[Elora]

As Uien followed Falowik away, the buzz of voices fading, something revealed itself to her mind. In the late afternoon, Uien was uneasy as her mind unveiled it to her. Falowik was silent as he walked, his hand drawing her on after him. Down the steps of the front porch and out into the yard they went. Falco's parting comment was all but forgotten.

Falowik's stride was interrupted as Uien slowed, her fingers slipping a little from his. He turned, looking in askance at her and find her gaze locked on the ground. She was still, and her hand was freed. Uien felt warmth suffuse her face and she had the strong urge to twist her hands in her skirts as had oft been her habit in the days of her youth. Often she had stood, hands twined in her skirts as she grappled with her thoughts.

When she raised her head and looked back to Falowik, her face was grave and her expression difficult to read. She touched his arm and gestured towards the stables.

"If you leave this night, I would have you take what little I have managed to gather for the trail with you." Falowik frowned, nodded slowly and their path altered until the cooler shade of the stable swallowed them both. Uien made for where the bundles of herbs she had gathered with Falowik hung. She bent to retrieved a well wrapped parcel of provisions from where it leant against the stable wall with its mate.

"Doubtless the Master of Buckland will have ample provisions upon reaching Bree," she said as she offered Falowik the supplies. "There is bread, dried meat, grain and fruits, cram and cheese..." Her voice trailed off uncertainly and she sighed in sorrow. There was no hiding from the truth in her mind. Falowik took the proffered wrapped food from her in silence and her gaze dropped once more as she gathered her courage and her skirts.

Her fingers did not twine in their folds but rather she spread them as she curtsied, head bowed and remained there. In a low voice filled with regret, Uien ventured where she feared to tread.

"I seek your pardon," she whispered. "I promised aid that I did not deliver, and faithless must I seem now." Uien had seen it in his eyes when she reached for him across the table. She pushed past the ache within her and ventured to glance back up at Falowik. He stood staring ahead, jaw bunched tightly. Was it anger or disappointment? Both, Uien thought, were likely and deserved.

"If it is your will that I remain here, with my false promises and claims, you have but to say it. I will understand." Those last three words were the hardest of all to say. All she had in the world was the truth of her word, and she had failed the man she loved on that count. The prospect that Falowik would decide to take a different road that lead away from her was real and frightening. How could he place any faith in her and anything she had said?

Uien fell silent as she fought herself for control. The urge to ask him to smile upon her once more, beg him, was strong and she would shame him if she gave it voice now. Still, she could not disguise the tremor of her shoulders nor the gleam of tears unshed. Each moment of silence was like a bell tolling mournfully. Behind Falowik the afternoon light cast a golden gleam around his silhouette.

Uien remained as she was, skirts pooled around her in the straw as she gazed up at him with longing clear in her face. She hoped against hope, as ever was her wont, that somehow there was a way past her failure to find that road so bright that she wished to walk with him. Yet both the distance in his eyes within the commonroom and his silence hinted that already the road was lost and forever would she recall it's bright beckonning, paved with moments of lightness floating, laughter and a love unblemished by the woes of this world.

Oh Laurëatan, her mind sang wistfully as she gazed up at him. In that moment, her heart's longings were writ clear upon her face and all her spirit waited to reach for him across the chasm of her failure. Twilight was coming...