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"But what?" Earendil questioned.

He quieted down as he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked back the way they had come just as a line of men came through the passageway.

There were nine of them, and no two of them were alike: a blond man with fair skin and rounded ears; a blond man with fair skin and pointed ears; a white-haired man with whitish-gray skin and very long pointed ears; a man with light brown hair and chocolate skin like Arthael and short pointed ears; a man who looked like a Night Elf; a light blond haired man with fair skin and round ears; an elf with hair like Light Elves and skin like Dark Elves; a man with pointed ears, red hair, and pale skin; and finally, another elf with very long pointed ears, light brown hair, and mocha skin.

They entered the dome in a line, and each of them stopped in front of one of the seats. In a single, practiced movement, all of them unsheathed the swords that were at their waists. Earendil's first instinct was to draw his own sword, but then the men turned and hung their blades on the pillars behind them before sitting in their seats.

Unconsciously, Earendil nudged Miyuki a bit so that she was more behind him - a protective gesture. He could see that these men meant them no harm - for now - but he didn't trust them, either. They had essentially kidnapped the entire ship, after all, for some - as yet - unknown purpose.

For several long moments, there was silence, and then the man who had entered last, the one with long ears and mocha skin, sitting on the silver seat, said, in a tone that was almost accusing, "You did not bring any Sky Elves with you off the ship."

Roydon was startled. "Were ... we supposed to?" he asked, confused. "We weren't told anything, we just chose those we thought you would most want to talk to."

The brown elf tilted his head curiously. "And what made you choose the people we see before us, then?"

Roydon blinked. "Well ... we thought ... if we were going to be meeting the leaders of your people, that you should be meeting the leaders of ours."

The man with round ears and pale hair, sitting on the green chair, looked at Miyuki pointedly. "Leaders?" he questioned. "You are led by a child?"

"No more surprising than your people having humans as leaders," Celeb quipped. Leyenda elbowed him, and he winced. "What?"

"Humans?" The man in the green chair seemed amused by that. "Did you hear that, Senator Luk? He seems to believe that we are human."

The man in black - the only other person there with round ears, sitting on the seat with the black sash - looked at the group evenly, his expression not changing. "My guess, Senator Lucien, would be that they have not seen half-elves before," he replied.

"Unheard of." The man named Lucien laughed. "Now that is interesting."

The man with the red hair grinned. "This one seems quite spirited," he mused. "But she is right, we have given them no reason to trust us. Though we also have no reason to trust them."

"Which is why we brought you here," said the man with the long pointed ears, light hair and dusky skin. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. "Since you were the ones who for several years now have been coming frighteningly close to our land, it is our place to ask the questions. Who are you? And what business have you in this area?"

Earendil began with introducing everyone, making their stations clear, and only then did he explain about their current mission in Amon Darthir. While he was a little annoyed with the unexpected detour, he had to admit that if it had been dwarfs passing by Tor Karad all the time, he would have wanted to know what they were doing, too.

After his (somewhat lengthy) explanation, he smiled softly and said, "And now I believe it is time that you introduced yourselves, and told us where we are."

The men looked at one another, and then the man in the silver chair - brown hair and mocha skin - nodded. "Fair enough," he agreed. He rose and bowed his head to them. "Our land is called Caras Galadhon. I am Khenan, senior senator. I am a full-blooded elf."

The next man, the redhead in the orange seat, stood up as the Khenan sat down. "I am Cantor, second senator. I am three-quarter elf, one quarter human."

Next was the man in the yellow seat, with light hair and darker skin. "My name is Milo, and my position is third senator. I am a full-blooded elf."

Then was Lucien, the one who had been amused when Celeb had called him a human. "I am Lucien, fourth senator. Three quarters human, one quarter elf."

And then the man in the blue seat, the one who looked just like a dark elf. "Kairi, fifth senator," he said quietly. "Full-blooded elf."

Then was the man who looked very much like Khenan, with brown hair and mocha skin, but his pointed ears were short, like Earendil's, instead of long. "I am Favian," he said solemnly. "Sixth senator. Half elf, half human."

Then came the man in the red seat, with the white hair, gray eyes, very long pointed ears, and grayish-white skin. "I am Aeolus," he said in a voice that was just about a whisper. "Seventh senator. Full-blooded elf."

Next, in the gold seat, the man with blond hair and pointed ears. "I am Accalon," he said cordially, bowing from the waist. "Eighth senator, one eighth human, seven eighths elf."

And finally, the man in black, sitting on the black chair, with blond hair and rounded ears. "I am called Luk," he said quietly. "I am the ninth senator, and I am one-half human, one-half elf."

Earendil chuckled at Miyuki and patted her on the head.

Haldia tapped Earendil on the shoulder. "They still have not said exactly why they brought us here," she reminded him.

Earendil nodded, but before he could ask, Khenan spoke up.

"Over the course of the past decade, we have noted a strange amount of activity, especially around Amon Darthir," he told them. "Knowing King Aerennel as we do, we feared that he might be plotting something against us."

"b*****d would have, too," Cantor spoke up, scowling, "if he'd known about us."

"Senator Cantor." Khenan glared at him, and Cantor bowed his head.

"Forgive me. Carry on."

Khenan looked back at the group of travelers. "We had no idea that he had been dethroned. But we could not take the chance that our people were in danger. We had to find out the truth as quickly as possible."

"We knew you would be heading back to Amon Darthir," Kairi, the dark elf, spoke up. "It was a matter of waiting and watching."

"And now," Aeolus, the white elf, said slowly, "you are free to go."

Earendil blinked at the men. "Just like that?"

The senators eyed each other as if they were considering Miyuki's question.

Earendil though looked at Roydon. It was Roydon's ship, his crew, his trip, the decision would be up to him.

Roydon was looking at Miyuki. He wasn't sure it would be a good idea for them to stay, but they needed to resupply or else they would run out of food before reaching Amon Darthir. That alone would take hours - if they could even get anything - and then after that, they would have to check and recheck their position and rechart their course.

Arwen knew what her husband was thinking, and, being cursed with the Aldrich temper, she took it upon herself to speak up.

"My Lords," she said, looking around at them, "it seems to me that you owe us a bit of help. Because of this detour, we no longer have the supplies we need to reach our destination, and we will have to plot our course again. Even just charting a new course will take a few hours, but the supplies is something that we need your help for. We came at your call, we answered your questions; it seems to me that we would not be overstepping our boundaries to request sufficient supplies to complete our journey."

Celeb stared at his mother. That seemed a bit ... presumptive to him ...

Before anyone else could say anything, though, Khenan rose from his seat.

"That seems like a reasonable request to me," he agreed. "Senators, let us vote on the matter. All in favour of granting aid to the travelers that we have, indeed, inconvenienced."

One by one, each of the men around the circle raised their hands. Khenan counted them up, and then added his own hand to make it unanimous. "So let it be," he murmured.

"So let it be," the other senators echoed.

Khenan turned back to the group of travelers. "Very well. We will escort you back to your ship and give you supplies to last for two weeks. In addition, we will help you to chart your new course. In the meantime, if there are some of your group that wish to explore our city, they may feel free."

Arwen smiled and bowed her head, touching two fingers to her forehead. "Thank you," she said sincerely.