"You seem feverish, Galadriel," he commented with a deeper twist of his grin. "I hope our air is not disagreeable with your elvish sensitivities."
"Where am I? What place is this?" She steadied her breath enough to stand, an action he mirrored.
"These are your chambers now," he took a step in her direction. One she parried by receding away. "As long as you are my guest, Galadriel."
"Prisoner more like," she couldn't resist a snap in her defense.
"Do prisoners request to stay with their so-called last remaining friend? Do prisoners beg for a place of refuge when their own kind casts them out?" His words were edged with the intense power of anger, though his voice remained quiet.
She shivered at the pulse of his emotion. "It is… difficult for me to still accept my fate. Change is only easy for those creatures that have it in their nature. Like the moth or butterfly." She returned his gaze steadily. "But you and I, old friend, are older than the rocks themselves. Change is not in our nature."
He sneered, "Only the weak refuse to change. That is your fear, not mine. I have tried to change. To seek out healing in place of hatred."
"Time that I did the same," she interjected, reaching across the space between them to place her lithe fingers on his arm. "You must instruct me, it seems."
The smirking smile that twisted his face and sparked his eyes clearly signaled his approval. "Before anything further, you must get your bearings. This land may take some adjustment for you. All you may need will be provided for you. I will let you see yourself around your rooms, now that you are recovered. It would not be seemly to have me left alone in your room for so long…" He leaned closer now, his hand gripped at her elbows, his chest and belly pressing against hers now. "Unless you wish me to stay?"
"Aye, recovered, but from what?" Galadriel didn't give an inch as she peered up at him, her eyes laced with will power "I suspect I did not sleep hours and hours of our journey here of my own accord, Hallbrand."
"Walking all the way to my lands from Eregion can exhaust anyone," he whispered coldly.
"Please," she bid gently, outwardly coaxing him, but fighting her desire to fight or flee within her. "If I am to truly be at your side, to be the light to your power, then you can deceive me no more."
He breathed between parted lips. His tongue tracing the space between them for a moment before he spoke. "Very well," he said. "I did not measure it wise to have you seeing my lands until I am certain I may trust you. My powers affect thoughts and dreams when I wish for it. I can slide in and out of your mind when I so will it." He pulled her even tighter against him. His true height impressing her for the first time, she noted.
His revelation stung her with its brutal honesty. A realization nipped at her thoughts and raced her heart. "But that dream," she whispered, "I… have had it.."
"Before," he finished. "Yes, I know."
Those sapphire eyes narrowed, but he clutched her harder, resisting her futile efforts to break away.
"Do you think that once I entered your mind by the river in Eregion that fateful day, I would let you fully go?"
"How much do you know? How much of myself have you seen?" She demanded, attempting to twist from his hold harder.
"You needn't be shy with me, Galadriel," he taunted, "it's not as though I could see you undressed or anything of the like." He dramatically made to look over her body with his fire- raged eyes. "You asked for truth," he released her with a flourish. "I cannot see anything, the magic does not work like that. But I can manipulate memories that form the core of who you are, many of which are moments we shared of late. You are a difficult mind to penetrate. I could only do so from a distance in your sleep. When you are with me… well, that you have experienced already that day you denied me."
"So every time I had that dream it was from you?" Anger, confusion, pure and hot emotion hardened her face to the points of her ears.
He laughed. "Call it a gift to remember me by. Perhaps more of a seed I planted, hoping it would grow." His face softened exactly as in her dream, serene and hopeful as he stepped hesitantly towards her. "I am so very glad it did grow. And now you are here where you ought to be."
The very blood in her veins froze, an aching pulse of chill replacing her heartbeat. This was no dream. She felt the air pass into her lungs with rapid speed. "Why end my dream with drowning each time?" she whispered, breathless.
"To remind you where you will be should you reject me again. I have been more than merciful to take you in this time," he hissed softly. "That is the effect your light still has upon me, my friend. But my mercy only lasts so long as your inward darkness does not overcome it."
"My darkness?" she snipped, careful to keep her eyes locked on his as he drew another step softly closer.
"That day, by the water, which of us doomed the other? Which of us was denied a chance for redemption?" he whispered, his hands now ghosting a touch down her arms. "The sharpest irony is that in doing so to me, you denied the same for yourself." His face lowered towards hers, the finest of lines around his eyes crinkling in a smile. "I am glad you decided to come to me. To fight at my side." His fingers wove themselves into hers in the warming space between them, his mouth coming to hover a breath away from hers.
She closed her eyes, careful to remain breathing despite the sharpest pangs of fear. Fear worse than any battlefield. The fear of staring down the abyss of losing herself entirely. A pulse from the metal ring on her hand and a spark in her mind sent the briefest of assurances.
Stopping, as if he felt it too, he lifted her hand up, palm to palm pressing. "Curious they should let you keep your ring, though stripped of rank. Or so you said."
Galadriel hesitated, yet she had no choice but to respond as his gaze flamed redder and his complexion souring to an ashen black once more. His suspicion obviously growing. "It cannot be undone now that I am bonded to the ring. It is as if it chose me. But we know little of what it truly does, other than give off the light strong enough to save my people," her voice steadied and grew as his face relaxed once more.
"Curious indeed," he whispered, clutching her hand tighter in his grasp to pull her flush against his body. With his other hand, his fingers wrapped her chin gently, drawing her mouth almost to meet his. "Not as curious as I am about whether it will feel as good to kiss you in this life as it does in our dreams."