video | Open to both courts

[kingsdaughter]

[Sigrid is looking fairly haggard and pale. Behind her is the rugged green wilderness surrounding the Station, though the Station itself is not in sight.]

I'm in the middle of nowhere at all and I've got a bad leg. I couldn't find my locket and I had to ask a thrush to find it for me. A thrush. I'm talking to thrushes and they answer me. Anyway I need help. The thrush said he'd go and find someone, but I don't know who he meant. Does anyone know if thrushes are wise birds or silly birds? If he brings back a bear or something, I've got to hide now.

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[bythewaves]

Your pardon. [ he corrects himself ] Laiquendi means 'green elf' - it is one of the words we use for our woodland kin.

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[kingsdaughter]

[She didn't actually know there were elves who weren't woodelves. Feeling shamefully ignorant, she sort of rolls over that bit.]

So what kind are you?

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[bythewaves]

[ he tips his head and something in his eyes sparks to life, an old, old flame, bright and clear for all that he looks so terribly old and tired, a light clearer than the Elvenking's, like moon and sun blended ]

I am of the Noldor, 'deep' elves I suppose you would say. They call us Lachend in Sindarin - 'flame eyed', sometimes - Calaquendi, we prefer. I suppose you would say we are 'high' elves, the Amanyar - those who returned to Middle-earth from Valinor.

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[kingsdaughter]

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[kingsdaughter]

[She understood "high elves." She figures that must be very important. Still makes her feel even more ignorant than before.]

I see.

[She doesn't.]

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[bythewaves]

[ Eh, only if by 'important' you mean 'prone to acts of great stupidity and/or nobility and/or genocide' ]

[ he shrugs a little ]

We are all elves, mistress. It is only that we are not of the same kindred, is all. [ A little private amusement maybe, well hidden, for the Elvenking would be horrified to claim kinship with a kinslayer ] Do not the race of Men also have different folk? It is so with us as well.

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[kingsdaughter]

I suppose. [But do Men have the equivalent of "high elves?"] There's the Gondorians, and they're said to be of some blessed line. There's the woodsmen, but they're not very different from us. The folk in Dorwinion are queerer, but not as queer as the Easterlings. But I don't know if anyone's really better or higher than anyone else, when it comes to it. The folk of Dale were said to be nobler than some, and now we're no different at all.

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[bythewaves]

[ He shakes his head ]

I do not know most of those names - yet, if you know the Elvenking of Mirkwood, you are of our world - you must be from later, I suppose, like many of the others. And I would hesitate to call us greater - our Arts are deeper, perhaps, our deeds those of song, but does that make us greater, or only more foolish, I wonder?

video Sorry she is not always polite.

[kingsdaughter]

Depends on if you're the hero or the villain. I don't know, you're the one who knows your story.

haha no it's fine~ he's hardly one to notice =p

[bythewaves]

I can hardly speak for the entirety of my people, but the tales they tell of my family... well. Most would call us the villains I think.

[kingsdaughter]

[There's some hesitation.]

I've known a lot of villains. None of them thought they were a villain.

[bythewaves]

[ a shrug ]

Perhaps - but few villains live to regret their actions. Ask the Elvenking to tell you of the Feanorions, some time. I am sure there are tales aplenty of us - the demons of elvendom.

[kingsdaughter]

I thought the demons were demons. Orcs and dragons and the like.

[She is increasingly unsure she wants to be talking to this person.]

[bythewaves]

[ smart girl ]

Oh there were plenty of Morgoth's foul get - one thing we all agreed on was their extermination. But there are tales of us, as well - the accursed, the exiles - the kinslayers. [ the smile is very bitter ]

I had hoped to escape that here. But our Doom has found us, even so.

[kingsdaughter]

I'm...going to venture a guess that it'd have a harder time finding you if you didn't bring it up with every stranger you spoke with.

[bythewaves]

[ a shrug ] It would not matter if I spoke or not - our names are infamous among our kin, and beyond that, my brother has now ensured that we will be known here also. It is too late to try and hide. Better to warn others to stay away.

[kingsdaughter]

...Oh.

[She's feeling sort of like a horrible person now.]

I don't think you're bad, though, if you're warning people.

[bythewaves]

[ no no that's the last thing he wants! ]

I thank you for the kindness, mistress - but I am no less dangerous, potentially.

[kingsdaughter]

I'm no one's mistress, and everyone is potentially dangerous. Even I'm potentially dangerous. I think if it matters to you, you're still good.

[bythewaves]

Then what name would you have me call you by milady?

[ he flinches visibly at that ]

I have done far too much to ever be good.

[kingsdaughter]

Sigrid, and I'm not a lady either. Whatever you've done isn't important so long as you're not doing it anymore, probably. Elves can get very silly about good and bad and such things, if you ask me. Everyone else is just trying to get by and doesn't care nearly as much as you about whatever crimes you've done. And I promise you I've known worse folk than you, and lived with 'em every day of my life. If I can do that with them, then I can do it with you and find it a lot more pleasant.

[bythewaves]

You are lady enough for me. Mother said to us once that all girls were ladies, and ought to be treated so.

[ A soft bitter sound that might almost be a laugh ] Oh Sigrid, you know not of what you speak. There are few so reviled as the Feanorionnath, and rightly so. What we did... cannot be excused, nor forgiven. Rightly are we called Kinslayers, Sigrid - three times we struck out against our own people, and left only blood in our wake.

[kingsdaughter]

Men do that all the time. If you've only done it three times, that isn't so bad.

[bythewaves]

Perhaps, and perhaps not. But my own conscience damns me, Sigrid - the amount of blood on my hands is not small.

[kingsdaughter]

...Why are you arguing with me to make me think you're horrible? I don't want to hate you, you know. I don't even know your name.