A/N
Hello! Here I am keeping my word on updating for once :))
Thank you so much for the reviews, I didn't even expect one, so to have people care I updated was really a surprise. I know many are disappointed to hear I might not finish this in actual chapters, honestly I am too. I really wanted to finish it as it's (quite frankly!) a very weird story and something I personally would have enjoyed reading if I'd just come across it. However, I will at the very least give a run down of what happens at the end even if I don't finish it. I can say right now we are in the last section of the story, we are closer to the ending than the middle.
I hope anyone that reads this is keeping well in these crazy times.
Enjoy.
Éomer made his way in a lazy haze back down the corridors of Meduseld, unhurried in his task to reach the warmth of his bed and reluctant to have left the arms of the woman he loved.
His soft footfalls echoed his own steady heartbeat, but not his thoughts. For through the mist of passions lingering effect and daze of a longed for meeting with Aedre, the way she had cried in his arms afterwards had left him at a loss of which action to take, of what words to say to soothe the distress she felt as he did not fully comprehend her sorrow.
He had held her protectively as if his own flesh could somehow shield her from hurt. With time her shakes and pitiful weeping had relented and she composed herself, her fingertips releasing their pinching grasp upon his arms. He had wiped away the stains of tears upon her cheeks with his thumbs and smiled, reassuring her silently that all was well, the world had not ended and he was still there beside her.
She had embraced him tenderly in wordless thanks and together they had dressed, fumbling with material and ties in the darkness, aiding each other when needed. When they stood fully clothed, Éomer had tidied her loosened hair as best he could see, smoothing it to her shoulders with gentle strokes before patting her softly, the action stating that they had been gone from their lives too long and must now return.
Aedre nodded her hand coming to rest upon his cheek for a fleeting moment before she took the initiative and slipped from the room quietly, closing the door behind her. Éomer waited for a good while in the darkness, not thinking, just allowing his body to revel in the pleasure he had recently partook.
But now, as his steps took him around the gentle corner, revealing his own chamber door, he was shaken from his own inner musing by the sight of his sister leaning against the wall, clearly waiting for his return. He smiled in greeting but received only a strained upturn of lips in return.
"Éowyn, the hour is late." He said, still smiling but somehow feeling forced in the expression now. Before he could continue with any further light hearted talk Éowyn rushed to him, her hand gingerly clasping his arm.
"Éomer I must speak with you." Her eyes burned into his. "Please." She finished her voice softening.
"Oh course." He unlocked his door opening it as a wordless invite and his sister darted inside without a moments hesitation.
"You have been waiting long?" He asked the question, knowing the answer from the look upon her face.
"Since you left the great hall." She paused. "I saw you go to her Éomer, in full view of all."
Éomer hadn't been expecting this and he felt his jaw clench a little at the accusation his sister levied at him with these words. "No one saw me, none were about to see, you exaggerate Éowyn."
"I saw!" She said, her own anger flaring at her older brother's casual dismissal. "If my eyes see then why not another's? You endanger yourself and the girl."
Éomer gave her an ill look before turning and stoking the fire with a poker, wanting to do anything to still the heated conversation if only for a mere moment. He heard his sister take in a breath as she gained a quick and loose hold upon her own growing temper.
"I know I promised you my blessing, my help." She began, her voice trying it's best to be level and tender.
"That you did!" Éomer said too quick to argue and point her out as being contrary. "What has you going back upon your word, sister?" He spat the last word out as if it was sour to his tongue.
Éowyn felt the intended sting. "I will always support you Éomer, in your heart you know I speak the truth, you know I would not do you false."
Éomer gave a grunt of displeasure. "Perhaps." It was a begrudging acceptance. "But that does not mean you are not misguided in your thoughts."
"You must heed me now, this path you take, it cannot be so." Éowyn continued ignoring his words.
"And you know all this because you are a seer? An Elf that can see the future?" He gave a gruff laugh as he flung each word at her.
"It is a dream Éomer!" Her voice reached fever pitch and the words were hoarsely screamed stilling her brother into silence. She felt unwanted tears welling within her eyes. "You know this. You know Aedre is not fit to be a queen of Rohan. Éomer..." She shook her head, hating every moment of this. "You ask too much of an already weary soul. She is but a child of men Éomer, a child that has suffered much under the cruel gaze of the world." She reached for him and touched his shoulder. "Please do not cause her more suffering, do not ask her to do what is beyond her, to be a queen to a people that have themselves so many wounds, I fear such a burden would be too much for her to bear."
Éomer shrugged off her touch. "So what would you have me do?" He asked coldly. "Give her a peaceful life of rural simplicity and solitude? To be concealed from the world of men? To give up my love for her?" He turned to look at her his eyes now blazing with anger. "Is this what you ask, sister?"
"Yes." Éowyn whispered. "It is what I ask."
"Leave me." He turned his back to her.
"Not until you have heard me." She said with determination.
"I have heard all you would deem to say and I wish to hear no more."
"Éomer..." She hesitated, clutching for words. "Can you not see in her the darkness? She is not for the Mead Hall, give her a happy life, you invite naught but ruin into Rohan if you take this path!"
"I will give her a happy life." Éomer said icily. "Leave."
"You cannot." She reached for her brother again, but stopped before she reached the cloth of his arm as he levelled a furious glare at her. "You are a man not a Valar, you cannot control the world of men with will and strength alone and you are a king, a king of Rohan, your choices are not yours alone to make."
"Enough Éowyn!" Éomer bellowed.
"Enough." Éowyn echoed in a hissed tone, her own anger growing at his stubbornness. "Indeed enough Éomer, my brother, my king, I speak to you only as one who loves you, I stand by your side for the love of you and I tell you what must be heard because of this love I bear you." She paused as the tense stillness seemed to buzz with pent up rage between them. "I am shieldmaiden still and I will protect my land, my people and my king with every breath I have. I would have you hate me than tell you falsehoods to keep us happy friends."
"Enough Eowyn!" His command held less conviction.
"I know you would not hear this, I would not speak it if I knew any other way. If I could see any light, but all I see is darkness and despair and the fall of our people." Éomer walked away from her, his gaze going to the night sky that could just be glimpsed through a crack in the wooden shutters, his task of seeking solace from the argument about him within the stars above held no sway as the night was starless and full of ominous rain clouds. "Your heart aches for love and I would give it to you if it was mine to give." Éowyn continued her relentless assault. "But it is not, it is our peoples. Our people need you Éomer, if you fail them now Rohan will fall and the great battles we fought will mean nothing, our line will mean nothing. It is a heavy and hard task I ask of you, I know this brother, I know it so well that my own heart aches as if it was your twin, but Rohan needs a king and a queen, the house of Eorl cannot fall, not now and you must bear this burden, you must cast off love and your own pleasure and bless our land, as I know you and only you can. You must heal Rohan Éomer."
Again an uneasy silence befell the chamber and they both stood motionless. His sister's words held great wisdom within them, Éomer knew this to be the truth, but he could not accept it. "I did not ask to be king..." He began gruffly but Éowyn pre-empted him. "No one asks for tragedy, few ask for such responsibility as you carry now. You are king and will it or not this is how it must be, you only have to choose what your legend will be, a king that bestowed plenty and peace or a king that choose his own life over that of his people." "You are too plain, too harsh." Éomer berated. "Nothing is so simple in life." "Perhaps not, perhaps I am harsh and unfair. But if you think there is but one grain of truth to what I say, Éomer you must listen to your own counsel, not only your heart." He gave a grunt of displeasure to her words. "It is not too late to change the course of things, so few of us know the truth of who the woman is that holds your affections." She hurried her words, "We can yet set this right."
"There is no reasoning with you." Éomer said gruffly. "So I will not try, you have decided that you are against me on this." It was not a question but a certainty, but still his sister answered.
"I have." Éowyn said. "I am not the only one, those around you know this is not the right path Éomer, you need but ask them, and you should listen to their answers." She paused. "Truly listen, not ask just for their understanding and love, for who could deny so simple a request? You must seek their true feelings on this."
He snorted in mock humour. "Is that so?" He said dismissing her words with a wave of a hand.
"I will leave you as I have no more to say." Éowyn said.
"And I am glad of it." Éomer shot back.
She paused at the door and glanced over her shoulder, her gaze lingering upon her elder brother's frame, he seemed so helpless and so strong all within the same moment, as if a casual breeze may bend the iron within his spirit.
"I know you would save her, that you would give her what you could not give another, but you are damning her in this path... can you not see it Éomer?"
His expression flared with renewed anger and he glared at her with indignation.
"Can you not see how much alike this situation is to Mil..."
"Do NOT speak that name here!" Éomer roared.
Éowyn bowed her head at his outburst, her cheeks reddening with shame at causing him pain and speaking of such a raw past hurt, a hurt that she had been unable to prevent.
"Aedre is not her." She whispered. "It was not your fault, it was Grima... he..."
"No more Éowyn. Leave." He strode forward and roughly took her by the arm forcing her out of the door and into the corridor beyond.
"Please Éomer." Éowyn pleaded.
But Éomer would hear no more of her words and shut the door firmly and purposefully in her face.
Éowyn felt the tears come then and rested her head against the cool wood. "You must save her." She said unknowing if her brother had heard or not.