Chapter 9: War is upon us
We have to distrust each other. It's our only defense against betrayal.
Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983)
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), (attributed)
December 3018, Third Age.
Solene stood at Mirkwood when her husband led the army down south. She remained at Mirkwood, cursing her own besotted folly as prince Legolas patrolled the borders against the enemy "who, under the Alliance's combined forces, no longer seemed to multiply endlessly. The elves could even perceive a marked decrease in their enemies' number and, if the attacks did not much decrease in frequency, the foes did seem to diminish in number.
She yearned to ride against the armies of darkness and stand by with her people but both the king, her husband, and the entire sylvan nation had very firm notions on what a princess' role would be. Her repeated attempts to have a more active role were greatly unpopular to a country with a widowed king and a single heir who had not yet begotten children.
The Alliance was cemented but life at court became a struggle. Even more so as it became clear that the reinforcements would not stop the war from happening. And it took a turn for the worse as Solene begun to call her rival to task, inviting further disapproval from the king's chief counselor –Luilliel's father.
And then Aragorn brought the creature Gollum to be kept in Thranduil's dungeons, from where it escaped after a particularly bitter attack which had the sylvans taking refuge in their cavernous stronghold for the first time in the Third Age. As his father's proxy Legolas was the one chosen to go to Imladris to give news of that failure, and the bitter losses suffered in their realm during the creature's escape.
And Solene was left alone with a court that no longer loved their princess. She sent Word to her father when Legolas went to the Last Homely House.
The War of the Ring had begun.
With Luilliel's father on the defensive, Solene feeling frustrated and irritable and surrounded by a nation of very tense elves, Thranduil himself was feeling less than gracious.
"Daughter mine, you are too earnest. It is ever the dark ones' wish that our light be extinguished. They cannot abide us, and we cannot abide them. Until these beasts are extinguished there shall be attacks against the free peoples, and especially against elves. Be of good cheer, child, for thought the wars have lasted long and we have fought bitterly, the light of Iluvatar remains shining through his children. We prevail, we survive. And things have not yet grown so dire that we need send women to the battlefront."
Solene grit her teeth and continued articulating information between the realms. She stopped receiving replies after midsummer, and had no word from either her father or her husband until December. Saruman had revealed his true allegiances. The Fellowship of the Ring left Imladris towards Mordor and the destruction of the One Ring. With heavy losses in his armies, Sauron was forced to gather his forces around Minas Morgul until he had recovered enough to strike "though raids of orcs and goblins still occurred randomly, to keep the Free People from launching a focused attack and otherwise occupied. Rohan's Westfold, Dol Guldur, and the villages of men scattered between the villages of the Dunedain, Imladris, The Shire and the Misty Mountains were torn apart.
The elves could no longer travel around in small patrols. Pyrrhus came to Mirkwood with nearly 500 men to reinforce Lothlorien and Mirkwood, and to bring news from Antar.
Stella had left Imladris before Gandalf arrived, travelling with antarian warriors to patrol the Blue Mountains on their way home to Antares. She had no wish to be near the One Ring, lest she be tempted by it.
But this she learned late in the night, for she had been deliberately kept occupied otherwise in the palace whilst Thranduil and the counselors interrogated the antarians. The very real fear that there be somebody not of Antar listening kept the peredhil from using their telepathic connection until they could meet.
"What have you come to tell me, Eilian?" She asked the brown-haired man. "Why have you been kept from seeing me so long?"
"Honeymoon's over, that I can tell you right now. What we have is a group of very nervous, very suspicious elves hanging on to their wisdom by a thread. You're one hairbreadth away from being blamed from the scarcity of game in Winter to the resurrection of The Ring, passing through the war, the lack of royal heirs in Mirkwood and generally being too arrogant to acclimate to your newest home."
"You bitch, you" whispered Mira, a peredhil who had volunteered to leave En Arris and act as bodyguard to Solene and Stella. With Solene safely married and ensconced in the Woodland's king's caves, she had protected Stella until the youngest elleth went home the year before. Now she had left the reinforcement army to check whether the princess needed help.
Mira threw her tunic over the back of a chair and sat. "The Dunlendings are almost extinct now. The pirates and the men from the south have been sent in their stead. But Sauron's forces have been spread too thin, so he's concentrating on the areas near Mordor. The woodland elves have lent assistance to Lakewood so they're not too bad off, but the other villages that are far away from military outposts were destroyed.
"Unmasked, Saruman is now free to openly throw his own orcs against Rohan," Eillian interrupted. "We have sent modest reinforcements to all the strategic places, but now our numbers are making the natives restless. They cannot understand how an elven nation could be so vast, and the fact that we are beginning to outnumber them in their own homes is doing more harm than good. If we cannot have a major victory soon, where we can be seen as friends and allies who have been vital to the overthrowing of darkness, then we could very well be at odds with the elves of Middle-earth."
"That would mean we either retreat from the elven realms, leave them to stand alone, or risk civil war against our allies,"Solene finished.
Pyrrhus spoke up for the first time since they exchanged greetings. "A new Fratricide. With us, the evil conquerors from the east, as the villains this time."
"Maybe even Cohorts of Sauron,"said Gabriel, their Comyn shielder. "Elves who have been captured and convinced to serve the dark lord… blah blah."
"And the 'blah-blah' is the really scary part," Mira said with a frown. "They weren't all that glad to have reinforcements arriving. They felt safe with the number of antarians they did have, but now… why would we need to keep stuffing their halls with our people? They ask. And we can't answer, not with anything that'll make them realize the scope of this. As we have battles on a small and constant scale and Sauron is not launching an overwhelming attack against the elves, there does not seem to have a reason why we'd be so overly zealous in their protection.
"It looks little now because we have constantly mined the enemy's armies throughout this past century. For the first time ever the elves are keeping up with the growth of orcs and goblins, and we could even reclaim lands long lost to the shadow." Solene sighed. "But I won't risk a fratricide. That would forever ruin any chance of a lasting friendship between the realms. Trust me in this, these elves can hold a grudge to the end of the world. So be it. If a bloody victory they want, a bloody victory they shall have."
"So why did an army of antarians travel through these perilous roads through the wastelands to Mirkwood, Solene?"asked Eilian. "Now we are here, we need a reason."
"You have it. You have come to bring me home."
Pyrrhus whistled, low and long. "The king won't like having his daughter in law away from his clutches. You're his only hope of having grandbabies."
"The king does not like me much right now. And frankly, if I'm that evil, they'll be well rid of me. Maybe this was meant. I am sick and tired of being treated like a traitor, whispered about in the corridors. It's as if… no, never mind. It doesn't matter anymore. I haven't visited my family since my wedding. With the prince far away, there's no chance for baby-making, so the king will have to let me go. And if he doesn't… we'll go, anyway. It's time I join the army and do my share in the war. I can't do so here with the entire nation trying to keep me safe in my apartments, conveniently safe to beget their precious woodland royal heirs."
"Good God, Mira whispered. "That bad?"
"We should have anticipated that the war would hinder exchanging letters," Gabriel said. "But even so…"
"The misery of one person is not of much importance when there is a war to be won. I know, Gab, and I'm not angry at you.
"were you miserable, my friend?" Asked Pyrrhus, taking her hand.
"It's bearable when he's around. Even when he drives me insane sometimes, Legolas is a good husband." Solene clasped hands with her friend, intertwined their fingers. The latent Comyn link flared to life, slow and true and quiet, so to not be heard outside the walls of the royal apartment. "But now, I am pissed off and fighting mad. Isn't it wonderfully convenient there's a war to be fought?
A.N.: My most sincere apologies for the delay. Rest assured, the next chapter is ready, and should be uploaded this week or the next.
It's been years since I wrote Lady of Magic, and some of the earlier details escaped me. I even lost some of my notes. But I knew "more or less "how the story would end. I was going to post a note saying what happened to whom, and how it ended, when my login and password for my work program failed and I had to wait 3 hours for the tech dept. to grant me a new one. With nothing to do and everybody else busy around me "the company does not approve of employees taking a stroll while they wait for password resets, either "I had nothing but my notebook and a pen to pass the time.
So I wrote part of this chapter and the next. It's not refined, it's not beta-ed, but I figure I left you hanging long enough. With my apologies, I hope you enjoy!
Elentari.