~ Faith ~
My heart stops when he looks at me in that way. Everything he was, and is, and may yet be, shines out from his eyes. He is in pain, pain that I cannot heal. The sins of his ancestors weigh heavily upon him. He believes he is unable to lead a people while bearing the shame of a weakness that was never his.
I know that he can. In that same tortured look is the strength of the nation of man. That is why I have tried to convince my father not to lose faith that the power of Sauron will be broken. The very finiteness of the life of humans gives them a drive to excel that we elves do not have, with our long lives and many years to accomplish that which humans have only a short span to do. It is man's greatest weakness that he must strive for so much in so brief a time. It is also his greatest gift.
There are those that will stand together and fight, even now when all of Middle Earth cowers before the Dark Lord. I will be one of them, and so will Aragorn, though he doubts himself now. He wears the faults of Isildur like a mantle. It has changed him since he came to my people in his youth. There are lines around his eyes now, and scars on his body. Even as he stands before me I can feel him aging. It frightens me. Someday, I know I will lose him. If not to the swords of Sauron's army, then one day to the hand of time as it passes over me and takes my love instead. I would face a thousand Saurons if I could keep him forever. All I have to offer is the immortality of my love for him. I will remember him when all else has crumbled to nothing.
I give him the Evenstar jewel. He knows its value, shakes his head and denies it. I smile at him and try to hide my fears. "It is mine to give to whom I will," I tell him softly, and close his hand around it.
With the jewel go all my hopes, woven into the silver bands surrounding the stone. That he may be safe, that it will protect him and bring him back to me. That one day he will know his worth as I know it now.
Tomorrow he will be gone, and Rivendell will seem colder without him. The way ahead is dark. But there is light, too. In the reflection of the Evenstar jewel. In his eyes as he looks at me.
There is hope. There is always hope.
- End