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Andarien looked up at Lin when she put her hand on his head, and then he crawled off of Earendil's lap and onto Lin's so that he could snuggle with her instead.

"Poor little guy," Elia said ruefully in the Common Tongue. "Maybe he'll be able to explain a bit better when he gets a bit older."

"Or sooner," Amora added thoughtfully, "now that he knows what kind of questions are going to be asked of him, maybe he'll start looking out for such things."

"It's not like we speak of them often," Amora pointed out, not realizing that she was echoing Lin's thoughts. "It's so taken for granted that we just tend to forget about them."

"That, and it's covered in our lessons usually long before any of our Gifts ever manifest," Elia added. "It's part of our education."

"You know," Earendil said slowly, a thought forming in his mind, "I'm wondering ... if what Andarien sees is something that no one else can see, perhaps it could be ... sensed a different way. I mean, Andarien said that Lancaeriel was really bright, very different from everyone else, and I have to admit, I did feel something was different about her."

He looked at Lin and Miyuki. "Did either of you feel it?"

Earendil nodded. "I wonder if Alassëa might be able to help, then," he suggested. "She senses everything because she can't see. If Andarien can tell her the different levels of light that he sees, maybe she can sense the different levels of whatever it is and maybe she'll know what it is."

He shrugged. "Just a thought."

It might be best to keep it until after Andarien had rested a bit, though. He was tired, and already quite flustered from all of the questions.

"Sounds good," Earendil agreed. He eyed the boy, who was half asleep, lying against Lin. It was a fairly good cue that it was time for them to take a rest, which they did.

The following day was the public execution, and they all stayed at the palace while Lothiriel and Estel went into the city, and the day after that, Lancaeriel showed up at the palace to visit.

Just as breakfast was ending, the door to the dining hall opened, and the tall, pale woman stepped into the room. Iorlas's eyes lit up, and she hurried to greet her friend, but Andarien closed his eyes and looked away from her.

Andarien nodded and opened his eyes a crack. He looked around for Lancaeriel and watched her intently, his eyes opening bit by bit as he adjusted to her.

"Bright," he mumbled.

Earendil was feeling that strange feeling again, and he looked around to see if anyone else was reacting to it. They were, to various degrees: some of them didn't seem to be reacting at all, whereas Alena was staring at the woman in open amazement, and Alassëa was fidgeting with an anxious look on her face.

Earendil couldn't help but chuckle slightly as Miyuki headed off.

"There she goes again," he grinned.

In a way he was glad: she was interested in learning (most of the time) and that was a gift. And he supposed that it wasn't as if they had started their lessons for the day yet ...

Lancaeriel was chatting with Iorlas, but she smiled at Miyuki when she approached.

"Good morning," she said warmly.