A/N: I have been blessed with having many plots come to me recently, and a great desire to write them all. Hopefully, the increased number will not diminish the quality of the stories. Please send suggestions, for this is my introduction to a very complex and difficult plot with more twists than I can fathom.

I must bow to my friend, Wen. Without her help, this story would not have come into existence and throughout it I will be looking to her for her wise and talented guidance.

Silencing the Music of the Ainur

Prologue

"If you ask it of me, I will give you the one ring." Extended out was all the power she could ever dream of wielding, in the palm of this humble creature.

            "You offer it to me freely." Soft steps heralded her approach toward a power greater than even she, with all her long life, could imagine. The air itself seemed to spark with the appearance of the One.

            Nenya, her powerful ring, the Ring of Adamant, sent shivers through her hand as she extended her other hand towards the plain gold object of her passion.

            "I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this." Her heart and all of her soul. Closing the gap, it happened. A power overcame her and she saw all the possibilities laid out before her.

            "In place of a Dark Lord you will have a Queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea, stronger than the foundations of the Earth!"

            Fear played on Frodo's face as he saw the beautiful Lady of the Galadrim turn into a being of terrifying, all-consuming power, yet still contained within was her spell-binding beauty. 

Closer, that which would give her ultimate power was coming closer. The world in its entire was within her grasp. The hesitation and fear on the young one's face only adding to her sense of dominance.

"All shall love me and despair!"

            She made contact with the One Ring and immediately fell into its power. A dark power, blacker than the night itself consumed her. In was in that one moment that hope faded from the lands.

Galadriel, Lady of Light, fell into shadow on that day, a day that would change the fate of Middle Earth forever.

That is the day that darkness crept into treasured places and where we begin our tale.