Between them, there were three empty pots of tea and a plate of half-eaten scones. Breakfast had come and gone; early tea was long over. Lunch was being prepared in the kitchen, and the staff worked around the pair still sitting in the hall, setting all of the rest of the tables. No one would have dared suggest to Lord Erestor that he had stayed over long, and Glorfindel was too well liked to be asked to move.
“So in all actuality, you have no parents,” said Erestor, stirring his tea. It had already gone cold, but he felt much too idle to sit and talk with his hands in his lap.
Glorfindel’s pose was much more familiar. His elbows rested on the table, his hands were folded, and his chin fit just atop his thumbs. He managed to shake his head slightly. “Though, Cirdan likes to pretend he was in one of the groups that awoke before I did. He does that so that he can impart ‘fatherly advice’ upon me.”
“Cirdan does that to everyone. It is especially amusing to listen to his ‘back when I was your age’ stories, when you consider, well, what was there to do back then? Watch stars and...” Erestor frowned. “What did you do all day?”
“First of all, there was no day, there was no night, there was just time. Stargazing was second only to...” Glorfindel waggled his brows, and Erestor furrowed his. “You know… wink wink, nudge nudge?”
Erestor continued to look confused, and silently mouthed the words Glorfindel had said to himself. He almost made it to the second nudge before he shut his mouth and blushed. “Oh.”
“Well, as you said, what else did we do? There was a river, we figured out how to fish and swim. There were some trees, so we climbed them and picked their fruit and learned to plant more from the seeds. We sang, we discovered how to use sharp rocks to trim fallen branches and hollow them into flutes. Some dabbled in herbs, for healing and for dyes, but we lacked cloth.”
“Wait—you... you were naked?” Erestor looked positively scandalized.
Glorfindel smiled warmly. “Yes. You may have noticed that all babies are born without clothing. That was us, newly born, though being allowed to skip past the awkward adolescent phase.”
“And you were all naked.”
Glorfindel shrugged. “I suppose Eru did not have the foresight to supply us with a tailor.”
For a moment, it seemed the look of disapproval was going to remain on Erestor’s face. Slowly, he started to smile, and even lightly laughed. “That was funny.”
“It is true!” Glorfindel laughed a little with Erestor, and shifted aside as one of the servers carefully removed the empty pot closest to the edge of the table. “It seems as if we made it to lunch,” he said. He noted that people were beginning to drift into the room for the midday meal. “I would offer to eat with you, but I need to meet with someone.”
“I would accept, but I have work to do, and lunch by now has been delivered to my office.” Erestor stood and brushed imaginary crumbs from his robes.
“Dinner, then?”
“Hmm?” Erestor looked up, and shook his head. “Oh, no, I am sure you have... plans or something.”
“Not for dinner. Besides, you now know an awful lot about me, and I am still terribly uninformed about you,” Glorfindel reminded him.
Erestor hesitated. His tactic to keep Glorfindel talking about himself had worked to stall through lunch, but he doubted he would do so well at dinner. On the other hand, fair was fair, and he appreciated having someone to talk to who was not a coworker. Elrond was pleasant enough, but there was always that air of unfamiliarity and professionalism between them. Erestor could see how so many were attracted to Glorfindel. “I suppose I have to eat sometime.”
“Is that a yes, then?”
“I think so.”
“Excellent. Have a wonderful afternoon, Lord Erestor. I look forward to conversing with you again this evening.”
Erestor bit his bottom lip. He had built barriers around himself so high, and he feared to bring them down. Only a few bricks would not hurt, would they? “I think we can drop the titles now, Glorfindel.”
“Good. I prefer not to use them myself, Erestor. In fact, my closest friends do not even call me Glorfindel, just Glor or Gloree or something of the sort.”
“I will keep that in mind,” promised Erestor. “I will see you this evening. Have a good day, Glorfindel.”
“You, too.” Glorfindel rocked back on his heels as he watched Erestor leave. He let out a long breath – things had gone much better than expected. He recalled the rolled up paper he had confiscated earlier and left the dining hall to see Elrond.
Erestor made a detour on his way to his office. The library was open at any hour, but was staffed only during peak times. A log book on the desk allowed for items to be checked in and out at will by those who came in when the librarians were not available.
Lunchtime left the library empty, and Erestor used this to his advantage to seek out the information he was interested in without anyone else knowing. He wandered through the aisle of biographies, and found the book he wanted after very little searching. It was worn, but he expected it to be. The leather was brown, with a golden seal embossed on the front cover.
Erestor peered around the side of the shelf, checked to be sure the coast was clear, and headed for the doors. Guilt slowed his step, and he looked over his shoulder at the register. He should note what he was taking, but then someone might know what he was reading. Then again, rules were rules.
Quickly, Erestor hurried back to the desk and dipped the quill into the jar of ink. He carefully recorded the title and number from the book, but when he reached the column for his name he paused. A drop of ink dripped onto the page as his hand hovered, and he tried to blot it with his sleeve, but it only smeared it worse.
Erestor heard voices in the hallway, and though they were unlikely to be coming into the library he scribbled his name as illegibly as possible before tossing the quill aside. He briskly walked to the door, cursed when he recalled setting the book on the desk, and returned for it. The voices disappeared down another corridor. Erestor slipped the book up his sleeve and hurried out into the hallway, not stopping until he was safely in his office.
