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Alassëa turned towards Lin, her triumphant look replaced immediately with an impatient one, and shook her head negatively.

"Always alone here," she told her. She tapped her staff on the ground. "Not always here. When not here ... home. Man not take."

"Teacher from home," Alassëa murmured softly, visibly relieved that she had finally made herself understood. She gripped her staff firmly, and at Lin's second utterance she looked sadly in her direction.

"Not diff-cult," she assured Lin quietly. "Only diff-cult ... talk ... know I talk."

She knew that the others were impressed with how quickly she was re-learning to speak, but personally she was far from it. She knew she had the ability, and the fact that it refused to come frustrated her to no end.

"Give it time," Aethos smiled at her, despite the fact that she wouldn't be able to see it. "It will come."

"Too much time," Alassëa quipped with a frown.

That the others would mind wasn't what bothered Alassëa: it bothered her for her own sake. She knew she could do better, and her lack of progress (as she perceived it) made her angry. She had always been that way, and it was that quality that had made her such a good student when she had been a child.

"Alassëa," Aethos spoke up, seeing the frustration on her face, "can you remember how old you were when you ended up out here? Or the name of your teacher, or your parents, or anything?"

For a long moment, Alassëa didn't answer, but only clutched her staff as she thought about it. At long last, she murmured in a very thoughtful tone, "Was ... not old ... was ..."

She trailed off and counted off on her fingers, and when she found the number she wanted, she held them up.

"This," she said decisively, holding up seven fingers.

"Very young," Aethos agreed in a soft murmur. "How could you survive such a place at such a young age? From what I can tell, this is quite an unforgiving land ..."

Alassëa shrugged her shoulders, gripping her staff tightly. "Is diff'cult, but when have no ... um ... no ..."

"Choice?" Aethos guessed.

The blind woman nodded. "No choice. When have no choice, do good. Live."

"Necessity is the best teacher," Luk agreed. "The same way our people learned to make do without magic, even amongst people that use it in their daily lives, or used to."

Earendil was also worried about the two, and once more he suggested to Lin that they ask Kelirahc and Leyenda about the missing couple.

"Maybe they know something," he suggested, though he didn't really believe it. "And worse come to worse, Kelirahc might be able to go searching for them. It's a full moon tonight, and Kelirahc's night vision is still much better than any other of us ..."

Andarien was already asleep, wrapped in a blanket in the tent.

Earendil nodded. "I think they're by the wagons again," he said, and led them in that direction.

They were indeed by the wagons. Amalirahc had already fallen asleep underneath it, a single blanket over him as he lay on the ground, but Leyenda and Kelirahc were sitting on top of the wagon, leaning against each other and looking up at the stars.For a moment, Earendil faltered, wondering if it would be good to interrupt them - it seemed they were having a bit of a private moment - but then he realized that if they were going to have their fears allayed about the missing couple, they would have to.

He cleared his throat as he approached the pair from behind, and the two of them turned to look at him and Lin.

"Oh," Leyenda smiled. "Earendil. Lin. Can we help you with something?"