Hi guys! I AM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAYED UPDATE! School's been absolutely CRAZY! And this chapter is kind of short! I'm sorry! Enjoy, comment, vote! -Joann :)

"I happen to know that she is attending the Night of a Thousand Stars party. And I'm the head of security for that party," Maethel took a sip of wine as they sat on her bed after the banquet, planning to sabotage Calenda. "I also found out that she's going after Lieutenant Assero, especially after she heard that I assigned him to guard the royal families. Apparently, when its time to dance, she'll say that her date didn't show up, right in front of him. And according to her, he'll ask her to dance after that. They have it all planned out.

But what we're going to do is ruin her plan. Once he arrives at the party, I'll get Lieutenant Rimalas to take his place, and put Assero on full night guard on the edge of the territory."

Tauriel snorted. "How do you know all this?"

"I was on the Il-atya' Nir'edhel for nearly a century until I was promoted to Colonel," she smirked.

"You were?" Tauriel asked, amazed. The Il-atya' Nir'edhel were a special unit of elite elves that were assigned special tasks that required extreme stealth.

"Yeah," Maethel sighed. "It was fun, especially since I got to lead it."

A sharp, abrupt knock made them both jump. A Valinorian elf neither recognized stepped out, bowed, and said, "Good evening, Colonel, Captain. King Thranduil requests Captain Tauriel's presence immediately."

"Do you think I'm in trouble?" Tauriel hissed to her friend nervously as the servant left.

Mae shook her head. "I doubt it. Now go!"

Tauriel walked slowly to his office, questions swirling around her mind. Was it good news? Bad news? Was she going to be promoted? Demoted?

At last, she reached his office and had barely knocked once when a shout of "Come in!" came from his office.

She entered quietly, and bowed. "You called, my lord?"

"Sit down, sit down," he said distractedly, turning a piece of parchment over in his hands.

She sat rather stiffly, unsure of whether she was to act happy or sad.

He sat too, his back hunching in an uncharacteristic way.

"Legolas survived. The Ring is destroyed."

Legolas survived. The Ring is destroyed. Her mind struggled to fathom these two sentences, and after a long silence, it reached her. Wave after wave after wave of relief crashed into her, and tears of joy trickled down her cheek.

"He's alive. He's alive. He's alive," she choked out in an elated whisper. "How do you know? He was gone for only three months!"

"When we were traveling to Valinor, do you recall seeing a purplish sea?" he asked.

She did, but at the moment thought nothing of it. Wasn't the sea supposed to change colors? After all, they passed a greenish sea and a blueish one.

"Yes, my lord," she answered.

"Well, that was the Center Sea. The sea that binds the Valinor sea and the Middle Eart sea together. Apparently, time in the Center is is warped, sometimes slowing down, sometimes speeding up. The sailors don't feel a thing, but time is always changing there," Thranduil explained tersely.

"When will he be returning?" Tauriel demanded excitedly. She didn't care for scientific explanations, she wanted to know when she would see him again.The joy and relief that filled her was unsurpassed by any feeling she had every felt before, and she was eager to feel it again.

Thranduil hesitated. "The thing is..." he said softly. "He isn't coming back."