An Interview

It is freshly dawn, but much in Amroth already stirs. The Knight\'s Tower, indeed, has hosted flurried activity throughout the midnight hours, following the Lord Arathis\'s curious arrests at the masquerade. Those detained, though collected together, were quickly split, with one group quartered under guard among the squires\' lodgings, and the other disappeared to elsewhere deeper within the Tower.

Men of Amroth\'s host escort Farielle of House Girithlin to the spire of the Herald, whose door is expectantly ajar.

\"Please, enter,\" says Arathis from behind his desk, the guardsmen then releasing their charge.

The lady, freshly clothed in deep burgundy, face still and expressionless, comes inside silently, moving to sit in a chair and watching the knight with guarded eyes.

The knight\'s gaze, albeit softer in quality, meets the lady\'s unabashed.

\"I trust your detention was not too unpleasant,\" he begins, a hand coming to ball atop the desk, \"and, though the manner is crude, I assure you its necessity was compelled by unkind revelations.

\"Now, if you shall cooperate with me here, it shall end once you depart my office though our cooperation, as it were, shall not.\"

\"Why have you done this?\" is Farielle\'s response, eyes glittering, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. It is as if she hasn\'t heard anything else he has said, though she lifts her chin a tiny amount. Cooperate? With /him/?

\"Lady,\" answers Arathis quickly, his words composed and deliberate, \"I would not burden another with the finer demands of my office. I shall inform you, however, that I have done it in service, as Gondor must meet a false king that claims her, whose agents even now pollute our homes and report back to him.\"

He looks in consideration upon Farielle.

Farielle\'s chin lifts a fraction more. \"And so you must insult both myself and my family? I have told the Prince all I know of that man. Speak to him if you desire information.\" Her fingers tighten about each other.

\"Methinks, Lady, that you doth protest too much.\" The Herald\'s fingers rap once upon his desk\'s wood. \"I have levied no insult and I speak to you by the Prince\'s grace.

\"Now, if I have been understood, I would proceed to make inquiry of you. If not, these men shall return you to your previous quarters, and I shall retrieve you when more sensible.\"

\"Anything you desired to say to me, could have been said without such ... defamation.\" Farielle\'s gaze flickers, then tightens on the knight\'s face again. \"Speak.\"

\"Young lady, comport yourself,\" demands the Lord suddenly, his hand flattening atop his desk.

\"I shall not suffer you so.

\"All that occurred at the masquerade will be relayed to the Pretender and here you break your station because you have spent a night among squires.\" A sternness comes upon Arathis, hardening his features.

For a moment, anger has the upperhand, and Farielle stares back at the knight, unfearing. She says nothing at all, merely waits.

Arathis sits staid. \"Have you heard the name Ceredir before?\"

\"No.\" The response comes instantly, no need for thought.

\"Among the men you witnessed within Umbar,\" continues Arathis, \"how many bore the features common to our land? For we do not resemble the Southrons.\"

This time, the girl hesitates, looking down at her hands again, then she says, in a colorless voice, \"My brother was there. Come to rescue me.\" She looks up. \"Perhaps you should also arrest him,\" she says, voice edged.

Arathis considers the girl in silence for some moments.

When he speaks, the words come plainly and as fact, \"Lady, I require information from you for the defense of the realm.

\"You shall halt your guff or you shall rise and return to your quarters.\"

He waits expectantly for her decision.

\"There is nothing more I can tell you,\" Farielle answers. \"I have spoken all that I know and told all I remember to the Prince and to his scribes. Why do you not consult them?\" Her hands, still tightly held together in her lap, are trembling faintly.

\"Inquire of me another question that does not befit you, Lady, and I shall expel you,\" declares Arathis freely, his grim gaze affixing upon the girl.

\"You have mentioned to me but omitted to the scribes your knowledge of a man that aided your escape, which you now claim was an act of your brother.

\"Tell me now all of this man -- whether he bore the features of our land, his name, and any other men who appeared to have even the slightest link to Gondor.\"

Her mouth is dry. When her voice comes out, it is a whisper. \"I cannot.\"

\"I do not say this.. \" Farielle swallows, and goes on a little louder. \"I do not say this to thwart you - ask your questions of my brother. I have sworn an oath.\"

\"You have mentioned to me but omitted to the scribes your knowledge of a man that aided your escape, which you now claim was an act of your brother.

\"Tell me now all of this man -- whether he bore the features of our land, his name, and any other men who appeared to have even the slightest link to Gondor.\"\'.

\"To whom?\" adds Arathis calmly, his jaw extending.

Farielle is silent a moment, thinking. \"To that man,\" she says at last.

\"An oath that you shall not reveal him or his consorts?\" delves Arathis, inclining towards his interlocutor.

There is another pause. Then she nods. A faint tremor escaping into her voice, she says, \"Please... I have spoken all that I might. I have not seen him since.. since that time.\"

The Herald rises from his seat and is for some moments fain to simply mull over the girl before him.

At length, he fulfills the matter: \"By the voice of the Prince, your Oath is void in these lands. Until the time that you shall disclose the Pretender\'s agent\'s identity to me, you, Farielle of House Girithlin, are forbidden to exit the walls of Dol Amroth. Within them, you shall be escorted and monitored between all residences by men of the Host\'s guard.

\"If you should not disclose the Pretender\'s agent\'s identity to me, and thereby mean to deny the sovereignty of our Prince within Belfalas, and too jeopardize the rule of Elendil\'s line and its Stewards over our Dunedain Kingdom, I fear you broach treason.

\"For now, I bid you return to the Girithlin\'s manor and send your brother to me.\"

\"But I told you his name,\" Farielle says, surprised. She stands up, and turns to leave, saying over her shoulder with dignity, \"I have spoken with the Prince, as has my father.\" The rest of what he has to say, she seems to ignore save for the stricken look in her eyes - that perhaps he cannot see as she leaves.