It is early when they arrive at Ori's, Hjalmar's shop has not yet opened and Nori looks about them carefully before knocking on the door. Dís knew about Dori, but Nori has been careful to keep her connection to Ori as quiet as possible. She also long ago made it clear within the Guild that if anyone sells information about her brother to Dís she will make sure that dwarf suffers an agonising death. They all believe her, word of Ordan has made its way around the Guild over the years and Nori is known to be more savage and will never give any warning where her family is concerned.
It has happened before.
Her brother appears at his door, bleary eyed and confused, his hair sticking up at odd angles and a cardigan pulled on over his nightshirt.
"What?" He stares up at her. "Nori, what's going on?"
"Not on the step," she shakes her head. "Can we come in?"
"My home is yours," her brother sighs. "When did you get home?"
"Last night," she ushers the three younger dwarves past her.
"And you got into trouble that quickly?"
"What can I say," she grins at him, " slower than usual. I'm losing my touch."
"Losing… You know, I'm starting to understand why Dori was always getting his beard in knots over you," Ori huffs as he closes the door. "Why here? Why not your place?"
"Can't be sure my place isn't being watched," she replies, ambling up the stairs as though she has far fewer cares than she does. "And the Crown Prince and his lass should never be seen at my place, wouldn't you agree?"
"That… You… What have you done?"
"Nothing," Nori tells him, "for once none of this is my fault at all. There was a bit of drama when we got back last night and I needed to get the boys somewhere safe in a hurry. Hela too. You know what Ergart gets like about uninvited guests, and he's got a new book for you to play with incidentally. He put us up for the night but we needed a safe place to wait until Dwalin can tell us if it's safe for the boys to go back home or not."
Ori stares at her for a long moment.
"I don't want to know," he declares. "Make your own breakfast, if you're still here at lunch you better make me some as well," he adds with a sigh.
"Go and get dressed," Nori laughs. "We'll keep out of your way."
Ori has never been a morning person, and he dresses and departs for his work after greeting the others briefly. It is uncharacteristically rude for her youngest brother, who had manners drilled into him far more firmly than Nori ever did, but she can understand why he is feeling on edge. He knows what Dís did to Dori's home and she cannot blame her brother for being nervous. She has to admit that she is nervous as well. This is unknown territory for her and she really has no idea how to handle it.
When Dwalin turns up he looks exhausted, his skin grey with lack of sleep and his steps slow and laboured as he comes up the stairs. He pauses when he sees her to wrap her in his arms and she returns the embrace willingly. Dwalin presses his forehead to hers briefly, the gesture gentle and tender rather than the hard smack that he normally exchanges with his brother, then he turns his attention to Kíli who is sat with his brother pretending that he is not watching the moment between his mentors.
"I'm sorry, lad," Dwalin says, approaching and kneeling before the young prince. "I promised your Da I would watch over you both when he passed. I failed you, both of you."
"It isn't your fault, Dwalin," Kíli says. "I didn't know you'd made Da that promise, you couldn't have seen it coming and you've always done your best by us."
"Apparently, my best wasn't good enough," the guard sighs, getting to his feet so that he can drag a chair over to sit in.
"What did you find out?" The thief asks as she settles onto the floor next to him, legs crossed.
"Dís never knew about Frerin," Dwalin sighs. "Thrór and Thraín kept his emerging trade from her entirely, they would have kept it from Thorin too but for the fact that he caught Frerin at it. Frerin's trade came in handy while we were all living as refugees and so no one questioned it at all. Dís never saw, she was a child and protected as one. When he was killed…" he breaks off. "When Frerin was killed Thraín insisted on telling his daughter of the loss alone. We never knew exactly what he told her, whether it was the truth and she refused to believe it, or a pretty lie to try and make Frerin's passing easier on her. Dís adored Frerin, even more than Thorin. Likely because they were closer in age and Frerin did not have the cares that Thorin carries in ever increasing number. We'll probably never really know how he became her favourite, but he was long before his death."
Hela approaches and hands him an ale before joining Fíli near Kíli. Nori is going to owe her younger brother a new barrel, as well as money to replace the food they have helped themselves to.
"What story did her father tell her?" Nori prompts when Dwalin has taken a long drink.
"She insists that she was told Frerin was killed by an orc while saving Thorin's life," Dwalin takes another drink. "His death was sold to her as some grand and noble sacrifice to save the heir to the throne and she's grown up believing it's the duty of the younger, spare, son to protect the heir and give his life if necessary. Likely reinforced by her father before he vanished off into the wilds for the sake of protecting the delusions he gave her."
"Do you think that's what her husband feared she would push for when he died?" Nori asks.
"From the bile she was spouting last night? He'd been pushing back at her over it for years," he looks at Kíli, "kept her from falling fully into whatever strange place her head has gone. She didn't take the news about Frerin very well. Accused us both of all sorts, messing with her mind, trying to tear her family apart, doing your bidding, lass, to undermine the crown. A lot of other rubbish too. There's something broken in her and I wonder how we missed it."
"You don't look for it in your own family," Nori shakes her head. "And by the time you're willing to admit you can see it, it's usually too late."
"Thorin said the same about his grandfather," Dwalin agrees. "And all the stories I heard say that the people noticed it before the family were willing too."
"It takes an outsider's eye sometimes," Hela says quietly.
"The question becomes how the rest of us missed it," Nori chews on her lip.
"Well, you hardly spent any time around her," Dwalin says, "and she's hated you from the moment she met you, so you can be forgiven for thinking that her attitude was a new development, but the rest…" he sighs. "She covered her tracks well, made the right noises about being concerned that Kíli didn't have a trade and where it would leave him in the future. Pushed for me and Thorin to make sure he was well trained with as many weapons as possible, Fíli too, pushed to have them trained to fight together and apart. She showed the right concern about the lad's safety when his trade did make itself known, made a lot of noise about how the family needed to be seen as above reproach after all the stories she had been told about Erebor's fall. Told us she was frightened of what he would become and that it wasn't what she had hoped for for her youngest son. Everything she said seemed reasonable, if sometimes a little harsh, but when Thorin pushed against it she would carry on harder and more visibly, so he stopped pushing. I think he hoped that by letting her vent at him he could keep it away from the lad.
"That aside, she very much made it sound like she only wanted what was best for him," he concludes sadly.
"And at the same time she was whittling away at his self worth," Nori hisses. "For what purpose?"
"To make me a shield for Fíli," Kíli whispers. "Those without crafts are always more likely to be killed in battle. They lack the focus. So she tried to strip me of my craft on the off chance that if Fíli and I ever saw battle I would fall defending him."
"No!" Fíli insists. "I would never have allowed it! I would have died before I would permit you to die for me. Surely even our… My mother could not have been so blind as that."
"People like her usually see one of two things; what they want or what they fear," Kíli says, "Nori taught me that."
"And when they see what they fear they'll make a mistake," Nori finishes. "As long as you were the good lad without a craft she was happy enough to carry on, whispering poison in your ear while looking like a doting mother."
"But as soon as Nori trained you…" Fíli breathes in horror.
"She could see her control slipping through her fingers," Dwalin finishes, bowing his head. "And once he snapped back the supports of the shaft she'd been working for so many years collapsed, and I think it might have taken her mind with it."
Nori gets to her feet abruptly, mind working rapidly as she goes to Kíli. He looks up at her, face lined with exhaustion and grief, as the final piece of the puzzle she has been trying to put together for so many years falls into place. She has long wondered why Dís, who seemed so protective of her sons that she was not willing to send them on the caravans and would destroy homes in search of them, had put up so little fight in Nori's previous life about both boys joining the quest. Fíli was to be expected, as the heir he would need to prove himself to their people by following Thorin. But Kíli should have remained behind for the security of the line. True, there was Dáin and his boy, but one of the direct line should have remained in Ered Luin to preserve it in case things went wrong, just as Dís had been kept well away from Azanulbizar. Except Dís had been determined that Kíli go on a quest which would almost certainly claim the lives of those attempting it, had made him promise to bring his brother home and protect him. She had sent the child she had raised as Fíli's shield to perform his task.
"My lad," she breathes, pulling him into her arms as grief and guilt claw at her. "My poor little lad."
None of them can have any idea what she has worked out, but none of them question it, least of all Kíli, who buries his face into her neck with a sob. Fíli joins them after a beat, wrapping his arms around his brother's waist and leaning against his back, his own tears streaking his cheeks as Hela rests her head on his shoulder in silent support. Dwalin joins them too, large arms gathering three of the four of them close.
"What do I do now, Aunt?" Kíli whispers after a while, voice broken with tears and muffled where his face is hidden in her shoulder. "I'm alone, I don't have anything. I don't…"
"You got me," Nori tells him, "you've got your brother and Dwalin. None of us are turning our backs. Don't know what stone-brained idea for dealing with it all your uncle has, but I'm pretty sure you've got him too. And I know that if Briar knew what was happening she'd be here as fast as she could and then she'd only leave your side so that she could feed you. You're not alone, my lad." With that he starts sobbing once again. "You'll never be alone."
"Thorin needs to see you and the lads," Dwalin says softly once they have calmed again. "We need to work out where to go from here, and we don't have a heap of time to do it in."
"She still in the house?" Nori demands and feels him nod. "I'm not taking him anywhere near her."
"She's locked in her room, no weapons, nothing she can use to hurt herself or anyone else," Dwalin sighs. "I promise you, lass, neither me nor their uncle wants these lads to suffer any more than they already have. He just wants to see how deep her rot has run, that's all. He won't ask you to leave if the boys don't want it."
"When they're ready," Nori breathes, "not a moment before."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
A.N: Couple of chapters and I promise the angst will dial back a little bit. I can't be horrible to Kili forever (someone might decide to try and take him away from me!) and Nori might not know how to navigate the mess that is his relationship with Dis, but she knows how to protect people and she fully intends on doing whatever is necessary in this case.