Nethrida took a deep breath and nodded, taking control of the situation. "We'll have to keep our eyes open... It grieves me, but I do not believe any one of us is safe here..."
A tense silence at Nethrida’s dark words would spread, until Finchley spoke, her voice filled with certainty and relief.
“Mustard…definitely…”
Everyone turned to look at her as she shoved the last bite into her mouth. “Vhat??” she asked, chewing.
Beyond Finchley, the door to the Hall of Fire opened carefully, and Merilos, the woman who had approached Calidis upon their arrival, looked in tentatively. As she noticed the company, she looked from each to each and frowned more and more deeply as she did so. Finally she locked eyes with Calidis.
Calidis moved away from her comrades, somewhat uncomfortably as Addiela watched her in concern, and joined Merilos outside the doors of the Hall of Fire. Merilos had been the only person she had called friend for long years in Rivendell, but now her perception of what friendship means had changed.
Merilos smiled warmly after the two embraced. “It is good to see you well, dear Calidis.”
Calidis smiled back. “I have missed your company despite how little I shared it whilst I dwelled here.”
Merilos frowned softly, unsure what to make of that comment, and glanced behind Calidis towards the door and the company beyond. "So the rumor is true? You have taken up with the abomination?'
Turning a little pink about the ears, Calidis appeared slightly angry. 'I beg you not to call Xanderian such. To answer your question... yes.'
Merlios looked at her friend with deep concern. “As you say, you rarely spoke with me in your time in this Valley, and with others not at all. If you had been more social in your long years here, you would know well why I am concerned...why many are concerned for you.'
Calidis furrowed her brows and tilted her head. '...I was not aware that there were many here who would be concerned for me in any way. But it is unneeded.'
Taking a deep breath, Merlios dropped her voice even further. “Calidis, you know not what you tarry with...she is born of the worst possible stock, madness is rich in her bloodline...and both she and her monstrous sister slay their companions with impunity. You are not safe in their company…no one is. They will use anyone for their own ends, even their lovers....the Abomination slew a man of the Dunedain she lived with, in cold blood, with a single shaft....'
Calidis stared at Merilos for a moment, her gaze growing hard as she continued.
“There are many stories of her hunting the wilderland like an animal, like a wraith...killing all who crossed her path, friend and foe alike, and her sister’s history is even darker.”
Calidis worked to keep her voice level. “Have you, like others here, decided to overlook that which is fair and good about them? Their worthy deeds?... Or do you think me so incapable of discerning their character for myself?'
Merilos gripped her shoulder urgently. “She has the dissembling nature of her birth, Calidis...do you think the brave warriors of Imladris her father slew like animals did not think they could tell the character of their commander?...and whatever good she may do....your Father's mentor Annatar too seemed fair, did he not? Did he not do good deeds to ease the doubts of the wise...or the infatuated? Have you dared look beneath her mask?'
Beyond the doors, overhearing bits of the conversation between Calidis and Merilos, Xanderian seemed to grow smaller...a single tear ran down her cheek.
Carneryn glanced back over her shoulder and noticed the elf’s reaction. "X-Xan?"
Ryn’s question drawing her attention, Nethrida's face immediately filled with worry and she reached out and took hold of Xan's hand.
Xan just shook her head and moved slightly away. Nethrida glanced back to Addie, and saw her concern mirrored in her friends eyes.
In the courtyard, Calidis violently shook off her old friends hand, speaking in real anger now. ”The deeds of her father do not belong to her. And do not compare her to that... FILTH. The Enemy presented himself to us as one without fault or failing and his gifts were material... Xanderian gives us no such pretenses and her gifts are honest and outlast any treasure of gold or silver or gem that even the hands of the most powerful could craft.'
Merilos’s voice grew more shrill. “…and what of her sister..that undead freak...the monster? You would willingly travel with the Revenant? Calidis, see sense...your father would wish better for you then a broken mongrel and her shadowed line....Abandon the Tragic Sister...embrace your true people....you who are old enough to see real wisdom, to understand that we need NOT pass away, need not sacrifice ourselves to some foolish war as these so called comrades of yours do.”
Calidis's pendant seemed to take on a bright glow almost instantly and her voice rang out in Quenya, echoing out over the Hall. "Do not speak for what my father would have wanted!"
Calidis sighed and took a deep breath, willing her outburst of anger to subside as the light from her pendant died slowly. As she did so, she realized they were being observed by several others throughout the courtyard. Had their attention been attracted by her outburst, or had they always been listening?
'Calidis...they have chosen their path....you do not need to follow them to destruction. There are options…CHANGES in Imladris since you departed.” Merilos struggled to make her friend understand.
'Merilos, after all this time do you not know?” Calidis took another deep breath. “Do you not understand?... Calidis of Ost-in-Edhil died that day in Eregion... And I have already sundered my path to the Utmost West of my own free will... My father wanted me to be happy above all. How can I not choose she who brings me more happiness than I have known in thousands of years?'
Calidis continued speaking in a more hushed manner again, expression a mixture of sadness and something else. 'If there is any madness about her, it is because of the way she was treated here for so long. And the way she is still treated here even now. And the unfairness of her fate, brought onto her through no original fault of her own...'
Taking her by the shoulders, Merilos leaned even closer, her voice rising, 'You are allowing her to delude you...you are acting like a child, Calidis... be wary, and wise...and your chance will still come to you. You have hope beyond these who are so far beneath you'
Calidis pulled away from Merilos grip, her shoulders opening the door behind her. Merilos, lost in her argument, followed her into the doorway, reaching for her hand. "Calidis, take the hand that is offered to you...you can still save yourself from this filth, these abominations....your fate need not be as theirs will be. Do not let yourself be numbered among their victims...HER victims.'
Calidis shook her head even as she allowed her hand to be taken. "Merilos, I value your friendship. You who deigned to speak more than two words to me whilst I remained here in perpetual winter... But my choice has already been made and it was not made lightly or in any uninformed manner. To choose otherwise... would be my greatest unhappiness."
Calidis sighed and whispered again, laying a hand over the one that held hers. 'Do you not also wish for my happiness, friend?'
Looking saddened, Merilos nodded softly. 'I do...which is why I beg you to abandon this road, these people...things are changing...a new hope is arising for us....there are people here who wish to speak to you, to show you that the glories of old may be yet renewed on these shores.'
Calidis looked over her shoulder to Xanderian and watched her for a moment, looking pained but softly smiling, trying with little success to reassure, feeling Rian’s concern, her doubt. After a moment she turned back to her colleague.
Nethrida looked upset, piecing together what the broad subject might be of what little she had understood. "Is she implying that Xan and Lif will be our ruin?" she asked Eduwiges in a tense, upset tone.
Eduwiges, who spoke Sindarin fluently, practically growled as she responded. "No..she is not implying it. She is saying it directly.” Addie nodded grimly in agreement, her hands forming into fists.
Nethrida's gaze snapped to the Elf in the doorway and was immediately filled with anger. She opened her mouth to shout something but managed to catch herself at the last second, simply glaring angrily at the Elf.
Carneryn furrowed her brow looking to Neth "C-Calm yourself... W-We don't need any more trouble... Regardless of what might be being said."
Nethrida scoffed and finally raised her tone to carry to the doorway "Ignorant fool..."
Eduwiges, leaning against the table, grinned and put on a poor Gondorian accent to whisper “Next time you run your mouth like that…I will break your nose.” Ryn tried not to laugh…but failed.
Xanderian slowly moved away from the others at the table as they spoke, and stood alone, watching the end of the argument silently. Off to one side, Xandilif and Finchly waited. After a moment, Finchley would nearly cry and moved to go to Xanderian, sensing her pain…but the Banshee put a hand on her shoulder. “No Babygirl. She has to see this through for herself, now that games are passed and shite is real...she has to know where she stands, one way or another.”
In the doorway, Calidis drew her hand away and stepped more fully into the open door towards the others, “Enough of this…To live without Xanderian's love, without my friends, would be a fate worse than death. They have stood with me through trials none here ever would. She has accepted me when no one here ever could. I will remain here, with them…with her….there is no other truth for me than that.”
Merilos shook her head, moving closer to her, 'That is no truth at all. She cannot love you, Calidis...her kind cannot love....and you need not sunder yourself from the West...there are those that say....we need not choose...we need not pass across the sea or accept our end...they say a new hope lies before us.'
Calidis drew back, “How can you decide what she can and cannot feel? I have never known love until her. I am not so diminished after that day that I cannot recognize it... and feel it. Xanderian can love and love in abundance. Which is more than can be said for many here it seems….and why do you speak of some new hope. From where does it come? You know as well as I that those who leave will find themselves in Valinor. Those who do not will fade away.'
For a moment, Merilos’ eye would seem to grow wild. “But what if we need NOT fade...what if we might challange time itself? Just...keep an open mind, dear Calidis...the book is not closed for you yet. We will talk again...'
Calidis could only stare, '...You speak madness, friend. These lands were never meant for us. The will of the Valar concerning this is absolute and only two choices are available to us. To try and cheat it would be foolish... Have a care for yourself, Merilos. This is not like you.'
Merilos slipped away into the courtyard...looking back at Calidis for a moment...shaking her head...and whispered..."Not only our foes may wear masks...there is a place awaiting you amongst us, Calidis. The rule of the rings will one day end…and the power of Imlad Gelair awaits”..and then she was gone.
Calidis sighed and just stood there for a moment, the calm facade she had been wearing the entire time beginning to weaken. Stepping back into the Hall of Fire, she closed the door softly behind her. For half a second she looked somewhat tired, but a heartbeat later she stood perfectly straight again and turned. There was obvious worry just beneath the surface of her expression as she rejoined the group at the table, though the look in her black eyes was determined.
Nethrida asked, trying to sound casual. "What did you learn from your friend? My Sindarin is somewhat... Non-existent..."
Calidis tried to smile. "I learned that we are most certainly not safe here.”
Carneryn pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered, "Who would've guessed..."
Calidis shifted her weight and then drew nearer to the others. "She sought to dissuade me from the path I have chosen for myself out of love and my heart's dearest desire because she was overly concerned with things that she, like many, have no real understanding of, having not even so much as spoken kindly or intimately with the person it concerns….and she spoke of a madness, of a belief in…in the impossible."
Turning, Calidis reached out to Xanderian and took her hand.
Xan looked torn for a moment but then gripped her hand tightly. “I cannot say all she said was false... 'It is not just the actions of my father...I have done...horrible things..mad things...I have never said that I did not…”
Calidis shook her head and squeezed Xan's hand. "False or not, she and others can only glean what opinions and knowledge they have from looking down upon you instead of as an equal, as you deserve. Those who stand beside you know who you are, what you are....and I certainly do."
A quiet smile as their eyes met, but then Xanderian's gaze grew concerned. “But what else did she say…what…does it mean to challenge time..and what waits in Imlad Gelair?”
Lif approached again as Finchley shoved another piece of Lembas into her mouth. "For all the crap she was talking about us Kinslayers, sounds like she ain't exactly one of the good guys...or totally sane."
Calidis sighed wearily and shook her head. "I do not know. Her words were strange to me. Never has she spoken of such things before, nor has any other here or elsewhere. She seemed to think that, somehow, our kin could remain on these shores and not fade, though we were never meant to reside here. I feel as if this is only about our plight to a small degree..that something larger is afoot around us..and it frightens me.
Xanderian hugged her gently, and looked over her shoulder to her sister. “Something is indeed afoot around us…”
The Banshee spat and shrugged. “So what else is new?”
