runando ~ A Thranduil Story

Confirmation

Long had Laineth heard about the King's prison cells, but fortunately for her, she'd never been in one before. That was, up until now, because she was now sat in one of said cells, wallowing in her own self pity. To be fair, she had expected something like this to happen, she knew Thranduil would be mad about Duvainion and him disappearing probably threw him up to the next level of anger, but she didn't think he would be so hurt about her hidden secrets.

There wasn't much to do in her cell. She could see out of the barred door, but there wasn't all that much to see apart from the patrolling guards who never uttered a word to her unless it was to give her food. Her daggers had been taken off of her, so she wasn't able to carve patterns into the wall or anything. To put it simply, she was bored out of her mind.

She'd been in the dungeons for a few days and no one had come to see her to bury her under questions or talk about any other possible punishment. This was weird for her, the last time she had been imprisoned, she was tortured for weeks on end, she still had the scars to prove it. It scared her, she didn't know what Thranduil had planned for her, but he certainly seemed very upset, so she was sure that whatever was coming her way wouldn't be good.

Understandably, she was surprised when Thranduil appeared at her door early one morning. She didn't know how long he'd been standing there, but when she woke up and rose from the freezing stone floor, he was there, just observing her.

"Were you watching me sleep?" She accusingly asked, eyebrows furrowed but eyes heavy still from sleeping.

He huffed, "No, I haven't been here long."

She didn't believe him.

It was so early in the morning, the sun had barely risen, she imagined. Why was he down in the dungeons so early in the morning? Even the guards hadn't swapped over at the end of their shifts yet, they were moping around, looking fairly done with their work. Laineth imagined that patrolling the almost empty dungeons would be boring, it's not like they had much to do.

When he didn't receive a reply, he cracked his knuckles before opening the door with keys he seemingly hauled out of no where. He closed it behind him, looking a bit out of place in the low ceiling cell, someone as majestic as he didn't belong in a prison cell.

"You are to tell me the truth and nothing but the truth, understand?" He definitely wasn't as mad as the last time Laineth saw him, but she could still see the anger in his eyes. Perhaps he was just good at hiding it. She nodded her head in agreement, knowing that she couldn't do much else.

He stood there, just before the door, while Laineth herself was leaning up against the back wall, knees close to her chest. It was a vulnerable position she was in, many of her traumatic memories came from being imprisoned, she just hoped that Thranduil wouldn't add to them.

Seeing the fear in her eyes, a flash of sympathy quickly fell and subsequently disappeared from his face. He had to keep himself looking as professional as he would with any other prisoner, he had to disregard the fact that this woman was one of his few supposed friends.

"Let's start his simply," Thranduil announced, "Where did you come from?"

Eyeing him from the wall, Laineth crawled through her memories for a moment, "Before I came to Greenwood?" Thranduil nodded, "Ah, I spent a brief period in Lothlorien, but before that, I came from the battlefield."

Lothlorien? Then surely, Lady Galadriel would know about Laineth. Thranduil made a mental note to send a messenger to Lorien once he was finished with Laineth.

"The battlefield? Why were you fighting? Where did you fight? Who did you fight for?"

Laineth chuckled, "You said we'd start simply, my King. I'll struggle to remember what you ask me if you keep throwing so many questions at me in quick succession," She smiled but she was trying to stall, he'd figure her out eventually, "I fought at the battle of Dagorlad, I was a commander under the banner of my father."