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"The name sounds familiar," Halmir admitted quietly to Lin, "but ... I can't remember why ... when I might have heard it ..."

He was just as confused as everyone else, and ready and willing to admit it.

Arthael turned to Alena. "You might want to stand back a moment," she said quietly.

Silently, Alena obeyed. She had seen what this woman was capable of, and she was loth to be on the receiving end.

Arthael moved her hand slowly in front of the woman's face, from one side to the other, but the woman didn't react. After about half a minute of that, Arthael took half a step back, then whirled and threw a punch at the woman's head. With lightning-fast reflexes, the woman's staff came up to block the blow, and in the same movement she knocked Arthael on the side of the head with it. Through all of this, the woman didn't blink or look anywhere but straight ahead.

Arthael rubbed the side of her head and took a step back. "The poor girl," she murmured sadly. "She must have been alone out here for ... at least three decades."

"Yes," Arthael replied, glancing at Lin. "And the fact that she is alive is a miracle. Halmir, do you remember that one hunt?"

Halmir blinked. "The one when the children said that the slavers had left one of the children behind because she would be useless to them?"

Arthael nodded slowly. "I think we just found her."

Arthael and Halmir both shook their heads. "The children themselves didn't know," Arthael told her. "Being blind, she was mostly kept around her house, and didn't get out much ..."

"Where was she from again?" Halmir asked.

Arthael had to think about that. "Either Tavari or Ebonscarp, would be my guess," she murmured. "That's where we're heading but ... I mean, I think we should take her with us, but ... I don't know if she would ... I mean ..."

"If she would be suited for a city," Halmir finished for her.

She nodded.

"I think we would need Adonijah at this point," Arthael said flatly. "She barely reacted to her own name, and she's not made a sound other than to her bird since she showed up. Honestly, I think the best we can do is try to clean her up, see if we can't teach her to communicate, maybe even speak, and see if when we go she comes with us. If she turns back to the swamp, we've no right to stop her."

"At least we know one thing," Alena spoke up.

Halmir looked at her. "What's that?"

Alena nodded at the wagon where Earendil was still asleep. "When she attacked him, she really had no idea he was even there."

"She must certainly be terrified," Alena murmured, looking at the woman. "But she seems so calm ..."

"Maybe she just doesn't sense any danger," Arthael suggested. "She reacted quickly enough when I tried to hit her."

"If I might make a suggestion," Aethos spoke up suddenly, standing behind Alena.

Alena turned to him. "Yes, my Lord?"

Aethos cleared his throat. "Well ... in all that we've been speaking, the only reaction she's shown is to her name, correct?"

Alena nodded.

"And all this time," the sola went on, "we have been speaking in the Common Tongue, correct?"

Alena nodded again, this time more slowly as she caught on to what he was getting at.

"Well," Aethos concluded, "if she was originally from the Westland, then perhaps she would recognize Common Elvish. Perhaps if we spoke to her in that language, she might have more hope of understanding at least something of what we are saying?"

Arthael knelt in front of the girl, keeping a safe distance. Her head was still ringing from the first clout, and she didn't relish the idea of another.

"Alassëa," she said softly so as not to startle the woman, "you were from a town in the Westland, were you not?"

The woman blinked and turned her head in Arthael's direction when she heard her name, and though she didn't seem to understand the rest of Arthael's words, her brow furrowed as if she were trying to remember something long ago lost to her.

Aethos smiled softly. "Then we should all speak in Common Elvish as much as we can," he murmured. "Perhaps something will come back to her."

"In the meanwhile," Alena spoke up again, "she needs to be washed. It's going to be dark very soon, and I think it would be best to have her clean and in some clothes before then."

"I'll help," Leyenda spoke up quietly.

Alena nodded. "Thank you. And Lin, you might want to check on Earendil," she suggested. "Try wake him up just to see how he's doing, and if he wants to sleep again, let him, but in the tent, and make sure he sleeps on his side. His good side, of course."

Andarien's pain had passed with Miyuki massaging his limbs, and with how exhausted his growth had left him, he had fallen asleep in his sister's arms.

Earendil woke slowly, groggily, and he blinked up at Lin, his vision blurry. "Lin," he groaned softly. "What - happened to me?"

He didn't really remember much, just stopping inside the woods and setting up camp ... but nothing beyond that ...