Chapter 12
"You want to learn more about him, don't you?" Draco whispered softly, his fingers curling into the bedspread. He was grateful they were not being cruel, but their kindness was just as baffling as it always was. They were not pressing him for details, they did not interrogate him as he had expected. He was given no punishment for questions he could not answer, or did not...it just made no sense to him. What use would they have for these details, and why did they want them? Things were just confusing him, though he stayed obedient, as always. He did not know what to think, and he was pleading for just a bit of explanation. He knew he was not to speak until spoken to, and not to answer any but direct questions, but he just...he could not help himself in begging for just a bit of clarification. "Why would you wish to?" Pale eyes stared at the Prince and Lord respectively, before dipping down once more in a polite reverence. "I simply, I cannot seem to understand."
"Why do we not start with something a bit more simple, yes?" Legolas suggested, and Draco nodded once, trying to forcibly loosen the tenseness in his body. It would not do to seem scared of the Lord or the Prince, not when they were attempting to help Draco, even if it was useless. "How did you come across the dwarves in Mirkwood?" Draco's nails cut into the blanket more severely at the question. He did not know.
"I am not entirely certain of that your Highness," Draco said quietly. His voice a low timber, as though frightened of the punishment bound to follow. To an extent, he knew Legolas' punishments would not be as severe as say, his own Lord, or Thranduil, but it still made him nervous not being able to answer direct questions. His father would....Draco shook his head mentally. He needn't dwell on those that are not there.
He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He had never spoken of the task the Dark Lord had given him. Not to anyone. Not even his mother. It was rather difficult to find the right words now. "I was...working on a task that I had been given by my Lord." He continued carefully. "It...To put it simply... it was not going well. There was very little progress, and I am still baffled as to why I was put up to it, there was very little hope of anything but failure...though I would not be surprised if that was the reason." Draco bit his tongue, fighting off the continued urge to explain his failure...He had already said too much.
He continued the conversation in a slightly different direction having noticed the curious looks that Elrond and Legolas were giving him. he most certainly was not going to elaborate. "I was working on it, and decided to pull myself through the magical doorway," one thing he was absolutely certain of, was magic was everywhere, and in at the very least, these Elven creatures. He had not sensed a magic in the dwarves, but he did thrumming through the Elf King, through his son, through the very land that he was in, and through the Lord standing before him that he refused to make eye contact with. Draco sighed softly. "It was a supremely idiotic idea. It was not fully tested, I had not ever tried to put a living thing through it, and it had been very much damaged beforehand. I was not even certain I was using the right runes to fix it, but I still attempted to walk through it. I dunno, perhaps I hoped it would rend me apart as it did the apple, but alas, it did not." Draco curled in himself slightly. "I came across the Dwarves after this, having landed in this forest thing...and was totally confused. The place was rife with malicious magic, dark...dangerous...it was almost cloying. I was shocked how any could even move around with the way it was curling around the throat of its victims." Draco shuddered at the memory. "It felt so familiar, but it was different, more potent than the magic of the Dark Lord...more...thick, if it makes any sense,"
Draco shrugged one shoulder, trying to get himself back on topic trying to ignore the stares of the two before him. "This...fat dwarf grabbed me before I had a chance to really process anything and next thing I know there is an order to halt in the air, and I...followed it subconsciously I suppose. Then we are surrounded, then locked in the cells, then I am being told to give good word to those moronic imbeciles." Draco couldn't help but let the dissatisfaction with the Dwarves, and the distaste, flood his voice. "Then I met His Majesty..." Draco trailed off, slightly. "His magic was so different." There was an almost reverent awe in his voice, something he was well aware of, and cleared his throat to tamp down. "I do not know how I entered this plane, or world, or...land...or whatever this is...I do not even know where this is, I do not know where my home is in reference to here either. I am aware this is rather pitiful." He rushed to say the next part. "I have not seen world maps, I do not...Mother and Father are quite strict when it comes to knowledge geographical. They did not want me running off if I got irate." He ignored the fact that this was a rather large likelihood, considering the likes of the Black family, whom had a good half of their people run off to the muggle side of things, or to blood traitors.
"Father was right then, the Dwarves did not harm you?"
"No, Your highness, apart from their crass and crude expectations, and the fact that they seemed to snatch me out of nowhere thinking I would want to go with them, there does not seem to be any particular hostility. At least not that I noticed. An annoying curiosity, and irritating expectation that I would help them in their circumstances, yes, but not malicious intent." Draco confirmed softly.
"You had dwarves in your kingdom, Legolas?" Elrond cut in, eyes staring through him. He sighed as Legolas nodded. "The fools, I told them to avoid your lands."
"They were here?" Elrond huffed. A distinctly unlordly action that Draco could not make sense of.
"Yes, and seems like it is much the same. Though I did not imprison them, but I do not have the history your father does with them, so I cannot quite fault him in this." The subtle jab left Legolas tensing before giving a civil smile.
"Yes, well, Draco, I am sure you are aware we wish to remove the...marking...on your arm." Draco startled, staring up at them in surprise.
"No, I was not." he said deadpan. "Why would you do this?"
"Because it is hurting you, and you are my patient." Elrond said simply. His voice left no room for argument. "Beyond that it is a cruel and crude thing to do to another. You were essentially branded!" Draco swallowed, looking down again, realizing he had gone too far. Before he could say anything, however, Legolas continued with what he was going to say.
"We need to learn more about it, and your Lord to be able to do so. That is why we are trying to figure out more about him. We will figure it out, one way or another, but it would be so much simpler if you were to cooperate." Draco felt his nerves thrum under his skin. He knew that tone...if nothing more. Legolas expected cooperation, and woe the person who dared otherwise. He would not be the person that dared.
"Yes, your highness," He responded, resigning himself. There was no simple way to go about this, after all.