[Belin]

*****Rivendell*****

Elladan stared from between his fingers at Meneciriel and Fanelen. And here he’d thought this journey would be a technicality, a vacation, a trip to see Arwen. The vision of a trip spent dodging hostile stares and snide comments stretched out before him, gaining a slight shimmer from the faint possibility of violence. He edged toward Meneciriel.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. “Why do we have to make this difficult? Why do they want to come with us?”

“Now, Elladan, everyone’s united now, remember? This can be the first act consistent with our attendance. Besides, think how pleased the king will be.”

Elladan snorted. “Of course he will, assuming we are all still inclined to peace when we get there. Do you really think that dwarves are going to submit peacefully to traveling with us? Do you really think nothing will come up? The last time I talked to a dwarf, he didn’t believe a word I said. He raised his eyebrows at ‘hello’ and they never came down again . I have never had something like that happen. They won’t trust us and they are more than likely to start trouble.”

“Aha,” said Meneciriel sweetly, “hence the presence of our very talented mediator.”

Elladan glanced over at his brother in search of aid. Elrohir merely smirked slightly and continued to drink. “Of course,” said Elladan, “Of course, of course I can take care of the entire quality of the interaction between elf and dwarf, of course I can patch hostilities into friendship on the road while we’re all surrounded by wild beasts and don’t even agree on which way we’re going, naturally, we hardly even need the king for this, why don’t you just also put me in charge of—I need a walk.”

He hurried from the room. His pleasant trip to see Arwen had changed into a severe test of his diplomacy, and at the moment he felt so far from being up to such a challenge that he was ready to snap at anybody—or to beg for counsel. He knew so little about dwarves, and he had no idea what they wanted from him, and it hardly seemed fair for such a situation to come upon him like that. Suddenly, a happy thought occurred to him. Hobbits and dwarves, was it? He knew just who to speak to. He turned down the hallway toward a group of rooms that his father had had altered to be at once plainer and more cheerful.