"Moria- What cause had you to be near Moria, let alone inside?" Thranduil is such a mixture of surprise and horror at those words that for a moment his composure slips. He feels like he is floundering, left to grasp at the formality which was supposed to encase him. "Mithrandir had some part in this?" It did not make sense. Legolas was adventurous, and could be reckless, but never to this extent. Never to the point of recklessly endangering himself, of flaunting the laws which Thranduil had laid down for the safety of his people. And although Mithrandir could be a meddling old fool, always insisting on sticking his long nose in places better left to themselves, it was not as far as Thranduil knew his habit to bring others with him, at least needlessly. To take his son to Moria, of all places - and the timelines simply did not make sense. There hadn't been the time in which Legolas was missing from his side to travel to Moria, to Lothlórien. Surely he could not have been as negligent as that; Legolas was not always at his side, but he had not just gone missing. That doesn't matter at the moment; he can always discover at which point Legolas took leave of his senses later. For now his power gathers around him and sweeps down like a train, and his eyes are filled with anger, and his manner is a King who will not be gainsaid, whose laws and edicts have been flaunted.

"Legolas. There are reasons for the commands which I give, and there are reasons that Dol Guldur and all the surrounding area is forbidden - I would have thought you the last who would need reminder of such. There is an evil in Moria which drove out the dwarves, one which those who are wise do not disturb. How dare you act in such a manner? You may have endangered more than yourself, but even one life lost to foolishness is far too heavy a cost."