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Kyrie smiled bemusedly at that comment, though she refrained from replying.

"You've been married for so long," Elspeth spoke up again, her tone curious. "Do you have any children?"

At that, Kyrie shook her head. "No, never. As much as we both would have loved to have had children, I'm unable, due to an incident that occurred before we were married."

She pushed her chair back from the table and showed everyone the three long scars that raked her belly, thicker and lighter than the rest of her scars. "I was attacked by a bear," she explained. "I took fever from it, which was how I met the people who adopted me. My life was saved, but at the price of never being able to conceive."

There was nothing but silence after that, since no one knew what to say, and very quickly Kyrie began to fidget under the attention.

"Well, that's enough about me," she said abruptly, pulling her chair closer to the table again. She smiled at their hostess. "What about you? You said you've only been here about a year. Where did you come from?"

The Earth Elven woman smiled back. "I was born and raised in Kelxit," she replied warmly. "My husband is from Garnelia."

Kyrie nodded when Elspeth said where she was from, but when she announced the country of her husband's birth, Kyrie sucked her her breath sharply, her eyes narrowing.

"Kelxit is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen," Elspeth replied, smiling warmly at Miyuki. "It's quite warm, I admit, but I grew up with it and I rather enjoy it. It's almost entirely forest, though in the southern area, there's also quite a bit of rock. The people there are so warm and friendly ... it really is wonderful."

She paused, clearly hesitant to continue. "As for Garnelia ..."

She trailed off, and Kyrie took it upon herself to go on.

"Garnelia was once one of Arkandia's most prosperous countries," she explained, "but a few centuries ago the royal family was assassinated and General Quileth Durnen, who had been the family's most trusted advisor, usurped the throne. Under his tyranny, the people have been suffering, many of them tortured, and often enough killed. There are some who are fortunate enough to flee the country, but those who make it are few and far between. Most are caught and executed."

Her dark eyes flashed with anger. Clearly, this was more than a simple geography lesson to her.

Kyrie turned her eyes to Lin, and after a moment, she nodded slowly.

"The General is paranoid," she said flatly. "He's surrounded by bodyguards and soldiers at all times. If it were possible, I'd have taken care of him myself, long ago. As it is ..."

She hesitated, then shook her head. "Impossible. All I can do is help those I find to escape with their lives."

Daeron had the feeling that there was something she wasn't telling them, but it wasn't their business. Still, he couldn't help but be curious.

Kyrie hesitated again, but this time she looked torn.

"It's ... not ... the safest," she began slowly, choosing her words carefully. "But ... I've never been caught, and I believe that was can pass through without being caught. On the other hand ..."

She paused briefly before turning back to those she was guiding. "There is something I must do there that is ... personal, in part, and in part it is work against the General. As odd as it may seem, those of you who are not Dark Elves will be in the least danger."

Earendil felt as worried as Lin looked, but he put on a grim face so that his children couldn't see his anxiety. He had to be strong for them, after all.

Still, he did reach for Lin's hand under the table.

"Because they are the only ones who could be mistaken for Garnelians," Kyrie explained patiently to Miyuki. "The General does not like to let his people go."

Then she smiled softly. "But like I said, I've had lots of practice in helping people to leave, so we should be just fine."

"We also needed help getting out of the country," Elspeth put in. "That is why it took us so long to come to Caras Galadhon, though we were married a long time ago."

Elspeth laughed sheepishly, a light blush appearing faintly on her brown cheeks.

"I was young and foolish," she admitted, though her eyes were sparkling. "I knew how thing were in Garnelia, but still I wanted to travel. My parents made it clear that it wasn't safe and that they would do all they could to stop me from traveling, but ... well, as I said, I was young and foolish. I went."

Alaric was translating everything that everyone was saying for his father so that Duran wouldn't be completely left out of the conversation, and at that point the Dark Elven man chuckled softly and shook his head.

"What happened?" Andarien asked curiously, glancing briefly at Duran before looking back at Elspeth for the rest of the story.

The Earth Elven woman smiled. "Well, I headed straight for the capital and of course was promptly arrested and brought to the General. I was ordered to leave the country immediately, but before I made it out of the city I was run down by a runaway horse. Completely accidental, the poor child who was riding it didn't stop crying for hours ... anyways, Duran was passing by and he brought me to the doctor's."

She shrugged. "He stopped by every day to begin with ... checking up on me, so he said. Then it became a few times a day, and once my leg healed I started going around with him. I was on crutches, so for a while I was left alone ... then when I didn't need the crutches anymore I was arrested a second time and brought to the General."

Elspeth smiled. "He asked why I hadn't left yet, I explained about the horse, he pointed out that I was walking quite fine ... so I told him I would leave. Of course, I would need my weapons ... but he flat out refused."

She shrugged. "Naturally, it wasn't safe to leave without any means of protecting myself. It didn't take much for Duran to convince me to stay, and I hid with him and his parents. Within half a year, we were married, and Alaric came about a year and a half after that."

She smiled at her husband and son, and her husband smiled back at her, though he remained silent.

"But you were still in Garnelia at that point," Kyrie prodded. "In what city?"

"Oh, still in Dekra," Elspeth replied with a chuckle.

At this point, her husband spoke, saying something in his own tongue, and this time Kyrie laughed.