Chapter 3: Communication

C/W: climate trauma

Elrond and Gandalf stood in the healing room with the strange elleth. Galadriel sat on a chair that they placed by her bed. The room had seen little use lately, for the elves faced few perils in Valinor and never sickened. Those who came with wounds from the trials of Middle Earth had been healed. Nothing is left other than the occasional broken bone or cut from an encounter with nature: falling tree limbs and frightened, biting animals remained, although battle injuries were now mere memories.

Galadriel watched the disorganized dream-thoughts of the elleth and saw many things that were unfamiliar. Shining metal carriages that moved without horses. Small metal and glass objects held in the hand and, for some reason, worthy of great attention. Teeming crowds of humans in clothing unlike anything she had ever seen. Great wheeling flames and ghostly green clouds in a black void.

The nameless stranger slept, her eyes fully closed in slumber like a human. When she finally woke, she shrunk awkwardly against the bed, taking in her new company. Galadriel had the impression that the elleth was so very young, just a tiny elfling in an adult body, and smiled to try to offer her comfort. But then Galadriel caught her eye and had another impression – that the elleth is older than even Cirdan, older, perhaps, than all Arda.

Mithrandir tried to speak to her in several lesser-known tongues of men, but she looked at him blankly. She spoke in the strange language that Elrond had described, seeming to ask a question that no one could understand.

Galadriel smiled again, carefully placing her hand on the elleth's, and gently probed into her mind. At first, the stranger looked surprised. She pushed back against Galadriel's mind with such force that Galadriel was shocked and thought she would be expelled – such raw power! But then the elleth relaxed, she seemed to understand that they could communicate this way.

The elleth began to show Galadriel a story. It began in a world of men, much like middle earth but also very different. Galadriel saw the girl – for she was a human in her memories – go through a life incomprehensible to the ancient elf. The girl showed her a small apartment in a human town where she once lived. She went every day to a building full of others who sat all day in front of strange objects on which writing and images appeared. She stepped into one of the shining carriages and traveled to immense markets filled with colorful packages. The people wore so little clothing! Some touched each other intimately even in public spaces, while all the rest ignored each other no matter how closely they stood. Galadriel had the impression, though, that this was a story of peace and abundance, if also one of disconnection. While the work the girl did had an air of tedium, she saw little violence and many resources. The homes were decorated, often lavishly, and even the most common seeming people wore jewelry.

Then, the story changed. The girl showed her images of waste: clothing, furniture, and all manner of items discarded and left to rot while new ones took their place. She felt a sense of hunger, of greed, emanating from the masses of people, who seemed blind to those around them. Then she saw plagues that spread through the land, killing wantonly among the endless sea of humanity. Rains and winds were followed by floods that destroyed entire cities. Droughts killed crops and fires consumed whole forests, choking the air with smoke. Helpless animals ran from their homes, covered in oozing burns. She saw an ocean covered with dead, stinking fish and refuse. Some people died, while others fled to unknown places, where they were greeted with fear in their moments of greatest need. They turned away from each other and chaos consumed the land. The girl shared her heart, which was full of grief and anger.

The girl showed Galadriel her death in a terrible earthquake. The girl's soul left her body but did not pass beyond the veil. Instead, she remained as a fea sorrowing, but without a body all sensation was dulled, and she was reduced to a being made entirely of a bodiless, aching loss. The spirit wandered in this quickly breaking world for long years, until humanity had thinned to a few resilient communities here and there, surviving in the ruins of their old world.

Then one day, the fea's growing dissociation took form, and she began to float away from her planet. She began a long voyage, unmoored from time, in the great void of the stars. She saw amazing wonders rising out of the dark, or more often, long distances of nothingness. Galadriel could get lost in the many memories of this lonely journey, but the girl turned her attention away. In her memory, she saw a planet, floating in space, lit by a kind sun, and with a strange sister land orbiting its surface, like two bubbles floating side by side.

The fea felt energy again and began to explore this planet. The endless ache lessened, and instead she felt something like curiosity – a pull towards this place, where she was astonished to see humans living in peace. Galadriel noticed that the girl found these humans primitive and old fashioned. She saw dwarves and hobbits and found them surprising, although not entirely unfamiliar. Then the little spirit followed the Straight Road and began watching the elves, feeling as much as she could, a sense of wonder. It is here, watching life pass in Valinor, that the fea suddenly felt gripped by Arda itself. She began to fall from the sky, becoming heavier and heavier, her sense of feeling becoming more and more distinct, before her newly formed body crashed into the ocean, and her memory went blank.

Galadriel was astounded at what she had seen. This elleth was once a human girl, a young woman, living on a world far from Arda and as strange as can be. Somehow, her untethered spirit had come to Aman in the body of an elf, created out of thin air as she fell from the sky. Galadriel knew she must tell the others, but first, she turned back to the unique being before her – for many half-elves and even Luthien herself, had been made mortal, but none had ever been born mortal and made elven. In her mind, she shared her wordless grief at all she had witnessed and asked, as well as she could without language – Is there anything you can remember from your world that was beautiful? Was there anything that you loved?

The new elleth understood and a memory comes into Galadriel's mind. The girl stands at the edge of a large field in winter. Tall pines stand sentry against a cloudy sky. She feels awake and alive with the cold air in her lungs, steaming when she breathes it out. On her feet, something that looks like swords are tied to her boots. Skis, the elleth thought, with a feeling of amusement at Galadriel's confusion. Beside her is a happy dog, panting and running in circles. The girl begins to move across the field, to a small house in which she knows there are people who she loves, good food, and a warm fire in a wrought iron stove. The pale clouds above break open and a bright light beams down over the field. The snow over the rolling slope lights up, shimmering in the colors of the rainbow as it reflects the sunlight. The girl is dazzled with euphoria and love for her Earth, and for her people, and loves life so much in that moment, that she cannot imagine ever growing weary of it.

Galadriel smiled, although a few tears ran down her face. She looked into the eyes of the newest addition to the community of the elves – this being who was now completely new and also unimaginably old. She said, We will call you Lossrilleth Adonnen (1). One day when we've taught you our language, I will explain it to you. I name you after the beauty you remember of your old world, and I welcome you to your second life.

Galadriel turned to Elrond and Mithrandir, who had been watching in curious silence, and explained everything.

Footnotes:

(1) Loss (snow) rill (brilliance) eth (feminine name ending); ad (again) onnen (beget/born).