[Child of the 7th Age]

Idril had returned from the galley, and was seated quietly at her desk when she heard the insistent knockicg on the door. She quickly went to answer it. Seeing Cami, Idril nodded to the sleeping form, and asked the hobbit to be less noisy so Piosenniel would be able to sleep.

Cami glared at Idril, "Sleep? You want her to sleep? After I get done with her, she won't sleep for the next ten years. You'd better get her up right away!"

Part of Cami could not believe she was talking this way to Idril about another Elf. She'd always been taught to treat Elves with respect and courtesy. But right now she was too angry to think very much.

Idril smiled and indicated to the hobbit that she should sit down. "Cami, calm down."

The hobbit stood up and glared back, "If you want me to tell her politely that I understand her concerns, then you'd better get someone else. Because frankly I don't understand them at all."

"Cami, you can say anything you want to Piosenniel, but you will listen first to two things I have to say. First, I know Pio. When someone screams at her, it's like putting a red flag in front of a very angry bull. She won't hear a word you're saying. She'll only get angry in return. Say what you must, but if you want her to listen, try not to bludgeon her."

"Second, you and Pio are very different people. The Elf has spent her whole life avoiding commitment. I'm talking about any kind of commitment, whether to a person or to a cause. Habits like that are hard to break. I'm not saying she doesn't need someone to remind her how fortunate she is, or even to scold her a bit. But remember she is her own person with her own experiences. You are not going to turn her into an Elf-sized Cami."

Joint post: Pio, Sharon, Bird

Cami sat on the bed, listening to Idril speak. It was at this moment that Bird burst through the door. ‘What is this?’ she asked angrily, wildly waving the note Cami had left her. ‘What is that fool of an Elf doing now?’

Idril frowned at this loud intrusion and stood between Bird and Pio. Cami rose from her seat and approached her fuming friend. Placing her hand on Bird’s arm to quiet her, she brought her to sit next to her on the edge of the bed.

‘I don’t know what all this means, either, Bird.’ she said in a soft voice. ‘I got the letter from Idril and I couldn’t believe my eyes.’ She sighed and rubbed her forehead. ‘Why can’t things ever move in a straight course for her?’ She looked toward Pio and shook her head.

‘Because she’s Pio.’ replied bird. ‘And a damnable, stiff necked Elf to boot.’ She nodded briefly toward Idril, but did not apologise.

Pio sat up in bed, her face in darkness. ‘You may have the right of it that I am stiff necked, Bird, but I am not deaf. Do not presume to talk to me as if I were not here.’ She turned her face into the light of the small lamp which shone from Idril’s desk, her face drawn, her eyes cloaked in the shadows of her lashes. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked Cami, focusing first on her.

‘To be truthful, Idril suggested that I come. I almost didn’t because I was so angry with you. But you’re too good a friend to desert, even though you’re deficient in common sense.

A snort from Bird punctuated this reply. She leaned in toward Pio, her face close to the Elf’s and looked her deeply in the eyes, seeking some understanding. ‘We are concerned about you Old Friend.’ she said softly. ‘What is wrong?’

‘Leave it to Bird to get straight to the point.’ remarked the Elf. She held the gaze of her dear friend. ‘I suppose Idril has told you both of my maudlin discussion with her this past evening. I would say I wished she had not done so, but perhaps it will be better if we start with that.’ She looked up, taking all three of them in. ‘I believe I have made the wrong decision concerning Mithadan. And I am seeking some way to rectify it – one that will bring him the least sorrow.’

‘The least sorrow!’ Cami choked on these words as she said them. ‘How can you be so arrogant to make those decisions for him.’ She looked up at the ceiling, her cheeks burning with indignation. ‘He loves you, completely from what I can see. He offers you a wonderful gift – love and family. And you wish to throw it away? Why?’ Pio’s face had become a mask of reservation, and Cami reached out to touch her on the arm. ‘Tell us that you do not love him any more and we will leave you alone.’

The Elf was silent. Bird urged her on. ‘Speak to us, Pio. We can’t read your mind. Your actions though make you seem like some shy and hesitant maiden forced to marry by her Papa. Not a woman who has a free choice.’

‘Love Mithadan?’ she spoke quietly, to her two friends. ‘Yes, I love him. And love is not the problem. It is all the actions which surround it, support it, are expected of it that I cannot fathom.’

She looked at Cami. ‘You are right to name me arrogant. I have always relied on myself. That perhaps is what is hardest for me. I cannot see how that will change. This has been an ongoing source of turmoil between us. And though he assures me he does not expect me to surrender to him, I feel the pull toward doing so to make it “easier” between us. If I cannot come to some sort of resolution on this for myself then either I will be lost should I stay with him or I will leave him.’

She rubbed the back of her neck in irritation. ‘It was my thinking that I should leave now, before our course is so entangled that we both choke on it.’

Bird laughed in disbelief. ‘You are going to cut and run? What do you think this is? Some alliance gone wrong with thieving Corsairs in Umbar?’ She paced angrily. ‘You can’t run your life like you did before, Pio. It won’t work. What did you think you would do? Mithadan aside, you set a course now for two others besides yourself. You can’t go tramping the back roads with me any longer.’

The two old friends stood toe to toe, bodies tense, eyes flashing. Then Pio began to giggle and a hysterical sort of laughter seized her as she fell back on the bed. ‘Bye the One!’ shouted the mystified Bird. ‘Are you possessed? Do we need to call Ancalimon over here to wave his stick over you?’ She looked at the prostrate Elf. ‘Or perhaps we should borrow his stick, and Cami and I will beat some sense into you!’

Idril had been silent until now. She stepped forward and said quietly. ‘That is the whole problem is it not, Piosenniel.’

Pio sat up wiping the tears from her eyes, waiting for Idril to continue.

‘Mithadan is too much the leader, as you see him. When you traveled with Bird, it was at her side, and she by yours. You never followed, nor did you see yourself as leading. You worked side by side, in comfortable tandem, did you not?’

Cami and Bird were quiet as they watched Pio consider this. ‘Yes, that was always so, and is.’ she said.

‘But from your expression I read that you do not think this is possible with the Man.’ Idril paused and knelt before Pio, taking both her hands in hers.

‘Think back to when you first teamed with Bird. It was not smooth going from the start. You are both very independent. You had to learn to work together and I should think it took a fair amount of time for you both to come to some agreement on how things should be done. But over time, the yoke of trust and friendship linked the both of you, and your times together ran easy.'

‘Will you not give Mithadan that same chance? It is not necessary to forge the yoke I spoke of all at once, doing so only makes it seem a heavy burden. It should only be a light one, hardly felt, if felt at all. Something comforting and familiar to lean against when needed. Can you not look to your past and bring some counsel for yourself to your present problem?’

Idril sighed as she looked at Pio. ‘You have ever been one to keep your own counsel, Piosenniel. From first I knew you as a small, often willful child, you have always weighed the counsel of others against what your heart told you was true. And if that counsel proved wanting you always followed the designs of your own making. I would only ask that you stay yourself from the urge to solve this problem by running from it, and look deeply within before you make a final decision.’

Pio’s eyes narrowed as she turned Idril’s words over in her mind, considering them from all sides. There was an undercurrent of tension as her two friends awaited her answer.

‘I’ll think on it. On all your words.’ she said softly. ‘But not here. Somewhere more private, I think.’

She went on deck with them, and climbed back down to the skiff which had brought her over. A small breeze filled her sail as she set her course for the Isle. She turned once, saw them standing at the railing, and waved a farewell.

[ November 18, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]