He is very good at this deception. As is so often felt, he gives you all the very worst things you desire and enflames their hold on you for his own aims. It is a difficult thing not to succumb to, but a lesson in humility when you do.

Even as an elf, the chill is creeping in through the cracks…

Into the wind.

“I think,” she murmurs into the dark night, the chill of autumn brushing along her cheeks, the scent of woodsmoke and leaves and life and death all around them in the forest. “Having you with me has healed wounds I did not quite understand would seal.”

The light of the ring seems to gleam like starlight as his hand closes over hers, dancing in the clearing in crystalline refractions, melding with the golden light of the flickering candles in the glade. She lifts her smile to him, as the twining of their skin, and breaths, and heartbeats rustles

But His purpose has always been to sow division and pain, and in coming together, I suspect we work to undo him already.

Yes. Above all my purpose is to stop Him. But I aspire to do so out of a desire for Middle-earth’s peace and not out of a personal roil of vengeance and fury. That has not worked so well for me in the past.

Have you found your efforts at peace to be successful?

Peace, it seems, is an aim that drives many of us in these complex times. I am glad to hear you seek it too, and would be only too glad to join you for a meal. It is good to know you are a deft hand in the kitchen in any world. It also sounds like you and Elrond are quite close. I’m glad to hear it.

Though I can well respect the deisre for no being to tell me what to do.

At present, it seems like indeed a fire has come, and from what remains of Eregion and Lindon, it is too soon to say what will spring.

I did not opine on whether your thoughts aligned or otherwise. Merely offered my feeling that the future of elevndom’s structures lays more with his vision than mine. Elrond has long treasured a life at court and he is well suited to it. I am crafted more for brief interjections.

“But I think she brings you to me when my thoughts have already drifted.”

*she looks down at it as well and then back up to him, smiling in a slight thoughtful way.* “It is difficult to explain in words.” She lifts her hand from his and places it on his chest, over his heart.* “Perhaps a presence, perhaps an essence. The feeling of you near in her vibrations.”

Only when they come with an intent to know better than me for my own good. *She hums and indeed laughs.* Then I must refuse them, *she shifts to lean against him, exhaling in a pleased way, as when one returns to a familiar space of home.* “No matter their charms.”

Ah, I see you too have come from a world that is like my own, but different, I should like to hear more of it, to better understand. But I am glad you and Elrond are… settled?

I shall save my coins, it has been a bit too long since I’ve dallied in a market, I should think!

Upheaval has come for all kinds. Perhaps you will get your wish before long.