[Amanaduial the archer]

"You do know that among my people, the bodily union is what binds a couple in marriage?"

Arthain didn't even turn to look at Anwenelme. He had sensed her arriving, had sensed it by the way her shadow flickered on the ground, by the way her horse had of making small half-whinnys every so often. He knew it by the way she flicked her hair subconciously, flirtatiously, across her shoulders every so often, so its soft waves caught the light and the eye...he knew it all. And it sickened him.

He felt his teeth grit together instinctively, and it must have shown on his jawline, but his face otherwise remained indifferent. He became too aware of his sword, of how close it was to his hand, how he could just reach out...but he also knew how close she was to him, how close her soft skin was, her warm body...

He repressed a shudder, and turned his head slowly to look at her, his face entirely immobile.

"I am well aware of the marriage rites of the elves. And I believe you have to be elven, or human to be part of it." His tone was completely indifferent, and he didn't smile as he finished. "That would, I believe, involve having a soul."

Anwenelme looked shocked for a fleeting instance, but covered it almost immediately. She was evidently thinking of a reply, but Arthain got there first.

"I wonder what the Lord of the Golden Wood will say." He continued. he wanted to be able to inject some sort of emotion into it, but his voice remained still and dead, soft, so only Anwenelme could hear it, and all that it entailed. "What is the punishment for betrayal, viper?"

Anwenelme did not reply, and for the first time, Arthain saw a flicker of doubt pass across her face. He should have felt some satisfaction, some emotion, some anything, but it was as if his emotions had turned against him just as he had no doubt the elves would. He dared not let any emotion out from the heart that had become a tomb, for fear all of them would spill out at once.

As Anwenelme moved away, Arthain once more fixed his eyes ahead, staring dully into the space ahead of him, concentrating soley on what he and Melost had been told to do, to simply get the elven woman, the pack of crows and the harridan who claimed to be a lady to Lothlorien.

What would happen there he dared not think; if there was a punishment, it would probably not just stretch to Anwenelme...