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Elf Academy Part Deux  by Fiondil

86: Epilogue

Alex shifted his stance a bit and unbuttoned his coat as he waited in the Bettles’ airport terminal for his clients. He checked to see that his name tag was straight. In one hand he held a placard with the name ‘Hafner’ scrawled on it in large letters. All about him was the bustle of a small airport as people were waiting to board planes to Fairbanks or Barrows, while others were seeing them off or waiting to greet arrivals.

He thought about the last two weeks: the test tour that he had finally taken the Monday after Thanksgiving, being hired by the Rainbow Lake Holiday Resort, his first time as a true Elf Guide. That had been scary, even scarier than the test tour, but he had done well and now acting as an Elf Guide was becoming second nature.

He smiled to himself. Derek had been hired by the Northern Lights Holiday Resort and just the other day, Marty, the resort manager, had called him into the office to offer him a permanent position with them. Derek had been floating ever since. Alex was very happy for his gwador.

“So maybe you’ll get hired as well,” Derek had said but Alex had his doubts. Besides, he was hoping to secure the position in the college’s small language department that was being vacated by one of the instructors who had been offered a job teaching at another college. If he got the job, and he rather thought he would, considering who his sponsors were, he would be teaching beginning French and Italian. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

And in the meantime, he had applied to the university in Fairbanks for their graduate program in Linguistics and had been accepted. Most of his classes would be tele-classrooms via the internet, though he would have to go down to Fairbanks every once in a while to consult with his advisor.

At the same time, he, Derek, Amroth and Valandur were creating a mini-spy agency of their own, as Derek called it. It stood to reason that as matters progressed, they would need to develop their own intelligence network, coordinating with Maddy, who had returned to Washington after he had done his test tour. Three days later, he had received an encrypted email from her stating that all copies of the photos that had brought him to Wiseman in the first place had been destroyed.

“Dolan has no more proof,” the final sentence of her email said and Alex and Amroth had to be content with that.

As for Farrell and the other agents, their trials had been relocated to Fairbanks after Judge Harrison declined to sit on the bench, pleading conflict of interest. Farrell’s trial was set for some time in February, which meant that Alex and Derek and others would have to attend as witnesses called by the prosecuting attorney. Sanderson, true to his word, had found competent lawyers to represent the agents, but had declined to act as a consultant, returning to Seattle, instead, promising to keep in touch with Glorfindel and the other Elves.

So for the moment, Elf Academy was safe and not just from the prying eyes of the Agency. Word had come only the week before that the ACCU had granted the Academy full accreditation. There were many sighs of relief at the news, especially from the students, fearing that, without the accreditation, their certificates would prove worthless. Alex was glad for everyone's sake that that was not the case.

And in another week, his mom would be coming. The day after Finrod’s court, he had called her and they had spent over an hour talking, with him explaining how he was leaving the Agency and was planning on remaining in Alaska.

“And I already have a job,” he told her. “It’s temporary, but it may lead to other things. I have friends here, Mom. For the first time in my life, I have true friends and they’ve been very supportive.” He had declined to tell her just who his friends were or the fact that he and she were related (very distantly) to some of them. It took him a while to convince her to come to Wiseman for Christmas.

“I won’t be able to come home,” he’d said, “because of my job and all, but why don’t you come here and see how I am?”

In the end she had agreed and would be arriving the day before Christmas Eve and staying until after the New Year. Derek informed him a couple days after his conversation with his mom that he had convinced his dad to come up for Christmas as well.

“Maybe they’ll hit it off together,” Derek had said, giving Alex a sly smile, “and then we’ll not only be gwedyr but brothers in truth.”

Alex’s response had been to throw a pillow at him.

He and Derek had already signed a rental lease for a two-bedroom apartment in town. They would be moving in after the New Year. And he had surprised himself at how much he actually enjoyed being an Elf Guide and had said as much to Vorondur at their last session, for he was still seeing the Elf on a professional basis. As Vorondur had pointed out, just because he had resumed the name ‘Alex’ didn’t mean he was entirely cured of the darkness that was in him, but it had been a good first step towards full mental health. Vorondur had assured him that he was integrating Artemus and Alex very well and was pleased by his progress.

“I think once we get past these holidays and you are more settled in your new life, we’ll only have to chat every once in a while,” Vorondur had said and Alex had breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, there were still some things he needed to work through and he recognized that, but he was confident that eventually he would be able to lay Junior and the rest of his past to rest and move forward into the future, a future that included Elves.

He smiled more broadly at that thought. Finrod and the other Valinórean Elves were beginning to settle in. Vorondur and Ercassë, as well as Amroth and Nimrodel, were all ready to move out of Ehdellond, having bought a house together. The closing was scheduled for just after Christmas. Elrohir and Serindë were still looking for their own place but they would not be moving until after the wedding anyway so they had time. Finrod had been approached by Mayor Whitman and asked if he would be willing to sit on the board of trustees for the town, along with Glorfindel and Daeron and he had agreed. Others were finding their own way to contribute their talents. Most of the healers, including the Twins, were now spending a couple of days either working at St. Luke’s or at the college clinic and other Elves were engaged in their own pursuits.

His thoughts centered on Nielluin whose attitude toward Mortals had changed in the past few weeks and she was now planning to take a certificate course in child care at the college after the New Year with the intention of eventually joining one of the local day-care centers as an employee.  

Findalaurë, Calandil and Elennen were also planning to attend classes at the college after the holiday, primarily studying history as well as taking classes in sociology and psychology. They had come a long way since their first arrival in Middle-earth and after consulting with Derek, Finrod, Valandur and Laurendil, it was agreed that the ellyn would be given their swords back at Christmas.

“They earned them for their actions during the kidnapping,” Alex had said, “and I would say, give them back their swords now, but if we wait until Christmas, which is the traditional time of gift-giving, I think it would be more meaningful. We can have an entire ceremony.”

The others had agreed and Valandur and Laurendil had volunteered to devise an appropriate ceremony for the occasion. Alex couldn’t wait to see the expressions on the ellyn’s faces when he and Derek pulled the swords from underneath the Christmas tree that Glorfindel had assured him would be set up.

“We may not actually celebrate Christmas as the Christians do,” he had told them, “but this time of year has always been a time of gift-giving and we’ve continued with that tradition among us.”

Yes, his future was looking very bright, indeed.

“Flight 845 from Fairbanks, now arriving at Gate Two.”

Alex started from his reverie as the PA system crackled with the announcement. He rebuttoned his coat and raised the placard. It took several minutes for the first of the arrivals to reach the gate. None of them paid any attention to Alex but then a family with four children ranging from eight to fifteen came through the door, looking somewhat flustered until they saw Alex holding up the sign. They made a beeline toward him and he lowered the placard, giving them a warm and friendly smile.

“Hi, we’re the Hafners,” the father said somewhat breathlessly.

Alex put his right hand over his heart and gave them a deep bow. “Mae govannen, mellyn nîn. I am Elurín, your Elf Guide from the Rainbow Lake Holiday Resort. Welcome to Alaska.”





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