Where the Shadow Lies

All characters belong to J.R.R Tolkien and I mean no disrespect in borrowing the great professor works. I wish no harm to them and return them as they were.

Arwen couldn't sit still or remain in one place. Darkness had come over her in a way it never had before. Something deep with in her inner being was restless and she couldn't decide what. She would go into the beautiful gardens of Rivendell and ended up passing between the two Holly trees her father had brought from Erigion when Rivendell had been settled at the end of the second age.

She was tense and iritatible. She snapped at anyone who annoyed her in the least. She knew her father worried about her but she could not help it. Arwen knew that if this darkness did not pass something had gone terribly wrong. Worse she knew that if it didn't pass that he was gone and her heart and willingness to live would go with him.

In the banner she had weaved out of love for him she had put a bit of herself so that as long as that banner remained with him she would have some idea of how he was. Strangely two days before she had lost the contact that the banner gave her. It was as if he had passed into darkness. Not the darkness of death but something akin to it.

As he passed into darkness the shadow had fallen on Arwen she knew if he did not overcome the darkness he would die and all with him. If he did not succeed, all with him would die and middle earth would be much more likely to fall to the shadow. This did not matter to Arwen she knew that if he died she would not survive him long. If he died she would go south and aid Gondor in his stead. She would go against her father's word and fight her part in this war.

Then if she were not slain in battle she too would die, for if he died she did not wish to live all the ages of Arda with out him. She walked over the terrace towards her rooms and saw her father coming towards her. "Im meleth le Adar. Im ya meleth." Arwen murmured as she ran into her father's warm embrace.

He smoothed her long dark hair against her head as he had when she was a child and had gotten upset. "What troubles you, Undomiel?" he asked in a worried way. "A shadow has been on you for some days now."

"He travels through darkness and I see not the out come of this trial. I know not if there is light at the end of his path. I know only that he still lives but that any moment that life could be taken." Arwen replied with a far away look in her eye.

"I am glad to hear this Arwen, though I question how you know this. For the bonds of love are not so strong as that. For from your words I know that Aragorn has remembered the words of the seer and he has gone to summon the dead. He heeded my words and that is what I most dearly wished to know. Worry not, Evenstar, for unless we are severely mistaken about the lineage of young Estel, he will find light at the end of the road."

"Adar, your words comfort my heart and make the day a little less dark. What do you know of the true quest? What have you seen of the young Frodo?" Arwen looked much less tense now that she knew the reason all she felt through the bond to Aragorn was darkness. For she knew well the words of the seer and Aragorn was most definitely the heir of Isildur.

"Frodo walks under a greater shadow then Aragorn for he is know on the plateau of Gorgoroth and knows that this quest will most likely claim his life. I am thankful that Sam is with him for I foresaw that the quest would fail if they were separated." He smiled down at his daughter. " Be content with that Undomiel for it is all I can tell you."

Elrond left her at the door that led into her private rooms. That night as she lie dreaming she left the wind of the sea on her face and smelt the brine in the air. She felt the shadow lifted from her soul. She knew he had found the light at the end of his path and that for now he was in less danger. She saw him standing on the bow of the boat as it approached the white city. He held the Elessar above his head and the banner of the house of Elendil, which she had weaved, flew far above on the mast.

Im meleth le Adar. Imya meleth.- I love you father. I love you.