Forlond, SA 1693
A rider clad in dark, travel-worn garments arrived early one evening at the House of Gil-galad. Ereinion came down to the courtyard to greet his friend from the south with a smile that quickly faded when he took in Erestor's grim countenance. Erestor dismounted and made to bow to the High King, but Ereinion stopped him.
"Don't be foolish, we are friends. Come inside. Your coming was unlooked for, but we have plenty of accommodation here. I will have rooms settled for you, a hot bath, and a good meal," Ereinion said.
Erestor grasped Ereinion's arm. "I must speak with you," he said lowly. "At once, and alone."
Ereinion's brow creased at Erestor's urgency and nodded. "Come, then, to my own chambers."
"I apologise that I cannot waste time in pleasantries," Erestor said as Ereinion closed the door behind them. "And I fear that once I sink into that hot bath you speak of I may melt like soap and sleep for a week."
"When did you set out?" Ereinion asked, helping Erestor out of his travelling coat.
"Just over a fortnight ago," Erestor said, sitting gratefully in a chair by Ereinion's hearth.
"You've ridden hard," Ereinion said, drawing up another chair. "How bad is it, my friend?" he asked, clasping Erestor's arm.
"It has not yet broken upon us," Erestor sighed, "but we have reason to believe that when it does, it will be as the waves that took Beleriand under."
"Celebrimbor needs reinforcements?"
Erestor gazed into the fire until its dancing began to make him dizzy. "If he has not sent for them, then I cannot say. I come on another, secret purpose."
"You have my attention," Ereinion nodded.
"I need not tell you how Eregion has been since he was revealed to us. We destroyed many of the rings he aided the smiths in creating, but Celeb fears there are some still missing. But more than this, there are three rings which surpass the power in all those others. 'Annatar' had no hand in their making, Celeb worked alone and secretly, but the magic he wrought them with is of the sort taught them by him. You see… he was sure that 'Annatar' was no more than the sort of treacherous brigand amongst which Celeb's own father and uncles were counted…. Celeb thought we could obtain his knowledge and skill and turn him out if he proved false."
Ereinion sighed. "I will not say that I thought Annatar much more than that, either. And I know how Celeb rues his lineage. Mayhap he thought he could prove himself better by overcoming Annatar if he thought him cut from that same cloth."
"I would doubt it not," Erestor said sadly. "Ever does he wear like a heavy mantel the guilt of things in which he had no hand. But this is why I have come." Erestor took a pack from over his shoulder and withdrew a box. "These are the three secret rings, Ereinion. If Sauron gets his hands on these, together with his ring, he could unmake Middle Earth. Celeb fashioned them with powers of protection and the ability to preserve, but Sauron has the ability to turn all things to evil and so Celeb feels that these must never be used while Sauron possesses a controlling ring."
Erestor sat with Ereinion for a while, explaining to him the power in each ring. Ereinion agreed to keep them safe and unused until such a time as Sauron was defeated and Celebrimbor called for the rings to be returned.
"And now I have one final errand to discharge," Erestor said, handing the box of rings to Ereinion, "for I must also sue for your shelter of me. If you have some treasure house, go ahead and put me in it with these accursed rings, for Celeb begs me to stay here, where I am out of harm's way, instead of standing with him until whatever end."
Ereinion sighed. "Come, Erestor, you have the freedom of my home for as long as need be. You know that Celebrimbor loves you beyond all else. If anything happened to you… his grief would claim him as surely as any sword-stroke. I have known him many years; it has always been as you say about that mantel of guilt woven of the misdeeds of our kin. But when he met you, he became a different Elf, happy and proud in such ways as I never imagined him. That is why he wants you kept safe."
"And what shall I do if I lose him to this war?" Erestor whispered wearily.
"Let us not talk of those things," Ereinion said, grasping Erestor's arm. "Come, let me show you to your rooms. There will be that hot bath by now, and anything you should want for, just call."
Erestor allowed himself to be lead for a while, but then stopped. "Ereinion… what am I to do here? Sit in your hall and worry about him until word comes at last?"
"Of course not, Erestor. Sit with me in counsel – I know your skill at negotiation and your rapier wit, for I've been on the sharper end of it a time or two! But now is not the time for work. You need rest, and decent food. I'll wager you've eaten nothing by lembas since you departed Eregion."
Erestor could not argue the High King's logic. "Ereinion, promise me you will go to his aid when he calls?"
"You have my word, dear friend. Ost-in-Edhil will not stand alone. And were it in my power, I should also give my word that your realm should stand ever after, but no matter what happens, you and Celebrimbor and your loyal people will always have the welcome of Lindon."
Ost-in-Edhil, SA 1695
"Their numbers are too many," Celebrimbor said, dragging a hand through his hair. "They will be upon our doorstep in weeks – and it will take at least as long for Ereinion to muster and send a host."
"We can fight them, we have the power!" argued Celebrimbor's lieutenant, Vaneldur.
"Be reasonable! Put aside your Noldorin pride and see sense – Sauron has legions passing Fangorn daily, our scouts tell us. We are only so many. We must have aid – Lindon, Nan Laur, Khazad-dûm…."
"Nan Laur? What, for the White Lady to come and resume her rule over us? Did we not achieve more than any other Elf-land in Ennor since she was overthrown?" another smith, Minalquar, demanded.
"It was never an overthrow," Celebrimbor snapped. "You have for so long fancied you drove Galadriel and Celeborn from here. Think you that either of them could be forced so easily? I negotiated for this land and they were happy enough to remove to the east because their trees weren't flourishing here as it was. Now, stop wasting time on these foolish grudges before we all perish here like sitting ducks! We do not possess the power to repel -"
"We have the power while we have these," Vaneldur insisted, bringing forth a box containing sixteen rings.
Celebrimbor was profoundly silent, staring at the rings as though his gaze alone could melt them down. "These rings…" Celebrimbor seethed, his heart hammering upon an anvil of fear and betrayal, "these rings are the reason this war is upon us. They were to have been seized and destroyed. You knew the threat! You knew that Annatar – the one I distrusted for so long – was Sauron himself and that he could control these rings. You saw him yourselves, all of you, as did I, the moment he assumed his own ring. And yet you hid these rings?!"
"We can wield them against him!" Vaneldur shouted. "You would have us surrender our only advantage – you who claim to be our leader, but sit brooding amongst your scrolls and cleaving to your would-be husband!"
"Get out of this city," Celebrimbor ordered, grabbing the box of rings.
"You have no right to -"
"You have betrayed us all!" Celebrimbor roared. "Were it not for my refusal to approach my doom in the same taint as my fathers, I would hew your prideful head from your shoulders where you stand! Now, go! And with you any who still stand with this deceitful dragon!"
Forlond, SA 1697
There had been no word, no thrush or crow with news of the war raging in the south, for weeks. The mood in Lindon was tense and somber, though Ereinion frequently assured them that Elrond was a capable commander and would lead as many gains with as few losses as possible.
Day after day, Erestor endeavoured to assist with the running of Lindon to the best of his ability, submerging his heavy, lingering dread in work as was his wont.
One afternoon, Erestor sat in a council chamber, annotating a missive from the Queen of Men in Númenor when suddenly his left hand began to feel strange. He did his best to ignore it, as he had the ache in his back that had been bothering him since morning. Then his whole body began to burn with pain, he gasped to breath and pushed away from the desk he was working at, staggering to the door.
The elves who had been working with him stared up as their visiting counsellor cried out, doubled over, hobbling along as though he'd been grievously injured, but there was nothing seeming wrong. They abandoned their pens and followed, unsure how to help and rather afraid. Erestor staggered a few steps more along the balcony, then fell to his knees, screaming as in unendurable agony, and collapsed, silent and still.
From the King's hall further along, Ereinion rushed out at the cries. He stopped in shock at the sight of his friend, lying motionless and ashen-faced. "What happened? What happened to him?" Ereinion murmured in fear and confusion as he knelt beside Erestor, lifting him into his arms.
"My lord, he… he suddenly rose and cried out. We know not…," a scribe stammered.
"Let's get him to his chambers. Fetch a healer at once," Ereinion said, bearing Erestor himself. He had a terrible feeling that the war against Sauron had just taken a terrible turn and knew that if he was right, Erestor would be like to perish from a grief that no healer could alleviate.
Ost-in-Edhil, SA 1697
"Stand aside, you useless dross," growled the fell voice of Sauron from within blackened armour.
"There is only one way you will get by me, Annatar," Celebrimbor vowed, standing firm in front of the doors of the Houses of the Mírdain.
"Do not use that foul Elf name with me!" Sauron bellowed.
"It is the very name you introduced yourself to me by, lowered by your own will to be like us. And now you stand before me again and this time I say to you that you shall not have my leave to enter. And I will call you Annatar evermore, until my last breath."
"That can be swiftly accomplished. Give me the rings! They are my right for you never could have made them without my aid."
"That gives you no rights to them or anything else," Celebrimbor sneered.
"But I shall have them in the end, along with the Three, as you beg me to hasten your death. Take him!" Sauron ordered his guard, who set upon Celebrimbor, grasping him only after five fell in the attempt and one struck a blow to Celebrimbor's back.
They dragged Celebrimbor into the smithies and orcs were instructed to stoke the fires hot. Irons were heated and chains used to bind Celebrimbor so that he could not escape their torment as Sauron continued to press for the location of the rings. He gave up nothing but the cries he could not force himself to swallow.
Eventually, a servant of Sauron hurried in with a box containing sixteen rings recovered from a pile of scrap metal intended to be melted down.
"And now I only need know where you have hidden the Three," Sauron said, seizing a hot iron and thrusting it into Celebrimbor's thigh. He cackled like thunder, shaking the building as Celebrimbor screamed.
"I will tell you nothing!" Celebrimbor shouted defiantly.
"Take off his hand," Sauron commanded the nearest orc. "The left one, I fancy, where he will have worn a ring I once instructed him in making."
Now by a mighty force of will Celebrimbor refused to satisfy Sauron with a display of pain. He knew there was not much left, and it was only left to him to die well.
"So now you know, Telperinquar, that your last breath is nigh. Your city, your land, your people will be erased from time henceforth… and all because you would not tell me where those rings may be found. You buy but little time, and it is more than your life was ever worth. Go – go to your lords of the west, go to your lord Mandos and beg his help. Your weak gods shall aid you not for they hate you, as I hate you, for the pathetic little upstart that you are. This is your last chance! Where are the rings?!"
Celebrimbor stared back, directly at Sauron's eyes. "You shall have nothing from me," he breathed laboriously. "Nothing but these bones… which shall render you but little!"
"Kill him!" Sauron roared, his very ire darkening all around him. "Then put his body on a pole that his friends may see the result of treachery as our armies mow them down like tall grass!"
As orc archers nocked their thick, black arrows and drew back their heavy bowstrings, Celebrimbor lifted his eyes to a hole in the roof and the sky above, dark with the clouds of war. "I am sorry, Eres. I am sorry."
Forlond, SA 1698
For weeks after his collapse, Erestor slept an unnatural sleep, eyes shut and grey of visage, so that he looked as one suspended between life and death – on the hither side of life, at that.
Ereinion began receiving messages from Elrond frequently:
Celebrimbor fallen, along with Ost-in-Edhil.
Eregion overrun – attempting northward retreat.
Little hope, we are all but overwhelmed.
Hope at last! Joint force of Durin's army and Amroth of Nan Laur divert Sauron's forces to south. We make for the Refuge.
Word from south front: Dwarves driven back to mines – have closed western gate.
Stocking provisions against prospect of siege. We may endure at least a year – what word from Tar-Minastir?
It was months before Erestor began to come out from the fog which had held him fast, but he was greatly weakened and did not rise from his bed. Ereinion came to sit with Erestor often, but feared to bring Erestor the news he'd had from Elrond. Erestor read his friend's concern though, as shook his head wearily, saying, "He is dead. I know that, for one half of my fëa is gone. More than that, I am still not dead, so maybe the Valar refuse to accept me. Can any word you've had do me any more harm than that?"
"I hope not, my friend," Ereinion said sadly, holding Erestor's hand. "Will you not let us ready a ship for you? If you attempt to stay, you are liable to -"
"I will not go west," Erestor said. "I am sure that they would not admit me. If I am fated to lie here and fade, so be it. I have nothing left." Erestor let his eyes close, then, and slipped back into the sort of sleep that Elves do not know.
