A/N: Yay. New chapter. So...I attempted to make a cast for this story, but that's extremely hard. Just...see for yourself.  As always, please comment with suggestions, questions, or praise (though I don't think I'll be getting a lot of that for this chapter :/ ) I would like to point out that this ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A LOVE STORY. Yes, it contains romance, but that's not what it's about. Keep that in mind :) And look at the cool picture in the media section. 

And so, without further ado (ado? Is that really how you spell it? It looks so weird.... ;P), I present to you...this chapter!

It bothered me that Feanor didn't stop me from hurting Caranthir. True, Caranthir wasn't his favorite, but I could've killed him. I would have too, had we been in a more secluded area.

As soon as I thought that, I regretted it. I was not a killer...was I? No; I couldn't be. Not like Melkor and his servants. Not like Sauron.

As a child, I never found Sauron as frightening as Melkor. I don't know why. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't always wear black. He didn't yell. He seemed to have at least a little respect for Nana, and he didn't betray her. Yes, Sauron knew of my existence. He would visit us frequently, and every time he would tell Nana, "Do not fear; it is good that you had a child. Now my lord has an heir, someone to carry on his legacy in case of...an accident."

In time I would come to realize that he never meant a word of that, but I was only a child, and I didn't understand that there was evil everywhere. The only time Sauron actually scared me is when Nana mentioned him serving me.

"She may be part Vala, the daughter of Melkor himself, but I was promised something, elf. I was promised by my lord Melkor power, and I will not be denied it."

I remember running to hide underneath the bed, cowering while Sauron raged at her. I'd neve seen my "uncle" so violent.

My thoughts were interrupted by a gentle tap on my shoulder. Turning, my eyes fell on a little elfling. Her eyes were wide and she looked scared.

"Luinil," she whispered, "what did you do?"

I looked at her with surprise. Where had she even come from? I bent down and put my arm on her shoulder, staring into her dark eyes.

"Estel, what are you doing here?" I asked, trying to smile, but she only backed up and threw off my hand. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, Estel. I didn't do anything." Now I was sure my smile looked like grimace.

"Why did you hurt Lord Caranthir?" she muttered. I moved closer to her again.

"Did you not see? He lied about me. He hurt me, he ruined my..." I paused.

"Ruined your what?" she urged. Elflings...so curious... "Luinil?" Understanding seemed to dawn in her eyes. "Luinil, do you love Lord Feanor?"

Laughing softly, I stood up. The conversation was making me uncomfortable. "How could that be? You saw the whole thing, didn't you? I didn't kiss him."

Estel cocked her head to the side and looked up into my eyes, something that very few people even attempted. "But Luinil...Nana always told me that love is doing what's best for the other person. Lord Feanor is married. If you had kissed him, that wouldn't have been real love. Because that's not what's best for him."

At that moment, something in my head seemed to click. And I realized that she was right, and I wouldn't be abe to just let him go. I'd spent practically my whole life with him, and now that our friendship was coming to an end...well, I couldn't just let that happen.

Estel grinned up at the shocked expression on my face. "I knew you would get it," she whispered. With that, I turned at ran as fast as I could to Feanor's tent.

There were a few guards outside, and as soon as I came inside their line of sight, they drew their weapons and aimed at me. I held my palms up in the air as a sign of surrender. Slowly taking steps forward, I said, "I mean you no harm; I only wish to-"

A guard jabbed a spear at me. "Stay back, devil!"

I lowered my hands, forming them into fists. That probably wasn't a good decision, but I was becoming very frustrated.

"I only want to-"

Something sharp and hard hit the back of my head. It made me lose my train of thought and blink a few times, but wasn't enough to knock me unconscious. With a growl, I whirled around to the elf standing behind me. His hair was copper, his eyes cold, icy, grey-blue. Maedhros.

I threw myself at him, not caring that the other guards now had a perfect opportunity to attack me from behind. In fact, I almost felt a rush of happiness at the prospect of a good fight. I knew something they didn't: I was part Vala; I would always win.

Smirking, drew my hand back and hit Maedhros as hard as I could across the face, causing him to stumble and fall. The others glanced at me, as if unsure what to do.

"Run," I whispered. As soon as the words left my mouth and I looked down at Maedhros's form on the ground, I regretted everything. None of my actions were going to help me lie my way back into favor with the Elves. Turning towards Feanor's tent, I didn't see Maedhros stand up, eyes blazing. Before I could react, he was on top of me. Yes, I was stronger than most elves, but I was already tired, and he just kept hitting.  My vision started to tunnel and go black around the edges. Finally, I manahed to push him off of me, but it was too late. I could tell I was going unconscious. And I swear that just before my vision turned black, I saw Maedhros smile to himself.

*        *        *

The first thing I felt was the rope. It was rough, scratchy, and cutting off the circulation to my hands. A gag was tied around my mouth, and my head was throbbing. Maedhros sat a few feet away, dabbing a wet cloth to a cut on his lip. He glared at someone beyond my shoulder. Slowly, to prevent the sharp pain from coming back to my head, I shifted so I could see. It was Feanor.

He was standing very close to me, yet his attitude seemed very far away indeed, and he wouldn't make eyecontact. Meadhros stood up, grimacing as he did so. That gave me satisfaction for some reason.

"Maedhros," began Feanor, putting his hand on his son's arm, "what happened?" As he looked away from his father, our eyes met, and he smirked. I felt a deep, sinking sensation in my stomach. He was going to lie.

"This monster attacked me for no reason whatsoever. She came running, her eyes glowing orange,and tried to force her way into your tent, saying that you deserved to die."

My eyes starting to sting. Desprately, I shook my head back and forth, ignoring the pain. My best friend needed to know the truth. He looked at me, and I froze.

"What  a pity." His countenance was cold. "I was going to let her stay, actually."

Maedhros laughed, "Stay? Why would you let her stay? Don't you understand--"

"Yes, Maedhros, I understand," he barked, turning on his son. "Leave us, for a moment. Please."

Looking disgruntled, Maedhros left, turning to spit on me on his way. I flinched, and he laughed. When I looked back to Feanor, he sighed and came to undo the gag. I stared at his face and sharply angled cheekbones as his hands worked on the knot. He glared at me in disgust when he noticed, making my heart speed up. What right did he have to suddenly change his opinion on me?

"Feanor," I began, sure I sounded desperate, "you have to believe me. The only reason I would ever, ever hurt your sons is self-defense. He attacked me first."

His eyes became unfocused. "You attacked Caranthir."

"I..." There was no response I could thing of for that.

Feanor smiled grimly. "You know, Luinil, I'd always thought there was something not quite right about you. And I--"

"That's a lie," I said. Even though my voice was hard, my heart most certainly wasn't, and every word he spoke jabbed into like a thorn. I had to stop him. His eyes shone darkly, but I kept up. "That's a lie Feanor. We've always been the best of friends, remember? I don't think you're the type to befreind someone radiating evil."

"I was trying to be nice."

"Nice? Tell me, when have you been nice?"

"Luinil!" he shouted."Can't you see that I'm trying to help you?" His eyebrows were drawn together and a look of genuine concern was plastered to his face.  I narrowed my eyes and yelled back, "How is this helping me?"

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and said, "I don't want to have to hurt you. But word of your...heritage...will soon be out. I thought, 'As long as she doesn't hurt anyone, she'll be okay. I'll distance myself from her, and no one will have any suspicions'. Now, you've hurt not only one of my sons, but two, in the past hour. I was trying to help you by just walking away."

I blinked rapidly, feeling a tear roll down my cheek. I messed up. One of the things I learned from my mother was to think things through in a situation and not act on my emotions. This is where using my heart instead of my head got me. But a little part of me still burned in indignation. I tried to yell at Feanor that his plan wouldn't have worked, people always find ways to make others look bad, but I couldn't. All that left my mouth was a strangled sob.

Feanor knelt down beside me. "Luinil?" His hand found it's way to mine, which was resting on the ground. 

"Y-you said our f-frienship was over," I stammered. "And I can't l-let that happen, because y-you're all I have."

I felt his fingers move to my face as he gently lifted up my head. "I'm sorry," he began, looking right into my eyes. "I acted too swiftly. I'm just scared of traitors and spies. Our whole survival depends on no one betraying us to Morgoth."

After a brief moment of silence, he asked, "Why did you choose me? You could hae been friends with either of my brothers."

"You're the one who found me."

He smiled and tried to wipe away one of my tears with his thumb, but as soon as his skin came in contact with it, it sizzled and a red welt appeared. His smiled turned cold as he lifted me up off the ground. The moment I was on my feet, I felt better, more powerful.

"Now," said Feanor, "no matter how hard you try to deny it, you are your father's daughter, and the more you grow, the more like him you will become."

I blinked, shocked. "How do you know?"

"Trust me, Luinil. Those who are mostly hated and hardly loved often hate most and love hardly. I'm afraid that, with Morgoth being an emodiment of evil...you will not be able to escape your fate."

"What if I'm not like that?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. Feanor looked down on my in a pitying sort of way. "You are." 

"But Feanor, my mother was an elf. Does not that count for something?"

"Luinil...I have my ways of knowing things. You must trust me on this. So it is with a heavy heart that I tell you...you must leave us."

I started to cry again. "We're in the middle of nowhere! Who knows what kind of fell beasts could be lurking, waiting to devour a lonely maided?"

He grimaced. "No; you don't have to leave this second. We are going, as you know, to Morgoth's fortress. You can leave us then and go back to your father."

Cold dread spread throughout my body as my face paled. "I don't want to."

"Unfortunately...you don't have a choice. I am giving you this chance to live, because I do not believe you are a spy; otherwise, my sons will have you executed."

"Why?" 

"They believe you are a demon, and they don't wnat you hurting me or any of our host."

We were standing only a few inches away from each other. "Feanor," I whispered as he looked down at my lips. This time I didn't mind. If I was going to have to leave, I might as well get a goodbye kiss. "I would never hurt you."

"Why?" he muttered.

"Because..." The gap between us shrunk. "Because I love you." But my lips never touched his. As soon as the words left my mouth, he took a step back.

"You don't love me."

My jaw dropped. "How so?"

"Don't you see?  You were told only an hour ago that 'love is doing what's best for the other person'." 

"How do you know about that?" I questioned, my throat becoming dry. Feanor smirked. "You must have forgotten that Estel is a young Elfling. Her mind and will are easily bent."

"This was a test..." I muttered. Feanor shrugged. 

"Well...not the whole thing. Only when you tried to kiss me. You see, Luinil, I know that you know that kissing me is most certainly not what's best. And the look in your eyes was just so selfish, I decided to go along with it."

"So you could prove your point."

He nodded. "Yes. And my point is...?"

"I can't stay here, because I'm slowly turning into a cold, hard, and calloused person. I'm turning into Morgoth." 

It hurt a lot. Every word that he spoke hurt. I thought it hurt because it was a lie, but I soon realized that it hurt because it was the truth. I was easily tempted to vice because part of me was vice. Morgoth was the creator of all things evil. And he created me, in a way.

Feanor saw that I was upset, and so said, "Luinil, I do care for. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. You deserve better than to be killed by my sons."

I forcefully spat profanity at him, but he only stood as if watching an entertainer, until he finally said, "Go to sleep. It's late."

Tears streaming down my face, I turned on my heel and left his tent. Just before I was out of earshot, I heard, "Tonight makes three opportunities in your life that you've had to show me your love. Every time you've rejected me, until now, until you were desperate. Did you ecxpect anything good to come out of a desperate attempt for love from a man you've rejected three times?"

I started to run. I didn't need him. I didn't need anyone. Every single Noldor was a filthy, back-stabbing, unloyal rat. Love was for the weak. Love lost. Maybe my life would be better in Angband. There would no one to love there, which means...there would be no one to hurt me.