A/N: So... yeah. It's been a while, hasn't it? Still, I have returned to you! I haven't really had time to write at all these past few months, because I finally started University this year! And, of course, being a Freshman, I've spent a lot of time wandering around and being traumatized. And slightly drunk. But that's beside the point. The point is that I've pretty much had to sell my firstborn child to pay for my classes, so my study hours have risen accordingly. Hence the long wait. I can't say how long it will be until my next update, so enjoy this one now!

Thank you to everyone who's left supportive reviews. Really, it gave me the motivation to keep this story going even though I'm supposed to be writing research papers instead! So a million internet hugs and kisses to Furionknight, StrawberryObsession, Ilovestoriesandfanfic, Gerbilfriend, Forged In Fire and Flame, ssooo, Tigre Blanca, LadyCinnia, mandiecandie, saint21, amaris12345, LittleNK, EverleighBain, Alecta, Qeani, Trich, haha21, Ishi, ShueYun, Raider-K, Mellon, Hannah, Riniel, alice, faye50free, AppleMay, Elizabeth, SleepEatRead, mh21, sarah, Littlebirdd, estjolie, The Happiest, Amun Dae, AppleMay, FollowTheSun22, Ginebra, Hilary, Stormglass, Sarah Ann (I'm going to be seriously weirded out if that's your name. Or if I know you.), Hannah, Feadur, Em, ClimbAPineTree, Wildlifer, Ravenclaw Nyoka, AnarchistMongoose (your name rocks), and Mellon.


An Angel's Heaven: Chapter Seven
Most Painted Word


Being pampered in a relievingly familiar and feminine fashion by the Lady Celebrían and her handmaiden, Gwend, was such a divergence from Anna's experiences in the wilderness over the past days that she strongly suspected that she was suffering from some form of environmental whiplash. When Glorfindel had mentioned that elflings were rare, Anna hadn't anticipated the psychological effect that this would have on the members of the Eldar race.

In all honesty, Celebrían's incessant fawning was one of the more controlled reactions. Everywhere she went, elves double-took at her exposed ears and stared at her with hungry expressions. It was faintly alarming, even if Anna understood what the elves must be feeling.

Still, Anna enjoyed the chance to observe the still-breathtaking sights of Imladris, as well as the day-to-day lives of her new people.

One interesting thing about elves that Anna discovered was that they weren't really overly concerned with nudity. If hot water was needed for bathing, it was very rare for the elves to go to all the trouble of hauling buckets up to fill tubs in personal chambers. Instead, bathhouses had been constructed over the natural hot springs that appeared in the valley. They were segregated by gender of course, for propriety's sake, but this fact didn't mitigate Anna's shock at the revelation that the elves practiced communal bathing. She didn't specifically have a problem with it –after all, none of the ellith had anything she hadn't seen before—but it was still surprising, and not something Anna was used to.

So when Celebrían toted Anna down from the main building and into the bathhouse, Gwend in tow, it was no small group of women who were greeted with the sight of a new elfling. Consequently, there was no small estrogen-drenched reaction. The exclamation of 'By the Valar!' after a prolonged moment of stares gave Anna a serious case of déjà vu.

The fact that each and every one of them –Anna, Celebrían, and Gwend included—were completely starkers… not so much.

The ellith in the bathhouses –six in total—all wanted to meet her. They touched her cheeks and nose and hair and exclaimed over how pretty they thought she was, and how darling she was, and asked incessant questions regarding her lineage and circumstances. Frankly, it was overwhelming and unpleasant. It was surprising to Anna how quickly she fell back into complete silence, but she went back to behaving as she had when she'd first met Glorfindel almost immediately, refusing to speak or tolerate too much closeness (though Anna rather thought that the latter had more to do with the fact that she was slightly uncomfortable with the nudity than anything else).

Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that Glorfindel wasn't there. Anna didn't have someone safe to cling to. She liked Celebrían well enough, but she wasn't her angel, and the new places and people were rather frightening and overwhelming. It made her long for a dark, quiet place to curl up in safety.

Thankfully, the snowy Lady picked up on Anna's distress almost immediately, and politely 'requested' that the other she-elves (aside from Gwend) leave them. They did so without protest, but Anna could feel the weight of their eyes. And honestly, she felt badly for it. None of them had meant any harm. Indeed, they'd been more than eager to coddle her into an absolute coma of happiness, but Anna just wasn't ready to be the center of attention. She didn't know if she'd ever be ready.

To her credit, Celebrían handled her admirably. It was evident from Gwend's reactions to her behavior over the course of the afternoon that Anna didn't behave like a typical elfling. She spoke very little, and when she did speak, she didn't speak like an elfling should. Additionally, she flinched at unexpected touches, and was overly conscious of upsetting either of the grown elves. Indeed, when Gwend had first caught sight of Anna's ear and belly piercings and nearly had a fit, Anna herself had nearly bolted in terror. A stern reprimand from the Lady to both elfling and handmaiden controlled the situation. By the time they'd exited the bathhouse and migrated into Celebrían's personal quarters, Anna was completely convinced that the silver-haired elleth was nothing short of a saint for managing her so well, and with such breathtaking kindness.

Much to her surprise, Anna found that once she'd gotten over her own reservations regarding her company, she rather enjoyed herself. Having a real bath after so many days traipsing around in the wilderness and washing up in the freezing cold river was an absolutely heavenly experience, even if it was communal. Celebrían and Gwend had scrubbed every inch of her into a (quite literally, considering the elvish proclivity towards effervescence) glowing cleanliness with all manner of delightfully floral bath oils. Gwend had even sung a ridiculous little song about washing toes as she did so, which, combined with the ticklish feeling of actually having her toes washed, sent Anna into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. The two ellith had just grinned widely at the sound, causing Anna to feel slightly remorseful about Celebrían sending the others away. The elves suffered a constant dearth of children's laughter, she realized guiltily, and that was an unfortunate thing.

The only moment in which Anna was truly uncomfortable in Celebrían's care (aside from the moment when she'd been gushed over in the bathhouse) came much later in the evening. She'd already been garbed in a puffy little green dress with a white sash, which Celebrían had sent Gwend to fetch after Anna had informed her that green was her favorite color. (The dress had once belonged to her daughter, she'd claimed, though she was all grown up now.) Gwend was brushing Anna's hair into a dark curtain of silk when it happened. Seemingly innocuously, the dinner bell rang.

Immediately, Anna went rigid and the color bled out of her face.

Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.

Now Anna had done as any sane being would have, and had done her utmost to avoid thinking about what she remembered from her own death for as long as possible. Intellectually, she knew that it had happened, but this fact didn't make it any more pleasant to dwell upon. (Anna was convinced that an amalgamation of avoidance and repression was a perfectly acceptable coping mechanism in this situation, thank-you-very-much!) Thankfully, there was very little in this new world that could remind Anna of the scene of her murder.

Except, of course, for the bells. She'd heard bells as she'd died, and she heard them now. They weren't the same bells, of course. Anna knew that. But still…

"Stop!" she'd shouted out without thinking. "What do you think you're doing?"

Bang.

Anna shuddered at the memory, and involuntarily clutched at her remarkably whole chest, fervently glad that she wasn't cold. Not anymore. She was warm, and she was alive.

The incident had alarmed the Lady and her handmaid, but Anna wouldn't tell them what about the bell had caused her to go so suddenly white, and they eventually dropped the subject once Gwend had finished braiding Anna's hair away from her face and Celebrían had claimed hunger. Explaining that the bell had tolled to summon the members of the house to the evening meal, she led Anna out into the hall by the hand, and both had waved goodbye to Gwend as they made their way to the dining hall. Despite her height disadvantage, Anna easily kept pace with Celebrían's impeccable and graceful strides. She was unashamedly eager to return to her angel. Anna was well aware that Celebrían could sense this, as the icy elleth's indulgent smile was very telling; but Anna couldn't bring herself to care.

It felt strange, she decided, to be wearing a dress. Anna liked dresses just as much as the next girl, but she'd never worn them on a regular basis. Such clothing would be expected of her now though, she mused. She hadn't once seen an elleth wearing anything that wasn't feminine in nature. (Except for when she'd seen them wearing nothing at all, though she tried not to think about that too hard.) The shoes that had been provided alongside the dress though, she could get used to. Her riding boots had been comfortable enough, but the little white ballet flats she now wore were slippers, quite frankly. They wouldn't hold up against anything too strenuous, but they were sinfully comfortable, and Anna vowed to one day own a pair of her own for everyday wear. (Because really, she felt like a mooch using Celebrían's daughter's things.) The dress itself was rather annoyingly long, and for that Anna wasn't too keen on it, but it was a very pleasant shade of green, so she decided that she could tolerate it for a time. If nothing else, the fact that the dress was floor-length and very obviously pretty made her feel like a proper princess, and this was something that nearly every female regardless of race liked to feel every once and a while. She could never hope to match the utterly transcendental beauty that was Celebrían, of course, but it was nice to feel pretty, and it was nice to be looked at with the fondness and good humor that Celebrían looked at her with.

Before long, the pair neared the great double doors that lead into the informal dining hall, in which all the members of Elrond's household (this including all the Lords and advisors that made their homes there) took their meals on a day-to-day basis. The formal dining hall was much bigger, Gwend had told her. It opened up to the Hall of Fire, and was used to hold great feasts. The informal hall, however, was warmer in atmosphere and was a place of laughter rather than propriety. As Celebrían pushed the doors open, Anna slipping through the opening provided on the older elf's heels, she couldn't help but agree with the assessment. The hall was a merry place, lit by the orange flush of torchlight. Slender pillars arched into a beautiful vaulted ceiling, and dusky blue drapery hung from the walls. Two long tables were positioned lengthwise across the room, and a single smaller table was positioned at the back, perpendicular to the others. It was to this table that Celebrían led her. Anna followed willingly, sticking closely to her temporary babysitter, as the benches lining the tables were filling with elves and those who were not sitting were standing and socializing merrily amongst themselves. In truth, there were hardly more than thirty elves in the room –not nearly enough to make it crowded—but Anna was taking no chances around so many strangers. Especially since they too were indulging in the thrice-damned staring. Not every elf had taken notice of her presence yet, but those who had were watching her very closely indeed, their dinners forgotten.

By the time that they walked halfway to the head table, Anna pulled herself together enough to identify those sitting there. Lord Elrond sat at the center of the table. An empty chair sat to his right. To his left sat two ellyn that were so alike to Elrond in feature that they could only be close relatives. Moreover, the pair were physically identical to each other. Twins, Anna decided. On their immediate left was an elleth, perched daintily on her chair and regarding the twins with a dazzling smile. She too was dark of hair, and her silver eyes twinkled like starlight. Though Anna thought very highly of Celebrían, the elfling was hard-pressed to decide who was more beautiful of the pair of them. Celebrían was the personification of a winter's day, but this new elleth had a darker, warmer beauty, like the pearly-grey velvet of the sky in the moments before dawn.

Anna spared her little more thought than this though, as she soon spotted Glorfindel, seated placidly on Lord Elrond's right, after the empty chair. He cleaned up nicely, Anna thought fondly. The ellon wore his gleaming golden hair loose from his braids, and he looked to be much more comfortable in a soft white tunic and formal black leggings than he had in his combat gear. His eyes were a little distant, as if he were thinking of something else other than his surroundings, but the elf looked happy to be home. As if by magic, Anna felt her tensed body relax at the sight of him, and she smiled widely, already feeling better.

Without further thought, Anna rushed around Celebrían's shimmering white skirt and ran around behind the table, where the chairs were. A dark-haired elf with rather pinched features was enjoying his meal on Glorfindel's right-hand side, but Anna ignored his presence and tugged on the hem of her angel's white tunic with one tiny hand in a bid for his attention. Immediately, the elf snapped out of his daze and turned to her with a bright smile.

"My Lady Dae!" he greeted her, standing and looking her up and down in exaggerated surprise. "There was an elleth beneath all of that dirt!"

Anna scowled at his teasing, causing him to laugh.

"Ai, sweetling," he chuckled, bending down to her height and speaking quietly. "Do not frown so. You look very pretty. Will you forgive me?" His eyes twinkled. Clearly, he still found amusement at her expense, but Anna could never be angry with him, and nodded her agreement. Seemingly satisfied with himself, Glorfindel then proceeded to unceremoniously lift her from the floor and returned to his chair, sitting her in his lap. Celebrían, who had already taken her seat in the vacant chair between her angel and Lord Elrond, smiled glowingly at her and offered her a bowl of some sort of cream-based soup. Anna happily accepted the offering and set to work on devouring her prize almost immediately while Glorfindel returned to his plate of what appeared to be assorted mushrooms and greens. It was more difficult eating from someone's lap whilst there was a table involved, but they made it work. Anna supposed that Glorfindel could have just called for another chair, but she was glad that he hadn't. Whilst she herself was unsure of Glorfindel's motivations, Anna for her part felt infinitely more comfortable with her angel than she would have felt perched on a chair, seeing as she doubted that she was truly tall enough to use one in conjunction with the rather tall table anyways. That, and she wasn't about to ask the somber-looking elf at Glorfindel's other side to move.

From every direction, elves peered at her curiously. The exceptions were, however, those seated at the head table with her. Not Lord Elrond or Lady Celebrían, nor the Elrond-look-alike twins and the elleth, nor even the pinched-face ellon batted a single eyelash at her presence, and the others in the hall thankfully respected this example and did not approach. In consequence, dinner passed rather quietly. Glorfindel even managed to smuggle her from the hall and back to his chambers before most others had finished eating, thereby avoiding any encounters with well-meaning but insatiably curious elves.

Anna was bedded down on the fluffy couch for the night after refusing Glorfindel's offer of the bed, and provided with explicit instructions not to leave the room, to which Anna only smiled somewhat impishly in reply. She fell into her waking-sleep almost immediately though, listening to the quiet nocturnal sounds of the elven city. Anna didn't wake until sunup the next morning, as Glorfindel walked in through the front door, already dressed and bearing clothes and breakfast, both of which he had intercepted from a chambermaid in the hall. Celebrían had sent another dress, apparently. This was a good thing, as Anna had wrinkled the green one by sleeping in it.

Therefore, one red apple and one pale blue dress stronger, Anna exited the room on Glorfindel's heels, ready to start the day.

"Where are we going?" she asked, yawning and clinging to her angel's large hand for balance. (She wasn't really a morning person.)

"The galleries," he answered back easily. "Lord Elrond has not requested our presence until after the midday meal, and I think you will enjoy it."

And, as always, Glorfindel was right. When he said 'galleries', Anna assumed this to mean a white-walled room hung with scattered paintings. She did not anticipate what she actually found. The word 'galleries' in reality referred to a series of long corridors running lengthwise across Lord Elrond's house. The paintings were large –wall to ceiling—and ran seamlessly through time as a depiction of the history of Aman and Arda. The sheer vibrancy and detail of the artwork was truly astounding, especially considering that the art was potentially thousands of years old, considering how long elves lived. Anna was completely enraptured from the moment Glorfindel led her into the hall.

Anna had never really had problems with focusing, but all of the brightly colored scenes before her had her attention flickering from one point to another like a kid on a sugar high. With a wordless gasp, she dropped Glorfindel's hand and began moving down the hall, head pivoting periscope-like on her neck. Many things were depicted. She recognized elves, men, and even the occasional dwarf amidst the battles and landscapes and frivolities that surrounded her. When she reached a vision of a large city carved of white stone, however, Anna stopped in her tracks.

"A white city…" she observed, looking to her golden-haired escort, who had followed behind her in silence. "Is this Gondolin?"

Glorfindel visibly started. "It is most certainly not," he responded, sounding a little disturbed. "This is Minas Tirith."

Turning back to look at the city –Minas Tirith, she supposed—Anna frowned. She'd never heard of such a place. Then again, she'd never heard of Imladris either. "Oh," she said, slightly disappointed. Though the knowledge she'd been granted upon her arrival was spotty at best and mostly centered around her ancestors, she did know enough that she was aware of the fact that Gondolin was supposed to be a place of peerless majesty. She would have liked to see it, even if it were only in a painting. "Where is this Minas Tirith, then?"

Her angel looked at her askance. "You were raised by Men, have knowledge of the ancient elven dwellings, and yet know nothing of Man's greatest city?"

Anna shrugged, not knowing what to say. "I know next to nothing about Middle Earth," she admitted. "My home is very far from here. What little I do know is of the times before my forefathers separated from their kin."

For a long moment, silence reigned. Anna couldn't tell what Glorfindel was thinking, and to be honest, it concerned her. He seemed inordinately disturbed by her casual mention of Gondolin.

Finally, Glorfindel spoke. "Come," he instructed, turning to walk through the corridor in the opposite direction. "Artwork for and from the First Age is gathered here."

Anna followed without protest, and kept quiet despite the questions burning at her tongue until Glorfindel stopped before a painting of another white city. It was quite different from Minas Tirith, excepting for its coloring, and Anna gazed upon it with a smile, excited to see something that she knew something about, even if it was secondhand knowledge. Gondolin was defined by graceful, arcing towers, and its encircling wall was faintly reminiscent of the encircling mountains that protected it form detection. In the painting, the sun was just rising over the surrounding mountains, and the rosy glow of dawn that filled the valley lit the city in such a way that it gleamed nearly gold.

"It's better than I imagined it," she pronounced, beaming up at her angel, who was regarding the city with an expression that was something akin to longing.

He smiled weakly down at her. "Indeed, the great city of Gondolin was more beautiful than any other elven-dwelling I have yet seen."

Anna's eyes widened. "You've been there?" she asked excitedly. "But I thought that no one ever left!"

Glorfindel frowned. "Gondolin was my home for nigh on four hundred years. Verily, you know little of history, for Gondolin was destroyed by the forces of Morgoth in the year 510 of the First Age."

Anna's jaw dropped. She knew little of Gondolin, but what she did know was that it was a hidden city. None who entered ever left in honor of this edict, so that none would betray Gondolin's location. Morgoth should have never found it in order to destroy it.

Suddenly, she was very aware of why Glorfindel seemed so disturbed at the mention of his ancient home. She knew that if her home was destroyed, she herself would be more than a little traumatized.

A fear touched her heart then. "Menegroth! What of Menegroth?" she pleaded with Glorfindel, who again seemed slightly startled.

"Menegroth was abandoned after the Second Kinslaying, Anna," he answered with exceeding gentility. "It never rose again, and during the War of Wrath, all of Beleriand was sunk into the sea."

Stunned, Anna could only stare at the painting of Gondolin, imagining another city in its place. Menegroth… was the city of her family. Her city. When she'd first arrived in Arda, she couldn't have cared less about it, but now… now she'd never get to see the land of her forefathers. And it made her sad. Doriath was a place that was connected to her by blood, and she mourned its destruction. Anna was proud of her heritage, she realized. She'd never thought deeply about it before, but at that moment, it suddenly dawned upon her that she was descended from some truly remarkable people. In all honesty, she was probably more closely related to them than she first thought. After all, she wasn't the same human woman she'd once been. Clearly there'd been some sort of genetic alteration. A throwback, if you will. Anna had absolutely no idea how many generations separated her from Eluréd on one side of her family and Elurín on the other, but with the change, she supposed that she could safely call them her grandfathers. She wasn't all human, but she wasn't all elf either… and that was okay. She was proud of who she'd once been, just as she was proud of who her 'grandfathers' were. She just wished that she could have seen the great underground city of her people for herself.

Still a little upset, Anna forced herself to take a calming breath and looked up at Glorfindel with sad grey eyes, steeling herself to ask the most important question. "And the people of Doriath?" My people, she silently added. "What happened to them?"

Glorfindel's somewhat puzzled gaze was analytical and penetrating. He was clearly attempting to determine what Doriath meant to her and why, but the pursed line of his mouth softened a bit at her obvious concern. "Those that survived the Kinslaying rallied behind Oropher and joined with our Silvan kin in the Greenwood," he explained. "Thranduil, the son of Oropher, is the king of Greenwood now, and has been ever since his father was slain."

Anna closed her eyes and exhaled, honestly relieved. She was glad that at least some of her people had survived and found a new home, as well as a new king. She didn't know anything about Oropher or his son, Thranduil, but she supposed that it would take a good leader to gather the elves of Doriath and form an entirely new kingdom for them to make their homes in, simultaneously uniting them with the Silvan elves. For this feat, she respected Oropher, and she hoped that Thranduil had been raised to be at least somewhat like him.

"I am glad," she said simply, and Glorfindel nodded. After that, she perused the galleries in silence, sticking closely to events of the First Age and before so that she wouldn't feel the need to ask questions. Her angel seemed to accept this well enough, but Anna felt his sharp and contemplative eyes upon her whenever he thought she wasn't looking. She was no normal elfling. He'd known that for a long time, but for some reason unbeknownst to Anna had avoided confronting her with it. This wasn't an arrangement that would last forever though, and she strongly suspected that the only reason that he wasn't grilling her for answers was the fact that Lord Elrond would probably be doing that later.

This prediction proved to be entirely correct.

Anna and Glorfindel took a quiet lunch in the manor's kitchens. Glorfindel left early, claiming that he had an errand to run, and left her in the care of Gwend, who took Anna to 'play' in one of the many gardens for an hour (She simply sat herself beneath a tree and let her thoughts wander, while Gwend sat on a nearby bench with some embroidery.) before escorting her back to Lord Elrond's study. Both the Lord Elrond and Glorfindel were waiting for her, their expressions uncharacteristically stern.

Anna really couldn't blame Gwend for excusing herself as soon as physically possible.

"Good morning, young Anna," Lord Elrond greeted her smoothly from behind his desk the moment her temporary minder departed. "I trust you are feeling well?"

Anna nodded shyly. "Yes sir," she answered, climbing into the chair that had been set out next to Glorfindel's, so that both she and her angel were facing the Lord of Imladris.

Elrond nodded. "Very good," he said to himself, before fixing her in his serene silver gaze. "There are a few things that I wish to discuss with you before we even begin to consider your placement here. Are you amenable to this?"

Cautiously, Anna tilted her head to one side and considered the elf. She trusted him, she decided. It wasn't an intellectual ruling, seeing as she'd only really met the man the once, but she still couldn't shake that feeling of connection with him. It was this that prompted her to throw caution to the wind and put faith in him. "Of course," she ceded after a long moment, blinking languidly in an effort to conceal how nervous it made her to trust a near stranger.

A small smile tugged at Lord Elrond's mouth before disappearing again. "My thanks," he hummed graciously, before tilting his own head and mimicking her contemplative motion. From the corner of her eye, Anna saw Glorfindel grin between them briefly as they became mirror images of one another, but Anna dared not look away from the dark-haired ellon. "You are an unusual elfling," he observed.

Anna blinked. Was that a question? She certainly wasn't going to argue with him. Unwilling to speak unless asked to, Anna remained silent.

"Lord Glorfindel tells me that you are quite interested in Doriath," he continued. "Will you tell me why?"

Anna nearly smiled, but controlled herself at the last minute. Lord Elrond was a smart elf. He was learning to ask the right questions. "My family came from Menegroth," she explained. "I wished to know what became of it."

Lord Elrond's eyes sparkled with excitement, quite at odds with the neutral expression on his fair face. "Your family fled in the wake of the Second Kinslaying," he concluded.

Anna dipped her head in acknowledgement.

"Where did they flee to?" This question came from Glorfindel.

A pause. "Terra," Anna finally stated.

Both grown elves frowned. "I have not heard tell of such a place," Glorfindel muttered. Anna wasn't sure that this sentence was intended for her, Lord Elrond, or for no one at all. Regardless, she supposed she should react to it.

"You would not have," she murmured, as quiet as Glorfindel had been, which was still quite audible given elvish super-hearing. "It is very far away."

"If this is the case, how did you come to be here?" Lord Elrond questioned with a single raised eyebrow.

At this, Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I don't know, sir," she whispered, wringing her hands in her lap. Gods above, she was a terrible liar! She felt awful about it. Really, she did, but she had absolutely no interest in getting herself wrapped up in a straight jacket and locked up in a 'guest room' with bars on the windows. No interest at all.

For a few long, agonizing moments, both of the older elves merely stared at her shrewdly.

"My wife tells me that you were greatly distressed by the dinner bell," Lord Elrond said suddenly, causing Anna to cringe. "Will you tell me why, little gift?" Apparently, Glorfindel hadn't yet heard this bit of information, as his eyes widened and his gaze sharpened upon her as Anna tried her best to melt into her seat.

It wasn't working.

"Why do you call me that?" Anna blurted in mixture of genuine curiosity and desperation to redirect the conversation. "Only one person's ever called me 'little gift' before."

The single raised eyebrow made a reappearance, and Anna knew that Elrond hadn't been fooled by her ploy. He apparently decided to humor her, however, and spoke swiftly. "That is your name, is it not?" he pointed out. "Anna means 'gift' in Quenya."

Despite her best efforts, Anna couldn't stop a flicker of amusement from crossing her face. A gift. That is what she had received from the Valar with her new life in Arda, and it is what they intended for her to be to the Noldor. It was fitting, in an extremely poetic sort of way. And to think that she was actually relatively normal before she'd died!

Her thoughts were broken into, however, by the expression of dawning realization that was slowly crawling across Glorfindel's beautiful face, even as his eyes swam with thoughts working at lightning speed. He'd gone pale, and was shaking his head ever so minutely as if remembering a traumatic experience. Anna knew that look. She'd seen it on her recovering patients often enough, and it was decidedly awful to see Glorfindel look like that. "The blood... Dear Valar, she's only a child," he breathed, definitely to himself this time.

"Glorfindel?" Anna spoke hesitantly, rather alarmed by Glorfindel's obvious distress. She wasn't unaccustomed to staring, having been in Imladris for a full day now, but he was staring at her with pity and horror, and she didn't like it.

The golden-haired elf stared at her, glanced at Lord Elrond (who gave him a significant look) and then back to Anna again. "Anna…" He trailed off, as if unsure of how to address the subject that was so obviously plaguing his conscience. "Do you recall that I lived in Gondolin until the city was destroyed?"

Unsure how exactly their earlier conversation regarding the white city was relevant to the current one, Anna nevertheless nodded. She did indeed remember.

Glorfindel sighed lightly, having pulled himself back together. Still, he looked disconcertingly solemn. "What you do not yet know about the day Gondolin fell is that the attack that eventually destroyed the city… I did not survive it."

For the second time that day, Anna was stunned speechless. This surprise though, was so much worse. It felt as if her stomach had bottomed out, and that she'd lost all sensation in her extremities. Frankly, she wanted to throw up. Anna had long since accepted that she had died, and had been subsequently resurrected. It wasn't as if she could possibly refute that fact, no matter how impossible it seemed. It had honestly never occurred to her, however, that the Valar she had (sort of) met would bring anyone else back to life which, now that she thought about it, seemed awfully stupid –not to mention arrogant and presumptuous—of her. Yes, she was special, but she wasn't that special. Not by a long shot. It made sense that others would have experienced something similar to what she had, and it appeared that Glorfindel was one of said others. She was learning quite a bit about her angel today, it seemed. She knew now why Glorfindel had reacted as he did when Lord Elrond had mentioned her fear of the bell. He had most likely had the same fear, once. Anna didn't know whether to feel happy that there was at least one person who could understand what she'd been through, or devastated to know that Glorfindel had suffered. Death is an unpleasant thing and it leaves scars upon the soul, even when the body is restored.

And she had deliberately lied to him. To Glorfindel, who was as much Anna's angel as she was the boy's that she'd saved. Her eyes widened, horrified at the realization. She was a terrible person.

Struggling to keep herself calm, Anna promptly pulled her knees up into her chest and buried her face into them. Her own guilt was crushing her ribcage like an evil rubber band. "I am sorry," she pleaded. "I am sorry that I lied. I was so afraid that if I told you that—" Here, the speech that had begun pouring from her like an unstoppable tide was punctuated by an unhappy inhalation of air. "—that you would call me a liar. That you would hate me. When I woke up again I was so alone and cold and I didn't want to be alone again." At this point, Anna's babbling had stopped making sense even to her, and clenched her jaw shut, opting to quit while the situation was still salvageable.

Both Glorfindel and Lord Elrond displayed stellar patience, and they didn't seem too upset that it took several minutes for Anna to gather enough courage to look up at them again. Her angel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but otherwise let her work herself out of her own panic and relax on her own, for which she was grateful.

"We are not angry with you, sweetling," Glorfindel told her quietly.

"Then perhaps you should be," she returned somewhat petulantly, voice muffled where her face was once again pressed into the fabric of her dress.

From across the desk, Lord Elrond made a disapproving noise. "Nay, child," he retorted. "You meant no harm, and no harm was suffered." His face softened. "You are not obligated to answer immediately, but Lord Glorfindel and myself would very much like to hear your story, young Anna. If you wish, the subject may be addressed another day."

Anna shook her head. "I want to tell you now," she insisted, sitting up straight again and nibbling at her lower lip. She figured that it would hurt less if she just got it over with quickly. Like pulling off a band-aid.

"I didn't die a… natural death," she began tentatively, wary of how Glorfindel cringed at these words and trying to ignore how reliving these events distressed her. She ended up squeezing her eyes shut as she spoke. It was easier that way. "I was training to be a doctor. A… healer." Lord Elrond raised an eyebrow at that, but Anna ignored him. "I got called out to treat injuries quite frequently, but this time, I heard something in an alleyway nearby. I thought that someone was hurt, but what I found was a man accosting a woman and her child, and when I cried out…" She trailed off and shot her two listeners a piteous look, not wanting to truly say the words. Thankfully, Lord Elrond had the presence of mind to nod his approval of her editing, and she continued more easily thenceforth. "After I… died, I met someone. On a beach between two infinities. He looked like the little boy whose death I prevented with my own, but he wasn't. He told me many things. I wasn't lying when I said I've never seen an elf before, and was raised by Men. The boy told me who my ancestors were, and… showed me the history of Aman and Arda as it was before they left. Then he told me that, if I agreed to it, I would be re-embodied in Arda, because I am the last of both lines, and it was time for my blood to return here. He said…" Anna stopped, and glanced up at Glorfindel and Lord Elrond cautiously, afraid of offending them.

"Yes?" the dark-haired ellon prompted.

Anna moistened her suddenly dry lips. "He said… he said that my return wasn't just a second chance for me," she stammered, suddenly very aware that she was in the presence of two apparent Noldor. "He said that I was a second chance for the Noldor; to atone for what the sons of Fëanor had done and enjoy that which was taken from the elven race through their actions."

The two grown elves sucked in sharp breaths at this revelation. For several heartbeats, the knowledge hung dead and heavy in the air that was pierced only by their eyes. Anna watched the play of emotions over their faces with interest. They were surprised, pained, happy, and more than a little bewildered. Well, that and Glorfindel was probably surprised to hear her speak the most she had at one time since arriving in Arda. It was Lord Elrond's features, however, that glimmered with an oncoming epiphany, like a child with a nearly-completed puzzle that was missing only a few more pieces. It gave Anna a strange echo of the feeling she'd had when she'd first encountered him, and she watched him expectantly.

"Anna," he said softly. From the way his mouth twisted as he spoke her name, the elfling knew that he too was aware of how apropos it was to the situation. "You mentioned that you were the last of the bloodline. Who were the elves from whom you descended?"

Anna blinked. "Their names were Eluréd and Elurín."

Glorfindel visibly started at this bit of information, but Lord Elrond just looked smug, his puzzle solved. "Greetings, Cousin," he practically purred.

Anna's lips parted in shock, and the only coherent sentence she seemed capable of forming in that moment was a stuttered, ever so eloquent, "Oh."


A/N: And there you have it, folks! By the way, if any of you caught the Hamlet reference in this chapter's title (It was just too apropos to Anna's attempts at lying!) you rock my nerdy little world. :D