Author: Arinya
Rating:R
Summary: Sam is forced to retell all the things that happened after the Fellowship had succeeded in destroying the Ring. All the members of the Fellowship have their own problems. Darkness returns, and Love struggles to conquer all. But as the problems mount up to a peak, can they survive? And can Sam bear telling his audience the true story?
Chapter Nine: Darkness Rising
Galadriel- word for word, it means female light.
Morniriel-literally, female darkness
Elrond slowly awoke. The first thing he was aware of was the sharp pain in his side. He winced loudly as he tried to sit up and get his bearings. He was in a cell. He didn't recognize it at first because the intricate designs of the bars holding him in were so beautiful, but on second glance, he knew he was in a prison. Trying to get up, he moaned. His hand went immediatly to his side and felt blood emerge from the crude bandaging. He fell back down and ripped his right sleeve off, tying it around his wound tightly so that it would stop the blood from flowing. The pain was at a high when he jerked the fabric to make sure it was tight enough. Afterwards, he sat there, taking deep breaths. The knife wound was deep, he didn't know how deep. But it had probably been enough to kill him. He had been lucky.
Elrond's head throbbed painfully from the various blows he had recieved and a nasty bruise had formed over one of his eyes, at the temple. Suddenly he remembered something. The seemingly vision he had before he passed out. The light. The beautiful light that had bathed him while he had almost faded. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember who, or what it had been.
"My son. How are you feeling?"
Elrond opened his eyes and his heart leapt as he saw the embodiment of his vision. He remembered now. It had been her. She was standing in front of him now, it had been Galadriel who had saved him and she had returned. He licked his dry lips to answer.
"I am fine enough Alatariel" he partially lied, using her olden form name.
She looked slightly disgusted at his use of her name, but the mask quickly passed and she looked down upon him.
"Tell me my son. Who is the ruler of this land?"
Elrond was completely caught off guard by the question, and bewildered. His mind was blank for a second.
"There is no ruler. The free peoples of Middle-Earth govern together" he said, and Galadriel's peaceful face turned into intense fury and anger.
"Wrong" she said and cast her hand towards him.
His first reaction to the pain and burning he felt all over his body was to scream. But he bit down on his tongue so hard that blood ran down his mouth. The pain abruptly stopped and he sat there, gasping for breath.
"My Lady! Why have you caused me so much pain?" he asked.
She looked at him indifferently.
"It is my whim whether or not to cause pain. I am the supreme ruler of Middle-Earth. What I say is law"
Her once beautiful light turned dark, and she glowed with a black light. Her eyes flashed with dark colors and whirlwinds tossed her hair back. Elrond stood stock still. What he saw could not be happening. But he knew. He knew that some unforseen test had been failed. And this. This had been the result. He wiped the blood away from his mouth and stood up, with support from the wall.
"What have you done Galadriel? Once you were full of goodness, and light! Now you have become lower than the very orcs we had once fought together to kill!"
He cried out, much louder than he had ever done before as another shot of power blasted from Galadriel hit him square in the chest. He fell to the floor, coughing up blood.
"How dare you insult me?"
Her eyes narrowed and the air around her grew colder than ice.
"You shall be punished Elrond. Once I thought that you could be of some use to me"
She turned and walked away while Elrond clutched his chest.
"The darkness does not make you more powerful my friend. It makes you angry, it makes you hate. I never did think you hated me though My Lady. We had been friends once..." he rasped.
As the now changed Galadriel walked away, the last words of Elrond reached her ears. Somewhere inside of her, her former light had lived. It was very small, but still alive.
"My friend..."
The light had heard those words and rejoiced, it wanted to grow, and be nourished by outside light and love.
"We had been friends once..."
The light pulsed and Galadriel coughed for a moment as if she were about to throw up, but then her newfound darkness forced the light back down, to it's tiny compressed state. She then smiled with satisfaction unconsciously. The new Galadriel, no, Morniriel was here now. She was no longer the patron of light, but darkness.