So how is everyone? I just want to say thank you again for everyone who is reading, it means a lot to me. Remember, I own nothing and take no credit for the original characters, plot ect except for Indilwen and Alkira, who are my girls! Loving the reviews, thank again!
Love Silver x
The welcome Indilwen received was nothing like she had expected. She had expected a cold and almost cruel madman to taunt and humiliate her at every opportunity before throwing her out onto the streets. No. Indilwen received a luxurious room the size of an entire house with silk and velvet at the windows and walls. Indilwen got only the finest gowns and jewels, not that she ever wore them, only the most exquisite perfumes and oils, not to mention all the fattening food. The feast set out before could have fed nearly thirty people until they were fit to burst. Denethor was kind and polite, full of compliments and praise. Whatever Indilwen wanted, she would have it.
It instantly made her wary, knowing Denethor's greed for power only made her even more suspicious. For peace and quiet Indilwen stood at the tip of the Minas Tirith, gazing up at the sky, longing to see the stars that were now veiled by clouds.
"On cloudless nights it seems like the sky goes on forever, a multitude of stars gathered together to shine down upon us as a reminder of all the things men fight for." Faramir sighed as he came up behind Indilwen and stood by her side.
"What do you fight for?" Indilwen asked him, not taking her eyes away from the sky.
"Hope. Reason. Freedom. All those things." Faramir listed.
"I meant what do you fight for, personally?" Indilwen looked to him now, her bright eyes shone with the light of the stars not seen in the skies, deep and ever changing, like an echo of lifetimes in the universe flowing through them.
"Me?" He thought for a moment. "My home, I suppose. I will not let it fall to a darkness like this. Not whilst there is strength still left within me."
"Wise words for one so young."
"I am not as young as you think." Faramir defended, slightly offended by the elf.
"When you are an elf, able to see all eternity before you and all the ages behind you, to have seen so many youthful years that will stretch into centuries, to have seen the universe flash before your very eyes...you all seem young to me sometimes." Indilwen answered apologetically. "I meant no offense." Faramir nodded, accepting her apology before looking out to the distance again.
"I have always dreamed of meeting an elf. As a boy I used to play in the halls with my brother, pretending to slay dragons and rescue fair maidens, pretending to be great warriors who make father proud." Faramir said absently mindedly. "All those years gone like a breath of wind. How I long to have them back."
"There is one thing you do not have to pretend to be anymore." Indilwen touched his shoulder. "You are a great warrior. One of the strongest and bravest I have ever seen. Do not let that truth blow away in the wind like your childhood." Indilwen turned then walked gracefully away through the streets. In the dim light of torches she gave out bread and fruit taken from her table to the poorest people. Smiling as children ran up to her and touched her long silvery hair.
"Indi! Indilwen!" Pippin's small voice made Indilwen's ear twitch before she turned to seek him out. Her hand dashed forwards and pulled the hobbit out from the way of a moving cart. "Pip? What's wrong?"
"Faramir is leaving to retake Osgiliath. Gandalf cannot dissuade him and now he is going to die!" Indilwen's eyes widened. She ran to the gate as swiftly as she could, gracefully avoiding getting hit by wagons and other people as she flew. "Faramir!" She called out, racing to the head of the column and grasped Faramir's reins and pulled them back. "Please do not leave!" She begged him.
"Release my horse, lady." Faramir told him coldly.
"Not until you see reason. You cannot retake Osgiliath, it is overrun you fool."
"Do not speak to me so, I shall obey my father's command. I have little to live for now." Faramir pushed his horse past her but Indilwen walked beside him.
"Will you find peace in death? Peace knowing you abandoned your people just to sate your father's insanity?" Faramir ignored her but looked directly ahead with a blank look on his face.
"Where is the love you once had gone? Where did all those years as a child, playing in the halls with wooden swords, learning to ride a horse for the first time with Boromir, listening to stories about the dragons and fair maidens, becoming a great warrior for your people, do all those memories and acts count for nothing now? Would you have Boromir's death be in vain?" Indilwen soon stood alone, watching as the small columns of soldiers rode past her.
"Bless us elf maiden! Bless our soldiers!" A woman cried to her, tears streaming down her face as she gripped Indilwen's cloak. Indilwen stooped down and held her comfortingly.
"None can save them now." She murmured quietly so that only she would hear. Indilwen walked back as slowly as she could to her room, head bowed and hood brought up as she listened for Pippin's voice. She found that the more she knew a voice, the more she could pick it out from a further distance. She listened to him sing his song to Denethor, ice prickling at her heart.
Mere hours later Indilwen stood alongside Gandalf in silence, neither of them knowing what to say. Indilwen was suited up in her Elven armour, gleaming mystically in a metallic silver, her helm resting between her knees as she cupped her hands together solemnly. Pippin also sat with them, staring at his feet as he dealt with his fears.
"Is it hopeless?"
"What do you mean?" Gandalf looked up at her, startled by her sudden weak voice and pained expression.
"Everything I do seems to end up being wasted or useless. I cannot even feel Alkira through my stone anymore." She touched her pendant automatically, feeling tears roll down her cheeks. "I do not feel strong enough to do what I need to do anymore."
"That is a mere matter of mentality. You do have the strength, Indilwen, it just might not be entirely from within you." Indilwen frowned.
"That makes no sense whatsoever."
"I am an old man with a long beard and a stick. I never make sense." Indilwen cracked a small smile at him before looking up.
"They are here."
"Right then. Let us see what these orcs are made of." Gandalf gave Indilwen one of his comical looks then rose to his feet. They reached Denethor just as he gave the command to retreat. Gandalf waited until he had turned around before hitting him in the face with his staff. He glared disgustedly at him before hitting him twice again, once in the stomach then lastly on his back. "Prepare for battle." He called then looked to Indilwen who gave a firm nod of her head. She tossed her cloak aside and took her bow. "Return to your posts!" She cried as she ran to the battlements. "To the wall! Defend the wall!" She repeated, her voice ringing over the city as she called men back to their posts. Soldiers lined up at the wall, prepared to fight to the bitter end to defend their city.
"Give them a taste of stone and rock." Indilwen saluted with her bow to the catapults and they released their quarry upon their enemies. Gandalf rode up beside Indilwen with Shadowfax and gave her a confident and respectful nod. The giant rocks that were tossed back and forth brought the city crumbling to its knees but just as much damage was being done upon the enemy as they were crushed beneath the stones. Indilwen lifted her hands to stop a large rock from hitting a bridge but Gandalf stopped her. "No. Save your energy."
"There are people there!" Indilwen answered.
"You cannot save everybody." By the time Indilwen had turned back it was too late. She felt the weight of their deaths upon her as their sudden cries of alarm and fear were cut off abruptly.
"We need more rubble!" A soldier called as everyone scrambled to fill the catapults.
"Watch out!" A group of soldiers were hit with a massive stone before they could even look up.
"You men, down to the lower level!" Indilwen shouted. "Archers to the towers now!" She command just as the ear piercing screams of the Nazgul thundered through them.
"Nazgul!" Someone cried and the soldies dived for cover. Great beasts flew like shadows over the city, picking off men from the wall before dropping them again at great heights. "Prepare to fire!" Indilwen shouted then pulled back an arrow herself. She took aim then released. "Loose!" A shower of arrows fell upon the beasts, causing them to shiver in pain then fly away from the arrows. "Second volley...loose!" Indilwen led the volleys until one flew close enough for her to shoot it through the eye. "Fire at will!" She commanded and the rain of arrows fell upon the beast.
"Peregrin Took! Go back to the Citadel!" Gandalf's voice stopped Indilwen and turned around to see the hobbit had come to fight.
"They'd called us out to fight." Pippin answered, a little dazed. An orc spotted the hobbit and rushed towards him clumsily, brandishing its weapon above its head but Pippin was rooted to the spot in fear. Gandalf leaped forwards to protect Pippin, killing orcs in quick succession. Indilwen fought her way towards them, shooting arrows in circles with the deadly accuracy her elven senses gave her. Pippin managed to draw his sword then stuck it through an orc before it could kill Gandalf from behind. The look of pure shock on Pippin's face was almost comical, were it more merry times then Indilwen would have laughed. Gandalf smiled down at him.
"Guard of the Citadel indeed. Indilwen, take him back up the hill. Quick, quick!" Indilwen took Pippin's shoulder and firmly led him away, her sword slashing across an orc without blinking as she took Pippin back to safety. "Hurry, go up to the hall of kings. You will be safer there until this is all over."
"Alright." Pippin nodded his head then turned. Suddenly he gripped Indilwen's arm and shook it, panic stricken. "Look! They've got Faramir!" Indilwen looked up then strode forwards with Pippin close behind her.
"Put him down." She ordered, pulling her sword free and standing directly in their way. She turned as Denethor's shuffled footsteps came from the top of the steps.
"You will not intervene, my precious lady." Indilwen flinched at the word 'precious' but retained her cold demur.
"I said put him down, you are insane Denethor and I will not let your son suffer because of it." Suddenly Indilwen found herself facing several guards whilst Denethor walked away with Faramir. "Pip, stay behind me." Indilwen murmured and the hobbit shrank behind to a safe distance. Her sword connected with the first foe swiftly and sharply, cutting through the cheap metal like butter. "Go down to the gates and fight! Fight with your brothers!" Indilwen cried as they surrounded her.
"We must obey our Steward." They answered boldly, shifting as they attacked again and again.
"Do not waste my time. The Steward no longer holds command of this city, he is mad and driven by the hunger for power. Let me pass and I shall fix everything." The sword that was pushing down upon Indilwen's blade suddenly lightened. The guards looked at each other then ran away as far as they could go. "Hurry Pip." Indilwen breathed then raced for the hall where Faramir was about to burn to death.
The doors were bolted shut, large and heavy. "Stand back!" Indilwen warned before thrusting her hand forwards. The doors flew open and Indilwen rushed inside with Pippin close behind. Her hands grabbed the door that was thrust at her and she tore out from the guard's grasp, whipping it around, hitting the other around the head before jabbing the last one in the chest. "Do not light the pyre!" Indilwen commanded. Denethor glared at her with a burning rage. He grabbed one of the riches then the it onto the weeks defiantly.
"No!" Pippin cried, reaching ahead of Indilwen. A burst of wind threw the steward to the ground, his cloak already alight as Pippin jumped onto the pyre in an attempt to roll Faramir away from the flames. "Help him." The elleth commanded the guards who hesitantly stumbled forwards to put out the fire. Indilwen glowed with anger as she strode towards Denethor. "You." She hissed.
"No! You shall not take my son from me! I will sit on a golden throne with kings of old, with Boromir at my side!" Denethor lunged to his feet and attempted to clasp Indilwen's throat but her hand caught his wrists and she squeezed until he cried out from pain.
"Boromir is gone. I watched him die with four arrows in his chest. Faramir is your only son now, can you not love him the way he deserves?" Indilwen asked coldly. Denethor's eyes flickered over to Faramir who was slowly opening his own.
"My son..." Indilwen released her good and watched as Denethor cried to his knees and crawled over to Faramir. "My boy." He caressed his son's face with one hand, years spilling from his sweaty face. Indilwen allowed herself to smile, finally, the mad Steward was seeing his son with love. "My Boromir."
Or not.
The emotions that flickered across Indilwen's face frightened Pippin enough to back away, the air seemed to cloud around her as she drew herself up to her full height, despairingly beautiful and cold, each expression flickered crossed her face in less than a second. Shock. Anger. Disbelief. Hate. Indilwen grabbed Denethor by the back of his cloak and flung him away from Faramir. "Run away, snake. Never come back." She hissed slowly, emphasising her meaning and threatening tone. Denethor, son of Ecthelion, ran. Indilwen swiftly ordered Faramir to be taken to the healers and then for each soldier to join the main army at the lower levels.
"Pippin, stay close to me now. The walls have been breached so you are best off sticking close."
"Indi?" Pippin's small voice wanted with fear.
"Yes Pip?" Indilwen turned back to him with her hand half way to get sword.
"I'm afraid." Indilwen smiled then stopped down to clasp his shoulders and its his brow.
"Without fear there cannot be courage, without courage there cannot be hope. You are as big as you believe yourself to be Peregrin Took, so take a deep breath," Pippin took a deep breath in. "And let go of everything." With a gentle squeeze the two friends rushed off to join Gandalf at the lower level.
Part one of the Battle for Minas Tirith. More to come, I wanted to completely focus on the battle for now so didn't look over to Frodo, Sam and Alkira but there will be more chapters soon, I promise. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed!