Fading Light

Questions and Answers

"Legolas? Are you even paying attention?"
Arwen glanced up from the book she was reading aloud and narrowed her eyes skeptically at Legolas.

"Forgive me, I was just thinking."
Legolas, who had been staring absently out of a window, turned back to Arwen with tired eyes.

"What were you thinking about? You seem to be doing that a lot lately."
Arwen closed the book and set it down on her lap.

They were sitting in the library just as they always did every afternoon.

Legolas enjoyed listening to Arwen read to him, but he never wanted to read himself.

She had started reading the tale of Beren and Luthien to him and for the first part of the story he hadn't said a word.

And Arwen had began to doubt that he was even paying attention to the story.

"I was wondering, how could Luthien fall in love with a mortal? It does not make any since, he will eventually die."

Arwen smiled slyly.
"If you would listen to the story you would see what happens to them."
"But why would she risk going to save him after he was captured by Morgoth? She could have beeb killed herself."

"It was love Legolas."
Arwen replied.
"It gives people the power to overcome anything. It is a wonderful and beautiful thing."

"Have you been in love?"
Legolas asked curiously.
Arwen shook her head.
"When will you?"

Arwen laughed, and Legolas wondered what he had said that was so funny.

"I do not know, no one can tell when they will fall in love."
"How will you know when you do?"
"You just... Know. That is what my mother told me, when it happens you will feel as though nothing can harm you ever again, and you feel a joy that you cannot explain."

"Thalion and Inwë were in love."
Legolas' eyes possesed that same sorrow and grief  that came every time he mentioned his brother.

"They were both happy together, but after he died she left. Why did she leave?"

Arwen sighed, she had met Inwë when she had passed through Rivendell on her way to the Havens.

She had opened up to her and had told her everything that she had been feeling, and what she had felt towards Thalion.

"Love truly is a beautiful thing Arwen, it is powerful, and also dangerous. I loved Thalion and now he is gone, my heart is broken and it cannot mend without him."

Inwë sighed and looked mournfully into Arwen's eyes. They held wisdom and loss, almost like her father's had been after Arwen's own mother had sailed to Valinor.

"Be careful with whom you give your heart to Arwen. You will only fall in love once and when you do, and if something happens to the one you love, it can break you. I only pray that you never have to suffer the same way I
did."

After that Inwë had left, never to return to Middle Earth ever again.

Arwen glanced over at Legolas, she could tell that their conversation would lead to him going off by himself again.

Every time Legolas began to think about Thalion his grief would begin to consume him, and he would go off and wander aimlessly about Imladris until someone, either herself or the twins, came and brought him to his room.

She decided to steer the conversation away from Thalion.
"Would you like to continue with The Children of Hurin? You were enjoying that story were you not?"

Legolas blinked and looked confused for a moment, but then nodded his head.

"Alright."
Arwen smiled and retrieved the book from the table beside her, replacing the one in her lap in its place.