The Golden Hall was dark that night, but within a few hours the tables were moved away to make room for mattresses, pillows and blankets for those who needed accommodation. However, Diva and Arya were not asleep. Their parents had already taken leave of Théoden, and left Rohan within a heartbeat, with Solomon's speedy wings and Saya in his arms. All that was left in their little family were themselves and Boromir, who had slipped out to hunt for blood.

"Can't sleep?" Diva asked Arya when she saw her sister awake. She noted the troubled expression on her sister's face and told her, "Don't tell me you miss Boromir already, he has only been gone but a few hours!"

Arya playfully threw her pillow at Diva and replied, "Are you sure that you are not the one missing Haldir?" Diva chuckled and told her that their argument would never end. "Well, you were right about one thing though: every step from here would be even more deadly but closer to our goal…"

The Red Queen had said those words just after the battle of Helm's Deep, and she had thought long and hard before saying them. "I did not mean to be so pessimistic, but it was what I found in my own mind… We've only won one battle, but we cannot see if we could win others yet."

"And right you are, young one, right you are," a female voice interrupted them, coming from a door that lead into the rooms of Théoden and his family. Immediately, the Queens stood and began charging their powers, ready to shoot balls of earth and lightning at the stranger. "Do you really think that you can defeat me with those little globes, you have to be joking…" Without another word, the stranger raised her hand, dissipating the spheres of power from the twins' hands. Looking at one another in surprise mixed with fear, they attacked the stranger more rigorously and more severely, but to no avail, as she had formed a shield of purple light around her, which absorbed their powers, turning it into her own.

"Who are you?" Arya spat, her sapphire eyes aglow, illuminating the space around her in a soft light of blue. "Are you a friend, or are you a foe?" The stranger barely smiled and made her shield disappear. She was hooded, but the Blue Queen could make out that she was more or less her grand-aunt Undomelinn's height, tall, like Galadriel and Arwen. Even her chuckle was similar to that of Undomelinn's… From a window, they could see that the clouds surrounding the moon quickly dispersed in accordance with her laughter…

Diva lowered her hands, and that of her sister, a great suspicion gnawing at her mind. She had heard tales of their own grandmother, Arya I the Fair, who could bring the sun out with the sound of her laughter. So beautiful was she that wherever blood was spilt in the name of war that flowers would spring wherever she stepped upon. So peace-loving was she that she only used her powers to defend herself, against the forces of Sauron and against the other Queens of her time. Undomelinn may not have elaborated further on their grandmother, but judging by what she had just displayed, it could be that her active powers were the ability to absorb the powers of other Queens and use them as a shield to protect herself…

"Nathan did not lie to me," the stranger added. "You are indeed more powerful than most of our foremothers…" Looking around her, she saw only men sleeping, some snoring so heavily, oblivious to the show of power a few moments prior. "Men, I could burn this hall and they would not know why they were dead…" From the corner of her eye, she could see Arya and Diva prepared to attack her once again, but she calmed them down. "I have no intention to do just that, mind you. It was a figure of speech…"

Clearing her throat, Diva said, "Forgive us for our rashness in attacking you, for it is difficult for us to judge those around us, let alone strangers that we do not know." She spoke with respect, a tone that Arya did not understand. There was something her sister knew, and was not telling her. She absolutely abhorred whenever that happened. "We cannot be entirely sure whether or not we are on the same side."

By then, their voices have already awakened Gandalf, who raised his staff at the stranger. "I should have known better than to believe the stories that the Rochir Nathan weaved… You have deceived us for more than two thousand years, Arya…"

"Arya?" Arya asked, looking at Gandalf. There was only one Queen with the same name as she had, and that was her grandmother… "You are our grandmother?"

Now identified, Arya I nodded and said, "I spent many ages recovering from what the men in another world did to me, as well as what my sister's Rochir had done… I have slept for more than two thousand years, and this is what you call me, Mithrandir, a deceiver?"

"My father said that you were cast aside by Amshell and Joel Goldschimdt, that you were dead…" Diva replied, her heart beating so fast at the realization that her grandmother was alive. "How, how did you survive the mutilation that you went through?"

Gandalf cast a soft look at Arya I and told the Queens, "Perhaps it would be better if we went to the kitchens, where we can talk this over with a cup of tea… I think I am going to have one of those things humans call when they consume to much alcohol…"

"Hangovers?" Arya suggested as they moved towards the kitchens, careful not to wake anyone else.

Arya I took a deep breath after she finished her cup of tea, and said, "I did not know how I got through the colored veil in the Misty Mountains, but I remembered that when I came to the other side, I was in this strange country known where the peasants were constantly hounded by men known as Vikings and Magyars…"

"Stop, they are but women and children!" a man called out to a Viking, dressed in furs and armor, with horns protruding from his helmet. Arya I did not understand as what was being spoken, but she remembered well her mother's words that their people learnt the tongues of others by listening to their hearts, and she listened well, finding only the fear and the pain in that man's heart. All around her, were men plundering the village around her, raping the women and killing the children, apparently searching for treasure.

Thanking the Valar that she had her weapons with her, she quickly notched an arrow to her bow, given to her by the Galadhrim, and said, "Drop that man, and I will spare your life," in the language that she would soon know as Norse.

"Hahaha, and who are you to stop me, girl?" the Viking asked her, but was not spared. Her arrow went through his eye and out onto the square, killing him instantly. Wasting no more time, Arya I shot Viking after Viking down until she ran out of arrows and took out her other weapons, a sword and a blade about ten inches long, and began cutting limb, flesh, heads and even guts until she was sure the village was secure, giving into the bloodlust so deeply hidden in her linage.

Once every last one was defeated, the villagers came out one by one to see the strange woman who defended them when none would even care. She looked not a day older than twenty, but she had the wisdom of a woman who had seen more years than their own mothers. "Who are you, miss?" they asked, "where did you come from?" "Are you an angel?"

"I am Sara Arya Yula Airewen from Middle Earth," Arya I said, but no one knew where Middle Earth was, or what it was for the matter. "I have no place to go, or no place to stay, but if you would allow me to stay, I shall protect this village from all harm…"

"Immediately, they built me a simple house, and I lived among them as if I were their own," Arya I told those around her. "And among them, was a youth, Nathan Mahler, whom I became close with. With him, I was not Arya the warrior, but I was only Arya, as I had been in Arda. I told him the tales that I knew, and the lore of our mothers before us, and soon, we became enchanted with one another, so much in fact, that desires of the flesh were hard to disregard. We consummated our love, but still I could not have kept the secret of my pregnancy from him, and he agreed to be the father of the children that I would have…"

Nathan looked at Arya, unable to believe that she was pregnant. "Who did this to you?" he asked her, caressing her flat stomach. "Which monster would dare…"

"It was my sister's Rochir, what you may call as a Knight…" Arya I replied. "It is the only way our race can reproduce, to ensure the purity of our line… He acted out of instinct, when I was asleep… I cannot blame him…"

"Are your people so driven by instinct and blood?" Nathan asked, holding her closer to him. She seemed so human, so beautiful, angelic even, and although he had already embraced the fact that the woman he loved had to consume blood to survive, he still marveled at her abilities, her power and her soul… There was nothing quite like her, and he knew it.

Arya I looked at her granddaughters and said, "One day, the Vikings came back, and Nathan was almost killed, I loved him, but like you, I did not wish to bind him to what we suffer every day of our lives… He pleaded me to give him my blood, and so I did… But our joy was not to last long…"

It had been close to three years since Arya I had come to this strange land. She and Nathan had travelled to a land known as Italy, where trade was prominent and beauty was much appreciated. There, Nathan expressed his deep interest in the arts of the world, but with Arya I's weakening state, he remained close by her side. "Nathan, I feel sleepy… Please, wake me when you deem fit…"

Before Nathan had any chance of reacting, Arya I fell into a deep sleep, only to awaken thirty years later. The strangest thing was that she remained pregnant, even until then, and she remained so for many years, sleeping for thirty years, being awake from around two to five years… This cycle continued on and on, but she and Nathan continued to travel the world, seeing the world as horizons began to expand, and the world becoming smaller and smaller…

They watched the country known as America grow from a small English colony grow into a country with foundations stronger than any other, they watched Europe tearing into two in the name of religion, and they watched many miracles as well… But one cold winter in France, in a cave in a forest near a luxurious châteaux, Arya I once again met the sleep that would embrace her…

"I was cut up, my children taken from me, but before I thought I was dead, Nathan found me, and nursed me back to health… He had found the aurora that brought me to that strange world, and pushed me in, so I could get back. I found myself in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, and there I slept, feeding on whatever creatures crossed my path, waiting for the day that Nathan would come to find me…"

In realization, Arya now knew why Nathan had gone "missing" in the Fell Winter under the service of Helm Hammerhand… There was no better explanation. But her thoughts were once again interrupted by the sound of Pippin, crying in pain.

"He has the Palantir!" Diva shouted, and quickly raced into the throne room, where Pippin was holding the Palantir, with the image of the Great Eye burning like wildfire…