PROLOGUE - Thorin's Letter (TA 2944)
It is here –made official in this correspondence, hereby and permanently— that I abdicate the Throne of Erebor.
It had been the news Fíli had most dreaded on the arrival of his uncle's letter, and that it opened the letter straight away left him reeling a moment. It was only when the weight so palpable on his shoulders became the comforting clasp of his brother's hand –Kíli read further over the elder's shoulder— that he was able to read on.
Matters in the Shire wound longer and deeper than I have intended; I am hard-pressed to leave my Consort's side until he is well again, but his recovery is slow and tiresome for the both of us. I have come to the decision that we shall travel no longer, save one return home upon which we will embark when the illness has passed.
I am a proud of weary dwarf, and have seen more than a fair share of hardship weigh upon our strong people. I shall never be so honoured as to have led the Company of Thirteen through the wilderness and what might have been certain death to any weaker folk less formidable than they who did answer when called upon; but my ill mind will but continue to waft an air of burden through our great halls, long after the danger and degradation has passed. Hardly fit for a King, I say! –the shadows of my past will cast a darkness on our tunnels where a light might yet shine in someone else's rule, in the hands of the Golden Prince. I have heard nothing but praise on his rule in the twelvemonth of my stead, and do not doubt he will make a fine King of our people.
I shall announce when I move to return, upon my husband's renewed health; we shall stay long enough to arrange for and attend the coronation, before returning to Hobbiton indefinitely.
(A separate note attached to the royal decree, worded more personally and openly than the former. It had been addressed to Balin and passed along to Fíli to read once he had looked over it himself.)
I trust all is as well as last you wrote me. The rebuild as I hear it pressed on fruitfully, and the people may now have again a home to be proud of. Most personally I must urge Fíli to find himself a wife so he might produce an Heir to the throne; I was blessed that I could lean the future of our lineage on a sibling's son, but with his brother betrothed to an elf he will not have such nephews to set upon the throne when he passes (I write this with a cautious preemptive proclamation of Long Live the King!) Should the Prince not marry and sire a son I fear for the future of the Line of Durin, and I pray he finds his one worth sharing his life and his bed with.
I relinquish Kingship with the greatest humility but with a swelling pride in my chest in anticipation of seeing the Golden Prince crowned King.
Regards, your friend –Thorin, son of Thráin, forsaken King of Erebor.
A/N: Another in-universe fic? I think so! (Also title is a bad pun on with Fíli's being the "Golden Prince.")