Chapter 44

Aedan smiled at his sisters as they trotted forward with the other commanders of the army of the West. Both wore a single raised eyebrow that went with the sardonic twist to their mouths on otherwise blank faces which gave away little.

A truly foul being trotted up to them through the partially opened black gate and started talking to King Elessar in a way that was not conducive to negotiations, to use vast understatement. The thing the turned to Riona and Aedan had to resist the temptation to go for his sword as the thing that introduced itself as 'The Mouth of Sauron' addressed his sister.

"Riona, the world traveller. We did wonder what had happened to you. It was such a pity those fools left you there. Morgoth had wanted you for a wife you know. My Lord Sauron would like it even more, especially now you are a maia." Riona snorted derisively.

"Really?" She commented the smiled leant forward with a vicious grin. "You know the problem with that, don't you?" The Mouth of Sauron frowned quizzically at her.

"All mouth, no trousers." She commented succinctly as, in a blink and you miss it manoeuvre, she brought Darksbane down with extreme force, literally cutting the thing and its vile horse in half. Everyone blinked and stared as the two corpses collapsed on the ground from the mighty blow for a few seconds as Riona shook the blood from her blade.

"Well I guess that concludes negotiations." Gimli muttered in utter shock.

Riona, Rosie and Aedan sat next to each other, mounted and listening to Aragorn's speech as the black gates opened and a line of orcs and suchlike became visible. Shortly after the king had finished speaking it became clear that the orcs and whatever else ran with them were trying some sort of battle chant that seemed to consist of a range of low noises that may or may not have been an attempt at music.

Suddenly a wicked grin crossed Rosie's face and she leant across to her sort-of Welsh brother.

"So, Aedan, do you think the Welsh can do better than that?" She asked, nodding at the chanting army. Aedan grinned, knowing what his sister was thinking.

"Well, they've got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that's for sure." He grinned at his sisters and closed his eyes before raising his voice.

"Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming,

Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming."

Both sisters grinned and took up the tune, which was quickly followed by first the swan knights then some of the Rohirrim and, of course, the Court of Insanity. Soon, the rest of the army picked up the tune even if they didn't know the words. Both girls grinned as the dark army nearly visibly paused at the wall of sound that came at the shouted refrain (slightly edited, they suspected by their brother).

"WESTMEN WILL NOT YIELD!"

With a sense of timing the entire army drew their weapons and stood ready and the singing continued, Riona muttering to her sister.

"I think the west has a new anthem." Rosie grinned.

XXX

"I'll give Mordor plus points for fire power." Riona commented blankly as she, and everyone else on the field, watched Mount Doom go up in flames. Rosie, only half paying attention as she also stared at the volcano, laughed absently before collapsing onto her knees with a sigh. Snapping out of her shock Riona dropped to the floor next to her sister and began examining her.

"Riona, I'm fine, just exhausted." Riona snorted.

"And pregnant." Rosie blinked, in surprise, too tired to react more.

"Whoops." Riona rolled her eyes with a grin.

"I'm guessing you didn't know? Because if you did then Olwe will kill you, presuming he gets to you before I've killed him for getting you knocked up." Rosie laughed softly.

"Even I'm not an idiot enough to go into battle knowing I'm up the gumtree. Ooo, look, big birdies." She muttered and, indeed, there were several big birdies, more commonly known as Gwahir and the Eagles of Manwe. Riona pulled her sister into her arms as the two knelt on the field of the Morannon. Rosie dropped her head onto her sister's chest.

"I feel we should be singing right now but I don't have the energy." Riona laughed softly.

"Just sit and rest sister mine, and rejoice in the the life we have discovered this day, and pray that everyone else made it out alive."

XXX

Indeed, everyone they knew had survived. They'd even managed it with relatively minor injuries – that is to say that no-one in the Court of insanity had more than a few gashes about their persons. The worst that happened was Riona dropping from exhaustion after spending too much time caring for the injured in the makeshift healing tents and having to be carried by Aedan to the Cormallen Fields where the army would recoup before they returned to Minas Tirith, which they knew the evacuated people were returning to.

A few days after the camp was set up Daffyd, Aedan and Owen were walking near the jetties which ships where arriving at with supplies and healers were arriving. Sudden Aedan grinned as he saw a woman disembark and nearly run to him, having clearly spotted him first, flinging herself into his arms and kissing him thoroughly. When she had stopped that she hugged Owen as enthusiastically. Daffyd watched, bemused and with more than a hint of wistfulness, having a good idea who the woman was. Once she finished greeting the pair she turned to look at Daffyd with a raised eyebrow as her gaze flickered back to Aedan.

"Ceridwen, may I introduce Daffyd? He's gone and grown on us, hasn't he?" Ceridwen stared at him in utter shock. Daffyd smiled wryly at his father.

"You know, that is almost word for word what Riona said when she reintroduced me to Rosie?" Aedan grinned.

"It's a family thing, kiddo." Ceridwen had, by now, raised a shaking hand to touch Daffyd's face.

"Daffyd, my Daffyd?" She asked quietly. He nodded awkwardly, not entirely sure how to react. Suddenly he had his arms full of the mother he couldn't remember.

"Hello Nana." He whispered as he held her close, ignoring the wetness to his shoulder. Aedan watched on with a slightly wistful expression, his own reunion with his first born had been equally emotional and he'd at least had some warning. Owen just looked slightly uncomfortable but glared at anyone who stared at them. He'd just been shocked to discover he had a brother, who also happened to be a legend with more royal connections than the descendants of Queen Victoria.

Eventually the pair separated.

"Shall we go find Riona and Rosie?" Aedan asked.

"They're in the healing encampment." Aedan rolled his eyes.

"All the more reason to go find them, Riona's probably working herself silly again." Daffyd just grinned at his father, still not having dropped his arm from around his mother's shoulder. Ceridwen did not seem to mind.

XXX

The entire Court of Insanity stood with the fellowship, for once utterly serious as Aragorn was crowned Elessar Telcontar, King of Gondor and Arnor. Very few of the men watching understood the significance of the attendance of the entirety of the House of Eonwe and their associates being present, Riona in Eonwe's arms, Rosie in Olwe's, Aralle in Oropher's Airatari in Ingwe's and all their children, squires, wives and husbands arrayed round them. Not since Elros Tar-Minyatur's own coronation as the King of Numenor had either the High King of the Elves or the Commander of the Army of the Valar been present at a coronation and then the later had only been accompanied by a scared woman who didn't speak the language with her equally lost young nephew. Now two of the most significant beings outside the Valar ever to have existed stood surrounded by family as significant as themselves showing how they had grown intervening time it had taken the Kings of Men to return. Aragorn could have no greater witness to his right as King.

XXX

Aedan, Rosie, Riona and Ceridwen sat together in Riona's sitting room in the citadel of the white city. The four had gathered as the only ones who remembered the world they came from. Ceridwen, unsurprisingly, was curled up against Aedan's chest.

"Do you think we are missed?" Ceridwen asked quietly. Riona smiled softly at her.

"Probably but they are long over the initial grief. It would not serve for us to return – we have changed too much here. Anyway, we have lives here. I asked about it. We cannot return now we are maia. On related notes, when are you two and Owen going to come to Valinor?" Ceridwen blinked in surprise.

"Why would we come to Valinor?" Rosie laughed hollowly.

"I asked that when I first found out I was a maia. I found out within one human lifetime. Watching those you know die round you is not fun. It is why all immortals live apart from mortals." Both halves of the couple looked grim at the reminder. Riona took pity on them.

"You will always have a place in the House of Eonwe, we're getting pretty huge now. And amazingly enough, we still have loads of space." Aedan smiled and laughed at his sister's flippant tone of voice.

"Of course we will have to at least learn how to move between the two soon, Rosie will need her women folk around when she give birth." He grinned at his sister who was barely beginning to show he pregnancy. Riona smiled at them.

"No-one said you had to up and move all at once. It's not like with the elves and having to sail. I just look forward to us all being together finally."

XXX

Once again the House of Eonwe stood arrayed together, for the first time utterly reunited, to watch Arwen marry the love of her life. Fea stood with her husband on one side and Elrond on the other and then Celebrian who stood beside her parents as the two members of the Court of Insanity that would never come to Valinor bind themselves in marriage.

The party afterwards was spectacular as was to be expected. The entirety of the race of men celebrated the fact that this signified the continuity of the line that would return their realms to glory. Silently the elves and maia took it as the start of the handover from the stewardship of the Elves to Men.

It wasn't just the end of the Age of the Elves and the start of the Age of Men but the handover from the time of the Immortals to the Mortals. The immortals present looked at each other, as if thinking the same thing and in unison lifted their glasses in toast to the New Dawn.

XXX

Rosie smiled as she and Olwe entered the room filled with her family, followed by her sister and sister in law. She knelt and presented her child to the assemble host. Olwe, grinned proudly at them as they all looked at the child with hair the colour of the dawn, shimmering between golden, red and hints of the bluish tint in her father's hair. The baby simply looked up at them with eyes the colour of the sea.

Olwe, once the initial rush to look at his first child passed, finally spoke up, voice laden with both pride and joy.

"May I present my daughter, Sinyára?"

Ingwe smiled gently at his friend and kinsman, laying a gentle hand on the child's forehead in benediction.

"Welcome, Child of the New Dawn of the Immortal people of the Undying Lands. I name you Eldalassë. May your life be one of Joy."

THE END

AND IT IS FINALLY COMPLETED. WOW. THANKYOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT FOR ALL THREE PARTS OF THIS TRILOGY.

For reference, Sinyára means new dawn, the law name Eldalassë means Elf Joy, it seemed appropriate and I wanted to finish this story on a good note. A new baby is always a good note.

On other notes, I apologise for the wholesale theft of the most awesome bit of Zulu, all bad puns perpetrated on my poor readers and suchlike. Hopefully you had as much fun as I did writing.

After this i most likely will disappear off somewhat. I nowadays have limited inspiration and writing time. I will be concentrating on the rewrite of the two main parts of the Dawnstar universe my best friend and I are doing (we're clearing up the prose a lot, changing elements to be more cannon appropriate since when we wrote that neither of us were that well acquainted with the details of the Tolkien-verse and adjusting for the fact that this time we actually already know is going to happen unlike last time when it was mostly written off the top of our heads as we went along. We're also making it fit better to later additions to the Dawnstar Universe). This won't be posted until i have completely finished writing it to keep posting somewhat regular rather than the thoroughly ad-hoc posting this had due to me being in the process of writing it and half the time not having the inspiration. We will be leaving the original up because various plot points have been changed in the update however. I most likely will not be posting anything else in the foreseeable future.

Thanks for your attention.

Gaia Caecilia.