{Video; UN: elvenking}

[tauraran]

{He is a king without his elegant trappings - but, really, he doesn't need them. The robe he wears catches the light with the smallest of motions, glittering faintly as if precious jewels are woven in the fabric. His hair is bound into a single thick braid that lays against his back and his circlet is elsewhere - as are his rings.}

How many parents reside in Lunatia? Are you separated from your children if so? {The flickering light on the table before him is all the illumination he requires as he works on a sketch. The drawing depicts trees and a variety of animal life beneath their mighty boughs.}

My fear for my son increases by the day and I have found no relief for it. I hardly realized how helpless I could feel as a father.

{His attention shifts from the sketch of the forest to a second sketch of a face much like his own - yet different enough that it must be his son.}

Comments

[tauraran]

She did not have to die. {But the Enemy has never cared. He sends out his armies with the simplest and cruelest of orders: kill all in sight.}

My father too should not have fallen. {Oropher had been struck down in battle as well. Is there any wonder why Thranduil avoids it?}

Twenty five millennia... {He breathes the number, in awe of it.} I admire your resiliency and I am relieved you had aid, however fighting a foe for so long...

It would be enough to cause madness.

[spacegoat]

Nobody has to. You have had many losses, so I am understanding your feelings more, now.

[ With being away from his son, a living person in all his lost family. ]

It is very long time. I am lucky to be personally so much younger and missing many of it. Not that I have not known the Legion far too well, but I am not near the prophet... and he has the Naaru to guide him. I do not think he will be mad with all the Light on his side.

[tauraran]

He is lucky to be so blessed. The Naaru remind me of the Valar. If I were accompanied by Manwë or Varda, I too would be protected from madness.

{Their Light is too strong for Darkness to penetrate.}

The rest of us must carry on as best as we can. Avoid heartache, my lady.

[spacegoat]

They are your gods, I am assuming?

[ The destruction of the Legion was proof that the Light would always prevail. ]

I am hoping for very little heartache in my life, but it is part of it, no? I have been losing people, and I will lose more.

[tauraran]

Eru is the Creator; the Valar are his servants and the Maiar serve them. Elves are the children of Eru, created to live in harmony with the Valar and Maiar, though our might and our power cannot match theirs.

{The Valar are more like angels.}

Losing is inescapable.

[spacegoat]

Your people are children of the gods, then?

[ Curious, but not impossible to imagine. There were the Lightforged, after all; people reborn into the Light with its power pulsing in their veins.

She pauses for a moment, thoughtful. ]

A wise, if unfortunate fact.

[tauraran]

You could say so. {Elves are meant to be strong and good; leaders of the other races in times of need. But pettiness has set in and not all races trust the Elves anymore.}

But you can withstand it. I sense strength in you.

[spacegoat]

It is a pity that it is a strength born of loss, but a strength nonetheless. For us both, I am being sure.

[tauraran]

I credit you more with that trait than myself. {There are many days he feels weak. He just hides it well.}

[spacegoat]

[ Don't they all? ]

Your majesty is proving his strength right now, to speak with someone when it is a bad day. It is shown in many different ways.

[tauraran]

If I ceased to speak on days where I felt poorly, my councilors would begin to worry.

{All the same...}

Thank you.

[spacegoat]

It is nothing to thank for. I am always happy to listen.

[tauraran]

Then you are a blessing.