After having arrived upstairs, Nole leans Estelin onto a bed. Finally relieved of the other’s weight, he relaxes on another bed opposite him. He is quite hungry and hopes that the server brings their supper soon. Nole looks over at the other, wondering how it is he survives being a traveling musician. “You are a traveler, yes?” Noel asks somewhat curtly “where have you been in your travels?”
Estelin, beaten and tired, still wants to try to impress the Telerin. He delves into his memory, thinking of those whose dreams he has visited as Irmo. In his surreal spiritual form he has been far and abroad, far further than this Telerin will ever go in his long lifespan. Thinking of one of his more interesting dream encounters, he says, “One place I remember well is the village of Chief Konan.”
“Oh?” Nole says, somewhat impressed. “You have met him, too? The goblin chief of that hidden village of Ulond? I have been there as well to trade.” He reaches into his pockets, filled with many odds and ends and trinkets. He picks out a black pearl and shows it to Estelin.
“Oh, yes,” Estelin sits up, quite interested. “The only place where these are found. The oysters of that black river create these.” He holds the pearl a moment. “That village is the most unusual I have ever seen. Quite secret ,too, being at the end of that long underground river in a hidden valley of Andrast. You sailed that river?” he asks and hands the black pearl back to Nole.
Nole nods. “I was quite rash then, and I wanted to impress my boyfriend… errr. Him… Felsa,” Nole adds stuttering, blushing a little. “I showed Felsa this pearl, signifying the friendship I earned with the orc chief Konan. I admit it was my first experience ever with goblins!” Nole adds, changing the subject.
“Orcs do seem to show hostility, but there is no resentment between the Teleri and the goblins?”
“You have noticed that, too?” Nole nods understandingly. “I suppose if our kinds never met during the rise of the Dark Powers and during their enslavement, then there may not be pleasant encounters to follow.” He laughs. “They offered to fix my ship when I ground out just offshore their village.”
“Your ship has been damaged often?” Estelin asks.
“A fair few times, but I have always managed to repair it somehow… We’re so fortunate to have arrived here at all.”
Estelin remained silent a time, but then asks, “Felsa, what is he like?”
“Was he like, you mean. He was kind and .. understanding. He is gone, vanished with the others. I wonder if I will ever see him again.” Nole says sadly. “He is gone, and Olwe, I am not sure I understand him just now either. I feel alone as those closest to me are gone or changed. It is just the two of us now; we have to keep him from getting in trouble again.”
Nole’s words of loneliness touch Estelin. “We will watch over him, both of us, and we will find your friend.” Estelin, though, feels just as lonely, for bound by Manwe’s order of secrecy he could not even tell Nole his own secret.