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"Yes, I believe he was an elf," Earendil nodded. "We'll have to ask Aranel about that when we return home ... yet another thing for our ever growing list," he grinned at Lin. "Still. When he first returned, I know he didn't like to talk about it, but in the years before we left, he would talk about it sometimes, even without being asked. So I'm sure it's all right."

"Well, I'm curious," Rhea laughed. "So I say we ask."

"I wonder if it would be safe to visit," Rhea mused as they approached the walls of the city. "I didn't speak much with Aranel, but he did tell me once about how he and his sister went to the fortress ... really it does sound quite fascinating."

"Maybe we could head there on our tour of the Four Lands," Earendil suggested with a grin. "I have to admit, I've been hoping to see it as well."

Earendil thought about it. "It can't have been more than a century since they brought it back, I don't think Aranel's more than a hundred and ten years old, even. Can't have been a century yet."

"Which means the fortress would be in excellent condition," Rhea grinned. "I wonder what we'll be able to find in it."

"Well," Rhea mused, "I would say that it depends on how well the paper was made in the first place, and how it was stored ... if it was left on the floor, or stacked neatly on a shelf ... whether it was protected inside a book, or what ..."

"There's a good chance that most of it will be at the very least, legible," Earendil assured Lin. "Paper usually lasts at least a few centuries, or so I'm told. And if it's in book form, especially books as important as those ones would have been, they would have taken care to make sure they would be preserved for as long as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some magic protecting them or something."

"Like the fortress itself was protected?" Rhea pointed out. "Didn't work out so well for it."

"Though we won't know until we talk to Aranel, at the very least," Earendil pointed out. "Besides," he added with a grin as they passed through a triple gate, "I think we're here."

He looked around. The change from one side of the wall to the other was stark? outside the city walls, everything was quiet, and they could see for miles: it could even be imagined that they were alone, save the people they were walking with. On the inside, it was a completely different story. Houses, houses, and more houses, and people milling around, children playing, and further in even more different sounds could be heard.

"Pity we didn't fly over when we first came," Rhea grinned at Lin. "We would at least have an idea what to expect."

Really, it was as if the people lived there without the reality of the war around them, as if they were completely hidden away from it. But surely they had to know about it ... perhaps it was just such a part of their daily life that they could ignore the fact, or perhaps they felt safe with so many walls around them ...

It wasn't long before they had a trail of small children following them from a short distance, pointing and chattering amongst themselves. The adults bowed their head respectfully at Alena as they passed, though once they stood up they also looked curiously at the strangers.

"Would they even know about the people from our lands anymore?" Earendil mused softly, looking around at them almost pityingly.

"And how much has been lost over the years," Earendil murmured softly.

He was startled when suddenly a little boy ran up to him and tugged on his tunic.

"Sir," the little fire-haired boy asked, looking up at him with enormous green eyes, "Did you burn yourself or something? You are as black as a burnt log! Even your face is all dark!"

Earendil laughed aloud, and Rhea grabbed his arm and leaned forward to look at the boy more closely. "This is what we are, the Dark Elves," she grinned at him. "Once upon a time, our people lived together, yours and ours!"