Roswehn of Mirkwood

Queen of the stars

Roswehn spent other ten days in Greenwood before setting off to Dale.
In those weeks, she had decided to dedicate her time to Legolas, and keep her promise to the King.

The prince had told her all about the Wild Lands, about Aragorn, and their first meeting in a desert valley not far from the Lindon, the territory where the Green Elves lived.

She did not tell Legolas about her adventure in Fornost, the ancient capital of Arnor; although the young Elf was very curious, she preferred to keep that story for herself. She just wanted to forget.

Roswehn told him about her experience in Lórien, and described her friendship with Haldir, whom Legolas knew very well. Thranduil and his son were distantly related to Celeborn, though centuries before their family branch had rebelled against the Elves of Lórien. In the past, Haldir had sometimes been sent to Greenwood on behalf of Celeborn to deal with Thranduil.

Father and son were really different, not only physically: Legolas had a great desire to live, an enthusiasm that Roswehn had never seen in the king. Perhaps he was still sorry for having lost Tauriel, but in his eyes Roswehn never saw the melancholy always present in those of Thranduil.

"The fact is that my father has experienced two enormous losses, first the death of my grandfather, then that of my mother, and he feels responsible for both of them. I think that, if something happens to you, this time he would not resist the pain. That's why he doesn't want you to leave the Kingdom. " the prince told her one day, noticing the woman's tension. She and Thranduil kept arguing in those weeks.

"I understand that, but if he loves me, as you say, he should respect my desires: our love was born after I reached your territory, alone. It was not your father who came to Dale to look for me. It was the desire for knowledge to push me to this point, and everything was born from it. He should remember this." she explained to Legolas as they walked through the wood. "I am nothing but a fatuous love for him, I know that what unites us is not comparable to the feeling that he lived with your mother, and that is why our union shouldn't be lived in such an exclusive way. I should be left free to decide what to do with my time. I think his stubborness is a contradiction, do you agree? "

"Well, yes, but not when you say that my father's love for you is less valuable than the one he lived with my mother. Of course it's different, but that does not mean it's less important." Legolas answered. "If I have to tell you the truth, after my return I noticed in the King a serenity that he did not have before. When I was a little elfling, Morath often told me about my mother: she said that her greatest joy was spending time with me, also because my father was incessantly busy with the affairs of the realm, but he seems more loving with you, it is a side of him that I did not know. "

"Perhaps because it is a period of peace, there are no clouds in his mind, apart from the story of the Ring ... what do you think will happen to the creature that keeps it, to that Sméagol?" the girl asked.

"If it's true that he's the new bearer, I'm afraid he will not resist Sauron's poison, it will consume him sooner or later. If that ugly thing died, there is no way to predict what could happen to the Ring. If it fell into the hands of a servant of Sauron or even Morgoth, for example, all this Earth will be lost. " Legolas answered thoughtfully. It was late afternoon and the wood was immersed in a suggestive orange light. "And it would be a disgrace, for this Earth is really beautiful."

"How's Aragorn? They say he is Isildur's heir." Roswehn asked.

"He is a good friend, but he does not intend to become King of Gondor, although he may legitimately aspire to the throne.The fact of having Isildur's blood in his veins is a source of shame for him, he thinks he belongs to a cursed blood lineage, he fears that the weakness is also within him, and he is not wrong: Isildur did not want to destroy the Ring, he kept it for himself, and lost it. And later, his nephew, King Valandil, took his own life rather than facing the Orcs on the field of Arnor ... to finish with his daughter Regan, the accursed Queen, who left the throne and her people." the prince murmured.