faemused | Open To Anyone For Anything RP Post 2

Her smirk is sharp, not reaching her eyes. "It could be a good thing, or it could not."

The smirk vanishes the next breath and Canien stares steadily at Haleth. "You have probably guessed part of my parentage. And part of why I am cautious. I have no desire to lay doom upon any but the Enemy or his minions."

...But there's a gentle breeze that brushes over her and a touch to her mind that has her pause. Then snorts softly and shakes her head, stepping swiftly to fall back in line with Haleth.

"...It feels like I may speak plainly. When I say I have been brought here from afar, I should say I have been brought backwards in the natural flow of time. And I should add that I get the sense that what I know to have happened in my past, have not happened here."

And now to wait and see if her mother believes her. Or not.

Haleth's mouth thins a little. "You are daughter to Caranthir, then." It is not a question. Canien's mannerisms are identical, despite the difference in her face, the mixed lineage and female features. The smile is the same, the eyes. The resemblance is unmistakable, too much so for her to be anything but closest kin.

Well. It was part of Haleth's wish that Caranthir not be bound to her beyond her death, which would be mortal and long before his own; it is why she never lay with him. It is not that he did eventually find another love that rankles. It is that he loved another human.

Mixed feelings and confusion, all the things she dislikes, and Haleth remembers vividly that this is part of why she and Caranthir parted ways to begin with, as much as the Doom that plagues his life, and a host of other reasons. She lifts her head, gathering pride around her. Even if Canien is the elf lord's daughter, she is not at fault for events of the past.

And the rest of her words are an astonishing puzzle indeed, enough to distract even from this unforseen hurt, and Haleth considers them deeply. "Backwards in time," she repeats, then shakes her head. "I have never heard or even thought of such a thing, and it would seem impossible, except that if you are truly the lord Caranthir's daughter I have reason to believe you." Given Canien's apparent age she cannot have been born before Haleth met Caranthir, or else Haleth is no judge of Men or Elves.

"Thankfully it is only obvious to those who know him well. I can pass as Avari more often than not."

But she can tell Haleth is upset over something, likely revolving around her. Which means... She lowers her voice, tone thoughtful but earnest. "My father has only loved one person, outside family by blood.

"I have not heard of another travelling through time either, and yet I am here." Whether it's for her own sake, or someone else's, she doesn't know.

...But it's a relief that Haleth does seem to believe her, despite how strange her story is.

Haleth stops dead in her tracks, and turns to state at Canien even more closely, for several minutes.

"You are dancing around the subject," she says finally. "Speak more directly."

Canien stops as well, meeting Haleth's stare with all the composure she has ever had.

This demand also doesn't surprise her, only, perhaps, how long it took.

"You are my mother." Direct enough?

Direct enough. Haleth's gaze neither falters nor wavers. Yes, that slope of the jaw is the same, the color of her hair--darker than that of most of the Haladin, brown rather than blonde, and not the black midnight of Caranthir's. Caranthir's dark eyes, however, and his quirks of eyebrow and lip. The ears in a gentler point.

The tilt of the head, the unthinking pride and stubbornness in her stance--that is all a match for Haleth's own, she knows.

"So," she says finally, looking away back towards the wood she carries and the faintly beaten path they walk back towards the Haladin's village. "Abide. I must think on this."

She says no more on the walk back to the village, her brows deeply furrowed, her steps a little slower than they were. When Haleth says I must think on this, which she often does, the subject is closed until she chooses to reopen it.

She simply stands patiently still, letting Haleth look as long as she needs. And when her mother announces she needs to think, she merely inclines her head in acceptance and falls back instep with her to the village.

"If you wish, I can set up camp at the outskirts instead of imposing upon someone."

She won't bring it up until Haleth decides what to do next.

"That is unnecessary."

Brusque, but Haleth is like that when she is thinking. She walks directly to her own house, set a little ways back from the Hall--she could have had her quarters installed there, and some would prefer it so, but the Hall is yet unfinished and Haleth has found she prefers her smaller, private space. It is unlikely she will move, unless need demands it, and that is unlikely. In the Hall and the village as a whole she is Chief. In her own house she is Haleth, and whatever mystery this girl has brought with her seems to involve Haleth at least as much as the Chieftain, if not more. If not wholly.

Haleth deposits her wood in a neat stack next to the front door and gestures that Cainen should enter with her own armful and place it on the fire. The house is more one large room than a house, with a second smaller room for supplies. It does not seem befitting of a Chieftain, but they have not lived here long, and Haleth does not care much for luxury.

There are a few signs of luxury all the same, particularly in any fabric on display. That is all beautifully made, with intricate stitching and rich colors, in a style that will be entirely familiar to Canien. There are numerous furs. There is a table and chairs, which Haleth nods towards. "Sit. I will make our meal, and you will tell me your history. I would hear all of it that you will tell."

She takes a seat herself and begins chopping vegetables and herbs with a small, sharp knife, all her motions practiced and precise, but her attention is clearly on Canien as much as her own activity.

It was an out that she hadn't expected to be taken. That's never been their way.

Canien doesn't hesitate in following, her confidence giving further proof that she knows this village and where at least Haleth lives within the borders. What does surprise her a little is how new everything is.

The fabric on display has her feel a bit more at ease, even if it has her miss her father all over again. The order has her obey, after setting her stack of wood down on the fire and building it up, and her pack down beside the table. She pulls out a well-used tool (among others) that Haleth might recognize as having belonged to Caranthir, and what will be a new bow-string once it's done, and sets to work.

"I was born here, Father would spend the winters with us when his people didn't need his constant presence." That much she feels she can tell. Then she verbally sketches out how she'd learned to work with her hands. How to run, the races Caranthir would challenge her to, and hunt. How to cook and keep a household.

How he called her his jewel, with a soft smile of memory on her lips.

She talks about how she eventually went and fought beside her father, leaving off the fact it was after her mother's death (but implying it), until they both knew she had to leave. How he'd given her suggestions of where to go. How she'd not claimed any parent once she'd left the Haladin and people believed her Avari and left it at that.

She speaks very briefly over learning various useful skills from elf lords like Cirdan, how she had eventually kept herself apart but would step in to kill orcs or other foul creatures. Then the faint smile is back as she mentions meeting other half-elves.

"I promised Father to take care of myself and to live well. I hadn't expected to be reminded just how to do so by someone so different as Elladan and Elrohir."

Haleth listens as she works. Her hands are kept busy, and she rarely looks up from what she does, but that is entirely usual for her; there is no question that Canien has her attention. The truth of the story she hears is evidenced in a myriad of small details: Canien's familiarity with the village, with Haleth's own possessions, with personal details no one else could know about Haleth herself. Haleth hears how Canien was taught, how she grew, her independence, her skills.

How she was loved. By both her parents.

If it is difficult to hear, if Haleth is conflicted, there are only small indicators to suggest it: a certain tension in the back of her neck, fickers of her eyelids in reaction to certain small things, particularly wherever Caranthir is mentioned. But the questions she asks are, for now, questions of Canien herself, and not about either of her parents or their history.

By the time other half-elves have been brought into the story, Haleth is seated by the fire, stirring a hearty stew. The smell of it fills the room. "Had you been failing in your promise until that point, then?" She pulls out a ladelful, blows on it, tastes it, considers, and reaches for a small jar of herbs nearby, adding a few careful pinches. "How did they remind you? And what is the history of these other half-elves?"

She's missed the smells of her mother's cooking. She knows the stew will be delicious.

She sees those tells, but doesn't hold back in what details she gives. That too isn't their way, and Haleth wouldn't thank her for it.

Canien tilts her head slightly, considering the question as she makes one last practiced motion along the bow string before coiling it up and putting it away. "No. I was in no danger of Fading, then or now. I was welcomed at the hearth of many, and made myself useful in the battle against the Enemy.

"But there was less joy in the doing until I met those two. They are full of life and laughter, teasing every inch of both from all they do. And they are capable warriors, though their hunting skills left some to desire." There's a slight smirk at the last though.

"They are descended from Luthien, and Galadriel."

Haleth has never been wished to be spared pain, nor uncomfortable knowledge. How can she make good choices unless she knows all, both good and ill? How can she lead her people well if she shies from what might be upsetting? It would be foolishness, and she is never foolish.

Still, it is a relief when talk moves from less immediately personal matters. "I have heard of both," she says. "Luthien is said to be the most beautiful maid ever to walk on Arda. But I had not heard she was wed. Much less to a mortal man." Food for thought, clearly. She gives Canien another long, thoughtful stare. "That must be a story in its own right. But speak more of these twins you have befriended."

Not easily, though Canien knows Haleth would try anyway.

"It is probable that she is yet to marry. I speak something of her future." And she has to trust her mother will say nothing of it, even should she come across someone who might think to change it.

"I taught them of woodcraft just as I learned, and they taught me to laugh and play again." And...here she almost turns shy. Almost. She meets Haleth's stare as she reaches to her neck, pulling out the thong that she'd put her wedding ring on when she'd first arrived in this time.

"One of them is more than just a friend. Elladan is my husband."

Haleth considers herself entirely unlikely to meet with the lady Luthien, but even if she does, she would say nothing of this. What could be said? Things that are yet to be are yet to be, and Canien herself has said that things happened differently in her own world.

Evidently so, as here Haleth has no daughter. Yet here Canien is, and Haleth believes this impossible tale. If she did not, she would have ceased to listen long before.

There is another flicker in her expression as Canien mentions re-learning laughter and playfulness, and Haleth's eyes widen as the wedding ring is revealed. Her brows narrow, and she looks up at Canien's face, then back down to the ring. Is my husband, Canien said, not was. Presumably still alive, and back in the world left behind, the world where things happened differently. Haleth frowns. "And now you are separated from him. Does this concern you? Or do you believe the wind will return you, in its time?"

The wind, or whatever else brought Canien here, for this impossible meeting.

It is early yet. Canien can't say how long it took before her parents finally wed and had her. But she knows it's out of her hands, really. Forcing any such thing is a fool's errand, and she is no fool.

Nor does she claim that the years of hiding herself hadn't taken a toll on her. Only that Elladan and his brother helped lift her loneliness to the point of joy. Either way, she holds her husband still in her heart, as the gentle touch to the ring indicates, even as she tucks it safely back away.

"I believe I will see him again in time. Whether it be through walking these paths again until he is born anew, or if I am returned to when I was taken.

"That is one gift that comes with being what I am. The lifespan of the Eldar, just as Elladan has chosen."

"So." Haleth looks back at the stew, contemplating this. She is silent for several minutes.

But in the end, she cannot help asking. "Tell me more of your father," she says, her voice unusually quiet. "Does he yet live, in your world? Or has his Doom finally overtaken him?"

She does not doubt Canien knows of the Oath, and the Doom foretold. If nothing else, Haleth herself would have made certain that knowledge was not kept a secret from one so likely to be directly affected by it. And neither was Caranthir himself ever inclined to keep it secret. They were both of them straightforward to the point of bluntness, she and Caranthir. One reason they dealt so well together, when others found them difficult. A trait they passed on to their daughter.

Their daughter. Haleth's heart aches. "I have no need to know grim details," she adds, a little hastily, her attention still on the stew. "Only his fate, if you know it."

Canien falls silent, giving Haleth the chance to absorb what she's learned and guide what more she wants to know. There is time. And she doesn't know why she's been brought back.

Of course she would want to know that at some point. Canien stays quiet for a moment, thinking over how to tell the tale.

"After you died, and I was sure I wasn't needed to stay, I joined Father's forces as hunter and scout. For some years, the Oath was somewhat calm, but eventually...his brothers called on him to try and get a Silmaril they'd learned the location of. I left when we came in sight of the city. We knew it was time for me to go off on my own."

And she refused to become a kinslayer. She doesn't mention how horrible those last days were. How dark Caranthir's countenance had grown. How much pain he'd been in, except for when she was with him.

Haleth can hear some of what is being left out, and guess at more, and it pains her. She closes her eyes for a moment. "But you, at least, were able to escape it." That is no small thing to Haleth, and she knows how much it would have meant to Caranthir also.

She does not need to ask why Canien did not remain with the Haladin. She knows what she would have chosen had she been granted this future, this daughter, a child with a heritage and fate ever divided in two. The Haladin need a leader who can devote themself entirely to their service and rulership. Haleth knows her nephew Haldan remained heir even after Canien was born. From what she has seen of Canien she suspects the girl is grateful rather than resentful that such was the choice--and knows too how it would have healed her own heart to gift such a freedom to her daughter.

It still does not explain how that daughter was born at all. For Haleth also knows herself to be barren, and has since she was a girl herself, during events that she never told Caranthir the full tale of. And what does her daughter know of those? What could heal such damage? It has never occurred to Haleth to wonder if it could be healed, for such a thing is entirely beyond the abilites of the Secondborn.

But not, it seems, beyond the Firstborn.

Haleth's hand shakes a little as she ladles a bowlful of stew out for her guest. She forces herself to calm, and hands the bowl over with a steady hand before pouring a second for herself. "How old are you?"

"Father and I had an agreement. I would only stay so long as was safe." Feanorion safe, she means. Canien Caranthiriel is no weak woman. But she is also not foolish enough to ignore signs that she should leave.

It's a relief to note that this Haleth hasn't asked why she didn't stay with the Haladin. She hadn't been needed, because Haldan grew to be a good Man, and worthy of leadership.

But she senses there is something else on Haleth's mind. She doesn't ask though, knowing if Haleth didn't want to say, she wouldn't. Instead, she quirks a wry little grin as she accepts the bowl of stew, nodding her thanks.

"It has been a long time since anyone asked." Even Elladan hadn't dared! "It would be easier if you tell me the current year, for I have lived through two Ages of Arda."

Haleth looks stunned for a moment, then chuckles, shaking her head. "It is the year three hundred and seventy-eight, but I withdraw the question; your answer would mean little to me. I should instead perhaps ask when you were born, the better to determine if you are from another world altogether, or simply yet to happen in mine. Though I cannot see how it would be so, for I am unable to bear children."

She leans back against the wall, eyeing Canien thoughtfully. "I would be glad to know the answer to that riddle, if you have knowledge of it."

....Eru she's missed the sound of her mother's laugh and chuckle. She tries to reign in her reaction, and it does fade back into the usual vague ache in the back of her mind where she keeps the memories of everything else she misses.

Her lips quirk again, acknowledging the retraction. And the year. "Five years from now is when I was born." Although...the knowledge that her mother at least believes herself barren is troubling. The grin fades and she considers the matter thoughtfully.

"I am not one of the best Healers, but I could examine you if you wish. See if there is aught to be done."

Canien's reaction, subdued as it is, does not escape Haleth's notice. Foolish, foolish...of course if this story is true, Canien has her own conflicted feelings about this meeting, and Haleth should not overlook those, overwhelmed as she is herself. She does not look overwhelmed, leaning calmly against the wall and eating her stew, but nonetheless her thoughts race.

Her eyes widen at the offer, and she considers carefully. "I will think on it," she says finally. "But for now, I am being an inconsiderate host, demanding answers while giving you no opportunity to question me in return. Is there aught you would know? Ask freely," she adds. "If I do not wish to answer, I will not."

That too has always been Haleth's way. She is ever curious, ever seeking answers, and never objects if others do the same, even if the questions are most personal. There is no offense in wishing to know a thing, though there is also no obligation to answer if the answer is private.

Conflicted, yes. But she's used to working with little to make the best of whatever situation she finds herself in. Even here, in this time. Where she's faced with her long dead mother. She's counting it a blessing though. When else would she have the chance to know her mother again?

She takes a bite of her stew and savors it for a moment, silently accepting Haleth's decision to think about it. And the offer has her somewhat amused.

"The primary question I would ask is one I may yet ask once you have decided whether to accept my offer to examine you or not." Because she would want to know what happened to make Haleth believe herself unable to have children.

"Barring that, what are you willing to tell me about the last time you saw my father?"

Haleth nods; that is a fair question, and she considers for an answer as she eats a few more bites of her stew. "He was furious with me," she says finally, certain that Caranthir's daughter will be familiar with his legendary temper. "It was the first time that had been so, but I do not blame him, for I had angered him excessively. It was not undeliberate on my part. I had decided to take my people and leave for the West, for a number of reasons, all of which he knew."

All of which Canien likely knows also, but Haleth lists them all the same. She blows on her stew, still too hot for her liking. "We were unwilling to be vassals, which would have been needful to appease others of the Firstborn--but that was the smallest part of it. His Oath already pressed him, and also the Doom of the Valar lay on him. He cared nothing for it, and in truth I would not have cared either. But my duty is to the Haladin, and them I would not risk."

Which is to say, without saying, that if it had only been a matter of Haleth and Caranthir, different choices might have been made. But it was never a matter of only Haleth and Caranthir, for she was Chieftain and he Prince, and they both had duties that could not be laid aside.

"He could respect those reasons, at least. But that I used them as a refusal of his suit also he liked not at all." Another few bites. Canien will be able to imagine how it was. Caranthir's temper is hot and black, matching his name; Haleth, even when she is angry, is cool and logical, immovable once she has set her mind on a course. "He still wished to wed me. I judged that a poor idea, living so far apart; husband and wife should share their days, not live separate. And a match between a mortal and an Eldar seemed doomed to end only in misery. He pointed out that such a doom was his predestined fate regardless, and likely that is so. But I refuse to be its instrument."

She sighs a little and shifts position. "Your story makes me wonder if perhaps I was wrong on that point, and on others. But at any rate to infuriate him enough that he would cease pressing me for an agreement I would not give, I told him that if he truly felt his duty to his own people, he would abandon his Princedom, for he could not lead well while bound by his Oath to another course."

A terrible thing to say, the more so because Haleth believes it, as he would have known; she does not speak untruths. Much as she loves and respects Caranthir--and she does, she always did--to her mind a leader must be willing and able to sacrifice all for their people, or else they cannot lead well.

She lifts the bowl to her mouth, scoops in the last few mouthfuls, wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. "So the last time I saw your father, he was storming away from me. I do not doubt he would have returned in a few days when his temper cooled, but by then we had left. Another insult, after his great hospitality to us. I know not if he has forgiven me or not, nor if he knows where my Haladin and I have settled. Likely he does, for Felagund keeps in touch with his kin in far-off lands. But I have had no word from him, and expect none."

And if she grieves that, if she mourns what to her was an unavoidable necessity, it shows only in her eyes. Her voice is as firm and her will as settled as it was the day she left.

Oh yes, the wry twist to her lips confirms she is well aware of her father's temper. She had rarely been on the receiving end of it, and never full force. Canien is silent while she listens, taking the occasional bite of really delicious stew.

She even understands, having witnessed herself some of the heartache. And yet, neither she, nor her father would have changed a thing about her mother. Not even her lifespan, knowing Haleth's own preference, and respecting it.

But knowing her cousin Finrod, she silently agrees that her father would have been told where the Haladin had gone. She doesn't immediately speak after Haleth finishes speaking, thinking it all over while she also finishes her meal. There is no judgement in her eyes.

"I know not if this time intersects with mine own, but if it does, I was not told of this." Not that that would surprise her at all. "Whether it does or not, I think that if you wish him to come to you, all you need do is send word of invitation. He will not intrude again on you otherwise."

All of which Haleth likely suspects, of course.

Open To Anyone For Anything RP Post 2

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She misses her mama ;.;

Sorry sweetheart she loves you really. <3 Seriously this is her dream daughter.

awwww yay!

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okay if we time skip a little soon?

Works for me!

They've probably discussed Elladan a lot more, if Canien was willing. Haleth is very curious.

Canien has no problem talking about him XD

Thought not. =) Does Canien have more questions of her own that she'd ask?

lol She asked the most important one

hauls this muse out of whatever stubborn corner she's been hiding in

Not as stubborn as this one /sobs