The secret

Light unleashed

Light unleashed

Elladan had talked with both his brother and Glorfindel before they left for the borders, Elrohir was glad Elladan had gotten along so well with Asya and he already knew that Elladan in some ways had accepted the marriage already. Elladan was all about protection, he always wanted to protect his loved ones and those he cared about and he was obviously already ready to fiercely protect Asya against her own dark memories. Glorfindel was still a bit suspicious against her and Elrohir had to grin thinking about how Elladan immediately had started defending her. Yes, his brother was falling and fast too, Elrohir couldn't have been more happy.

Elladan picked up the two females at noon, Asya looked very sweet that day and he saw that she wasn't as pale anymore. Her body was recovering rather fast and it was a good sign. He held her arm as he told her about the valley and its inhabitants and he was careful not to raise his voice or say anything she could misinterpret as criticism. She was so afraid of that, she still winced if she heard sudden sounds and if he moved to suddenly. It was very obvious that she had been hurt more than once and she had very little belief in her own skills and worth.

They would take breaks rather often and Elladan had made sure that she wouldn't meet too many new faces at once. He introduced her to the others there slowly, one at a time. She met Erestor and was charmed by his promise of letting her have free access to the library. Lindir promised to write her a nice ballad and also the others there were very welcoming and friendly. Asya had never imagined that there were so many nice people in the world, she was used to being treated like trash. She got fascinated by some ellith who had gathered by one of the fountains with their weaves and she was giggling like a child when one of them let her try to weave something. The ellith stared at Elladan with sad eyes, female intuition cannot be fooled, they all sensed what she had been through. He knew that they soon would spread the word, Asya would be treated with the outmost care until she was fully recovered.

They went to the stables before the evening meal, it was the last part of Imladris they hadn't been to yet and he discovered that Asya was afraid of horses. She had barely ever ridden and he had to admit with a sigh that they had quite a job to do before she was able to fully function as a part of their community. But Elladan was prepared to help her, he wanted to remove the fear from her eyes and make her more confident and strong. They went to the hall to eat after the visit to the stable and she was in awe of everything, her eyes wide with wonder and when she forgot about her fear and the shadows chasing her she acted like a child, full of awe at the world and so trusting and innocent it almost hurt the soul watching her.

Elladan wondered what she could have been like if she hadn't been treated the way she had, he had a suspicion that she would have been absolutely radiant. The servants seemed to love her right away because of her obvious gratitude whenever they brought her even the smallest thing and it seemed that everybody had been warned about her nervousness because there was no shouting or people rushing by in a hurry. Elladan was starting to enjoy spending time with her, he liked her curiosity and the way she almost devoured every little piece of information, when some minstrels lead by Lindir sat down to play some music she was almost moved to tears and she laughed so heartily by some jokes one of Elladan's friends told her. She was a rather outspoken and funny person at the bottom, he was rather sure of it. He was looking forward to getting to know who she really was underneath the veneer of fear and distrust.

He followed her back to her rooms later on, and he did dare to kiss her hand very gently, she giggled and blushed and found it rather awkward but at the same time it did make her heart speed up and she felt a bit strange. Ghirda was after all very right when she claimed that Elladan was handsome and Asya had noticed more and more differences between him and her late husband. Galaron had been willowy and very thin, he didn't have much muscles for someone who was the son of a general, she had anticipated that he was to be a soldier like his father but he was aiming to become a scholar of all things, and that was obvious. He was almost allergic to breaking a sweat, and extremely vain too.