Disclaimer: hehe, forgot to put this in the first chapter. Well, standard disclaimer, neither of us owns LotR or the canon characters and we are making no money from this story. Any characters that you have never heard of before will belong to one of us; some of those are still under debate as to whom owns them.

Important A/N - evil witch queen here so this note should be slightly less garbled. The Nellas in this chapter and in the rest of the story is the granddaughter of the Nellas in the prologue. Silmarwen is great-granddaughter of Maranwe from the prologue. The random bit at the beginning of this chapter is not actually part of the story; it's a prophecy probably to be elaborated on later.

I suppose a little background wouldn't go amiss would it? This is several thousand years after the War of the Ring. Elessar's line has been ruling for all this time. Minas Tirith has expanded out onto Pelannor fields up to Ramas Echor. The school is just at the edge of the Minas Tirith new town on a large piece of private land donated by Queen Arwen for a school for girls.

Chapter One - First Day at School.

I serke Noldoreva na sirith,

I Valochil na dolen,

Ar i rambar ardaeva gaya mornie na.

Hi mornie lantuva i orer Edaneva,

Ar hin Edan meruva edri Iannon.

Agarwaen kambar nuva i met

An man, an raica, i met na unole, enga Ainulindalesse.

Nayes nole hin atta nfirnuvo

Ar tur tuluva mine er.

Melkor tuluva ensinome, ire i agar Noldo ar Valaeva na ur annonesse.

The blood of the Noldor is flowing,

The Valar's heir is hidden,

Outside the walls of the earth is dread darkness.

To this darkness shall fall the minds of men,

And these men will wish to open the Gate to the Void.

Blood stained hands will be the end,

For good, for evil, the end is not known, save in the songs of the Ainur.

It is known these two will be dead,

And power will come to one alone.

Melkor will come again to this place, when the blood of the Noldo and Vala is hot on the gate.

Silmarwen stared dejectedly out the window, leaning her head in her hand. She had been attending 'Queen Arwen's Ladies College' for two months now and she hated it. She hated the old stone buildings with their fancy architecture. She hated the cold rooms and the way everything seemed so perfect. She hated the way she was treated like something unpleasant one finds under a rock. She hated the teachers with their bias towards the other girls. She hated the uniform; with its tight ankle length black skirts and whited high-necked shirts. She hated everything about the place. She hardly had any friends; nobody liked elves these days. Speaking elvish was forbidden and she had to keep the tips of her ears covered by her silver hair lest they offend someone. (The hobbits who attended the school had no such restrictions) Silmarwen's musings were cut short by the arrival of the teacher, bringing the class to their feet. Miss Andwise entered followed by a nervous looking girl. Silmarwen stared; this was no human girl. Although her hair covered her ears, it was obvious from her aura. She was an elf.

"Good morning girls." The teacher said.

"Good morning Miss Andwise."

Silmarwen ground her teeth. They were in their final year at school but Miss Andwise still insisted on treating them like children.

"Sit down."

The class sat.

"Girls, this is Nellas Elanesse. Nellas, would you go and sit over there by Selmawin.

"Silmarwen." Silmarwen growled under her breath.

Miss Andwise didn't hear, but Nellas evidently did, for she cocked her head slightly at Silmarwen before sitting down. She had large, stormy grey eyes and her long golden hair that fell to just above her waist hung loose. She looked slightly angry about something, but Silmarwen had no idea why.

Halfway through the lesson, Miss Andwise left to talk with another teacher. The class, which had previously been silent, suddenly erupted into whispers that rippled across the class. Nellas sighed in annoyance, glancing around. Even if the humans couldn't make out what someone was whispering on the other side of the classroom, she could. Quite a few of the whispers were about her, others were about Silmarwen. After one last look around the classroom, Nellas went back to her work. A lock of her golden hair fell across her face and she tucked it behind her ear impatiently. The next thing she knew, Silmarwen had dropped her quill and slapped the hair back in front of her ear. Nellas stared angrily as Silmarwen gave a hurried explanation.

"Cheblye lher untupant." She hissed in Sindarin, "It's the rules."

"Silmarwen"

Silmarwen froze, then slowly looked past Nellas to where Miss Andwise stood in the door, eyes flaming and nostrils flared.

"How dare you?" she asked angrily. "How dare you speak that vile tongue in this classroom?"

Silmarwen swallowed in a dry throat, she hadn't even realised that she had slipped into her native language.

"That's not all she did miss." Said a voice from the back of the classroom.

All heads turned in the direction of a snooty girl called Windfola. She came from Rohan and because of her ancestry (which she claimed could be traced back to King Theoden of the Third Age) she though she was better than everyone else was.

"What do you mean?" asked Miss Andwise curtly.

"She slapped Nellas without any provocation."

Miss Andwise turned back to Silmarwen.

"Is this true?"

"It most certainly is not!" Silmarwen said, both horrified and angry.

"Yes, she did." Windfola piped up again, "We all saw her. Didn't we girls?"

She addressed the last part to her gaggle of friends. They all nodded. Miss Andwise turned to Silmarwen.

"I'll deal with you after class."

Silmarwen turned and glared at Windfola who smirked back. The two had been enemies since Silmarwen's first day.

The lesson dragged on, as Geography always did. Finally, it ended. Silmarwen picked up her books and shoved them roughly into her bag. Nellas was about to leave when Miss Andwise called to her and asked her to stay as well. She then turned on Silmarwen.

"Silmarwen, what in Middle-earth did you think gave you reason to behave like that?" the teacher said, her voice dangerously low, "Not only did you break the rule about not speaking elvish, you struck a fellow student! Explain yourself."

"I told you I didn't hit her!"

"That's not what everyone else thinks."

Silmarwen stared for a moment before her gaze flicked to Nellas, who was just standing there, a look of disconcern on her face. Silmarwen started to say something, her eyes still on Nellas, but she was cut short.

"I see you have no adequate explanation for your behaviour and I shall punish you as such. As the king's ward I would have expected better of you and I shall be writing to him about this tonight."

Silmarwen's gaze was back on Miss Andwise as soon as the words left the teacher's mouth, There was unmistakable fear in the young elf's eyes. Miss Andwise continued.

"I will expect better of you in future. Is that understood?"

Silmarwen nodded bitterly as Miss Andwise turned to Nellas.

"Nellas." She said in a much kinder tone, "There are a few things you need to know. First, and probably most important, is that speaking elvish here is forbidden. The next, that you must always keep the tips of your ears covered as you're an elf and last, you must wear your hair up. Oh, and you'll be sharing a dorm with Silmarwen."

Nellas nodded subduedly but there was a small frown creasing her face. Miss Andwise dismissed them and they left together.

Once they were in Silmarwen's room and had dropped their bags, the silver haired elf rounded on the newcomer.

"Why didn't you tell her I didn't hit you?" she asked in elvish, sounding hurt.

"Why should I have told her? It wasn't my concern! I'm a Noldo, not some altruistic Vanya!" Nellas retorted. She paused before adding sarcastically, "By the way, I though you weren't supposed to speak the Eldarin tongue. You should be careful, they might make you write lines or something." Then Nellas laughed, "However, seeing as you're the kings ward, it's nice to see that you're not just some fine woman of the king doing whatever the humans say …well, at least as far as I know!"

Silmarwen's expression turned dangerously blank before a snarl crossed her face.

"What?" she said quietly, "lye nishou!"

Nellas stopped smiling and there was a deadly edge in her voice.

"I would watch your tongue, atandil."

Silmarwen was forcefully reminded of a picture of Feanor she had seen in a history book in the library of Minas Tirith.

"Don't you dare call me that, gnome." She said, her voice as cold as the Helcaraxe.

"Tye manuva" Nellas shrieked, stung by the insult.

She lunged at Silmarwen who ducked back quickly, avoiding the blow and trying to land one of her own. Her fist went towards Nellas chest, but the other elf seemed to disappear. Silmarwen stared in surprise at the space where Nellas had been, then suddenly, she heard a laugh and felt a sharp pain blow to the back of her head. She staggered forward before turning, quicker this time, and, still turning, hooked her foot around Nellas' knees. Before the Noldo could react, she came crashing down. Nellas stared up at Silmarwen in shocked surprise. Her hand scrabbled for the bag she had landed beside. All of a sudden, Silmarwen was facing a knifepoint as Nellas leapt to her feet. The blade gleamed slightly in the dull light, and although it was small, it was plainly sharp.

"What are you going to do?" Silmarwen asked quietly, her eyes locked on Nellas', "Kill an unarmed elf? It would be just like a Noldo."

"And what do you mean by that?" Nellas asked, her voice deadly, "This weapon is for self defence only."

"Self-defence!" Silmarwen shrieked with bitter laughter, "Self-defence! Was Aqualonde merely self-defence? No Noldo uses weapons for self-defence. All the Noldor are kinslayers!"

"I am no kinslayer." Whispered Nellas, "But if you continue to annoy me, I soon shall be!" her voice grew louder with the last few word.

"Annoy you?" Silmarwen spat. "That merely confirms my suspicions. Noldor are as bad as yrch!"

She seemed to have hit a nerve. Nellas blanched, and then leapt at Silmarwen with an unearthly cry of fury. She struck blindly at Silmarwen face and the Telari felt a rush of air as the knife missed her by a hair's breadth. Nellas turned for another strike but was surprised as the sound of ringing metal filled the air. Silmarwen had a blade in hand and had block Nellas' blow. And so, the deadly dance began. Circling, feinting, trading blows, the opponents faced each other, glaring. As they both grew angrier, they began almost to retreat into the shadow realm. Power crackled across their skin like molten silver and their hair caught in a non-existent breeze. Both were so distracted by blows, dodges and feints that they failed to notice the door creak slowly open - Windfola coming in to gloat. They only turned when they heard her scream, but by then, the human was out the door and running, terrified, down the corridor. Metal rang as the blades clashed again and the dangerous dance sped up. Silmarwen swung around, but a line of pain seared across her cheek. The pair froze. Silmarwen stared at Nellas' bloody knife and put a hand to her injured cheek, where she felt blood beginning to ooze from the cut. She glared at the Noldo and Nellas smirked slightly before lunging once more. They parried again only to break apart, Silmarwen with a nick on her arm. This continued for a while until Nellas, who had grown slightly overconfident, lunged again. Silmarwen dodged and kicked out and finally managed to disarm her opponent, sheathing her own knife in the same instant. Nellas stared; there was no trace of Silmarwen's knife anywhere. Her expression changed to an evil glare and she adapted an offensive stance.

"Don't think you'll win now!" she laughed, "I can still fight."

"But how well?" Silmarwen taunted, "I've never lost a fight."

Nellas did not answer, instead, her fist flew out towards Silmarwen's face and she felt it connect. Silmarwen reeled back, grabbing at Nellas' retreating wrist to save her from falling, but she pulled them both to the floor. They lay there grappling for a while, but Nellas had never learnt to use size or weight to her advantage. Silmarwen however, had leant and soon managed to get on top of Nellas and pin her wrists to the floor. Just then, the door burst open. The Maths teacher and deputy head, Miss Denmir stormed into the room, followed by Miss Andwise and a terrified Windfola.

"Silmarwen!" Miss Denmir bellowed, striding over and hauling her off Nellas and to her feet, "What in Middle-earth do you thing you are doing!?!"

Before Silmarwen could answer, Windfola gave a small shriek and pointed at Nellas, "Look at the marks on Nellas' wrists Miss Denmir!"

As Miss Andwise hurried to help the Noldo up, Silmarwen ground her teeth. Dried blood covered her skin and clothes around the cuts Nellas had given her and a livid bruise was rising on her cheek where Nellas had punched her but the teachers were pointedly not noticing.

"Just look at this Maebh." Miss Andwise breathed, indicating to the marks on Nellas arms from when they fell and where Silmarwen had held her.

"Silmarwen, why did you do this?" Miss Denmir asked in a quiet, dangerous voice.

"She attacked me-" Silmarwen started but Nellas interrupted.

"I attacked you?" she added just the right edge of hysteria to her voice as she turned to Miss Denmir, "She insulted me then attacked me without any provocation!"

"Silmarwen." Miss Denmir growled, glaring at the silver haired elf.

"I didn't!" Silmarwen gasped, slightly panicky, "Miss Denmir, I swear I never-"

"Silmarwen!" Miss Denmir shouted, effectively silencing her, before continuing in a more normal tone, "Seeing as Miss Andwise has already asked me to send for Mith, which I have done, he will be informed of this latest development upon his arrival. Of this you may be certain."

"Miss Denmir please!" Silmarwen begged. The Telari was a whole inch taller than Miss Denmir was, but she still cowered before the old teacher. Miss Denmir was a tall, gaunt, imposing woman to be sure, but to see Silmarwen afraid of what she was saying truly surprised Nellas.

"Come Menolly." Miss Denmir said to Miss Andwise, "We must see to the other students."

She then turned on her heel and strode out the room, Miss Andwise and Windfola following quickly. When the door shut, Silmarwen turned to Nellas.

"Why?" She asked, tears filling her eyes, "Why did you say that? Why did you lie to them?" Before Nellas could answer, Silmarwen turned and fled.

A/N - And for those of you who've read my 'Little Legolas Fic' we haven't used the ageing system from that, we yen thing. Nellas and Silmarwen are eighteen yen. As to the term gnome, if you don't know, we think that it's an insulting term for the Noldor used by the Sindar in the first age.

Translations:

Cheblye lher untupant - Keep your ears covered

Lye nishou - lit. you female dog

Atandil - friend of men

Tye mancuva - I will kill you.

Replies to Reviews: (once more, evil witch queen here)

Lady Greenleaf: Well, yes it is a different take on Finrod. However, I can't really claim anything on that, it was Edheldae's idea. I won't tell you who's the father of Maranwe's child just yet. It will be revealed later. Well, thanks and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

Daw the minstrel: We aim to please. I have to admit Edheldae provided most of the First Age knowledge. Well, hope you like this chapter!