Welcome to Gaia! ::

"That's okay," Andarien assured Lin with a smile. "I don't know where the library is anyways."

He paused, then blinked. "Or even what it is."

He'd had nothing to do with the library in the Eastland, and since the Plantation didn't have one he really knew nothing about them.

"And Gaia is the place where you and Mi are from, right?" Andarien grinned at Lin.

"You and I," Earendil corrected his son automatically.

Andarien blinked at him. "You, too?" he asked. "I thought you were from here, Ada!"

Earendil blinked back at him. "I am. But you said you and your mother were from Gaia, but you didn't say it correctly-"

"No I didn't," Andarien protested. "I said Nana and Mi are from there!"

"And you should have said 'Nana and I' instead of 'Nana and me'," Earendil pointed out.

It took Earendil a moment, but when it finally clicked in his brain what Miyuki and Andarien meant, he laughed heartily.

"By the Valar, it's time for a real break from traveling!" he laughed. "Of course! He's been calling you Mi since he started talking!"

And all of a sudden he realized how tired he was. He was used to traveling, yes, but not this type of travel for this long. Almost a year of physical traveling, rather than travel by ship ... and now that he was home, the place that felt most like home to him, his body and mind were demanding rest.

"I've a feeling I'm going to sleep well tonight," he chuckled softly.

The meal turned out to be downright pleasant, and afterwards Aranxia offered to take River, Miyuki and Andarien around the palace, leaving Lin and Earendil free to go for their walk with Luthien (Ruel had to get back to work - legitimately, according to Luthien).

The sun was still out when they headed out to the courtyard, but since it was winter it was actually kind of cool - a very pleasant temperature for walking. As Luthien had promised, there were flowers blooming everywhere they looked, white blossoms carpeting the flowerbeds so densely it almost looked as if it had snowed.

"I don't remember seeing those flowers before," Earendil commented as they entered the courtyard.

Luthien smiled at him. "You've been away for many years," she reminded her son. "Things do change, you know."

"I wouldn't know," Luthien smiled softly.

Earendil chuckled. "Perhaps someday we'll convince you and Father to travel somewhere," he winked at her. "Aunt Amalthea would welcome you in the Westland, I'm sure."

"Thanks for the thought," Luthien laughed. "But your father ..." She trailed off, sighed, and then smiled ruefully. "Well. You know."

That confused Earendil. "But he was ... pleasant at dinner," he protested.

"I know," Luthien said, raising her hands defensively. "I know. And to me, just as to the two of you, there is no different between us and them. But Ruel is only beginning to change. Things here have been ..."

She hesitated, looking for the right word to use.

"Well, they've been ... messy since the last time the two of you were here," she finished finally. Her expression was troubled. "Things have been getting better, I do have to admit, but for a while ... for a while, I was afraid I might have to leave him. Not forever, of course, but ... until he changed."

Earendil couldn't speak for a moment as he let that sink in. He had never heard of a husband and wife separating, not in Elvish cultures at least. For his mother even to consider such an action ... he couldn't even imagine what his father could have done to lead to that point.

Luthien shook her head. "It seemed that way at first," she murmured. "I thought that was what it was. But the two of you had been gone for a while by that time, and he was only growing worse, not better ... I still don't understand it. For a while, I slept with Aranxia at night ... and then one day, all of a sudden, he was different. It was as if he were a completely different person. He started being the person he had used to be, the man I first fell in love with."

She smiled. "I don't know what happened, or how it happened, but he is changing. Everyone has noticed it. And I know he still has some difficulties, but he is getting better."

"To be honest," Earendil admitted, finding his voice back again, "I was quite surprised that dinner went so well. I expected a scene, like when Aunt Elnara first came back to visit."