[Elora]

"Tis naught to forgive," Uien said softly as she gazed upon Falowik's bowed head.

"I too hope that Eodwine is alive. Why capture him if they wished him dead only?" Uien barely kept her arms by her side and her hands in her lap as she sat by Falowik. Reach for him, show him that what he wishes for is already his. Uien drew a sigh as she struggled with herself. Her fingers bunched the fabric of her tunic. It was the only other outward sign of her battle aside from the longing in her eyes. She let her eyelids float shut. After a moment, her fingers straightened and her eyes opened once more.

"Joy beyond joy is what you have given me already, Falowik. There is nothing small about that." There was a solemn certainty in her voice. "There is noone closer than you. Never has there been and never will there be." Falowik shook his head and Uien smiled.

"I cannot battle my heart, Laurëatan. Such strength has never been mine. I do not fight this path, nor do I regret it. Willingly I set foot upon it. I cannot, will not, turn back now. It is not within me." Falowik's head rose, his expression torn. Dount, denial and hope warred within him.

In a soft voice, Uien said, "I do not claim to see what lies before you and I. Yet in this world there are few things I can be as certain about. There is a way for you and I. We can bridge a chasm that is as wide as we choose it to be. I know this as I know I draw breath. As I know there is no other, Man, Elf nor Dwarf, that could ever make you small in my eyes or heart."

Slowly, Uien stood. She unfolded herself fluidly. "You will find a way just as you will find Eodwine, my love. If you will not trust and hope in that, perhaps you can trust and hope in me." Uien lifted her fingers to her lips and pressed them to her mouth. She stretched her hand and let it rest upon Falowik's brow.

"By the same grace that took my family into Valinor shall this be so. Good night, Falowik Laurëatan. May your dreams be filled with peace and laughter." She stood there, before him, for a long moment. Then she slowly turned away and moved towards the door. She shut it gently after her, smiling over her shoulder.

She returned to her own room at the same slow pace. With a small pause to glance West to a place she would only reach now through the Halls of Mandos, and those that waited for her, she found her bed and curled upon it. The room was filled with her whisperings in her own tongue. The lilting music of Sindarin rose from her lips to beg of the stars set there by Varda that he would accept what lay within him: the strength to reach for what so many would not dare to. Eodwine he already moves towards into unknown peril. Will he not do the same for the love that stretched between them?

Uien lay, staring into the darkness of night that gathered at the ceiling of her room overhead, hoping and wandering for many hours. The answer, she felt, lay in the outcome of this search for Eodwine.