Roswehn of Mirkwood

The Brown Wizard

It was not difficult for Legolas to kill the spider. Two arrows stuck in the abdomen were enough to paralyze it, the third tore away half of its face, making it fall to the ground.

"Help me, take this thing off me, please!" implored Roswehn.
The Elf took one of his two daggers from his quiver, and quickly began to cut the white filaments that held the woman's arms. They were stronger than he had expected, but soon Roswehn was free.

"Ah, how disgusting!" she said, ripping off the rest of the web. "Thank you, thank you very much, if you had not arrived ... I do not even want to imagine ..."

Legolas helped her, after kicking the carcass of the enormous insect away.

"What are you doing here, Roswehn ?!" He asked. "What happened to you?" Legolas seemed very angry.

"I just wanted some fresh air ..." she answered. For the second time, she was forced to tell him lies. She could not confess that she had gone to his mother's statue to communicate with her spirit. And she certainly would not have told him that Morgoth had taken Caleduin's form to threaten her, or Legolas himself would have thrown her into a cell.

Roswehn suspected that everyone at that point believed she was crazy. Perhaps Thranduil still refused to give in to this idea, but she had noticed the glances between Nim and Morath, and even the tone with which Amon, the Healer, had asked her: are you sure you feel alright?

"...I felt sick the last two nights, I guess your father told you, and I needed to have a walk in the wood."

Legolas did not seem convinced.
He approached her. "You have a cut on your neck: come on, go and clean that wound at that stream."
Roswehn looked at herself: she had a purple spot on the top of her tunic. Her blood.
She ran to the nearby stream, a narrow strip of water hidden by vegetation. And now what can I tell him? How can I justify this? She thought as she wiped her face and chest.

The prince in the meantime had picked up the sword that Morgoth had let drop to the ground.
A royal sword. He examined it in silence. When Roswehn returned to him, he lifted it up.

"This ... where did you get it?" he asked.

"I do not have a personal sword, and I was afraid to come here without ... precautions ... so I went to the armory and got it, I thought I could do it, I'm sorry." She lied again, feeling terribly guilty. "I took that one, and a dagger and a knife to make my way through the leaves. There were quite useless."

Legolas turned to look at the broken web. "This sword belonged my mother. It was in a box, the armory is always controlled by two Elves."

Roswehn looked down. She was more than embarassed.

"Can you tell me how you managed to get it?" he asked her again.

The woman did not know what to say. Clearly, she could not insist in her version: what if Legolas had asked the two guards, maybe in front of her?

"If I told you the truth you would not believe me, just as your father does not believe me. And you know what? I'm sick of being taken for a lunatic. Legolas, you'd better buy my version of the facts, or pretend to do it. I came here to take a walk, I took these swords from the armory, I was trapped in a spider's web and thanking Eru you found me and saved my life. End of story." she explained.

Legolas shook his head. In that gesture, Roswehn saw disappointment and skepticism. "I do not know what to think." he told her bitterly. "I came here, because I heard from Nim that you wanted to see the statue of my mother, that you forced her to show you the way, and she also told me that you are prey to hallucinations. Amon went to consult Radagast, on my father's order. " He told her. "We can not figure out what's wrong with you, do you want to tell me what's going on? Try, at least."