AN: Oh my gosh, I'm excited to post this chapter! It's not super long, but it was SO satisfying to write. I was really able to let Finna just go at it and speak her mind, which women in Middle Earth don't often get to do. Anyways, I won't keep you much longer. Read and review, darlings! :)
Gimli wasn't much of a dancer, but he had to admit that whirling around the flagstone hall to a merry old tune with a girl on his arm was much more fun than he would've imagined. He danced with all the girls over the course of the evening, but he danced with Renna the most. She was talkative, and had a lot of interesting details to offer about the history of the kingdom. She was well-educated, and, as he also found out, she had some experience with a sword. At the end of the evening, Eomer bid everyone goodnight, and announced that Gimli would be giving his decision in a fortnight. With that, the dance was over, and the hard part had begun: choosing a wife.
Gimli, back home and wide awake, wandered the halls aimlessly, his mind turning over the faces and names of all the girls he had danced with. Renna seemed the most likely option, but could he ever really love her? Would a marriage between them ever work?
Somehow, he found himself in the weaving hall, and he was so lost in thought, he didn't hear the quiet clinking of the wooden loom in the corner until its user spoke.
"How did it go?" Finna asked quietly.
Gimli jumped. "Mahal! I didn't know anyone was in here."
Finna put down her shuttle. "Well, here I am. How was it? Have you chosen your wife?"
Gimli sighed deeply. "Maybe," was all he said.
"So you've found someone you love."
He looked at her for a moment, and Finna thought she could detect sadness in his eyes. "No," he said.
"Then why are you doing this?" she asked.
"It's my duty. I am the Lord of the Glittering Caves, and if we must make an alliance with the men of Rohan, then I must make it. It's obvious, isn't it? It's my only choice. A leader must do what is best for the good of his people." Gimli said these words in a practiced way, as though he had to force himself to believe them.
Finna shook her head. "There are other ways, Gimli, beyond just marriage." She sighed. "Men can be so narrow-minded sometimes. You use women to make alliances for you, to make babies for you, to make dinner for you, to take care of the home for you."
"That's what women are," Gimli retorted. "That's what women are meant to do!"
Finna clenched her teeth and her voice rose. "Women aren't meant to be used! We're meant to be loved, Gimli. Why can't you see that? If you are simply using a girl of Rohan to form an alliance, you will never be able to love her! You want to set an example for your people, yes, but what kind of an example are you setting when you value duty over love?"
"Duty is more important than love!" he argued. "Duty means doing what needs to be done!"
"Then why is it," she said softly, "that so often the wayward heart neglects duty? Duty can be controlled, Gimli, and that is what limits it, but who tells the heart what it should do? Who, Gimli?"
Gimli stared at her.
"No one." Finna looked him full in the face, and her blue eyes flashed with passion. "No one tells the heart what to do. The heart does what it wants. It cannot be controlled, it cannot be contained. It is a wild thing that cannot be tamed, and that is why it will always be more powerful than duty. A good leader may rule with a sense of duty, and teach his people accordingly, but a great leader rules with love."
Gimli stood speechless, unable to respond to the eloquently voiced convictions of this young, enigmatic dwarrowmaid. He wondered how she could live from day to day with this much passion swirling inside. It was like striking a match and watching it instantly burst into flame.
"Who… who are you?" he asked incredulously.
"I'm Finna," she replied, smiling for the first time in this conversation. "I'm a dwarrowmaid. I'm stubborn, and wild, and proud, and unapologetically myself. I'm not perfect, and I never will be. And who are you, exactly, Lord Gimli?"
Once again, Gimli found himself with no answer.
"I will be working on my weaving now," she said softly, turning back towards the hand loom in the corner. "Think on my words, Gimli. Goodnight."
She sat down and continued weaving the weft thread in between the warp threads, her signal that this conversation was now over. A dazed and confused Gimli left the hall and somehow managed to wander back to his own quarters.
He didn't get much sleep that night.