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Sir Valdemar had five separate books on his desk, each of them open and bookmarked in many places, and some with notes sticking out of them. At the current moment, he was rifling through a bookshelf, apparently searching for a certain volume. At the sound of the knock, he looked over his shoulder.

"Lin?" he blinked in surprise - and then he smiled. "Welcome back. It has been a while."



"Do you realize," Atalya spoke up with an amused smile, "that by the time they're a year old, it will have been nearly twenty years here since you married?"

SHe moved to join the others, still playing with Garrick in her arms.

Reave chuckled. "Frightening, but true," he agreed. "It's been ten years already."

"It has been," Lin grinned.

Even with her regular lessons, she had been missing a day or two or three here and there, which had made things difficult. She walked in, taking a chair she sat down across from him.

"The school has been holding a play, Raven got us to all sign up for casting and now we're in practice."

"We've been well enough," the queen smiled warmly at Lore. "We've been hearing about some trouble in the north, but that really comes as no surprise ... I'm sure you must know about Lothiriel and Pengolodh by now ..."

"Nadya's pleased," Reave chuckled, "but Gion is worried."


Sir Valdemar smiled at Lin. "It's nice to know you're doing something other than just training all the time," he said softly, turning away from his bookshelf, "but I would imagine that it still is not giving you any more rest."

"No.. but saner than the Radicals," Lin replied with a gusty sigh, "Though now, I think they'll leave me alone, in which to say I have to writer Mikhail a sorry letter if he's not here for swearing."

She chewed her lower lip and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that one.

"And before I get side tracked with life, Elros has a message which you might be able to make sense of more than me. He said.... that the dwarves are escaping their exile, which.. isn't surprising I guess, but he also said.."

She tried to think of it.

"Creatures of old once thought... exterminated has resurfaced, but he wouldn't tell me what they were, saying that it was better not to invoke the name before running into them."

Atalya smiled and put Garrick on the floor like he wanted. "There's nothing for him to chew on," she murmured, running her fingers through his thick, dark hair. "He'll be fine."

She turned her attention back to Lore and Elnara. "Have you heard anything about the north?" she asked curiously, though her eyes were serious. "Anything about the dwarfs?"




Sir Valdemar couldn't help but smile at Lin's comment about writing to the prince, but before he could reply she delivered Elros's message. As she passed the message on, his eyes grew wide, his face pale, and he dropped the papers he was holding in his hand.

"Impossible," he breathed, his voice little more than a strangled whisper. "How does he know this?"

"Lothiriel, mainly I think is the reason why he knows about... well whatever it is those things are," Lin replied softly.

This had to be really serious if it got that kind of reaction, the only thing closest to it was during the whole Aragost incident.

"Though I never asked how she knew," Lin added as an after thought, "But everyone is on alert on the Ranch. The hunting parties use to be just with Dad and Celebor, and now between the dwarves and those things there at least half a dozen people out on a hunt. I'd hate to ask... but what are these things?"

"Only that the dwarfs have been making more and more attempts to escape their exile," Reave replied seriously. "For a long time there were minor attempts, but they suddenly ..."

"The number of attempts exploded exponentially," Atalya said dryly, "and we think there was a trigger of some sort."



Sir Valdemar looked grim. "If you are going to continue to visit our world," he said quietly, "especially if you are going to visit the lands north of us ... then yes, I believe that it would be best that you know."

He put one hand on her shoulder. "Come with me."

"Perhaps a danger? Well.. no... they would have said something... well... maybe not have said something," Lore mused thoughtfully.

He wasn't sure, what was the likelyhood if an exiled people would tell the people who exiled them that there was something wrong where they lived? Lore didn't think it was likely, but if they were desperate enough.