"Listen, don't go into Nan Elmoth."

Celegorm frowned at his brother as he turned to go. There was a slight catch in Curufin's voice, and when Celegorm turned to look at him, he saw that he looked unusually anxious. They were standing on the grassy hill just outside of the fortress-town where they made their home, alone, but Celegorm still lowered his voice as he asked, "Why, exactly?"

His eyebrows inched ever-closer towards his hairline as Curufin continued to look anxious, and frankly uncomfortable. He gritted his teeth, muttering, "Do you remember our first encounter with the lord of Nan Elmoth?"

Celegorm snorted. "Eöl? How could I forget? I thought I was going to have to pull the two of you apart."

"Yes, well, after that, I thought it would be prudent to, ah, send scouts into Nan Elmoth."

"You what?" Celegorm shook his head and stared at him in amazement. "I'm going to assume that the fact that you are still alive with your ears intact to tell me this means that Nelyo never found out."

Curufin shook his head vigorously, the anxious look in his eyes bleeding out to be replaced by something rather grim. "They never came back, Tyelkormo."

"They never came back?" Celegorm echoed. A cold feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. "What do you mean by that?"

His brother lifted his arms from his sides, before letting them fall back to idleness, and shook his head helplessly. Celegorm didn't think he'd ever seen Curufin look so helpless, not since they were freezing by the shores of the lake in Mithrim and Celebrimbor, still a tiny toddler, screamed for his mother in the dark of endless night. "Their horses returned, eventually, skittish, wild-eyed, refusing to be handled by most for weeks afterwards. The riders never returned."

In Celegorm's mind, there wasn't a whole lot that could mean, except, "So Eöl killed them, then?"

"I'm not sure if it was his doing."

"How can you not be sure, Curvo? It seems rather straightforward to me."

Curufin squeezed his eyes shut. "Because," he said reluctantly, "because after those horses came back, and their riders didn't, I began asking the locals what they knew of Nan Elmoth. People go missing in there. Often, no, always, since long before Eöl settled there. According to them, he's the only one ever to settle in the dark forest and not go missing. Besides Maitimo's probable reaction if you venture into that forest uninvited, I tell you this: If you go into Nan Elmoth, you will not come back out."

-0-0-0-

Celegorm wandered ever further south, walking up and down Himlad from east to west and back again, wandering south all the while. He asked the scouts and soldiers garrisoning the outposts if they had seen Aredhel, and none of them could say that they had. If she had passed through this region, she had managed to do so completely undetected, something that gave Celegorm little comfort.

One of the outposts was visited by a rider from the fortress-town while Celegorm was sheltering there during a storm. It was a message from Curufin to Celegorm: none of their brothers knew where Aredhel was. Maedhros was sending letters of his own to Fingolfin, Fingon, and their other cousins, but could give no answer himself as to where their cousin had gone. Celegorm bit down a bitter retort bubbling in his throat when he read the letter. Curufin could not hear him, and it was no fault of his, not really.

No one had seen her. Absolutely no one had seen Aredhel here in Himlad, and there was no one to mark her passing. There was no one who could mark her journey north, east or south; Celegorm only knew that she could not have passed into Doriath, remembering Thingol's policy towards the Noldor not related to him by blood. So there was nothing to be done except for Celegorm to continue his wanderings, even as Huan whimpered at the thunder and the harsh wind threatened to cut him to the bone.

Further south he went, further and further south. The forest of Region, the dense southern forest of Doriath, loomed to the west, and Celegorm paid it no mind. Aredhel would not have gone there, not after being turned away once, and could not have ventured into Doriath, not with Melian's Girdle keeping nearly the entirety of the Noldor from entering. The only thing Aredhel would have found in Doriath was confusion and starvation. Celegorm would not countenance the possibility that that had been her fate.

Celegorm climbed to the top of a steep hill one gray, chilly afternoon, and there was another forest, looming to the south. A forest of tall, dark trees, twisted and tangled together, like a single living thing. Nan Elmoth.

Curufin and Eöl had loathed each other immediately and unconditionally upon meeting, and frankly, Celegorm hadn't liked the looks of his neighbor to the south either, had not liked the fact that this was the sort of person whose lands sat between Himlad and Estolad. Celegorm had not liked the idea of Nan Elmoth acting as a barrier between him and his youngest brothers, all on account of the person who held that sunless forest.

In the nearly three hundred years it had been since Celegorm and his brothers moved east out of Hithlum, Celegorm had only seen Eöl a handful of times. He had, Celegorm gathered, no love of sunlight, and moreover was very skilled at passing through guarded places unseen, a skill that Celegorm hoped he had not passed on to his own scouts, if he had them (Celegorm had never seen any). These encounters, usually the result of Curufin waylaying Eöl on the way to or back from Nogrod or Belegost, were never what anyone could term pleasant.

After that first meeting, Eöl was never overtly hostile towards them again. There was at least a chilly, backhanded politeness maintained between them. But Eöl bore even less love for the Noldor than he did for sunlight; Celegorm could see it in his cold, watchful stare, hear it in his harsh voice. Celegorm had a hard time believing that Eöl would give Aredhel shelter, nor that she would be there now (And given Curufin's story, the idea was not one Celegorm relished).

What was worse was that Celegorm had no idea exactly where in the forest Eöl lived to check, just in case. Nan Elmoth looked small on a map, but that was misdirection. It laid next to the far larger Region, and one could be forgiven for thinking Nan Elmoth small by comparison, the sort of forest that could be ridden through in a few hours, but all one had to was do what Celegorm had done now, and looked upon it from a nearby hill to know better. The dark forest was vast, sitting in the flatland just beyond the Celon. Nan Elmoth's shadow stretched out towards the edge of the horizon.

Celegorm had never ventured into Nan Elmoth. Maedhros had admonished his younger brothers to avoid doing anything that could give Thingol offense, given that the King of Doriath had precious little love for Fëanor's sons to start with and could start trying to make life very difficult for all of the Noldor in Beleriand if he saw fit, and had said all of this in the sort of tone that promised that they could expect to get a good ear-boxing if they disobeyed. Eöl was one of Thingol's subjects, and he had to have some level of favor with him for Thingol to have granted him the lease of the entire forest. In that case, violating Nan Elmoth's borders sounded like just the sort of thing that would give Thingol offense, and Celegorm liked his ears just the way they were.

He stood on the crest of the grassy hill, staring out on a gray sky and a dark, tangled forest. Celegorm pulled his cloak closer about him, and started to walk south again.

The river Celon, though fast-flowing, was narrow, not particularly deep, and easily forded. Celegorm came to the stony shores of the river, Huan by his side, and had but a few paces to walk before he was standing at the edge of the forest. He came to a dead halt, and stared into the trees.

It was still, and silent. Himlad was often assailed by fierce winds, but the howling of the wind and its fearsome breath all fell to silence and stillness at the borders of Nan Elmoth. Celegorm saw nothing, no animals, and no people; if Eöl kept scouts to watch the borders of his lands, he had clearly instructed them to remain hidden, and done so to good end. He heard nothing, not the wind, nor the sound of branches being trod upon that might have signaled the presence of Quendi out of Celegorm's line of sight, nor even birdsong. The forest was empty.

There was at the borders of Nan Elmoth a thick fence of gnarled, tangled shrubs in among the trees, their presence as clear a message as any fence made of stone or lumber as Celegorm had ever seen. Beyond that was darkness and shadows, and trees in possession of a disturbing sameness. Celegorm knew that there must not have been undergrowth like this in the heart of the forest; he knew no plants that could grow without sunlight, and he saw none when staring into the depths of Nan Elmoth.

The chill, uncharacteristic even for a Himlad summer, suddenly seemed far sharper and more pervasive than it had before. Celegorm felt the wet chill seeping into his clothes, his skin, his silver hair and his bones. He stared into the darkness, and felt as though something was staring back at him. He felt as though there were countless pairs of eyes staring back at him, not of Quendi, nor of beasts, not of any living creature that Celegorm knew. There were countless pairs of eyes staring back at him, unblinking, watchful, watching him as he stood at the borders of Nan Elmoth, and contemplated crossing over despite his brother's warnings. He felt like he was being pulled in.

And then it occurred to him.

Curufin said that his scouts' horses had returned to the town wild-eyed and panicked. Celebrimbor had said the same thing of Aredhel's horse.

Could she be…?

"Huan?"

A soft whimpering at his side awoke Celegorm's thoughts from half-sleep. He looked and saw the great gray hound backing away, staring nervously into the forest, whimpering as though frightened. He is frightened.

"Huan?" Celegorm asked, concerned. "What is it?"

Huan turned tail and swam back across the Celon, shaking himself dry on the opposite shore. He stared at Celegorm, and barked once, eyes full of anxiety.

"What's gotten into you? Surely you're not afraid of venturing into the forest like those horses…"

He felt it, then.

Celegorm really felt the pull this time. Before, he'd felt it, even been aware of it, but had written it off as unimportant and not worth worrying over. Now, he felt the pull, felt it trying to draw him in to the forest like a reel drawing a fish up out of the waters of the Celon. He began to back away, slowly, his breath catching in his throat.

Celegorm spared one last glance for the forest of Nan Elmoth. In the gloom of the dark forest, he saw no hint of light. He saw not so much as a speck of white, no sign that Aredhel had been there, or was there now. Even so, as he turned and crossed the Celon once more, he felt as though he was abandoning his cousin to some strange fate, alone in the wilderness (Or closer than he thought).

Thus, Celegorm resumed his search within his own lands, a search that over the next few weeks he became increasingly sure was hopeless. Finally, as summer was waning and the world began to wake to frost in the mornings, he returned to the home he kept with his brother and nephew. Curufin had nothing new to tell him. Celegorm laid down at night, and dreamt of her, wandering alone, lost in the dark.

Nelyo, Maitimo—Maedhros