A/N: This is just a random thought, not a theory per say. I don't own the books sadly, and the library's lost the first one so quoting's quite beyond me. But enjoy anyway. :) Naturally this won't be compatible with the final book since it's not out yet. Crossing my fingers for the official date though.
This was written for the smallfandomflsh community at livejournal for challenge #117 – verge, and for the 5,10,20,50,70,100 fandoms challenge, fandom…I forgot again. *checks* 36/100.
And for non-fandom familiars, Innle and Seeker are both titles that are given (not yet proven though) to Elspeth.
The Guardian and the Destroyer
A polyphony of voices cried within Elspeth's mind, but her legs struggled on regardless. I the part of the mind she kept to herself, she wondered why they tried to pull her back, tried to stop her. It was her duty after all, her destiny, to meet with the Destroyer behind those doors. To meet where the Beforetime had ended and their current world was born.
And what would frightening her now accomplish? After all she had done, all she had sacrificed, she could not turn back at the end of the world. She couldn't let the Grey White swallow it all, without at least trying to defeat the one who held it fast. Who that person would be though, she didn't know. She had thought Ariel, but his cold body now lay below the steps of stone. H'rayka, Gahltha had called him, and now she saw what he had meant.
Her heart banged painfully against her chest as she struggled up the flight of stairs. Her eyes stayed on the stone, her hands clutching Cassandra's diary to her chest. The echo of warm hands on her shoulders pushed her on, despite the weight of her burden dragging her back; they were both gone, both left at the base, but she felt it even as she ploughed further from them. Her lips though were already numb, the farewell kiss stolen by the heavy air that throttled her. And the sweet but sorrowful goodbye was swallowed by the voices that shrieked over the high winds, shrieked at her to turn from her path.
It was too late for that now anyway, not that she'd really had a choice.
She reached the door, the door she had opened what seemed like an age ago. Warm air buffeted her from within and she flinched back in surprise; she'd expected bitter cold, the stench of decay, but what she received was...
Warmth. Familiarity. All with that dark chasm of power that twisted her gut. But they were intertwined, while in the past they had been separate and distinct; she knew, she knew, because…
But Maruman's yellow eyes stared unblinking at her frozen face, and she could say nothing.
'We each do what we must, Innle.' He licked his paw, a hint of sympathy in his tone as he repeated his words from long ago, the time he had stayed with her, and protected her.
'Yo – you're - ?' She couldn't say it. Not her beloved Maruman.
He looked at her, then slunk back into the shadows. 'Come, Innle,' he said, 'still, we must go further in for the weaponmachines.'
The voices in Elspeth's mind were silent as she mechanically followed.