A/N: After a week I'm back! My computer is fixed, although I do have to look at a new one. Preferably one that I can take on the road because I want to be able to write on the road and do photoshoots and videos of my travels too for both my Patrons, social media, and Youtube channel. I actually have a list of things that I'm trying to get in place. Like there's a Victorian town out in the middle of nowhere that I wanted to do a photoshoot tour of in like full period-correct clothing and maybe do a reading of something. But anyway I have to actually put a lot in line for everything on my list (including emailing the community coordinator for that one which is intimidating cause WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO HER?) I really want to go to some of the places that I find inspiring for my stories (like there are several state parks here that I used to inspire scenes in The Singer Saga and would love to do shoots there and show you what I see.) and either cosplay myself as the characters, or have someone else do it and just take photos, or have them take photos of me doing it or something. (Yes I am that kind of geek.) But all of the photographers I currently know who would be down to do something like that, having seen their work? No. Just no. I know my work (non-food related if you've seen my Instagram. Oh the things Covid and crappy camera phones have reduced us to.) and so I haven't found anyone else in my area that I would trust with it or respect their work enough. Oh, the frustration. Oh well.

Anyway, reining in my ever-spinning brain back onto track, so I'm looking at computer upgrades and camera purchases and learning techniques for these things and... Brain off and spinning again. On top of this, I'm thinking about publishing my original stories onto platforms like Wattpad and Inkitt. Any thoughts? You know what? Let's just get to the story. Y'all can tell me later!

Now as I hope I have made obvious I write fanfiction for practice in the craft of writing. And if you like my writing style, my original works are much the same style, although varying subjects and genres. I just need to get over my own nerves and publish them. Can I get a supportive hug, please?

Also because my Ao3 readers have caught up with my readers you are now on the regular update schedule so you get parts of insanely long chapters. Cause 25+ pages in my writing program is a bit of an eye strain for me to write and edit each week. So love you all but I love not being sick all week from migraines and pain more.

Well on with the show and here we go! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it. Bad poet, but hey.)

Like, Subscribe, Favorite, Follow, Kudos and Review, (and consider following or supporting on P-atreon and Ko-fi. Cause you know adulting.)

Much Love

JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. Maybe even some world-building polls. I dunno. I'm winging it. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (There are 3 tiers up on P-atreon now and a goal up on Ko-fi. I'm working on others.)

Pps. I've caught up on posting on my older stories to Ao3. I am now free to post any deleted "scenes" and extras in conjunction with the older stories and the ones I am currently working on. They will only appear after a story is completed. And after Patrons get the first crack at them. Sorry. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Chapter 3 Waiting for the Dwarves

Glorfindel found her in the top of the old tree, singing to a tiny bird in its nest. A mixture of concern and anger etching deep lines on his handsome face, he stared up at her. No wonder her son was always in the trees, he thought as he strode up to the ancient tree trunk. "Will you come down from there?"

"Why?" Caelann asked, holding an upturned hand to the little bird. She knew he would fall right through but the handful of seed she held was staying long enough for her to pour it out into a pile before the little creature.

"The dwarves are here and you have better relations with them than any of us."

Looking down through the branches of the trees at him, she had to wonder if he had taken leave of his senses. "And last I checked," she sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing at her aching temple. "I am invisible. I can be of no help to Elrond with only ye and Sherilynn able ta see me. And he is unlikely ta consult me through either one of ye, or ta ask Sherilynn for her advice while dealing with them."

"Mithrander will be there." Glorfindel reminded, alarmed at the deep etching that fatigue and pain had given her face. He was reminded of another time so long ago that he had seen those kinds of lines. "He may be able to see you and it is he that must be convinced that Sherilynn needs to travel with the company."

Recognizing his point as valid, she nodded and shimmered out of his vision, only to reappear a moment later before him in a heap at his feet.

"Caelann!" Stooping and forgetting that he could not touch her, he gasped as his hand passed through her shoulder and he felt a shock. A tiny jolt like he had been dressed in wool stockings and rubbed his feet on the woven rugs that covered floors in winter.

Taking a deep breath, she forced her eyes open, wincing in protest at the light. "I'm fine." She growled, rolling away only to find him before her again as silent as a statue as he watched her with a frown.

"You move like you are injured." He protested. "Like you were when that orc tossed you off the cliff during the war. Why?"

Looking up into his stern face and seeing resolve, the calm you would only find in a warrior who has walked through their own version of hell and survived by no more than sheer force of will, she knew there was no hiding this. Not the way she could hide it from Sherilynn, who for all her wisdom was still so innocent to that kind of despair. "In the other world," she began, breathing out the pain that she felt. "I was injured. I dinnae ken how badly. But I ken that the strain of supporting my body there and being here, even in my limited way, is slowly becoming more than I can bear. I dinnae ken how long I can stand it before it becomes too much and I either die, or disappear. And I dinnae ken which side will be the stronger to survive the strain."

"Meaning you could die either way and be truly gone this time?" He asked, so very slowly until each word seemed to have its own weight. "But Sherilynn is entirely here, which is why she does not have the same strain? Why are you not similarly here then?"

Pushing to her knees, she forced air into her lungs and nodded. "I'd like ta claim ignorance as ta why I am no fully here." One foot pressed into the soft mossy forest floor. "But I have been told it is my final punishment."

"For?"

"Going beyond my proscribed bounds as a singer." Unsteadily, she pushed up from the floor. Wobbling a bit on her feet, he watched as she steadied herself and took a deep breath, pulling on a strength born of a self-discipline that few could match. "If I survive ta the end of this quest, the Valar will lift my punishment, and I will be made whole. Ulmo described it as a cleansing and refining. But where I end up will be decided by the outcome of the quest. Here, or there to remain."

For someone who didn't know Glorfindel well, they would never see the simmering anger behind his carefully controlled golden features. But she did as she smoothed out the skirt of her gown. "Then we had better make sure Thorin retakes that mountain. And quickly. Because I do not want to explain to your husband that you are truly dead or never to return, perhaps both."

For a moment she studied him, the set of his shoulders and the way his hand tightened on the pommel of his sword and wondered if she should follow through the plans that she had carefully thought over while waiting the past days. "Glorfindel, I need ye ta get a message ta Thranduil that cannae go through the normal channels. Elrond, even Mithrandir and the rest of the White Council, cannae ken and it cannae be sent by messenger and risk being captured in the mountains."

"An eagle then?"

"If one will accept carrying it, as I have a message for them too." She nodded. "But a hawk or pigeon will suffice." Falling into step with him she told him the barest details of her plan, things he could know without endangering himself or the quest, let alone Imladris if it became known she told him. "Can ye do that for me?"

"Tell me something truthfully," Glorfindel began, staring hard at the forest floor as they walked side by side as if it could give him the answers he sought.

"If I can, I will."

He didn't speak for a long moment, thinking about what he needed to be answered first. "Am I to understand that you do not trust the white council?"

"I do not trust Saruman." She corrected. "And I advise weighing every word that comes out of his mouth."

Nodding, this was not unreasonable, he decided although it made him uneasy. "The shire and the halflings?"

"Must be guarded. By the Dunedain and by elves." She insisted. "They must know every rock and tree, every Took, Brandy-buck, Gamgee, and Baggins from Tookland to the Barrow-Downs. Every road, every game trail, and farm. It is important that this begin now. We have so little time."

Tripping over a twig in her path, she sighed and rubbed at her eyes once more. "When I am more tangible here, I am losing strength there. Invisible even to you, stronger there." She admitted at his look of concern. "Everything I do here weakens me there and yet I cannae do nothing."

"Tell me what I need to know." Her friend ordered. "To help you end this quickly."

"The Ring," she didn't have to tell him which ring it was, for he lived with the same nightmares as she. "Will come through Imladris twice. But will not stay. The only time you will see it is the second time. And when you see it the war will begin and it will be too late for preparations."

"When?" He asked. "When will I see it?"

"Wrong question." She sighed, laying her head on his shoulder though it held no more substance than a breeze. "Not for many decades anyway. War will touch every part of Arda from Mount Doom to Lindon. Every Every elon and elith who can fight will need to be trained now. Every child and those who cannae bear the sword or bow needs to leave for Aman before the one hundredth and eleventh birthday of the one who will become known to you as Bilbo Baggins."

"Imladris, Lothlorien, and Greenwood will bear the brunt of the fighting for the elves, Gondor and Rohan for the race of men, but the forces of darkness will reach as far as Lindon before the end."

"There is no hope then." He sighed but stopped short when she rounded on him.

"There is always hope. And if preparations are made now we might safeguard that small flame until it scorches the earth clean from the western shores ta the rising sun."

Blinking, Glorfindel smiled at the heat and assurance in her words. "I always wondered why Thranduil came to love you. Now I know." Those words, filled with fire and determination, were enough to motivate armies however humble they were.

"Train Aragorn until he is every bit as deadly as you are." She continued, returning to picking her steps carefully down the path. "Teach him, just as you and Elrond have been, ta be a good and patient man and king filled with love. Elrond must train him in the healing arts more."

"He is the one then?" Glorfindel asked, coming to the edge of the woods behind her cottage. "That the prophecy refers to?"

"Renewed shall be the blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. When you hear these words spoken from Bilbo to another halfling of his blood, the end has begun." She whispered. "Begin fortifying now, and pray to Iluvatar that we have done enough."

"I will send your messages immediately."