A/N: This piece is a companion work to "In the wind". For a better understanding of the references that will be made throughout the story I recommend throwing a look over that sister-fic.
That said, the few chapters I shall write for this will depict the manner in which Éowyn managed to not lose her life to childbed fever.
Surrounded from all sides by a sea of darkness, Éowyn looked down to her pristine dress – it was the only source of light in this black abyss. How odd. She could have sworn she'd felt scalding blood running down her thighs mere moments ago. Yet the glow of her stark white garment spoke of no blood. Even the pain had left her body. Yet it did not make her feel any better than when she'd held her son in her arms. Nay, a strange numbness had stolen over her, making her limbs heavy and difficult to master. Where was she? She willed herself to take a step forward.
"Do not wander through the darkness," a voice warned, springing from some hidden corner. Éowyn looked around trying to determine where the intruder was and what he was. The voice was clearly not human, not was it an elf that has spoken to her. "You might lose your way and your soul along with it."
A slow heat burned inside Éowyn's chest. "Show yourself!" she demanded firmly. "I shall have no more words of you unless I see your face."
"Is this what you want to see?" A tall, slender figure stepped out of the shadows, looking at Éowyn with eyes that haunted her memories. The woman stretched out her hands invitingly. "Am I permitted to speak now?"
But the voice; it was not right. It was not her mother's voice. Éowyn's face darkened. This was not her mother. The face and eyes and hair, they were all as they should be, but there were no worry lines around those sparking eyes and the thin lips. Her mother had held her mask of perpetual sadness since her father's death. The woman before her showed no such signs of mourning. In fact she seemed empty, devoid of any feeling remotely human.
"No?" the woman asked. "Vey well, shall I try this?" Her whole body twisted and shook in such a way that Éowyn was sure she could hear the bones breaking and rearranging themselves. She watched in mute horror as woman became man, and her mother's face became Théodred's. Her young cousin who had been ripped too soon from the world of the living. Éowyn's eyes filled with tears. What sort of monster would torture her so?
"Away from me, fiend!" she growled when the creature tried to approach her. Instinctively, she took a step back, her whole body hardening against a possible attack.
"Should I leave you shall be all alone." With the darkness. That fear sown so long ago into the fertile essence of that which make her Éowyn sprang from its place as if watered by the rain of the woman's agony. The darkness was dangerous. Yet was there more danger in the eternal blackness or in the company she now kept?
Éowyn regarded the creature distrustfully. "Why should I allow your presence near me?" She wanted to go back to warmth and peace and love, to her husband and her son.
"I can help you find what you seek, a way back." The creature offered a dry, cutting smile. "I can help." Yet never did anyone give something for nothing. Éowyn should have expected the ghost to try such a tactic. "But I require a price for my aid." She could not think of a reason for which she should have been surprised. Yet she was.
"What would you have of me?" Her question hadn't been spoken in an encouraging tone. The White Lady was not at all tempted to play such dangerous games as this she was forced into. At the same time she could not remain trapped in the darkness.
"Nothing you would ever have any need of," was the only reply the being gave. A path of cobblestone unfolded in front of Éowyn, torches lighting the way. "Walk with me."
Seizing the chance with both her hands, Éowyn took her real first step in the strange realm she'd been thrown into.