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"True," Lancaeriel mused. "Though I must say, red and white mixed ... are you expecting pink, perhaps?"

The remark drew laughs all around the table.

"But now that we're thinking about it, did we even see anyone with White Elven blood in Caras Galadhon, aside from the victims we saw?" Daeron pointed out. "I can't think of anyone off the top of my head ..."

Lancaeriel chewed her lower lip as if trying to hold back a smile and brushed her pale hair behind her ears.

"Well," Lancaeriel began, her gray eyes dancing with amusement, "perhaps you will recall that I mentioned once that I had spent some time on this continent, a very long time ago?"

Daeron, Wren and Earendil couldn't remember her saying such a thing, but Iorlas nodded her head slowly. "But only a small area, you said," she pointed out. Suddenly her eyes grew wide. "Wait ... are you saying ..."

Lancaeriel nodded. "Yes. It was my childhood. As soon as I was able, I left for the Four Lands in search of Coriander. I never saw a reason to dispel the assumption that I am Light Elven, but I do carry some White Elven blood in me." She smiled again. "And yet, despite my currently mixed heritage, my magic returned with my memories. An enigma that I to this day do not understand, but for which I am grateful."

Iorlas was shaking her head incredulously. "I knew you were lighter ... paler, whatever ... than the first time we met, but ... I just assumed that was what rebirth could do to a person. It's not like I had any experience with it, after all."

Lancaeriel smiled and nodded. "As I said, I just didn't see a need to bring it up," she said simply. "Though in this case, wondering how Amir's hair is going to grow in, I'm afraid I won't be much help. White Elves and Light Elves already have similar hair colours - there are many Light Elves with hair so light it appears white. So as to how the bloodlines of White Elves and Fire Elves will mix ..." She held up her hands, palm upwards. "I have no idea."

Earendil still wasn't overly hungry, so he didn't order much; and once he, Lin, Wren, Lancaeriel, Iorlas and Daeron had given their orders, the waiter headed back towards the kitchen.

"Is the food here good?" Earendil asked, settling into his chair once again.

Wren smiled. "I-"

She cut herself off as suddenly the ground, the table, the very walls around them began to shake slightly. Dishes rattled on the tables around them, pictures hung on the walls tilted slightly on their hooks, and Amir curled up into a ball and began to whimper quietly.

Unfortunately, there was no one who could answer Miyuki's question. The shaking continued, and a fork fell from one of the other tables, hitting the floor with a ting, and there it continued to rattle.

Then, less than half a minute after it had begun, the shaking stopped just as suddenly as it had begun.

Almost immediately, a young woman emerged from the kitchen area and began righting the displaced items in the dining room.

Earendil glanced at Lin. "Should we ask her what happened?" he asked quietly.

"It would seem so," Iorlas mused. She called out to the young woman in the language of the Fire Elves, and the young woman turned to face the group. They had a brief conversation, and only when Iorlas stopped asking questions did the woman turn back to her work.

"Well?" Daeron asked. He was holding Amir close to him and rubbing his back comfortingly, though the boy had stopped whimpering as soon as the shaking had ceased.

Iorlas glanced at her husband. "Earth tremor," she replied simply. "While they're not exactly common, they're not rare, either. She says usually they're too small to notice, but once every few decades they get one like this, that can cause some slight damage."

"Yes, we can't exactly say that these buildings were built," Earendil mused. "They were carved, if what Kyrie says is correct. I would imagine that would make them very strong."

"Sure does," came a light male voice from the doorway. Earendil looked over his shoulder and saw Shiro and Kaito entering the dining room with Uruloki perched on Shiro's shoulders. Kaito was rubbing one eye, his other hand flattening his white hair.

Shiro grinned at the group. "Andarien's cleaning up his gears, his entire kit fell off the table when the earthquake hit. Uruloki met us at the door on our way here."

"Kyrie sent me," the dragon explained from his perch on Shiro's shoulder. "She and Ahkshi didn't know if any of you had experienced an earth tremor before, and she wanted me to warn all of you about the aftershock."

Shiro pulled up an extra table, adding it to the ones the others were sitting next to so that he and Kaito could sit with them. Uruloki hopped off his shoulder and settled on the newly added table.

"Almost every time there's an earth tremor, there's an aftershock," the dragon explained, curling his tail around his glimmering red body. "It's like an echo of the tremor, weaker but sometimes lasting longer. And we should be expecting it at any moment."

"Hope Andarien's put his box on the floor now," Shiro quipped.

Kaito chuckled softly and rested his head on his arms. "Poor kid. I wouldn't count on him coming out any time soon, he's got to have hundreds of pieces to sort."