Chapter 28: End of Tranquility
How very dull.
Gandalf knew well of boredom, or he thought he did till Saruman sought to redefine it for a new age to come in an exhaustive session after another, questioning the siblings on increasingly minute matters when by rights he should have been satisfied with his inquiry long ago.
Nevertheless the young Alphinaud continued to offer answers.
Alisaie, meanwhile, drummed her fingers on the armrest with murder in her eyes, looking more liable to get up and punch out the white wizard by every passing moment.
It had come to a point that Gandalf ended up wagering a bet with the equally suffering Elrond and Galadriel on whether or when the other shoe would drop, and the anticipation was likely the only thing to keep them rooted in their seats, else they would have wandered.
For example to observe the company who had come through from Hydaelyn a few hours past.
One could make the argument that Saruman was merely curious – except that Gandalf had long since dismissed it as his colleague being intensely distrustful of these people from Hydaelyn, making these farcical proceedings even worse.
As a consequence he lost interest and tuned out at several points, inadvisable though it might be.
Little did the old wizard know the peace and quiet of Rivendell he now considered detrimental would soon suffer an abrupt disruption. The elves were first to notice as their ears twitched as if reacting to an unwelcome sound, followed shortly by Alisaie, her frustration giving way to confusion as she looked around. "Um… Do anyone else hear music, or have I become so delusional by this farce that I am imagining things?"
"Music, is that what this is?" Elrond asked, frowning, "I would not call this… noise… music, if at all."
"What are all of you on about?" Saruman took his attention off of Alphinaud, his nostrils flaring.
"This—" the girl could barely speak up in response before the alleged music came close enough for Gandalf to pick it up also, and approached still until a manor in the distance collapsed like it had just been hit by a trebuchet. It happened fast enough, out of sight, that he had no inkling on the finer details of whatever just happened.
Only that something was very wrong when the destruction spread and was joined by a terrible howl that came across as somehow familiar.
"What was that?!" Alphinaud asked in bewilderment.
"An intruder!" Lord Elrond growled as he made for the stairs, "One who will soon be made to regret this trespass! Lindon, marshal the Guard!"
Gandalf was neither but he followed suit still, to lend his own aid to the task.
Unaware that yet more are coming.
OoOoO
"Land there, as close as you may!"
Aauron lent a grim nod as he adjusted his posture very slightly and veered for a house close to where the balrog now rampaged, tainting the very ground on which it walked as it yearned to destroy this tranquil place. Practiced and direct, he with her still in his arms fell at great speed and despite it affected a smooth landing.
Just as some elves in armor sprang past below, through a fleeing crowd, unawares.
"This isn't looking good." he muttered, releasing her.
"It doesn't." H'aerindu agreed, bursting into a run soon as her feet were back on the ground, and was about to leap from the roof when she saw the Ascian, surrounded by corpses and armored elves who in perfect unison had drawn their blades. Nameless seemed unaffected by the solemn attention as he riffed away at his guitar in a riveting solo, headbanging vigorously.
When he remained scornfully unresponsive to the warning shouts, their lieutenant stepped in and swung the sword down at the masked man, to little effect.
A barrier sprung into place, called forth by a slight change of tone.
The sword clashed against it and failed to press even a single section of the beehive barrier even an ilm back.
"What." the elf demanded.
Nameless only chortled, and pulled on the strings to produce a sharp blast of sound that flung back the elves like they were rag dolls. Three of them were knocked out as they struck hard various hard surfaces, while the rest managed by a hair to bounce back. It did not change the situation much, though, and he was about to change note – smirking in anticipating glee – when H'aerindu dropped down and in a rush blasted past the elves and with simple brute force broke through the barrier and caught him in a lariat. "Ack!" the Ascian spat, "You just can't be satisfied with one victory, can you?"
She gave no response and gritted her teeth as she was about to hurl him at an opposing wall when his body turned to smoke.
A huff left the nebulous Ascian as he faded into the distance, his music still ongoing, "To have my grand performance disrupted like this… but no matter. This changes nothing. Here, have your playmate back!"
"How nice of you." H'aerindu sarcastically remarked as Durin's Bane smashed through the left-hand wall as though it was paper, leaving several houses and many lives broken in its wake, and rendered it into a thousand flying fragments she deflected with the shock wave produced from one thrust thrown by instinct. The muddy balrog did not stop there as it bore down on her hard and – apparently unable to use its armaments for now – transitioned its bullheaded charge into a colossal right hook without slowing down.
Trading finesse in favor of brute force.
A mistake she would make it regret.
Not that it lacked for strength, of course, as a large portion of the house was shattered into a shower of splinters as it landed the blow. The intended target, however, had already left her position an instant prior. H'aerindu ducked below the proffered arm, and brought down the rest of this age-old structure in a spectacular fashion when she span on a heel, folded her arms around its own, and used its own strength and momentum to throw the balrog over her shoulder and through the remainder of it.
Amid the destruction she very faintly heard an elf utter a less than savory exclamation of shock.
Sorry about the damages... H'aerindu wanted to quip, but her attention was a little fixed on the balrog rolling back on its feet out in the garden and followed before it could fully recover.
"Had a pleasant flight?" she asked.
The balrog only emitted a howl of rage.
"Apparently not!"
Once more it tried to reach out with blazing speed. H'aerindu saw it coming and dodged again, only this time she made a point to veer away by only a hair's breadth before she once again utilized its own tremendous strength against it, except now she took a firm stance, anchoring her on the ground, and delivered a sharp uppercut to its jaw that sent the balrog reeling and a large piece of its tongue flying.
Concussed, it stumbled across the garden, and in a mess of flailing limbs fell down the hill past it, leading to the ruination of a house somewhere below.
"Now then..." she muttered and made to follow when movement behind caught her attention.
"H'aerindu Dhelh!" Elrond shouted as he and Gandalf appeared with a small company's worth of heavily armed guards at their back, marching over ruins like water sliding off oilskin in eerie synchronicity that called to mind her grandmother's book where she recounted such sightings. "What are you doing here, what was that monster?"
"Oh, where should I even begin?"
"Wherever you believe is the most reasonable." Gandalf remarked.
"Fair enough." H'aerindu said, "We were just fighting to save the horse masters in Moria when we got saddled with a couple of really troublesome enemies." she then raised her voice; "One of whom was a real sore loser!"
"Oh, screw you!" Nameless' disembodied voice echoed.
"They then decided to come here for a jaunt. Aauron and I followed them and here we are. One of them is an Ascian… and as for the other one—"
As if on cue, the ruined house below erupted in torrents of flames and shadows as the balrog made its frenzied recovery and in a single bound returned to the garden, the irate fury it radiated such that the elves took an imperceptible step back.
H'aerindu glanced back to the elf lord and wizard, "Gentlemen… meet Durin's Bane."
OoOoO
After a brief pause, the destruction resumed.
Saruman watched it go down from the elevated location of this farce of a council he orchestrated to delay the ring-bearer's appointment and wait for news of the Warrior of Light's demise he expected would surely come to pass within the shadowed halls of Moria. With her gone it should be a simple matter to appoint one he could with ease remove at a later time.
When he could take the Ring for himself without undue attention being drawn.
It would then be a simple matter to displace Sauron as the new Dark Lord. Everything he had done to ally himself with Sauron and these Ascians had been done for that purpose and that purpose alone.
This, however, was not supposed to happen.
Not yet.
Rivendell would be laid low one day, but that time was not here yet.
"What is going on down there?" the young lady Alisaie asked as darkness and flame erupted near the impact area along with horrid roars sounding like a blazing furnace given light by hatred alone and threatened to reduce a whole neighborhood to cinders, "I was under the distinct impression that a swamp monster had come, not a fire elemental!"
"It is a Balrog." Galadriel observed, letting her thoughts be known to the young ones.
"Balrog?" Alphinaud inquired.
"A demon of the ancient world. Maia corrupted by Morgoth's fell temptations of power. Few of them remain in this world after the War of Wrath. The only one known to still be alive being Durin's Bane in the halls of Moria. Perhaps it is even the very same."
"Moria." he took it in, "The same place where H'aerindu was sent. Is there a particular reason, Lady Galadriel, why we were not told of this?"
"It was not required. The good dwarf in her company most assuredly made certain to inform her of its presence. Not one dwarf live who does not know of Durin's Bane, for it was what drove them from their most treasured realm." She gave him a patient glance, "Would the awareness of it ahead of time in any case have made her mission any more different?"
"No, I suppose it wouldn't..." Alisaie groused.
"But the question now remain…" her brother brushed a hand through his hair, sick with worry, "Did she end up fighting it or was the creature pulled out ere she got there?"
"Why don't you try and call her, then?"
"I'm not certain if she's within range, sister mine."
"Just try it, fool brother!"
Frowning, Alphinaud did so as he lowered the raised hand to his ear and tried to connect to their esteemed warrior through linkpearl, and yelped in surprise when he got a curt response.
"What did you hear?" Alisaie demanded to know.
"She told me, and I quote: No time to talk, don't come any closer!" he paused as the twins looked to each other in concern, "… I guess she's here."
Their warrior is here?
Alive?
Saruman stared into the chaos, struggling to come to terms with this knowledge when a shadow drifted in behind him and whispered tersely into his ear.
"Change of plans." the Ascian he was saddled with told him, "Tell me where the Ring can be found."
"What are you doing here?" Saruman whispered under his breath, "You were supposed to have the she-cat slain."
"Yes, alas the efforts failed and the balrog is losing. For now it can only buy us time, now tell me the location of the Ring."
"Go and reinforce it, then, and leave the Ring to me."
"Did you not hear me?"
"Did you not hear me?" Saruman echoed, emphasizing every single syllable, "I was given overall command of this theater and you will therefore do as I say. Do you understand?"
The shadowy presence chuckled, fading away, "If you insist."
Saruman remained for a touch longer and took a deep breath before he made for the stairs, intent on taking this chance while it was open to him. Haphazard though it was.
"Where are you going?" Galadriel pointedly asked, her voice cold enough to freeze the very heart.
"To secure the Ring of Power," he explained in a hurry, "lest someone take advantage of this chaos."
"How very thoughtful of you. Tell me, what was that presence just now?"
First now did the youths pick up on the sudden cold front between the ancients. Saruman narrowed down his eyes as he realized the lady had noticed the Ascian presence, and span to face them, his staff held aloft. With a wordless incantation of power he invoked a show of force at the youngsters.
All for the purpose of forcing the formidable Lady Galadriel to protect them.
The greatest of the Eldar brought her own spellcraft to bear to negate the spell he meant to strike them down with, when he at the very last second had it redirected onto her. Saruman was known for his cunning and he used the opening for all it was worth. True to her worth, she did notice this change and managed to divert enough of her magic in the following instant to nullify a portion of the spell, though not enough to completely stop it from reaching her. Galadriel was thrown off her feet and launched into an opposing pillar with less crushing force than was intended, but sufficient to injure her.
Alphinaud in the meantime came to understand what had started and shifted to stand between him and his sister while he opened an arcane book, lips already invoking.
Given time he might become a sorcerer of note.
If allowed to.
Saruman would not and repeated the same spell with which he threw away the Lady of Lórien to repel the youths. In that moment Alphinaud completed his own spell and a protective sheen bounced up between them. It did not last long and broke under the White Wizard's assault so the remainder of it could push him and consequently his sister off the platform's edge.
Which he supposed was good enough.
For a moment he contemplated killing Galadriel while she was down, but the Ring took priority.
Ultimately he left her and sped down the stairs to make a beeline for Elrond's vaunted manor.
OoOoO
"Warrior of Light!"
H'aerindu did not hear the call as she brushed through a hail of wooden debris thrown up by the balrog's fiery rampages while its shadows struck down around her like magically wrought missiles. It was easier than before to fight than before, thankfully, as while it was bolstered still by the Ascian's spell, the injury she incurred to it below Moria hampered its speed greatly.
It was a tough going for those not prepared to take on such an opponent, though.
Screams echoed around her as elves fell into puddles of their own blood, one of them with a large hole in his neck where a shadow had pierced clean through him.
Gandalf and Elrond on the other hand more than held their own, whether it be through magic or swordsmanship. Enough so to make the balrog wary of them, especially after the mistake to disregard them in order to focus on her alone, which allowed the elf lord managed to get in close enough after the initial assault to drive his curved blade into the open wound she opened a short while past.
That made it pay attention.
As a reaction it swung its whip around, breaking more of the surrounding structures and sending the debris to its assailants in a haphazard deluge they had to break formation to avoid as it charged, magma foaming at its mouth. H'aerindu was for a moment alone again, but nevertheless she broke its charge with a powerful haymaker that made fragments break off of its face, and was followed up when Gandalf came up beside her and brought Glamdring down on the opposing shoulder.
It left a sparkling dent where it landed, and elicited from the balrog a monstrous bellow.
"Warrior of Light!" she recognized Aauron's voice in the chaos.
The infuriated balrog reformed its blade and brought it down toward them, its molten eyes twin orbs of pure fury. Elrond jumped in and with gritted teeth and great effort he managed to strike it away.
Opening for further attacks upon their shared enemy.
Gandalf made the most immediate use of it as he brought Glamdring into the gaping wound, managing to deepen it.
Shadows erupted with its cry of pain – given shape as blackened spears that came from above and through the floor below – injuring and impaling many guards who were caught by the dark spell.
"Warrior of Light!"
"What is it?!" H'aerindu shouted in response toward the roof where Aauron was perched, seeming a little out of breath as that crimson cloak dissipated.
"I am uncertain, but a disturbance has gone down over yonder from the looks of it."
"Disturbance?" Gandalf asked and noticing the direction in which the dragoon pointed came to a rapid conclusion, "The place where our council was held is in that direction..."
H'aerindu had a terribly bad feeling and broke out in cold sweat as that information was relayed.
Come to think of it… where did that Ascian go?!
All of her thoughts of contesting the balrog took an immediate backseat as she leaped back and built some distance while holding a hand up to her linkpearl, trying to contact her friends. "Alphinaud, can you hear me?" There was no reply, so she continued, "Alphinaud! Alisaie! Anyone! Can you hear me?!"
The world seemed to stand still for several icy moments, then she heard a cough.
"I'm up, I'm up..." Alisaie coughed and communicated through Alphinaud's linkpearl, sounding like she had been run ragged, "H'aerindu… you must stop him!"
"Who… No, what just happened over there?"
"From what I can tell, Saruman's in cahoots with the enemy. He knocked us over the edge..."
As the Hand commands… H'aerindu recalled and her expression took on a deepening frown as her earlier fears about a possible traitor were all but proven to be true. "Are the two of you alright?"
"I'm fine… Alphinaud took the brunt of it. Galadriel's helping him now, though she's not in a good shape herself. Please, you must go stop Saruman! He's going for the Ring!"
"Alright. Stay safe you guys..." she closed the connection, "Elrond, where is the Ring being kept?!"
"Why do you ask?!" Elrond demanded as he slid from a lance of heat that sliced through where he just stood and left a deep molten rent behind it, preventing him from closing in.
"Because a certain white wizard of yours has gone and decided being a treacherous snake and taking the Ring's a better use of his time!"
This caught the attention of the wizard, who was horrified to learn this. Elrond, meanwhile, wore the look of someone who had swallowed a sour fish and acquiesced, his tone appropriately severe, "At my manor, under guard! Go, we'll handle this!"
H'aerindu nodded in her gratitude and she blasted into a sprint away to vacate the area, but the balrog upon seeing her withdrawal broke into a frenzied pursuit, pushing itself through the screen of armored warriors while launching countless torrential shadows after her. The very environment came toppling down as the shadows ripped up the road, tore through fences, and razed bridges that has stood for millennia in a singular terrible display. H'aerindu weaved her way through his devastation, but was soon forced to stop and halfway turn around as a number of them struck down in front of her.
Arrows did not slow it and the demonic creature ignored all else in dogged chase of refusal to let her do as she wished, which to be fair was not unlike the one she had subjected it to.
It looked like she would be forced to stay.
Damn it...
Till intervention came in the form of Gandalf who in explicit fury swooped to stand betwixt them.
"You cannot pass!" the ancient wizard howled as he erased the shadowy onslaught with an explosion of glowering light emanating from the apex of his gnarled staff. The balrog in its turn snorted in indignation and brought down its blade in an enormous arc to strike and press against that selfsame light only to see it explosively slough away as the light grew all the stronger.
The ashkin was forced back a step, shielding its eyes.
A dead silence fell.
Gandalf stared down the creature, his eyes narrowed down, "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, Wielder of the flame of Anor!"
Daunted yet enraged, the balrog rose to its fullest height as flame and shadow alike coalesced to contest the wizard. Pushing his light with its sheer presence, the heat it exuded, and the hatred shooting from the pits of its smoldering eyes, brandishing its ancient armaments.
The wizard stood as though unaffected, his voice rumbling with a terrible and electrifying timbre, "Your dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!"
"You cannot pass!" he intoned, and they clashed.
Opening a path through which to escape.
H'aerindu wasted no time in using this for all that it was worth as she span on a heel and sped down the winding path while the battle with the ashkin at its core continued to rage behind her.
OoOoO
The manor soon stood before him.
Saruman was swift when he needed to and entered the elaborate dwelling while muttering incantations under his breath as he shed what few magical obstacles that stood between him and his prize till he reached the central chamber where a lone box was situated on a small table, surrounded by a quintet of elven guards who maintained a healthy distance.
Solemnly five pairs of eyes landed on him even as their bodies stood like they were fixed in place.
"Curunir." their lieutenant approached with no more than a step, curious of his presence but seeing no reason to treat him as a threat, "What do you seek he—"
"You are dismissed." he demanded quietly, "I will take this from here."
The guards stepped aside, being no more able to resist the power of his speech than most other people. None of them even knew of his treachery, making it even easier. Saruman strode toward the lonely box that could not restrain the power he so coveted for himself. Absolute power was within reach at long last.
He extended a withered hand in equal parts trepidation and longing.
"Saruman!"
Just as he was about his fingers were about to brush against the box's curved surface he was interrupted by a shout that almost shook him. Saruman snapped around to face the entrance as that she-cat whose death was intended in Moria blasted in through it and came to a screeching halt, her green and teal eyes alight with severe anger.
"Inconceivable!" he blurted.
The only way she could be here was if the twins survived what he subjected them to.
Frustrated, he reacted further to prevent her from coming even closer, commanding the guards; "Slay her!"
Unable to even consider whether there's something wrong about this situation they took out their swords and rushed to strike her down. With preternatural speed and grace they swung at her, against which the she-cat could at once only withdraw a few steps. It did not faze the elves as the two nearest to her scattered to flank while the three others closed in.
Ominous whispers emanated from within the box as this went on, tempting him to take this moment to seize upon his prize… until the clatter of a body cased in armor landing hard on the floor drew his mind back to the altercations where the she-cat had used the smallest of openings to slug one of her assailant across his face.
Saruman snarled in base irritation, "Ascian, did I not tell you to have her killed!?"
"Indeed, you did." the Ascian's voice drawled, not sounding particularly contrite.
"Then why is she here?!"
"Because I am a creature of opportunity if nothing else. Now she is far apart from what support she had outside, and it's time to pull the rug. Observe."
Saruman did so as a portal blacker than night bled from thin air and unleashed into the next hall a clearly furious balrog, frustrated to be separated from the battle it had waged elsewhere till it set the embers it had for eyes on the she-cat who quite explicitly cursed under her breath in due turn as she was now fenced in, surrounded.
The balrog, however, had clearly seen better days, wounded as it was.
Nevertheless the splendid woodwork of this manor came apart, its floor being rent and burned, and a wall coming down, as the fallen maia lumbered at great speed for the Warrior of Light.
"Having done that!" the Ascian grinned as he materialized, his bizarre instrument at the ready, "All that remains is to overwhelm and kill her! Between all of us..."
"That's fine." the wizard dismissed, turning away from the fight, "Do as you may while I retrieve our prize."
"You fool—watch out!"
"What do you…?" Saruman barely had time to register the insult before a knight in full armor flew overhead and landed with surprising softness upon the small table, settling into a low crouch in so doing. The knight stared him in the face through a helmet that hid his eyes, and in this absurd moment he was at a complete loss until the Ascian reacted.
"Don't you freeze up now and kill him, seriously!"
Saruman was about to do so when the knight blurred into action and ran the butt of his spear through the box so it was shattered and the Ring sent flying into the air. Desperate to claim it he reached out through the air filled with debris to grab the golden band.
Once more the knight intervened and flicked his spear so to knock the Ring even further away.
OoOoO
This is going to be close!
H'aerindu had almost no time to notice at all when the manor started coming apart in a wave of destruction that started from a place behind her, and even less when the Echo screamed at her about the heat approaching her neck. Reflexes took over and she lowered her head.
So swift did she move that she left some sweat to be vaporized where her neck previously was.
It saved her life, but disrupted her efforts to subdue these elves who could not possibly be in cohorts with the white wizard considering how disturbed their aether were. Like one in a fluid motion the four remaining had drawn away from the balrog's blade and then closed in anew to try and succeed where countless orcs have failed.
Then she saw a glimmer and tilted her head just enough to see it more clearly.
Ahead of her Aauron had brought himself to bear against Nameless and Saruman both and in a quick maneuver managed to liberate and send the Ring flying before either of them could take it. The effort earned him a howl of pure anger as Saruman repulsed the dragoon with a blast from his staff.
Why must you be so reckless!? H'aerindu yearned to shout, and would have if it did not reek of such hypocrisy on her part.
Instead as the Ring's impromptu flight was brought to a near halt by a gravity spell the Ascian cast in a hurry, the Warrior of Light dug in a heel and initiated a charge strong enough that the amount of air she pushed ahead of herself threw the elves rather ungraciously out of her way. H'aerindu ran and then she leaped with a partially encased hand outstretched.
"Stop!" Saruman and Nameless both shouted at her, both bringing their spells to bear on her.
Just a little further—!
Defenseless as she had momentarily made herself in this haste, H'aerindu tried to close her hand when a twin blast of repulsive force threw her back violently so she bowled an elf over and rolled head over heels till she was almost at the furious balrog's feet.
Two things happened, then.
H'aerindu thought she failed to secure the Ring.
Yet at the same time an extreme surge of energy coursed through her body that was both alien and familiar. It took her a moment to realize that the Ring had managed to slip onto her previously outstretched hand's index finger. H'aerindu rolled back on her feet, riding atop this current of aether as she whirled for the balrog that had itself launched another of its torrents of shadows at her.
With the arm clad in the Ring drawn back she completed her turn and let go a piercing cry as she delivered it into the ashkin's abdomen.
Everything before her unraveled.
Unprepared for the force she brought to bear, the balrog was folded across her arm, its face stretched into a mask of extreme agony as her covered fist broke through its skin as though it was made from porcelain, the explosive release of energy she unleashed from her fist on impact so overmuch that everything past it was blown away. Woodwork, paintings, statues, dirt, flowers, grassy fields, and the fences outside were broken asunder, kicked up, and sent flying as if it was all caught in the wake of a bomb of terrifying destructive power.
To elven eyes, it was for a moment as if Sauron himself had made himself manifest.
With its mouth hanging open, the balrog collapsed against her.
H'aerindu curled her other hand to deliver the killing blow when a portal erupted behind the nearly defeated Durin's Bane that proceeded to swallow it up before she could finish it off, leaving her to stare back at the two flabbergasted villains and their thin screen of misguided guards.
Guards who looked about ready to run as she turned toward them, hissing under her breath.
Meanwhile the wizard and masked man seemed to have a bit of a falling out.
"What are you doing?!" Saruman balked in his consternation and incredulity at what happened, the balrog's defeat and its disappearance both.
Nameless shrugged, the flippant motion contradicted by a set jaw, "We can't simply let such a valuable instrument die like a dog, can we?"
"And what do you suggest we do without it?"
"'We'?" the Ascian morbidly laughed, "Aren't you going to take responsibility for this failure and do what you can?" After a horrified pause on the wizard's part he mockingly continued; "After all, didn't you say you're the one in overall command of this theater?"
"You cannot honestly expect me to fight that, do you?!"
That? How rude! H'aerindu huffed to herself as she set herself into a low posture, about to make her thunderous approach, eager to settle down for a nap and meal after all this effort.
"Is that a refusal I hear?"
"Of course—"
What happened next went by fast enough that even she had to strain her eyes. Nameless took out from within his robe a glass ball and then with a huge smirk thrust it against Saruman's chest, breaking it and releasing upon him what looked like an insect, much to the incredulous wizard's emerging horror.
"No, you cannot mean to—" he intoned.
H'aerindu hasn't seen the actual process for herself but she understood what was about to happen.
Too late to act on it.
All she could do was watch in morbid fascination and disgust as the subsequent process took hold and gave a fair impression of what a collapsing star must look like if it all happened in the space of a few seconds as the aether which made up the wizard's very being was subverted and twisted in ways too gruesome to contemplate. H'aerindu was sickened by the very sight of it.
"No, no! I will not stand for this!" Saruman raged, clutching his chest as the agony of his transformation washed over him, trying furiously to deny it, "I am the greatest Istar! My ambition will not be denied!"
"It will." Nameless callously observed.
"No!" the wizard screamed, reaching for the masked man's face before he at last seemed to come apart in a blinding burst of fell light. "Nooooo!"
The resulting pressure wave flattened the elves caught between them and knocked H'aerindu back a whole fifty paces from the epicenter of what soon would give birth to another aberration that has no place in this world or any other. After what she felt was too long a flight she found a foothold and ground herself to a halt to look back on the new devastation, just in time for the others to arrive.
"This is..." Elrond was in shock shared by the wizard and guards accompanying him as he beheld the remains of his house.
"Instead of gawking, take cover!" H'aerindu cried out as she summoned a large two-handed sword and jumped in front of them as the immense aether signature within the ruins threatened to release another outburst of energy even greater than the last. With the sword in hand she in a burst of dark glyphs erected as large a shadow wall as she could.
Just in time as a wave of torrential winds crashed into them.
"Gh—!" She groaned as the concentric circles of dark runes strained against what was essentially the birth cries of a primal of great potency till Gandalf lent his own barrier to the effort. Together, with their combined effort, they protected the assembled group from the manifested cry till it passed.
In its place, an unnatural hurricane now gathered.
"This intensity." Gandalf whispered bitterly, in grief, "Don't tell me Saruman has also fallen..."
H'aerindu did not answer.
There were no words.
Instead she gazed as a towering figure donning billowing robes that seemed to flash in white and a host of different colors at unsteady intervals emerged from the ruins and with a dismissive gesture had much of the surrounding ruins ejected from the premises through the winds he now exuded. The entity looked serene at first glance, but that would be to ignore the gaunt red eyes and gnashing needle-thin teeth through which he muttered and raved.
Lord of the Storm
Saruman the White
"Now..." Nameless appeared subsequently atop a piece of naked masonry while adjusting a few strings on his precious guitar, unconcerned by the buffeting winds as he smirked at them, "Shall we try this again?"
OoOoO
"C-chief!"
The man who stood atop an elevated hill offered no reaction at first as he gazed at the storm brewing over Rivendell in the far distance with every bit of severity the situation seemed to be due. "Report." he requested with the force of an order, "Have you found out what is going on?"
"As you suspected, Rivendell has come under attack!"
"Damn it all… Anything else?"
"Well, evidence also suggests the Warrior of Light is on site. She's fighting hard to repel the assault as we speak. What shall we do?"
"I imagine that should be obvious." the man smiled grimly, showing pearly white teeth, "Go back to your post. We are going to let our displeasure with this invasion be known in the strongest possible terms!"
"Yes, Chief!"
That being done, he gazed at the brewing storm, "Hold firm, my friend. You won't fight alone this time."
Author notes: Another chapter done in quick succession. Here's hoping Rivendell survives.
Greyjedi4495: Thank you. ^^
Kairitrion Cerulean: "Aauron" is fully the intended name, and more light will be shed on him as time pass.
Blessings of Babylon: No, but he was a source of inspiration. Demyx's weapon was a sitar, though.
