Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, I don't own any of the characters that I've taken from Tolkien's work. The Original ones are mine. blah blah blah.
Okay, a little background here. I wrote this fic for the girls at the Forum I visit. The characters in the story are modeled after them, each of them having given me a bio for their individual person. This fic is completely AU. If you all don't like what I've done to twist Tolkien's world, I'm sorry. But, if you feel flames are necessary, flame away.
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Prologue
Hushed whispers and furtive glances accompanied the coming into the world of the tiny baby girl. Even her mother did not cry out in pain. It was a dark time of new evils, only now surfacing in the midst of black treachery. As the Lady Galadriel took her newborn child into her arms, she could not keep her eyes from the pearlescent shimmer of the ring on her finger. Oh what treachery lay in its faceted surface and what evil it drew to it. She tore her gaze from its deceptive glow and looked lovingly on the baby. She could no more escape the tear from falling on the child's face than she could stop the sob that shook her hunched shoulders.
She raised her face to cast an anguished glance her husband's way. His usual regal stance was haunted with an overwhelming sense of dreariness as he slowly nodded in response to her silent question. She could only close her eyes under the silent weight of her grief as she clutched the baby closer to her.
Hours passed, or maybe minutes as she rocked the infant, who still had not cried. Her placid face seemed to reflect a knowledge of the great evil in which she now lived. The silence was heavy, filled to bursting with the burden of unspoken words.
"Galadriel." Lord Celeborn's voice broke the calm. " Even the woods of Lothlorien are not safe from Mordor's gaze. These are not times in which to raise a newborn babe." His voice, though sad, carried an authority and wisdom that even love of a child could not mask.
"What should we,..........I do? she asked, her voice soft.
"I have planned it. It is best you not know, lest you are someday forced to tell it."
She nodded, understanding this necessity. Sauron would search her out, to steal her ring of power. He would try to use her child against her. But, if she knew not where the girl was, then there was no way she could be forced to protect her by speaking her location. If she knew nothing, she could tell nothing.
"When?" she asked, knowing full well that Celeborn would understand her question.
"Now. I have also found a nursemaid for her."
"Now?! But Celeborn, she is our daughter! Can't we just......." The look on his face showed that he understood, but necessity must blot out love.
Again, she nodded and then leaned down to place a soft kiss on the baby's forehead. In a quiet voice, she spoke, "Namaarie, meleth nin."
With that, she handed the still-silent child to the waiting nursemaid and closed her eyes in sorrow.
