting him much needed rest.

'Where is my raven, where is my Mordhroval?' he had asked and met silence for none had thought much about the bird and none of them knew what had befallen the loyal animal.

As gently as he could, Elrond had told the young chief advisor that the bird had never reached his destiny and that Fiondil had most likely shot the poor thing to prevent it from getting help. This time there was no biting comment about the curious friendship between raven and raven-haired advisor.

Since then he had slept through most of their journey although Elrond highly suspected that Erestor had mostly pretended to be asleep. The peredhel had not commented on that behaviour in front of the others as he felt that it was not the time to address Erestor's way of coping with the traumatic events. Elrond had however, together with Glorfindel, taken to gently care for the darkling and getting him some much needed rest before he would have to tell his tale in front of Thranduil and his advisors that he had overtrumped for all those years.

Now he felt Erestor stiffen in his arms as those advisors and their king came into view and he tightened his embrace reassuringly for a moment, before they reached the pier where Thranduil straightened even more – if that was possible – and servants rushed forward to secure their boats and help them climb out.

Elrond took the hand extended to him and gracefully stepped ashore. Immediately Glorfindel was at his side, the blonde shortly brushed the back of his lover with one hand before turning to the darkling still sitting in the boat.

"Can you walk?"

'Of course I can walk, could have done so before if you but had let me. Just as I didn't need you to help me drink when I first woke, didn't need you to handle me like a frail glass sculpture about to burst in millions of sharp splinters, didn't ... oh damn it all!'

Erestor resigned himself to a nod and a murmured "Yes, my lord" as he could not throw a tantrum here in front of everyone and furthermore the elf lord's rank demanded his respect.

But Glorfindel had seen the fleeting shadow pass over the pale face. Stooping he laid a strong arm around the advisor's shoulders and pulled him up gently. "I can walk, really there is no need to ..."

"Hush, it's alright." Glorfindel shushed him, lifting him onto the pier. He had felt his charge shiver slightly against his chest and concerned he looked to Elrond, hoping that the young one would not start to fade again. "Are you cold?"

Never would he have guessed that the tremor and Erestor's unusually reserved protest against his help was more due to his nervousness at being so close to the attractive seneschal and being the center of everyone's attention than to his physical condition. "I'm fine, really!"

All the while Thranduil had stepped closer, observing the scene with well-concealed amusement. It seemed that the darkling had intelligently decided not to protest too much against the needless help as it would only have caused much furore and been of no use in the end; or the advisor was simply overwhelmed with the situation.

"Lord Elrond, lord Glorfindel. I am sorry that we meet again under these conditions, but I am glad that you have been successful." He nodded his greetings to Gandalf before turning again to the dark ellon leaning more or less involuntarily against the much taller balrog slayer.

"Welcome, lord Erestor, in Greenwood. I profoundly regret the wrongs committed against you by my people and I promise you that the culprits will be punished severely."

"For your friendly words I thank you, my liege. And I assure you that no ill-will" He did not continue as he became aware of Elrond standing next to him. He could not speak for Imladris as her lord was present and would represent her. Glancing to Elrond he started to fidget at seeing his risen eyebrow.

"... that is ... as far as I am concerned ..."

"... it will not be the cause of a rift between our realms, king Thranduil; not for Imladris." Elrond continued smiling slightly at his chief advisor's stumble. "I should inform you that prince Legolas decided to stay with captain Thalion and help secure the area. We have had some problems with spiders."

"I already sent guards for reinforcement when Gandalf paid us such an unexpected courtesy visit."

The king winked at the old wizard, merely getting a raised eyebrow in return.

"But we had a long journey, king Thranduil." Elrond interfered, only wishing to get his chief advisor away from the crowd and preferably into a bed in Thranduil's healing wing, where he could be examined and watched over by skilled healers.

"And rooms have been prepared for you. Come, rest for now and I shall hear your tale, lord Erestor, as soon as the culprits have been brought to this court." Turning to Elrond he added with an almost teasing sparkle in his green eyes "If his condition allows that is."

Elrond frowned for a moment, not knowing how to handle the situation. Was Thranduil teasing him? Judging by the smiles of the Silvan elves around him he was but given the severity of the situation ... Bewildered and a little bit irritated he looked to Glorfindel who was still supporting the more than one head smaller advisor. But Erestor had straightened and raised his head high.

Before Elrond had a chance to interfere he broke away from the balrog slayer and boldly met the king's gaze. This was enough; even though things had not worked out exactly as he had planned them and even though he had needed to be freed from a more than compromising situation and needed to rely on elves he had not spoken privately to ever, he would not be played for a fool.

"With all due respect, my liege, I do not need your mockery!"

"Erestor!" Elrond called out, appalled, but his advisor did not back away.

Thranduil shot a side glance at Gandalf, surprised at the darkling's sudden outburst.

But his friend had only raised both eyebrows at him as if to say 'You better amend your sorry behaviour or I will make you feel sorry.'

The king took a moment to observe the rather short black-haired ellon that stood defiantly before him, jaws set firmly and he understood for the first time the deep routing trepidation his advisors had for lord Elrond's chief counsellor; even though he was well smaller than the tall Mirkwood king he somehow managed to tower over him with an air of menace surrounding him. But to Thranduil it was also apparent that Erestor was not nearly as self-assured as he pretended to be or he would not have reacted on the king's comment; it seemed that his nerves were still fairly raw, more so than he had anticipated.

His advisors had never seen the self-conscious young ellon that lashed out at others to protect himself.

To underline his sincerity he laid a hand on Erestor's shoulder, feeling the other elf flinching as Erestor tried not to give in to his instincts and shake off the hand that felt restricting to him. The king bowed slightly forward to look into those silver-black orbs before he answered. "It was not my intention to mock you. Indeed I was mocking lord Elrond and Glorfindel for their obvious overprotection."

Elrond pursed his lips and raised a critical eyebrow but Glorfindel next to him smiled, accepting to be the target of the king's banter as long as it stayed friendly and made Erestor feel better. Although it was impossible to say if king Thranduil's somehow ... different ... kind of humour was really affecting Elrond's chief advisor in a positive way: the darkling's jaw dropped as he looked up at the king of Greenwood, scandalized at this lack of respect shown to his lord.

"Come now ..." Thranduil continued. "... as son of Mithrandir ..."

Erestor's mouth shut close and he drew back, the last bit of colour leaving his already pale face.

"Thranduil!" Gandalf growled, shocked at the horrible mess the king had caused with a simple comment of not more than four words. He looked to the son who had not known the identity of his father only moments ago. Erestor had whitened impossibly so, swaying for a moment on his feet so that Glorfindel reached forward to steady him. "Be careful." Erestor heard him murmur softly but it did not really register with him.

"... you are always welcome here." The king finished his sentence with a whisper and a sinking feeling. They had not told the advisor that the old wizard had sired him ... how could they withheld such an important information? Had he only known ...

Not looking away from Thranduil Erestor swatted Glorfindel's hand away, refusing his support. He felt deceived, embarrassed, even a little bit nauseous as he was well aware of the other assembled elves' attention that lay solely on him.

It was not only the shock at learning that one of the mighty Maia had sired him – although that alone would have been frightening enough, he had long ago deduced from his fast healing rate and unusual gift of foresight that he couldn't be fully elven– it was that no one had *entrusted* this information to him.

Had Gandalf not wanted to tell him because of his actions, because of the elves that he had killed on the High Pass and the soldiers from Imladris that had died defending the peredhil family?

Forcing himself not to look at his father he tried to keep the tears at bay. Mithrandir was ashamed of him. The Maia knew that the curse of the kinslayers hung upon his very head.

He suppressed the need to cover his mouth as he realised that he was damned. 'Elbereth!' he pleaded in his thoughts but then he wondered if the lady would even listen to one the Valar had forsaken.

Desperately he tried not to lose control in front of the elves standing around him, watching his every move and slowly he calmed – at least outwardly. How he hated it when those sensationalistic elves were observing him like this, waiting for him to show weakness.

Pale but steady Erestor stood in front of Thranduil and with a faked smile he bowed to the king, albeit slightly. "I thank you, my liege for your hospitality and your assistance in ... this affair; but as lord Elrond already said: we had a long journey. And you were of course right – so please forgive my inappropriate behaviour – my *condition* bids me to rest."

Dazed Thranduil nodded before he had some servants lead Erestor to the healing wing where his healers could further tend to his injuries (and watch over the unstable ellon), staying back to lead the others away to the guest quarters they were assigned to.

Thranduil turned to the old wizard "Mithrandir, I am ..."

"... truly sorry. Yes, I know." Gandalf grumbled. "But this was definitely not the way I intended to tell him; nor was it the reaction I hoped for."

"My liege, may I accompany Erestor?" Celairdúr asked. "I do not want him to be alone especially now. And our guests should rest."

Before Thranduil could give his permission Gandalf interfered "No, child! I will talk to him first and sort out this mess."

"Do you even listen to yourselves?" Glorfindel exclaimed angrily. "Once again you all stand here, discussing his reactions, his life, not letting him have a word in it. Go and find out if *he* wants to see any of you at all."

Elrond observed the crowd during the following awkward silence. He knew that Gandalf was terribly afraid to lose every chance to win his son's affection and that fear made him overly cautious, which in turn would only drive the darkling further away. The Mirkwood guards on the other hand had heard for centuries about the tales of the disliked haughty chief advisor of Imladris fading away for some unknown reason and they had grown to despise the elves from the Hidden Valley for their assumed part in it.

And then there were the Imladrian elves that had just realised that Erestor was not the self-righteous, egocentric ellon they had thought him to be. Driven by compassion, guilt and indebtedness towards their saviour they now sought to protect him at all costs; it was an already more than explosive mixture.

But he and Glorfindel ... Elrond could not forget their conversation when they had healed Erestor. 'I think I love him' Glorfindel had said. The two lovers would have to explore their exact feelings for the black haired beauty but right now there were just too many parties with contradicting aims and therefore someone should stand back even though he would prefer not to be that one.

"He is right. Erestor will make his own decision and you should not strive to influence him. But he is your son, old friend and he is troubled. Go to him and see what you can do. Celairdúr, maybe you should go, too."

"I will heed your advice, Elrond. King Thranduil? My usual chambers?" Gandalf inquired.

"Yes." The king paused before addressing all his guests anew. "My friends, you are welcome to join me and my people tonight in the forest to celebrate your safe return and the success of your endeavour. For now: rest from your journey's exertions."

And with that the Imladrian elves were led to their quarters where hot baths had been drawn whilst the king had welcomed his guests.

The few Mirkwood guards under Celairdúr's command stayed back to give word to the king about his son's whereabouts.

CHAPTER END NOTES

peredhel ~ half elf

peredhil ~ half elves

ellon ~ male elf
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