Thank you to  fateclaws,  Tiemna,  Avaloyuru,  joellamariah,  _-Yuki_Gyeoul- ,  _crystalily2003,  lordThrandui, siso_sissan,  nathalieAlice,  RandomElleth,  Moon545,  and Elf_of_hogwarts for commenting and voting on the previous chapter. I love your insightful comments and support! 

Thank you to  @Vivmich and @kessyramos for adding this story to their reading lists!

Also, Nin Chronicles: My Word was one of the thirty one stories that won The Trident Awards! I am so happy my book is good in the eyes of the judges. 

"Visitors, my lord," Hyrondal announced, bowing to Thranduil and Harune. "At the front gates."

"Show them up to my throne," Thranduil answered. He made for his chair with Harune beside him, remarking, "It is fortunate I am still in my meeting attire and have no need to change. Now, I wonder who can it be?"

Several minutes' later three elves appeared, escorted by Hyrondal to the throne platform. The Captain of the Guard announced the party to his King and departed.

"Lord Celeborn," Thranduil said with a dip of his head. "Lady Galadriel. We did not expect your arrival for some days. We knew, of course, you would come."

"We cannot be expected to sit in Rivendell and wonder at the whereabouts of our family," Lady Galadriel replied, her voice crisp but cold.

Thranduil smiled, his sharp eyes noting his mistake. There were four elves, not three, for Lady Celebrian carried a white bundle in her arms. Before her parents could speak again, she jumped forward, arrayed in the covering folds of a blue traveling cloak.

Thranduil looked at Harune. "Undoubtedly Lady Celebrian would like to see her husband. If you will be so good as to fetch Elrond?"

Celebrian looked relieved as Harune departed. "Hannon le, King Thranduil. It has been hard for me being without more then half my family for—for—close to two years now. Letters do not bring me the feel of their warm flesh. I had to wait for Arwen to be big enough to travel and it nearly killed me."

"We never meant to cause you such worry," Thranduil apologized. "My sincerest apologies for what you have been through, your ladyship. You will be made comfortable here in Mirkwood for as long as you wish to stay."

"Which will not be for long, will it, Thranduil?" Lady Galadriel said, as if dictating an unspoken command.

Thranduil knew well what the Lady of Lothlorien wanted but made no move to bow to her request. "I am afraid I cannot say how long you will be here for. It is not I who decides the length of your stay but you yourself."

Galadriel made to reply but Elrond arrived at a run, pale faced and demanding with breathless eagerness, "Where is my wife?"

Celebrian turned to greet him, her eyes lighting up at the first sight of her husband, missed for so long. Careful of Arwen, she leaned into his embrace, one arm wrapped tightly around his waist and her face buried against his chest.

"Valar, how I missed you," she murmured, squeezing him tight. "I can hardly believe you are here now."

"I did not expect you to come," Elrond murmured. "I was worried for I received no letter. I hoped nothing had happened in my absence. But who watches over Rivendell in your stead?"

"Erestor manages perfectly," Celebrian answered, the worries of Imladris behind her as she turned her attention to a far more important matter. "Elrond, where are our sons?"

Elrond heard the concern and worries in her voice and quickly put his wife at ease. "You need not worry, beloved, Elladan and Elrohir are fine and well. Our sons are out with Legolas but will be back soon, I think."

"We will be returning to Rivendell shortly," Lady Galadriel said, inclining her head to Thranduil. "Elladan and Elrohir will be with us. It seems both elflings as well as their father is fit to travel. We need not impose upon your hospitality any longer."

Thranduil smiled. "You do not impose upon my hospitality. Elrond is free to leave at any moment he desires to do so. But Elladan and Elrohir will remain in Mirkwood until they make the choice to return home, no sooner."

"Elladan and Elrohir are but mere children," Lord Celeborn said coolly. "They do not know what is best."

Thranduil rose to his feet with dignity, an icy cold aura sweeping across the room. "Your lord and ladyship, if you think you can walk into my realm and move to order me about, you are mistaken. I have already argued this point with Elrond and I will not argue it again. My word is final. Whether you accept it or not is up to you. Harune will show you to your chambers; welcome to Mirkwood."

Thranduil descended from his throne and gestured to Lady Celebrian. "If you will accompany me, I will take you to your husband's room. If you wish an adjoining chamber, it will be arranged."

"No, the present arrangement is quite fine," Celebrian answered quietly. "But I am most anxious to see my sons."

"Elladan and Elrohir should be back any minute," Thranduil answered, consulting the time as he passed a clock mounted on the wall.

Harune led the royal party of Lothlorien in the opposite direction as Elrond and Celebrian followed Thranduil up to their chamber. Leaving the pair, Thranduil wrested Landion out of his chair in the living room and sent him to fetch Legolas and the twins.

"Your sons will be in shortly," Thranduil said as Elrond and Celebrian came into the living room and settled down on the couch. "If you will excuse me, I need to change."

"They must have grown so much," Celebrian said with a wistful note in her voice as she unlaced her bodice to feed Arwen.

"Yes," Elrond agreed. "We must talk, Celebrian. This long absence of ours is not what you think it is. I have remained here for a reason."

"We do need to talk," his wife said. She turned her eyes to meet his. "I . . . have recently changed my mind about something, and I hope you will agree with me when I say—"

The door to the room opened and the twins ran in accompanied by Legolas and Landion. Landion returned to his chair but the twins halted at the sight of their mother, stretching out half a hand as if wondering if the sight was a vision.

"Celebrian?" Elrohir choked. He stumbled toward the couch, his fingers brushing her arm as he sat down beside her. "Y-you are real . . . but how have you come? Why are you here?"

Elrond slid over to give Elladan room to sit down between him and Celebrian. Elladan's eyes were on his sister's pink and white face. Elrond caught a glimpse of something flickering in his eyes; sympathy? Pity, perhaps?

Arwen squirmed and Celebrian set her down on the floor. As she toddled off to explore the bookcase at the far end of the room, Celebrian tied the top of her dress and reached to hug her sons. Elladan and Elrohir took their eyes off Arwen and leaned into her embrace, their fingers tightening on her dress.

"How I have missed you," Celebrian murmured, her voice choked by unshed tears. "The nights have been long without you. The house is so quiet and unfriendly without you to make it a loving home. I miss your smiles and laughter and even your mischief."

At the last word, both twins winced and Celebrian drew back, running a hand over Elrohir's sleek hair. "You have both grown, my sweet ones. I missed watching you grow to." She wiped a tear from her eye and sniffed.

"We missed you," Elladan said, drawing in a deep breath. "We—we wondered how you are Arwen were. We wondered how our sister was." He looked at Arwen, pulling the books of the shelf and smiled.

"She is as spirited as you," Celebrian answered, her voice shaking. "The more I looked at her, the more I missed you. As soon as she was big enough to make the journey, I-I left. At once."

Elladan looked at Arwen once more as she left the books on the floor behind and went to explore the drawers of a chest.

"I-I found something of yours in Rivendell," Celebrian said. She drew out a leather-covered drawing pad. Elladan looked at it without recognition as she continued, "It was tucked under the mattress of your bed."

Comprehension flickered in the twins' eyes as they exchanged looks, knowing their mother must have gone through every page by now.

"I did not like some of the drawings," Celebrian admitted. "But the likeness is quite good."

Elladan took the book in silence. He rose to his feet with Elrohir and left the room. Celebrian looked at Elrond with wide eyes, frightened and desperate at the same time.

"I do not understand, Elrond. Why will they not speak with me? What have I done?"

"You have done no worst then I have," Elrond said softly, moving to comfort her. "Elladan and Elrohir would not speak to me when I came here. We have not treated them well in the past years and it is difficult to connect with them now. I am trying to show them how much I love them, and I have come a fair ways. But you have not done so yet."

Celebrian looked at him with a furrowed brow. "Elrond, I-I know you and I have been raised one way by our parents. And I know we are both rooted in our beliefs but we have done our sons a great wrong. We have spanked them when we could instead show them our love without using pain to correct their bad behavior. We have to stop or we will never have our children back. Please, for me, for our sons, for our children, put aside the belief you have lived with for so long! I know it will be hard for you—"

Relief washed across Elrond's face and he held up a hand to stop her, hugging his wife to him. "What do you think I have been doing with such energy for the past two years, my wife? I admit at first I was angry. I refused to listen to my sons, I refused to listen to Thranduil; I refused to listen to anyone. I wanted to bring Elladan and Elrohir home and continue life as it was before. However, I opened my ears since then. I listened to our children. And I made them a promise never to spank them again."

"You did?"

Elrond nodded. "Yes. Right now I am engaged in the tiresome process of proving to Elladan and Elrohir no matter what they do, I will not spank them. My room has been ransacked, I have been left out in the rain, and the twins have blatantly walked away from their punishments. It is most trying."

"Yes, but what I meant is why did you make the choice to stop spanking them?" Celebrian asked.

"There was an orc," Elrond said quietly. "He attacked Elladan with a stick. I . . . saw a more violent version of what I used to do with a strap. And I hated it. Hated myself for attacking my children."

"But surely the orc was quite recent," Celebrian said, casting her mind back to the fading cuts on Elladan's arms.

Elrond nodded. "Yes. That is so. The orc added passion to my earlier promise. I first decided to try and stop spanking Elladan and Elrohir after I heard the twins working over an assignment in the library. I heard a chance quote."

"Oh?" his wife questioned.

"Families are bound firmly together by the ties of loyalty and love and only those with stains on their heart would twist the light to make way for their own darkness," Elrond quoted. "Elrohir said it described our family well."

"It does," Celebrian said. She hastily amended, "It did. For me, it was not a quote so much but the drawing pad I returned to the twins. The images, and especially a single haiku, made me see through the twins eyes our punishments of them."

Elrond pressed her hands in his lap. "After I saw the gap open between Legolas and Thranduil I became aware that even the seemingly perfect father and son have their flaws. Seeing that let me relate to them more. While Thranduil and Legolas are happy together they have their stormy moments to, in the same manner me and the twins have ours. I knew the choice I made would not be an easy one but it would let me be near the elflings I loved."

As Celebrian smiled into his eyes, Elrond coughed and flushed as he admitted, "I kept badly to my resolution at first. I was unwilling to put time into the twins' punishments. I wanted to spank them and be done with it, and I-I did. Several times."

"It is no wonder Elladan and Elrohir want to prove you mean your oath," Celebrian answered. "But we all make mistakes, and I know how hard it is to stop you were away, I missed children so much; I agreed to look after half a dozen elflings for a week while their parents were out enjoying themselves. I had the most trying moments."

Elrond chuckled. His smile dimmed as Celebrian continued, "I wanted to spank some of them. But I stopped myself because I remembered how it feels. I thought about it long and hard. I remember my parents spanking me . . . and I remember how much I despised the pain . . ."

A crash broke the couple from their thoughts and Celebrian leapt to her feet exclaiming, "Arwen!"

Harune came through the door as Celebrian surveyed the overturned small table and an array of books, dirt, and a broken pot with dismay. Arwen fished the object of her desires out of the wreckage, decided the enameled box was not so interesting after all, and held up her arms to her mother.

" 'Tis been too long since a table went over," Harune remarked.

"I am so sorry," Celebrian apologized as she swept Arwen into her arms.

"There is nothing to apologize for," Harune said, waving it away. "I cannot tell you how many times Thranduil broke the pot of that poor plant in his youth. Terrible, it was. I could not turn my back without tensing for the crash. I dare say the plant missed being upset in the intervening centuries."

"I have had rather a lot of upsets at home," Celebrian admitted as she tweaked Arwen's chin. "More then we had with the twins . . ."

"You have to expect it," Harune answered, turning to Landion. "Fetch me the broom."

"Oh, but, ada!" the elfling protested, dragged from the enthralling pages of his book.

"Oh, but, Landion!" Harune said firmly, clapping his hands under his son's nose. The elfling obeyed with a grumble.

Celebrian nuzzled Arwen's hair. "What can I do to show the twins I am with you, Elrond; that I love them? Should I tell them?"

Elrond shook his head. "No. You must show them the sincerity of your words with action. Tell the twins once, offer them an apology if you are sorry, but do not try to make them believe you. I have tried and it fails."

Celebrian giggled at Elrond's rueful expression. "Oh, how I have missed you, hervenn nin!"

Elrond chucked her under the chin with a twinkle in his eyes. "And I you, vessë nin."

OoOoO

The baby squalled and Ariel rubbed her eyes with a tired groan. She knew her son wanted to be picked up. She heard Erestor sit up beside her and gently pick up his son from between them. He let the baby rest his small head on his shoulder as he slid out of bed and rubbed soft circles on his back to sooth him.

Ariel yawned. She rolled over and went back to sleep. Faintly, she heard their son stop crying as Erestor rocked him, walking the length of the house. She smiled as she heard his happy gurgles.

Erestor came back to bed an hour later. He kept the baby on the crook of his arm to keep him asleep.

"He needs a name," he said.

Ariel raised her head from her pillow. "There is no rush. He needs his name and we do not know it yet. No go back to sleep; you will have more work then ever taking over the office while Celebrian is away. I will pick him up next time."

"I do not mind," Erestor assured her. "I am happy to take Celebrian's place. She needs to be with Elrond in Mirkwood."

Ariel nodded but she was distracted by the baby's face. "Look, he is smiling in his sleep."

Now you know where Celebrian's letters went! I think it was about time for a family reunion. What do you say?

Thank you so much for reading. I love sharing this story with you. As always, I love hearing from you.

Next Chapter: Elrohir runs away.