Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil chuckled. "Well, perhaps once we're out of the labyrinth and have spoken to some people, we can play," he grinned down at the two. "If you would let me try in the place of my brother, that is."

Too bad Tinuviel was also gone, she had also wanted to meet Nina, he recalled.

Earendil glanced down at Lin and noticed that she seemed ... quiet.

"Something the matter?" he asked her anxiously, his dark eyes softening with concern.

"Well," Earendil racked his brains, trying to think of something to talk about - since he hated traveling with others in silence - ... "do you have any questions about the castle? About any of the people? About ... anything?"

For that matter, wouldn't she wonder where her father had gone?

"Er ..."

Earendil could barely keep from chuckling. Go figure, the one thing she wanted to know, he had no idea. Well, it served him right for pressing her for conversation.

"I don't know," he admitted. Then to soften his answer, he added quickly, "But he was in a big hurry, I know he's going to be back as soon as he can be. He wanted to get back as soon as he could."

"I suppose not," Earendil agreed. "Though I'm not sure of the time difference, I've heard talk of one between our two worlds."

He rubbed absently at the tip of one of his ears as he led the two through the maze of the labyrinth - though perhaps a more apt name for them was catacombs, considering all the traps that were hidden throughout.

"It's always long when you have to be apart from your loved one," Earendil shrugged, "no matter how long or short the time. At least, that's what Ada says, and Nana always agrees."

After all, it wasn't that he knew from experience. But watching his parents ... yes, he knew how they felt when they parted and when they reunited.

"Sometimes," Earendil replied, bursting into laughter. By the Valar - what a knowing little girl! He found the thought more than amusing - he couldn't contain his laughter. He hadn't laughed like this in years!

They reached a circular room with ten doors, and without hesitating he moved to one of them and held his hand out to it. His hand glowed a faint blue, and the door opened seemingly of its own accord. Then, still laughing, he led them through.

"Upstairs," the youth replied, lowering his hand. The glow faded, and he led them into a triangular room with a staircase at the far end.

"I'm the only one who uses this passage," he told them. "No one else knows of it, save perhaps Ninako. But she rarely comes down here. We'll come up in the walls of the main floor and follow a few more passages, and eventually come out in the stair tower."

He hadn't lost his passion for playing in the walls, despite being so much older.