Elrond opened the door to his study and ushered Haleth out after giving her a lantern to light her way.

‘You will give serious thought to visiting Lórien,’ said Master Elrond.

‘I can promise that I will give the matter very serious thought,’ said Haleth, not bothering to explain exactly what she would consider.

‘Splendid.  We shall be your escort.’

Haleth froze as Ecthelion stepped out of the shadows.  Glorfindel followed, a little behind.   Her hands knotted into fists. Her eye twitched uncontrollably.  ‘I told you they were listening,’ she told Elrond in a sing-song voice, rocking back on her heels.

‘Yes,’ said Elrond, his jaw tightening.  ‘Haleth, I think it would be best if you went back to your room.  Try to rest.  I will send the sleeping potion presently.’

She stood rigid, glaring at Ecthelion, her eyes aflame with a maniacal brightness.  Elrond was grateful that Glorfindel had had the foresight to take away her weapons.

‘Haleth,’ he said, grasping her shoulder.  She leapt away from him as though she’d been burned.  ‘No harm shall come to you under my roof.  You have my word.  Now go to your room and rest. Try to sleep.’

She shuddered violently, striving to regain a measure self-control.

‘Yes, Master Elrond,’ she mumbled before fleeing up the hallway.  

Ecthelion made to follow.

‘Lord Ecthelion, if I may have a moment of your time, please,’ said Elrond in a voice that would brook no dissent.

‘Of course, Master Elrond.’  Ecthelion spoke gracefully but he was watching Haleth’s retreating back with grave concern.  He exchanged a quick glance with Glorfindel.

‘And you as well, Lord of the House of the Golden Flower,’ said Elrond.

Haleth barely heard the door close behind her.  She stopped, struggling with temptation to eavesdrop while Elrond royally dressed down her two valiant protectors. She had never seen Elrond Half-Elven so angry.  His expression of barely contained fury had allowed her to regain self-control.  They couldn’t both be angry and Elrond’s ire was for more effective than hers.

She forced herself to walk slowly to not draw too much attention to herself and considered the latest complication.  Lórien sounded perfectly awful.  She was already bored out of her senses.  Lórien was sure to bore the remaining fragments of her mind to death.  She could picture herself sitting under a tree, staring straight ahead and drooling for all the rest of eternity.  Hopefully some kind soul would be there to occasionally mop her up.

No.  She wouldn’t go.  She couldn’t!  But how would she get away? There was no hope of eluding the watchfulness of Ecthelion and Glorfindel.

Except that both of them were currently occupied with Master Elrond.  She had been given a limited time opportunity to escape; she had to make the best of it.

She reached the door to the garden. A fine mist hung in the air, blanketing the familiar landscape.  The damp weather allowed her to sprint across the garden; everyone would be indoors. 

Heart pounding, she closed the door to her room.  She located her travelling clothes and the pack she had kept prepared.  Throwing her new shoes under the bed, she retrieved her moth-eaten boots. 

She felt a brief pang of guilt for abusing Master Elrond’s hospitality.  With a muttered curse she pulled an ornate candlestick that she had taken from his dining room out of her pack and left it in the centre of her bed as a silent apology. 

Elrond couldn’t have that much to say to Ecthelion and Glorfindel.  If she was going to escape, she had to go now.  Taking a deep breath, she left the room without a backwards glance.

The hallway was empty.  She passed along like a ghost, the old habit of stealth returning.  With a great deal of luck she managed to get out of Elrond’s garden without being noticed. 

Now she stood at the trail she and Inglor had followed when they have first come to Elrond’s new home and wondered which way she should go.  Tol Eressëa was a small island; there was nowhere to hide.  Returning to the mainland was just as bad.  There was more land but she would have to pass directly by Tirion.  A squirrel could not move in the vicinity of Túna without the elves of Tirion being aware of it.  She would be stopped and dragged off to Lórien before her eye could twitch.

There was one place she could go.  A place beyond the Blessed Realm where no Elf would dare set foot.  A place that she had believed gone forever until she had caught a glimpse in the eastern sea.  A place that haunted her dreams.

‘I’m going home,’ she muttered.  She raced into the east.

Her ears strained for the smallest sound of pursuit. The only audible noise was the patter of the raindrops upon the leaves.  Not that she would ever hear the light footed elves until they were directly upon her. She glanced over her shoulder.  There was nothing but the silver ribbon of the road and the dark trees behind her.  Her mood lifted. She might get away after all.  She would need to find a place to hide before dawn broke, but that wasn’t for a few hours yet.

Heartened, she turned forward.

Someone very familiar was standing directly in her path.

‘Haleth, where are you going?’ Inglor asked.

Haleth skidded to a halt, gaping at him in disbelief. She almost slapped him. ‘What do you care where I’m going!’

‘For a walk,’ she said shrilly.  ‘There’s no crime in going for a walk is there? You certainly come and go as you please without the courtesy of informing anyone.’

‘No,’ Inglor said slowly.  ‘But you do seem to have covered quite a distance from Master Elrond’s home and I cannot help but notice that you are heading directly eastward.’

‘I didn’t realize it was forbidden to walk eastward,’ she countered, dodging around him.  ‘One would think the western coast of Valinor would be getting rather crowded by now.’

‘Haleth, every time you walk eastward it ends with a stolen ship. Where are you going?’

Home!  She almost said it, nearly screamed it.  Her entire being yearned for home with an ache she had not believed possible.  But if she admitted her destination to Inglor, she was sure to be packed off to Lórien. She needed a lie; an explanation that did not sound insane.

‘I’m going to search for Idril and Tuor,’ she blurted out defiantly. 

‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Inglor. 

Belatedly Haleth realized that the lie was only a fraction less crazy than the truth.

‘I said I’m going to search for Idril and Tuor.  They might be somewhere on the Enchanted Isles.’ 

‘Haleth, they sailed west thousands of years ago. For all that Tuor was very skilled as a sailor, the ocean is very large,’ he said gently.

‘Think of how happy Anairë would be to see Idril,’ Haleth countered.  ‘And it would give Ecthelion and Glorfindel someone else to guard,’  she added darkly.

‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Inglor in his familiar tone of calm puzzlement.

Haleth’s breath caught in her throat. 

‘Is something wrong, Haleth?’ he asked solicitously.

‘No.  Well, yes, but I’ve missed you, Inglor.’

He smiled sadly.  It tore at Haleth’s heart.

‘You did?’ he asked.

‘Of course I did!’

‘You told me to go away,’ he said.

‘But you didn’t give me the chance to tell you to come back,’ she countered.

His expression became more befuddled.  ‘But if I was gone, how can you tell me to return?’

‘Exactly!’

Inglor shook his head.  ‘You mentioned Ecthelion and Glorfindel?’

‘Oh.  Them,’ said Haleth sourly.  Leave it to Inglor to ruin a special moment.  ‘They’ve appointed themselves as my protectors.’

‘They have?’ he asked. 

Haleth pulled up short and examined him.  His expression was as calm as ever but his eyes glinted. 

‘Yes, they have,’ she said.

‘And what is your opinion of this?’

Haleth’s eye twitched violently.

‘I see,’ he said with the barest hint of a smile.

‘Speaking of which, we should hurry,’ she said, looking over her shoulder.  ‘They’ve probably found my trail by now.’

‘Your trail?’

‘I left Master Elrond’s home without announcing my departure,’ she explained.

‘Haleth, what have you done?’ he asked.

‘Nothing!’  She clamped her hand over her mouth, silently cursing herself for being so loud. ‘Not this time.’

‘Then why did you leave?’

Haleth’s heart pounded in her ears.  Inglor was an elf.  Given the way she had treated him, he would likely agree with the others.  He was directly beside her.  She couldn’t outrun him and she couldn’t evade him. 

But he was her friend.  Maybe she could count on that.  Maybe.  It wasn’t as though she had a choice.

‘They want to send me to Lórien,’ she said tightly.  How would he respond? Would he agree with the others?  Maybe he would bring her there himself.  The silence stretched to an eternity as they walked through the soft rain.

‘I see,’ he said quietly.  ‘And do you wish to go?’

‘No.’ The reply sounded more sullen than defiant.

‘Very well. Haleth, will you take my hand?’ asked Inglor, extending his hand to her.

‘Why?’ she asked.  He was intending to drag her to Lórien himself.

‘Because it is a lovely night and I am most happy to see you again.’

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, her voice heavy with suspicion.

‘East, of course,’ he said with a smile.

‘Or would you rather wait until the others caught up with us?’ he asked when she did not move.

That was enough for Haleth.  She took his hand.  They continued eastward, moving through the mist. 

‘I would ask you to reconsider. The seas surrounding the Enchanted Isles are dangerous waters.’

‘What?’ asked Haleth, who had completely forgotten their previous conversation.

‘You are intending to look for Idril and Tuor, are you not?’ he asked.

‘Yes.  Yes.  Of course,’ she said with more confidence than she felt.

‘Then you must take care.  The weather is uncertain and the sea has many currents and reefs.  The islands have never been properly mapped.’

‘Even better; I shall map them as I search,’ she said, warming to the topic. It was very pleasant to be holding Inglor’s hand.  Why had they never held hands in Middle-earth?  

‘You will run out of supplies long before you reach all of the islands,’ he said.

‘Then I will go out so far, searching and mapping as I go, and return to Tol Eressëa before I run out of fresh water and food.  When I go out again I will not spend as much time on the islands I have already searched.  That way I can go further.  Eventually I will have searched them all, north and south,’ she said.  The mist gathered around them.  Inglor’s grip on her hand tightened. 

‘But the islands are still enchanted,’ he said. 

‘How so?’ asked a very distracted Haleth. She was quite disoriented in the thick fog.  Distant thunder rattled over their heads.

‘If anyone as much as sets foot on one they will fall into a deep, deep sleep.’

Haleth frowned and tapped her finger against her lips. Compared to an eternity of forced inactivity in Lórien, sleeping until the end of Arda didn’t seem so bad.  ‘That is fortunate because they would be near the shore.  I won’t need to explore every inch of every island, just the coasts.  It will speed up the search immensely.’

‘I’m sure I could get supplies from Master Elrond.  They’re his grandparents, after all.’

‘Haleth.’

‘I’ll still need a ship, though,’ she sailed on without acknowledging him. ‘Borrowing one no longer seems to be an option.’

‘Haleth!’

‘Yes, Inglor?’ she smiled innocently.

‘You may use my ship,’ he said.

‘Thank-you, Inglor!’ she cried, throwing her arms around him and kissing him on the cheek.

‘Let me finish!’ he said. ‘You may use my ship only under two conditions.’

‘And what are those?’ she asked, instantly suspicious.

‘That I shall accompany you,’ he said.

‘Very well, if you are set upon it, but only you,’ she said, this would delay her going home, but eventually she would get away without him.  ‘And what is the second condition?’

‘That you tell me,’ he began then stopped.

‘That I tell you what?’ she asked.  He wasn’t going to tell her where he’d been.  He never offered any information.  She could play the game as well.

He searched her eyes for a long, long moment.  Again Haleth wondered what he was hoping to find there. 

‘That you tell me in which direction we shall seek first; north or south,’ he finally said.