DISCLAIMER: All non-Tolkien material is mine. Enjoy:)

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Anemosi's eyes fluttered open on to a nightmare geometry of decay. Her entire body ached with repeated beatings; she was almost unrecognizable under the accumulated dirt and grime of days of torture. She had long ago stopped trying to hold back the cries of pain, and now she was even starting to flinch when the door to her cell opened and one of the black beasts entered.

For once, however, she was left alone. The door to her cell stayed closed, and she remained silent so as not to attract any attention to herself. She had no interest in another beating. Heaving herself into a sitting position, she crawled over to the basin of fetid water that had been set out for her use and painfully began to clean her wounds. There was a long gash down her right arm that had begun to fester, and she took her time delicately picking out tiny stones that had lodged themselves inside her flesh. She was dull and quiet, going about caring for herself without thought.

Weeks ago, when she had first been brought here, she had raged and screamed at her captors, and fought with teeth and nail to get away. When they had brought out the dark machines that had been left to rust in darkness, she had tried to blast them away with a Word of Power, but the syllables had fallen dry and dusty from her lips. Lanal, that infernal bitch, had only laughed as she had seen the hope die in Anemosi's eyes. Then, they had started to hurt her.

She remembered vaguely a dark whirring blade descending at her, and putrid steam rising up around her, but the worst torture had been when Lanal had bidden her creatures to bring forth the other captives. Seeing Elanor, Merrie, and Arwen brought before her, and seeing them hope that she could be the instrument of their rescue, was worse than any poison Lanal could devise. When Anemosi had screamed in pain and fallen limp and sobbing to the ground, all hope had died within the other three captives. The pain had been horrible, but tolerable, as long as they could imagine that somehow Anemosi in all her power could save them. But she was just as weak as they were...maybe even more so.

Slowly, she found her thoughts turning to Sam. He had permeated her dreams, when she still had the energy to dream of a happier time. A tear slid out of her eye, but she did not blink, only stared blankly at the wall ahead of her. Sam would hate her now, she thought, if he could see her, if he could see how quickly she had broken under Lanal's hands. He had survived Mordor and the horrors of Mount Doom, but at the first test of her strength, she had cried out and flinched away.

She had tried praying to the Lady, but even that support had been withdrawn. There was nowhere left for her to turn, no hope left. She would die, and Arwen and Elanor and Merrie would die, and Lanal would win, and her people and all of Middle-Earth would fall to dust and ruin. Another tear fell, and Anemosi's thoughts trailed away into nothing but a desperate resolve. She was of the fey, even if she had failed as their Lady Radika, and the fey never let themselves die at the hands of an enemy.

It was not with a plan for escape that she rose clumsily to her feet and stood shivering in the middle of her cell. She picked up the basin and stared at it blankly, then, gathering all the strength that was left to her, hurled it against the wall. It crashed satisfyingly into many pieces that scattered around her feet. Bending down painfully, she picked up a little piece, testing the sharp edge against her palm, then deliberately slashed her wrists.

The effect was almost immediate. She felt a slow draining down her arms as the warm blood flowed over her hands, and a stab of fear lanced through her. What had she done? Why had she done something so stupid?

But then a tiny hope grew in her fading mind. She was no use to Lanal dead. The torture had been meant to weaken them, not kill them, because only four living pivot points could be used in the spell that Lanal would be attempting. When the last drop of her blood drained away, Lanal's plans would be halted.

Anemosi smiled dreamily as her gaze went black. She had done something right. Sam would be proud of her, she thought. But oh, how she missed him...

She thought that she saw him for an instant, standing before her and smiling with arms outstretched, and then her eyes closed.