It had been a long day. The stables had been informed of the upcoming departure and asked to pack provisions for the horses. It would be a long journey and though they all had fairly good stamina, the horses would bring them further faster. Would it be fast enough?
Upon reentering her cramped, yet well organised office, she noticed a new letter on her desk. She broke the seal of the Pillar, opened the parchment and began to read.
"I am also informing you that I have appointed Saranasse to act as your guide. I wholeheartedly recommend this acting-captain of the Arrow to you. She is wise and experienced in traversing the wilds, and will see you and your party come to no harm. It is perhaps your wish and intent to include one or more of Fountain in your party? This would also be a fortuitous idea, should any be available."
Oh yes, Saranasse had been appointed as a captain of the arrow not long ago. Though Tingruviel had been studying the maps for days now and knew the route fairly well, she would always welcome another bow. One of the Fountain? Tingruviel was slightly bewildered. Of course anyone who wanted to join could do so. This was merely to be a trading expedition and not an act of war, in any case.
As she pondered on who Danel could possibly mean, she slowly sat down in her chair. The stars had begun their own journey across the sky. Someone had kept the fire burning, but not stoked it for a long time. It was beginning to turn into red coals instead of the previous roaring fire. She sighed and with renewed determination, she picked up her writing essentials and began to jot down a response to Danel. She included a list of all who would join the journey up til now.
Somehow, at some point, she had fallen into darkness. A bird chirped in the distance and she drowsily looked up. The desk had served as a rather uncomfortable bed and was in disarray. The letter was smeered so she quickly wrote up a new one to leave in Danels office. She did not expect Danel to be at her desk in quite some time as it was still early.
Tingruviel waited patiently by the spire of meeting. Sileril arrived first; she seemed quite eager to stretch her legs. Soon they were joined by lord Elecarne, who had accepted the invitation to act as their captain, if anything should go awry. She had good faith that the journey would be quite uneventful, however, one cannot be over confident in such matters.
A few moments later, the courtyard was filled with excited ellons and elleths. She counted them all, Nannorviel, Sorontar, Anglador, Saranasse, even Daegond. Khalis and Elisbeth arrived well within time and seemed to be amused with Daegonds manners. Master Vagnur had joined quite soon after Sileril and introduced himself in the well mannered way that he has. Tingruviel admired his bravery, standing amongst a fair few old Noldorin characters who were not all too impressed. Were they changing their minds a little? Perhaps.
Lord Anglachelm himself came to see them off, with the warning to treat master Vagnur and any of his kin with fairness. As Tingruviel was about to recieve the chest of gold, Sorontar leapt forward and decidedly took it into custody. As unnerving as that ellon could be, he was also extremely thorough in his accounting. If you wanted to keep something safe, he would be a good bet.
The journey to Thorenhad was quite calm. They arrived shortly before dusk and decided to camp there for the eve. Khalis seemed to know the sons of Elrond from before and reestablished their acquaintance. While Sorontar kept himself busy with making tea, Sileril and Tingruviel learnt about the family life of the Naugrim. It seemed that they were quite strict with the youngsters upbringing and behaviours out of the ordinary would be frowned upon.
Looking around the camp, she noticed two things. For one, Daegond was on a very good behaviour. She wondered if that could be due to his recent humbling (and perhaps humiliating) experience of being bested in close combat by a rock. The tale had been told again and again, how the ellon had, upon attacking his combatant Meluilindele, somehow fallen off the bridge into ice cold water. That would wake anyone, Tingruviel thought. The second thing was Nannorviel. Tingruviel had scarcely spoken to the elleth in question, but she had been told that Nannorviels voice was seldom heard. It pleased her to see that she seemed comfortable with Saranasse.
Before everyone went to have some rest, Sorontar asked to give the maps to Daegond. She told him to seek out Saranasse as she had a keen eye for detail and would be versed in the travel paths in the area. When discussing the best route, Tingruviel noticed that the arrow seemed confident about her knowledge but not too comfortable in the situation they were in. Perhaps all that was needed was some time to grow into the new role. Tingruviel decided that she would make the effort to speak with Saranasse as soon as possible. She roughly knew which route she would like to take, yet if it was feasible.... that was another question.
