Set me free. I wish to fly. Take me above these clouds and chains; set me free.

Alassea stroked the neck of her guitar softly, nuturing it as a child and holding it close to her chest.

Fresh tears rolled down her sodden blush cheeks, as delicate as the touch of a newborn. The maple woodgrain guitar emitted a faint hum with each stroke against the golden strings, believed to have been weaved from the hair of an angel. She watched the leaves of the Farethga tree dance in the wind, swirling a turquoise-crimson colour beneath its shade.

Her oriental eyes grew more tense as she glimpsed upon the rare beauty of her home world, suddenly feeling an immense pain within her heart. She yearned for her love to return to her, to run his calloused fingers through her glossy, thin hair and whisper words in his calm voice. She yearned for the words that spoke of her flamboyant chestnut hair and the dexterity of her fingers as she tamed the wild nature of the instrument. Above all else, she wept.

Númenessë watched her inconspiciously through the corner of his eye, while preparing their meal. He worked consistently to hide a smile from forming upon his mouth, which was more difficult as first believed; he now frowned. He placed the chiseled cooking instruments down carefully and sat beside her. Her eyes darted about nervously as she watched the interaction of nature, oblivious to his presence.

Small, finch-like creatures frolicked in the trees and jumped from branch to branch, searching for a home. His large, emaciated hand caught a tear before it landed upon the foilage carpet, and held her as she gasped.

"Father-" She cried, before being tranquilised by the sight of his index finger across his lips.

"Hush, my child. Silence. There are answers to your many questions but only in tranquility," He spoke.

"If the world is to come to you, why must you search? What satisfaction would there be in such knowledge?"

Alassea's eyes searched her father's, desperately trying to find meaning in his words.

"But it is not knowledge that I wish to attain, but something else."

Númenessë followed her eyes as they wandered the many beauties of the land and stayed within his silence for a while before conversation began.

"Father, I wish to travel across the Western Seas." Alassea spoke softly, but firmly. Númenessë knew within an instant of her terror and fear of his will. He even felt her shiver as she held her within his arms.

"I hear you, my child..." He paused a moment.

"Yet you make this decision on an empty stomach, unaware of the rough conditions of the seas before us and with no supplies avaliable to you."

Alassea studied her feet in a crestfallen notion.

"Yet, my child, you require not air to breathe, nor food to eat. Your air is the love that drives you and sustains you to him, afar,"

"But what of your grove, your heritage, your life? Would you betray this for lust and desire?"

He smiled after speaking these words, gently patting her on the back and returning to his duties.

Alassea grew ever weary as the minutes past, quickly turning to hours and finally days, as she took her depature from the sacred grove, her homeland.

Draped with a cloak thredded of enchanted purple silk and hair left straight and untouched, the advice set by her father was precise. She approached the dock of the Western Seas, intensely rivaled by drunken buccaneers and fierce winds. Unarmed, Alassea relied on the transparency of her cloak upon the fading rays of the sun to escape her antagonism and find safe passage upon a well-dressed ship known as the 'Celestial Bow'.

Day became night quicker than usual as the ship set sail, shadows clung to every sail and lurked about each corner. The wind had ceased, however, yet the ship continued on due course. The stench of rotting flesh hit her nostrils with no subtlety, just like the sensation of hunger, her churning stomach.

As time passed, and she grew older, her dedication to her love had not been lost. Each day was a struggle to remain conscious after suffering numerous blows to the head as the ship would uneasily tilt, while nights were a time of howls in agony and the longing to be home again. After those many months aboard the ship, her time had come to escape and flee in search of her love.

With no hesitation, she dived into the artic water, moving as surreptiously as she could through the ocean. Her lungs no longer could support her, despite her ability to breathe

oxygen from water, she head for the closest source of land and fainted.

Awakening was no more pleasant an experience than loosing consciousness in the first place, as her father hovered above her worridely. A formless being stood beside him, seeming to watch Númenessë's moves with utter caution.

"Get up now, child. Get up!"

He barked at her ruthlessly, though he was a compassionate man. Alassea arose slowly, still trying frantically to make out the creature who now approached her and surrounding environment. It felt her soft face with rough hands, rubbed her arms and shook itself.

"She has been rendered permanently blind." It murmured.

Númenessë gasped like a tortured animal, though stood his ground. Although she could not properly make out his face, she saw the old man's wavy hair and grey eyes become more sombre than ever before. She too, was frightened but also confused.

The formless being grasped Alassea though she resisted, and planted a kiss upon her forehead. Such a mark of quintessential passion could have only been from her love.

"Alassea, child of the sacred grove, you fell in love with a mortal, sacrificing your Elvish immortality and loosing your

vision as you travelled to find him... I have nothing more to say."

With these final words he took his leave into the sparse ocean range, and vanished with her love, before her murky eyes.