Nimuviel’s Diary: Page 10

Iavas day 13, I Randír Îdh The weather has cooled somewhat, though the rays of the afternoon sun are still warm to my skin. I have been here for over two weeks and am starting to feel as if my life has never been any different, the memories of home and Lin Giliath already a distant past. Liwurien has left me with a few scrolls of music to practise when I have the time, though in truth I think that even she could see that my fingers are red and aching all the time with the strings of the lute. I do make good progress, or so she tells me. All members of the company are properly rested now and I can tell that some of them have become restless to be on the road again. In a few days there will be a banquet in the garden of the Wanderer’s Rest, and after that I think most will set out again, although they will not tell me whence they travel. Aldalin will stay in the halls, she tells me that she rarely leave them these days, and Liwurien and Serathuil and Nathoruil as well. But Gildin and Ashareth and Llerieth are eager to be on the road. The maiden has had all her weapons sharpened and her shield is polished so well I could use it as a mirror. Others come and go, too. Some members of the house of Celandine have called in and they seem strong and proud, in the best possible sense: an archer, a swordsman, a healer and a warden, but they, too, are of a mind to set out again on the road. When I catch Aldalin in a private moment – if ever I do, she seems to busy with her letters and all her visitors all the time – I shall ask her if I may stay and help their cause. All these elves seem such strong and generous people, and so skilled in so many ways. I admire them all greatly and desire to be with them, and to be like them, and learn the things that they know, and want to talk of the same things that they speak of. I know that they discuss things when they think I minding my own business in the next room, and it has, at times infuriated me that they think I am too young, too naïve and too innocent to listen to such stories as they have to tell and to converse with them on the same level and about the same subjects. Yet I realise that my eyes have not seem what theirs have, and that my hands cannot produce such greatness of skill as do theirs. I shall await my time, then, and speak with Aldalin when I may, and ask her if I may stay with them and learn such things as they might teach me.