Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. I do not own any of the character, places, names, or anything associated with the works of J.R.R Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings (books or movie, whatever). My characters are Anita, Leila, and Arlandria and that is all.
A Better Day- Revis
Chapter 61: A better day
As the only elf currently walking around the White City, the guards gave Ani no trouble as she moved about the upper levels since she was so easily recognizable. This posed a disadvantage too, as being the only elf in the city made her a bit of a novelty, there was usually at least one set of curious eyes following her movements. Anita was trying to look as inconsequential as possible as she walked past the ornately armored Citadel guards in the courtyard, hoping she didn't appear guilty when she didn't make eye contact….had she made eye contact with them before? Dammit she couldn't remember. Following the path that led past the Hall and to the house, she fought the urge to look back and see if any of the guards were watching her.
Stopping in the shadows of the house where she felt confident that she wouldn't be noticed, the dark haired girl took a quick look around to be sure the guards were at their posts before she turned her eyes up to assess the building. There were arrows slits adorning the lower level of the Hall between the columns and moldings, but higher up the windows were slightly larger. That was her goal then. It was fortunate for her the amount of architectural details that had been included in the creation of the Hall; the columns, decorative window ledges, and entablatures leading up to where the Tower of Ecthalion sprang from the top of the hall.
With one last glance around , Anita wrapped her slim fingers on a carved stone cornice and easily hoisted herself up onto a window sill. Without hesitating she grabbed ahold of a vertical column that ran up between the arrow slits, the elf jumped off the window ledge wrapping her legs around the stone as she did so. The carved stone scrapped her fingers and palms raw as Ani shinnied her lithe frame up the piece of architecture, by the time she reached the next level of windows there were traces of blood where her hands touched. The second levels windows were slightly bigger which offered Anita view inside; however the sight before her was of a small private study instead of the throne room. The precarious height and width of the ledge meant very little to her, during training Glorfindel had made her stand stock still on precipices far more dangerous; feeling secure where she stood the elleth took a moment to think back on what she had seen of the outlay of the Tower Hall. She remembered entering the doors to the throne room, and she remembered the attached private dining area where she had that unfortunate breakfast meeting with Denethor… Anita huffed with frustration. She should have been more observant of her surroundings, Glo had taught her to be more observant. What a fool she had been. Either way, this window was no good to her and she would have to move one.
Latching her already wounded fingers onto the decorative molding that rimmed the entablature above the windows, the elleth swung herself to the next window ledge. No luck. She repeated this movement twice more without finding a window that looked into the throne room; with a sinking feeling Ani had to acknowledge that she was simply on the wrong side of the house. The elf was going to have to risk moving to an area of the house where the odds of her being spotted by a patrolling Citadel guard went up a hundred fold. Fortune favors the bold. Swearing under her breath in frustration, Anita used the ornate structure to haul herself around the corner of the house, hissing in pain when the pressure made her bleeding hands sting. Rounding the corner, Anita was pleasantly surprised to find that these windows were shuttered against the weather; this bode well for her as it meant no one inside would be able to see her creeping along the exterior. The columns that ran between the windows on this side of the house were much large than the ones on the back, making jumping between window ledges trickier. Above her head, just barely out of reach, was a bit of decorative overhang that she was certain doubled as a weather break; all it took was a little hop and she was wrapping her fingers around the edge of that horizontal lintel. Her hands were screaming in agony as she scooted along the edge, lamenting that being of Elven heritage didn't change gravity's pull on her as she hung from the ledge.
Anita thanked her lucky stars when her toes touched to the small sill of the shuttered window and she could finally let go of the ledge, much to the relief of her torn fingertips. A quiet masculine voice could barely be heard through the shutters, the girl guessed she was next to the window that had been at the farthest back corner of the gallery; it would explain why the voice was only just audible. Crouching in the limited space of the narrow arrow slit, Ani pressed one ear to the window while keeping a watchful eye on the ground below her in case of any extra observant guards. There would be no way to explain her presence up here, so she would need to be fast and stealthy if a patrol came her way.
It was Faramir's voice that she could barely hear, quiet and submissive, retelling the tale she had heard not long ago about Frodo in Ithilien. "The last I saw of him, he and his travelling companions were travelling east. When we had left them , my men and I headed to provide help at Osgiliath where we were overrun…"
"This is how you would serve your city?" Denethor cut his son off. Anita couldn't see faces thanks to the shutters, but the anger in the Steward's voice was so thick it was palpable even from her vantage point. "You would risk its utter ruin?"
Faramir didn't waiver in his response, "I did what I judged to be right."
"What you judged to be right?" Denethor was seething, building rage raising his voice, " You sent the Ring of power into Mordor in the hands of a witless Halfling!" The steward took a moment to calm himself and quiet his voice back from a shouting level, forcing the eavesdropping elf to press her ear up against the closed shutter to hear Denethor's comments. " It should have been brought back to the Citadel to be kept safe, hidden, dark and deep in the vaults , not to be used…. Unless at the uttermost end of need."
"I would not use the Ring, not if Minas Tirith were falling in ruin and I alone could save her." Faramir was trying to remain steadfast and defend his position, but traces of trepidation could still be heard in his voice. From their earlier encounter and how the young man had talked about his father, Ani would have defined Faramir as being fearful of Denethor, a trait that he was obviously trying hard to suppress at this moment.
"Ever you desire to appear lordly and gracious, as a king of old." Denethor sneered, clearly mocking his young son. "Boromir would have remembered his father's need. He would have brought me a kingly gift." This statement caused the elleth to outwardly flinch, knowing from experience how shitty it felt to be compared to a sibling; she could only imagine the wounded look on Faramir's face.
But if the young captain had been hurt by his father's comparison, it didn't show when he immediately snapped back at his father, "Boromir would not have brought the Ring. He would have stretched out his hand to this thing and taken it and he would have fallen…"
" You know nothing of this matter!" The steward snapped cutting off his son. Faramir remained undeterred.
"He would have kept it for his own! And when he returned you would not have known your son."
"Boromir was loyal to me!" Denethor finally snapped, his voice raising to point of being shrill. "Not some wizards pupil." There was the sound of angry footfalls, then a body colliding with the polished stone of the floor. This made Anita sit up a little straighter and turn all her focus, ears and eyes to the window. Curse these shutters! The elleth wasn't Superman, she didn't have x-ray vision, she couldn't see what was happening! Had Denethor struck his son? Had Faramir struck his father?
"Father?" Faramir's voice was little more than a whisper, which was met with no response from the Steward. The silence was maddening. Anita was half a second away from ripping the shutter right off its hinges when Denethor's voice was finally heard again. It had been so quiet that even Anita with her superior hearing had missed what was said. Closing her eyes and focusing on the sounds coming from the window, she was barely able to make out Denethor growling, "Leave me," followed by the sound of Faramir's receding steps.
Anita let out a silent breath as the exchange came to an end. That had been intense, even for something who herself had a few apocalyptic style fights with her own father. At least now she could climb down and return to her chambers, done with Gandalf's ridiculous errands for one day. Just as Ani was about to drop down from her perch on the second floor window, Faramir came around the corner; the elleth only just caught herself by the tips of her fingers as she pitched forward, and had to suppress a yelp of pain. She hadn't been expecting him. The captain walked past where Ani was struggling to remain, too caught up in his own thoughts to notice the elf slipping from the high ledge. Ani counted his steps until she felt confident he had moved past her far enough that she could fall without being detected. Dropping from the ledge, the elf landed silently on the balls of her feet just as she had been taught. At least she thought it had been silently. As she straightened up to make her escape, Faramir stopped on his path to the House and turned to look back, making eye contact with the elleth.
Both Elf and Man froze when their eyes met, a tense moment of silence hanging between them before Faramir spoke. "I suppose you heard that." Anita didn't have any question about what 'that' was, the humiliation was still fresh on the young captain's face, what he was unsure of was how much she should let on. Already today she had the pleasure of insulting and upsetting the Steward himself, hopefully she could avoid the same mistake with his son. The girl chose not to voice a response, but simply nod in acknowledgement of the question. The man's humiliation was only deepened by her confession, and shame filled his eyes. "Naturally you did."
Ani's heart ached for the man before her. In so many ways it was like looking into a mirror; the poor relationship with his father, losing Boromir who was not only his brother but surely his closest friend and mentor… he had the same look in his eyes that Anita had seen in her own eyes seven years ago. He was broken.
"I was sorry to hear about your brother," The elf blurted out.
"As so many were," Faramir muttered, turning way to continue on his way to the house. Instantly Ani knew what mistake she had made, unintentionally making the young man before her feel weighed against his own kin and coming up inadequate.
Following him for a few steps, she rushed to make right what she had said. "I have a sister, a twin, and I would be devastated to lose her."
This caused Faramir to pause mid-step and cock his head slightly to the side in thought, he remained stationary for only a moment before turning fully and walking back to where Ani had stopped. "Forgive me, I do not believe I learned your name." He extended his hand to her for proper introduction, which Ani was not going to take. Her fingers were throbbing from her experience crawling up the columns, there was certainly a chance there was blood still on her wounded fingers; the blood wound be a dead giveaway that she hadn't just she wasn't opportunistically lurking about but actively eavesdropping.
Instead she placed her right hand over her heart and bowed her head, the way that Elves greeted one another…nevermind that it was normally how male Elves greeted one another. "I am Ani of Rivendell, pleased to make your formal acquaintance."
Faramir withdrew his head and narrowed his eyes slightly, a strangely smug look coming over him. "Ani? What a wonderfully unique name, perhaps not in Rivendell though…it would seem you share a name similar to one of Lord Elrond's own granddaughters."
Anita's face fell. Busted. Slowly she nodded her head in confirmation of Faramir's subtle accusation. "How did you know?"
The man was barely able to keep the look of triumph off his face, "Twins are rare, especially among Elves, that made me suspicious. When I heard your name, I knew there was no coincidence. The story of you and your sister's sudden appearance had made much gossip even here in Gondor, Boromir knew I found the story particularly intriguing and wrote to me in a letter about you…and one altercation when you attempted to stab him."
"If I had wanted to stab him I would have stabbed him," The girl hissed defiantly, remembering the incident when Boromir had insulted Leila at the dinner table in front of all the gathered dignitaries. If Faramir's relationship with his brother was anything like the twin's had then Ani wasn't going to win brownie points by smearing the deceased man's good name. "Would you believe me if I said he deserved it?"
Something akin to a smile ghosted over Faramir's face, "Yes I would believe that. Boromir had many talents; chief among them was inserting his own foot in his mouth." The midday bell sounded, echoing off the stone structures in the city until all the empty spaces were filled with reverberating tones. The captain glanced in the direction that Ani could only assume was the sound's origin point within the Citadel, looking thoughtful. "I have yet to dine this day, perhaps you would join me? I would be very interested in the story of how one of Elrond's granddaughters came to be here in the White City when we are on the brink of war."
The elleth readily agreed; her first two days in this city had seen her time spent with either no company or bad company, it would be a welcome change to have someone new to talk to. Anita had expected to dine in the House, however Faramir led her back down to the Sixth level where the soldiers stayed when not on active patrol. Entering the soldier's mess hall, Faramir was greeted with a loud chorus of shouts from the men scattered about, some raising their mugs in salute to him. Boromir might have been the favored son of the Steward, but it was clear to Ani that Faramir was greatly loved by his men too. While Faramir was being greeted with cheers from his men, Ani was being cautiously eyeballed as the oddity she was. While there was a small number of female elves that served on Rivendell's guard there was no such equality in Minas Tirith, in fact Anita was getting the sensation she was one of very few females to have seen the inside of the soldiers mess hall.
After Faramir brought two steaming bowls of a hearty stew, Ani told him the whole strange and twisted tale of how she ended up in White City. She talked about putting Aurelius in a choke hold in order to sneak out of Rivendell, and being chased by a troll through the foothills to the border of Lothlorien. She told him about meeting up with the Fellowship in Lorien and discovering Gandalf's death only to have him delivered alive via giant eagle, and how the old wizard told her that everyone's help would be required to win against Sauron. Faramir listened intently as the elleth before him recounted how she convinced her mentor and friend not to take her home but to join the fight in Rohan, the captain even remained unfazed as the girl relayed in great detail the horrors of the battlefield at Helm's Deep. Ani was thankful that when she fumbled and stuttered her way through the memory of finding Glorfindel's body that Faramir kept the look of pity from his eyes; however, the captain did give pause when Anita talked about the incident with the Palantir and talking to Sauron.
Even as the words tumbled out of her mouth, everything that had led her from Rivendell to Gondor, it sounded like a dream or a fairytale, something not entirely grounded in reality. Looking back, there was no way Anita could have been prepared for the way her life changed the morning of her eighteenth birthday, even if her mother had been entirely honest with her about their lineage. The elleth was amazed how good it felt to tell the whole crazy story to someone impartial, it felt like a great burden had been erased from her soul; Faramir too sat in stunned silence slowly shaking his head as her extraordinary narrative came to a conclusion with the events of that morning, leaving out of course the bit where she was eavesdropping intentionally.
"Such a remarkable tale…" Faramir commented when words returned to young captain, "All this for an Elf you pair-bonded with?"
Anita scrunched up her face as she thought about the man's summary of everything she had endured up to this point in her journey. "That was how this all started, I left Rivendell to follow him yes, but that's not why I stayed, it's not why I came to Gondor. "
"I wonder at the reason you have chosen to come here if not for love, since the rest of your people have made clear their choice to let us fight and die alone."
"My people have already fought this war once, "Ani snapped harshly, "My grandfather was there in Mt Doom when Isildur chose to keep the Ring! " The captain raised his hands defensively and the elleth closed her eyes and took a deep shaking breath, trying to quell the anger that had risen at Faramir's accusation of her Elven kin. Brushing the long dark tresses of hair that had come free from her braids out of her face, Ani locked eyes with the man sitting across from her, "I didn't know what it was going to be like," She finally admitted the words out loud. "Growing up as I did, war was just a word, it didn't mean anything to me personally because I haven't ever experienced it. It was a word that I heard in stories and from old dusty history tomes…. When I was in Lothlorien I overheard about Saruman's plot to destroy Rohan,I was too naïve to know what the reality of the situation be. For me it was black and white, right and wrong; Its right to help people in need, it's wrong to take over the world. I couldn't have known what I was getting involved in when I volunteered to help, I didn't know what war really looked like….Glorfindel knew. He knew I wasn't ready for something of this magnitude, he also knew I wouldn't have listened when he told me so, stubborn ass that I am. God but if only I had listened…."
Her thoughts followed the trail her words had paved, leading her to wonder if she had just listened to her teacher how life would be different for her. She would have gone back to Rivendell having patched her relationship up with Legolas, Glo would still be alive, and she would never had witnessed the horrors at Helm's Deep. But she would have still been naïve to the world, been ignorant of all these different peoples and lands she had travelled to; there was also the matter of her parents, which she had gained great perspective on over the past few months. It was a paradox, to have stayed in Rivendell she would have been protected yes, but still immature and ignorant. Was ignorance really bliss?
"You lament not listening to your mentor, I suffer from a problem of the opposite nature; had I but NOT listened to my father…I had volunteered to answer Elrond's call when the Ring was discovered and brought to Rivendell. My father, however, felt Boromir would better serve him and our country if he made the journey. Perhaps if I had persuaded my father, if I had not submitted to his will, then my brother would be alive still."
Anita had to refrain herself from reaching across the table to touch the captain's hand in an attempt to offer physical comfort for the pain he was expressing. She felt for him. The girl was consumed by her own guilt for what happened to Glorfindel, seeing his demise at Helm's Deep as her own fault, she couldn't imagine how that pain would be exponentially worse if it had been her sibling that had died, such as was the case with Faramir. Ani chose her next words with great care, "While I am sorry for what happened to Boromir, perhaps it was for the best that your places weren't exchanged. When you found Frodo in the wilderness you let him leave to continue his quest and destroy Sauron, knowing well what your father's expectations were for the Ring, and I do not believe that your brother would have let the Hobbits go free had he been the one to find them. I'm not one for religion myself but maybe it was part of a bigger plan that you be here to help Frodo when the time came."
Faramir's eyes looked far and away, as though he could see through time and to a world where he and his brother had traded places and what the consequences for their choices were and where it would lead them. He looked thoughtful for only a moment before the guilt set back in and his face clouded over. Shaking his head he mumbled, "There is no 'bigger plan' and to say there is would suggest a power in control of such a thing, even if there was it has surely abandoned us to our own destruction". Anita was going to rebut his argument, but before even a sound had left her mouth the man in front of her let out a deep full-bodied yawn that reminded the elleth that even if she didn't feel exhaustion, this human man certainly did; Faramir had been through a long and grueling day, he deserved a chance to rest peacefully.
Deciding it was best to let the conversation die, Ani stood up from the bench seat and gave a bow of her head. " Thank you for the meal and the conversation, but now I think it best that I take my leave; I need to find Gandalf and you look as though you need a full day of sleep." Even as she spoke Faramir appeared to be nodding off where he sat. Exiting the mess hall, the elf slowly meandered her way up to the Citadel where she was certain she would find the wizard; there was no rush after all, since none of the information she had overheard was paramount to the survival of Gondor. Lost in her own thoughts, Anita walked the short distance between the sixth and seventh levels of the white city. It was amazing her all the ways her life paralleled the life of the Steward's second son, it was also amazing to her that someone as horrid as Boromir would have such a relatable sibling. The realization that perhaps people thought the same thing about her and Leila caused Ani to laugh out loud, drawing strange looks from the guards she passed. One thought above all others weighed heavily on her mind, perhaps the greatest similarity that she felt she shared with Faramir, was just how different their lives would be at this moment in time if Sauron had stayed dead.