Welcome to Gaia! ::

When they arrived in the dining room, it was deserted; but very quickly food was brought to them, and only a few short minutes later, some of the others started to drift into the room to greet them.

Luthien, Aranxia, Tinuviel and Regan of course had accompanied them there, but the next to arrive was Atalya, who first greeted Shea and Mikhail, followed by Sir Valdemar.

The historian stopped in his tracks, his expression one of complete and utter disbelief when he saw Alena and Elros sitting together.

Sir Valdemar blinked and looked over at Lin and Miyuki, and, since they were sitting near Elros and Alena, headed towards them.

"Welcome back," he smiled faintly at them, though he still appeared dazed from the surprise of seeing his (very) old friends again so suddenly. "I see you must have had quite the adventurous trip ..."

"I'm going to have to hear all about this," the historian chuckled softly. He bowed his head slightly. "Forgive me, I must see ..."

He stepped past Lin and Miyuki to where Elros and Alena were eating and talking together.

"Elros?" he said, interrupting the two.

Elros looked up and grinned widely, his icy blue eyes bright and warm. "Valdemar," he said warmly, rising to his feet and embracing the historian.

Sir Valdemar returned the embrace, but his eyes drifted to Alena, who also rose and was smiling brightly. "And you ... can it be ... Alena?" He stepped away from Elros and stared at the fiery-haired woman.

Alena laughed. "Indeed it is, Valdemar," she replied. She kissed him on both cheeks. "Twenty thousand years brings about a lot of change, doesn't it?"

The king joined them shortly, and a while later Aranel and Ruel walked in together. Aranel was delighted to see that they had returned, and that they had so many extra guests, but Ruel's eyes rested on the rounded ears of Luk.

Sidling up to Lin and Earendil, before even greeting them or asking them how their trip had been, he nodded at Luk and asked "Who is that?"

Ruel started to nod, but then he caught himself and stared at Lin. "Half brother to one of the elves?" he asked in disbelief. "But ... he's ... human ..."

Though who knew what went on in other lands, even if he didn't like it. He took a deep breath to keep himself calm - something he had been working on since the group had left - and instead of getting angry he asked, "How would he even know about her? I thought she's been here for centuries. He's still so young ..."

Earendil stared at his father, trying to figure out what could possibly have changed him. It was the first time he was willingly talking to Lin, not to mention the fact that he clearly knew that Luk was of some sort of mixed blood and wasn't making a big deal of it.

Ruel nodded slowly. "So ... she is elven ... he is half?"

"Something like that," Earendil agreed, not entirely sure that it would be a good idea to tell his father everything. He was acting very strangely. Besides, Arthael herself didn't know she had human blood in her, it was only fair that she know first.

"Luk," Earendil called, beckoning for the man to come over.

Luk had been looking around the room, but at the sound of his name, he came over to join the four of them. "Earendil," he said expressionlessly, acknowledging that Earendil had called him over.

Earendil leaned back and smiled at the man. "Luk, meet my father, Ruel," he said, nodding towards his father.

Luk's eyes took Ruel in - appearance, expression, and thoughts. "A pleasure to meet you, sir," he said, bowing his head respectfully. "Your son is a good man."

"It's always good to hear such things," Ruel replied. "Thank you."

Luk's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Ruel's words were kind, but his eyes didn't match his tone - not quite.

"I look forward to learning more about your country and your people while I'm here," he said, keeping his tone light. "It is quite different from my land."

"Perhaps you will have to tell me about it," Ruel nodded.