Thank you to everyone who voted and commented on the previous chapter! A quick shout out and then you can rush to read the next terrible mistake this chapter seems to promise! Thank you @user42020897, @Elf_of_hogwarts, @Cairo1973, @felly_belly, @lordThrandui, @snakehoe_for_pizza, @Avaloyuru, @Tiemna, @crystalily2003, and @nathalieAlice.

Elrond looked around for his sons. Lunch was on the table but Elladan and Elrohir were nowhere in sight. A small frown came to his face. Tardiness was not something he tolerated.

Harune reached for the platter of meat.

"Should we not wait for the elflings?" Elrond asked.

"They are building snow elves," Harune explained. "And no doubt they will be too busy to come to lunch in time. The twins, Legolas, and Landion will come inside when their stomachs call them."

"In Rivendell, we do not touch the food until everyone is seated," Elrond said in disapproval.

"Everyone is seated," Harune replied, gesturing to him and Thranduil. "We do not expect the elflings to share lunch with us."

"I do," Elrond said coldly. "Tardiness is not something to be excused. Left unpunished it grows and inconveniences everyone."

"If you insist on waiting for them when you well know I excused them from lunch, you will be hungry until they return and the food will grow cold. There are times when I tell them to come home in time for lunch and always they obey," Thranduil said. "And when they do come back, your patience and anger will have mounted with your long, suffering wait, and throw you to do cruel things. Eat."

"If they disobeyed you and refused to come home when you say, the lot of them would deserve a sound thrashing," Elrond grumbled.

Thranduil's face darkened. "I seem to have lost my appetite; continue on without me." Shoving back his chair, and stalked from the room.

Harune turned a stern gaze to Elrond. "Do not disrespect or contradict my son again; the next time it happens I will punish you. Consider yourself warned."

Elrond rose to his feet with an expression of disgust.

"Where do you think you are going?" Harune asked. "You have not been excused."

"I will not eat at this table," Elrond replied. "And I am no child who needs your permission to leave this chair! I will eat when I please, where I please, and your company is not where I wish to nourish myself!"

Harune rose to his feet. He came around the corner of the table and his firm grip closed over Elrond's arm. "Come with me, Elrond. It is clear you have not learned to speak with respect to me. I will not be yelled at, and I will not have my word disobeyed."

Elrond jerked his arm out of Harune's grasp. "I will not walk to be beaten by you. Your heart and mind is stolen by evil and, were I king, you would not be seen or heard from again."

"I do to you what you do to your sons," Harune replied, his eyes snapping. "If you consider me to be beating you, what do you call the punishments you administer to your defenseless and helpless sons? Come with me!"

"No," said Elrond, standing firm.

"Guards!" Harune called. The two armored elves jogged into the room, and took Elrond by the arms. Following Harune, they marched the indignant elf lord to the family living room.

"You monster!" Elrond hissed.

"Were you as small as your sons, you could not fight back," Harune snapped. "And I assure you, if your sons had fought against you, you would have tanned the hide off them. If this is the only way to drill it into your head, so be it."

Harune snatched the leather strap from the high shelf of the bookcase in the living room and strode to Elrond's side, his eyes hard and steel and glinting like flint but more with pity then anything else. Elrond struggled, grunting as he tried to throw off the guards, but Mirkwood's soldiers were trained and hardy, and they held him firm.

"Let this be a lesson to you, Elrond," Harune said, "To obey and respect me. I want you to grow into a good person, and this is done for your own good."

Elrond gritted his teeth as the strap struck him, vowing to strangle Harune when his armies stood at his back. He felt caged and trapped, unable to fight. But the cage would soon break, and he would leave Thranduil broken. It was what he and every barbarian in his woodland deserved for their injustice. For their king's daring to steal his sons from him!

The guards released him as the punishment ended, and Harune met his eyes as he returned the strap to its place. Elrond glowered, his heart captured in knots of humiliation and fury.

"You may leave," Harune said.

"You are not my father!" Elrond cried. "And I will not tolerate this disgraceful treatment a second longer!"

"Your backside stings," Harune said, "with the same dosage of pain you give your sons. Consider it, Elrond. If you cannot live with it, how can they? Watch your tone; do not force me to remedy your mouth."

"I will speak my mind!" Elrond snarled.

"You are free to leave Mirkwood," Harune said. "The doors are open to you."

"I will not leave without my sons. And my sons I will have," Elrond vowed.

Harune tilted his head back. "You will have them back if you learn to love and treat them fairly. They will decide when they wish to return home. Until then, Elladan and Elrohir have all of Mirkwood behind them."

As Elrond's face contorted in rage, Harune continued mildly, "Really, Elrond, your attitude is most unusual. What would you have me do? Find another way to punish you?"

"I would have you stop altogether!" Elrond cried.

Harune shook a finger. "But would you do that for your sons? No! So why should I do it for you?"

"You violate my privacy with your blows," Elrond said, clenching his fists at his side.

"Ah, Elrond, it is only just. You fully deserve the punishments you get. If you wish to stop receiving them, behave. The only way to teach you to obey is to invoke consequences sever enough to make you stop and think twice."

"I see nothing but lies," Elrond declared.

"Elrohir said the same thing to you once," Harune said softly. "I repeat to you only what you said to HIM! See how your son felt? He ran from you in his confusion, and you forced him through an exorcism that laid his heart bear and made it bleed. Do you wish for me to drive the 'demons' from your mind, Elrond?"

"There are no demons," Elrond protested.

"Ah, but there are. Those demons are making you protest your punishments, Elrond. They have stolen away the good elven lord who once walked Middle Earth."

"You talk of filth," Elrond spat.

"I repeat only what you said to Elrohir when he begged you to see it was him and no demon who spoke to you before the exorcism," Harune answered, his voice cool.

Elrond's eyes flashed though his hesitated with his reply as his mind snapped back to the moment with his weeping son in the dawns before the exorcism.

"There are no demons inside me," he said finally.

"There are," Harune said. "They are the same ones you claimed needed to be driven from Elrohir. And do you know what they are called? I will name them to you. The demons are called Freedom of voice, Opinion, Expression, and The Right To Be Heard. Those are rights we freely give adults, but which you have refused your sons. You do not listen to them, you reward their opinions and contradictions with a sharp blow, you limit their freedom, and their conversation, and stifle their talk with the chains of so called manners. I will not have it, Elrond."

With those parting words left ringing in Elrond's ears, the king's father strode from the room, his steps hitting the floor with angry force and his loose hair swinging behind him.

Elrond's lip curled as he heard the footsteps recede. With a furious gesture, and grabbed the strap from the bookcase and left the room, his heart bitter. When would Glorfindel arrive with the forces of Rivendell at his side ready to take back what was theirs?

Meeting violence with violence again, Harune? Tsk, Tsk.

Thank you all for reading. Everyone who has read this has contributed to the growth of My Word. As always, I love hearing from you.

Next Chapter: The forces of Rivendell finally arrive to take back what is theirs.