#spoiler: the gesture at Elrond's neck height is not a threat the behead him

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

more in my Silmaril Saga of Scholomance

The first problem is the people on horses pointing swords at them.

The second problem is that the language they speak is totally unfamiliar.

And the soldier-cosplayers don't speak English. Or Swahili, or Spanish, or any other language Elrond speaks.

(The third problem is that Elros has now picked up how to say "I'm sorry, we're very lost. Do you have a phone to call our parents?" in half a dozen languages. He hopes the Scholomance doesn't give him spells in all of them - though at least Elrond will be there to help him out.)

It's still very clear that the people with swords are suspicious of Elros and Elrond.

They initially gesture for the twins to dump their bags right there on the muddy path.

Elros mimes losing things in the grass, and then gestures at the castle. He gestures dumping the bags.

There's a bit of conversation among the people with swords, but they eventually nod, and agree that the twins can empty the bags at the castle.

It's not as good as getting to actually keep their possessions, but it gives them a chance of recovering the things they'll desperately need to survive.

(Although Elrond has never heard of an induction happening late. They might not get the Scholomance at all, just living with the Feanorians for four more years, hoping that they aren't such alluring bait for mals that Caranthir refuses to let them share a house with his son.)

(And it won't even help if their mother sends the Silmaril, in a house that's very well warded but far from the Void. They'll have the mana they earn, and as much protection as the Feanorians wish to give them. No more.)

Elrond and Elros continue up the hill, surrounded by strangers on horses pointing swords at them.

Elrond tries to be polite, and introduce himself. Even Amras had looked at Elrond less as dead weight when he started calling him by name, rather than just "one of Elwing's brats".

"Elrond." He taps his chest.

The nearest soldier laughs, but the leader looks tense.

Elrond hopes his name just sounds like a swear word in this language, not a threat or insult. He tries again. "Elrond, my name is Elrond. My brother's name is Elros." He taps Elros's chest, then points at the one who laughed - though he keeps his finger very firmly in his own personal space, far from the sword at the man's hip. "What's your name?"

"Cirmacin." And then the man shook his head and said a long sentence containing Elrond and Elros's names, and a sideways gesture that Elrond couldn't interpret but was unsettlingly near to the height of his neck.

If introducing himself was already leading to death threats, Elrond ought to keep quiet.

That just gave him more time to worry though. He tried sending messages to Elros through their rings, but then he stumbled and lost track of the dots and dashes.

Besides, there was no real way to plan, not until they knew why these people were so offended by them.

Elros's message of "Amish but older and swords" was one guess as to what was happening, but incomplete. Elrond had just replied "ears", as the idea of a cult eschewing all modern technology except plastic surgery was even stranger.

The walk to the castle was only a mile, but it took far too long. Especially as neither twin had eaten breakfast or drank water that morning.

Elrond tried etymologies to pass the time. Cirmacin didn't speak Latin, but maybe his name was in it? Or Greek?

He nearly fell over when he realized it. This man with a sword was named in the conlang that Feanor invented - named "sharp edge", even!

Had the Feanorians been teaching everyone except the twins their father's secret language? Including a band of historical reenactors with bad tempers? It made no sense!

Still, Elrond wanted his twin to know. "Name is Feanor's conlang."

Both Elrond and Elros spoke it, but Elros had studiously avoided the habit of guessing a word's root language. The number of loanwords in English made it too great a risk.

Elrond was not expecting his brother to act on the information, they just tried not to keep secrets, and two heads were better than one to figure out what was going on.

Elrond was certainly not expecting Elros to immediately ask, "I still intend to go to the castle, but can anyone understand me?" in the language the two of them had been told for years was as great a secret as the Silmaril itself.

Nor was he expecting the leader of the soldiers to draw his sword and command a halt in the same language.

"How long were you planning to keep the naive act up, little spies?"