Roswehn of Mirkwood

In the dark

"... it would have been my wedding gift to her: your mother should have owned this, I designed it for her, I wanted Roswehn to own it now." he said bitterly. "But she does not deserve it, and she'll never be my wife. This is a final decision. "

"But what did she do, can you tell me, what is her lack of respect?" Legolas asked: he was starting to feel confused.

"She desires. She desired another Elf while I was far,  and she made me look ridiculous in the front of exponents of other realms." Thranduil explained. "I forgave her infatuation for Haldir of Lórien, we were not yet united, she was free. And now, that Lindir...she's the one who crossed the line, and without the slightest remorse, as if your father was nothing to her."

Legolas began to realize. Yes, maybe Roswehn had been unwary and a bit disrespectful.

"I can understand your jealousy... but you can not punish her like that, she'll hate you ... and...." said Legolas. "She will think about Haldir. She's already missing him, a bit."

"Haldir?! Do you really believe that the Captain of Lórien is in love with Roswehn? Do you want to know how he spent the night of the Summer Solstice, when she chose to stay with me? Ask Drâgana."

Drâgana was a well-known elven lady of Greenwood, famous for her beauty. "Or maybe I should leave Roswehn free to go back to the Lorien...and see with her eyes what Haldir is doing now."
Thranduil smiled. "Roswehn was enchanted by his courage, of course, he saved her life ... but Haldir and his brothers are three libertines, if you understand what I mean, none of them has a wife, in fact."

"Do you still love her?" Legolas asked, "I can not understand this."

"Of course I do, she has captured my soul and my heart by now, and what I am doing is for her, because she has to
learn how to behave: in the darkness of that cell she will understand how I felt at every step from Rivendell to here. She'll realize the anguish in which I fell to the idea of ​​losing her ... her parents treated her as an only child, without giving her rules." Thranduil explained, looking at the pond where he and the woman had spent so many hours.

"So why those threats? To abandon her, to take her child ...?" Legolas asked.

"... how do you know I told her those things?" Thranduil asked.

"... the soldier who carried her with him on the horse told me everything. You treated her horribly, and in front of everyone." Legolas replied.

"Because she needed to hear such things, her conscience had to be shaken in some way." the king answered placidly. He was absolutely convinced he was right.

"She won't forgive you for this. Don't you think she can stop loving you?"  the prince asked.

"No. In fact, I believe that our relationship will come to a new level after this test: whether she gives me a son or not, things will change." Thranduil replied. "And anyway, this is just the first of the two punishments I have in mind...you talked about torture? This brief incarceration is nothing compared to what will happen next.For a girl like her, the hardest lesson is to be deprived of what she likes the most." Thranduil smiled. Legolas saw something mischievous, in that smile. He decided not to investigate further.

"Can I at least visit her?" he asked his father.

"Yes, but only once, and do not be deceived by her whining." the king replied.

🌹🌹🌹

Roswehn was pushed without compliments into Eryn Galen's smallest cell.
There was no light in there: it was complete, total darkness, except from a ray of light that entered from a slit in the door.

Roswehn called. "Is there anyone out there?"
No answer.

"Please, whoever you are...open this door!!" She shouted.

She saw a shadow moving in front of the cell. "Be quiet, the air that comes to you is enough to live. No one dies in Elven prisons."

"Please ... I'm pregnant, I ... I can not stay here ..." Roswehn implored.

"It is not my problem." the guard answered dryly.

"It's not your problem?" she asked. In a flash, she passed an arm through the bars and grabbed the soldier by the collar of his tunic. She gripped his throat so tightly that he almost suffocated. "Now it's your problem, give me the keys, move!"

Immediately, someone put a dagger on her arm.
It was a warning.
"Leave him Roswehn, and calm down."

It was Varian.
The woman released her grip. "I hate you all, from your accursed king to the last of you servants."
She spat out all her anger.

"I know, and you have my sympathy...but you need to save your energies in there, no more aggression to the guards, or I'll close this opening." he threatened her. Then they both left.

Roswehn tried to sit down. She put her hands on her face. There, in that darkness for three days, she would have gone out of her mind.

You offended our King. The soldier Elf had told her.

"Shut up." she murmured. She had done nothing wrong. All that drama just because she had talked to Lindir. "You are savages! To throw a pregnant girl in a jail...you're animals!" She yelled again. Who was Thranduil to treat her like that?

He is the one to whom your soul belongs. She heard Elrond's voice in her mind.

We take our unions seriously. She heard Galadriel, too.

"No. He is just a mad Elf who wants to take my son away from me." She said to herself again. "But I will not let him do that."

Carefully, she searched for a sharp protrusion in the wall. She began to rub a wrist on it.

"I told you, Thranduil, Haldir and I will leave together."