New Dawn

Chapter 21

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L U M O R N E L
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I didn't know why, but my heart beat as fast as the wind. At Legolas's recognition of my soul, the hairs on my neck stood and everything had gone cold, charged with energy.

The brownish-black words inked onto the paper were an illusion—no, they were so very real that they seemed as if they could not possibly be.

He knows. He knows it's me.

And... and I really am Lumornel.

I again read that line, the one where his fea recognized mine. My fingers drifted up to my chest, to where my own spirit seemed to rejoice.

It seemed as if a live evanescent flame danced within, twirling to a song I couldn't hear.

His words were not false. No, my fea somehow found the truth in them, somehow recognized them.

I set the papers down before me, yet my eyes kept drifting to the parchment, snagging on the words.

He didn't hold me.

I didn't want him to hug me, not really. To feel the arms of a stranger around me, my head folded close to the body of someone I didn't know, I didn't want that. But for some reason... I did want him. My fea seemed to be pulled to him, now more so than ever. I hadn't felt the attraction before, but now it seemed like a beacon from within, a soft connection from me to him. A line being tugged from the other end, a tug that I couldn't possibly ignore—

I scrambled from the bed and strode to the door—I quickly rushed back to safely tuck the letter under the loose cushion of the desk chair. And then, I pulled open the door.

The guards immediately jumped, their hands quickly going to the hilts of their sheathed swords.

"Get back in the room."

"Please, take me to Legolas."

The man on the right looked to his companion, who shuffled nervously, then back to me. He unsheathed his sword a few inches.

"In the room. Now."

Desperately, I looked down the hallway, as if Legolas would appear. I shook my head.

"No," I said, somehow breathless. "I need to see him."

The first guard glanced at his friend, nodded, and began to advance as the other pulled his sword. "You are not authorized—"

"I don't care!" My skin erupted into a glow and its brilliance glimmered off of their weapons. "Please."

Something in me pulled, desperate to reach that thing, that fea, that was familiar. I grasped at my chest.

And suddenly, I felt like I was starved of air, and if I didn't get to Legolas, I'd suffocate.

"Please."

The guards paused, faces pale. One advanced, firm in his steps. He went as if to lay a hand on me.

Someone's fingers engulfed the guard's wrist. "What is going on?"

Aragorn looked to me, my glow reflecting in his irises.

"Aragorn," I glanced at the guard, his face in a firm mask of frustrated relief as he stepped back. "I-I need to see Legolas, but they won't let me leave."

He assessed me; my stance, my expression, the hand clutching my chest. "I am headed for a meeting so I cannot take you—"

My eyes widened. "No—"