Daughter of Starlight

Chapter Ten: Confrontation

Hi guys! So, I decided to change things up a bit and write a chapter in Legolas's and Thranduil's points of view. I really like how it turned out, so I assure you that there will be more on the way :)

"She's gone." Those two words uttered by the young prince of the Woodland Realm were the only ones that needed said to make known his displeasure and confusion.

"I know," the elven king murmured, sounding unconcerned. He stood on the platform below his throne, a simplistic dark red cloak made of velvet on his shoulders and his crown gone from his head. Despite the lack of royal robes and his symbol of power, he still possessed an air elvish regality. "Oakenshield's company has escaped the ever so watchful charge of the guard."

Legolas fumed. "Did you not hear me? Laerornien is gone. She ran away with the company of dwarves."

"How did they manage to escape the most fortified dungeons in the East?" Thranduil asked, still ignoring the fact that his son was obviously trying to get him to talk about something that desperately needed to be spoken of. "Can you answer me that?"

It was obvious that the question was rhetorical, that Thranduil was aware of the halfling that had been spotted by Tauriel in the cellars. The king was intending to lecture the prince on the reliability of the guard, but the elven prince was set towards getting answers from his father.

"Maybe it was Laerornien," Legolas said. Thranduil's eyes darted to Legolas, picking up on the suggestive tone in his voice. "After all, she was the only prisoner who could possibly know about the cellars. And she made it clear that she had enough reason to leave."

Both father and son were silent, their gazes locked in a sort of challenge. Legolas was daring Thranduil to ask him what he meant, and Thranduil was daring Legolas to ask him the question that would initiate the confrontation about to break out.

"Laerornien didn't tell you everything," Thranduil stated.

"She told me enough," Legolas retorted, though that wasn't true. He only knew she had taken the White Gems of Lasgalen and had left, then come back and had been treated like a prisoner. There was a gap in his understanding, and Thranduil knew it.

"Was she lying?" Legolas eventually asked. "Did she take the Gems?"

"No," Thranduil answered. "She was not lying."

"Why did she leave?" Legolas asked him.

"She didn't leave willingly," Thranduil told him, turning away from his son. "She was banished.

Silence filled the atmosphere once more, but the tension was tangible in the space between the prince and the king.

"Banished?" When no verbal answer graced Legolas' ears, he discovered that he completely understood the unspoken response, and he wasn't happy with it. "You banished her?"

"It was the only punishment fit for a traitor," was the elven king's response, and he began heading for the stairs that sat beneath his throne. His tone suggested he was tiring of the conversation, and that angered Legolas.

"You would banish your own daughter?" Legolas could barely believe what he had was being told. "Over a handful of gems?"

"They are the heirlooms of our people."

"You are telling me that a chest of diamonds has more worth than your own daughter?"

"Enough, Legolas." The king's shoulders seemed to be hunching in exhaustion, as if every word spoken was taking a toll on him. But Legolas was willing to push his father, even if it meant risking the wrath of his anger.

"No!" Legolas found himself almost shouting at his father. His fists were clenched at his sides in an anger he had never felt before. For the first time in his memory, he began to hate the man before him who claimed to be his father. "Do you not realize how confused I have been? Do you not realize how much I've been struggling to make sense of Laerornien's disappearance? I was all the more confused when you threw her in the dungeons like the criminal you assume she is."

"She fought for escape like the criminals who harbored her."

"Ada," Legolas spoke with a little less anger than before, but a hint of sorrow tainted his voice. "I spoke to her just before the company got away."

"And what did she say that you deem so needing of my attention?" Thranduil nearly hissed.

"She was convinced that if she stayed, she was going to die," Legolas told his father. "She genuinely believed that was all she had left here."

For a moment, Legolas waited for an response that he knew would never come. Almost to himself, he asked, "Was she wrong in believing that?"

A moment later, a cautious voice interjected, "Your Majesties." It was Tauriel.

Legolas reluctantly directed his attention to the Silvan elf. Behind her was a number of guards with the orc they had spared for interrogation purposes in their grasp. The filthy creature leered at the elven prince, all but snarling in disgust.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to his son, Thranduil was gathering his chaotic thoughts and reigning in his hectic emotions. Little did Legolas know, Thranduil was fully aware of his mistakes. His first was casting out his daughter six decades before. His second was treating her the way he had upon her return. He told himself in vain that he didn't know why he had flown into such a rage, directing his anger towards someone who did not deserve it. All he knew for sure was that Laerornien was not the one he should be angry with, and he hadn't intended for these events to take place. They were playing out the same way as they had so long ago, in a time before his children were able to walk or speak.

But this time would be different. This time the elven king would make sure that things didn't end the same way as they had the last time, when he had succumbed to lashing out at his loved ones over petty materialistic wants. He would not allow Laerornien to meet the same fate as her mother.