CHAPTER 11: LIGHTLESS LABYRINTHS
*He is a deceiver.*
He speaks the truth and I cannot deny that he does, no matter how I might wish it to be otherwise.
*The most deceiving of lies are founded upon a grain of truth. He distorts thy fears and plays upon thy doubts. Listen not to the honey-sweet voice of a base and cringing worm brooding in his tower. The wisdom he once held has left him and he has fallen into madness.*
Fain would I believe, and I know it to be so, and yet his words echo the very lack of faith that lies within the darkest recesses of mine own heart and will not relent. I have been shown what will be and it tears my soul. All that we do or say shall come to naught in the end. The Enemy grows ever stronger even as we strive to keep him at bay. My people are fading and our might has vanished. If we leave, he will find us. If we stay, we will be laid bare before him; he will conquer and overrun this green earth with foul decay. I see no light.
*There is light still. It is there.*
Against the power that arises there can be no victory, and to turn a blind eye and deny that this is so would be folly... Hope is the greatest deception of all; it is for the ignorant few who have not accepted the futility and ultimate insignificance of all life... There is no meaning... There is nothing. I have seen what will be, and it is empty... a black abyss. I quake in horror at what we shall become...
*Thou hast not seen what will be. Thou hast seen what may be, if we allow evil to conquer. He has allowed thee to see what for him has become the truth. You speak his words. He has fallen, and in his pride and ignorance, in his loneliness and desperation he seeks to draw others down with him and break them. Thou shalt not be broken. Rise up, child of the Eldar, and do not grovel before him! Remember thy home; remember joy and the light of the stars that no darkness can kill. There is a strength within thee that his benighted soul envies and can never hope to rival.*
I feel no strength... I feel… nothing at all.
*Thou dost walk in his shadow and are numbed by it. Such nothingness is what fills a heart given to apathy and evil, when the warmth of love and compassion is shunned or disdained as weakness and is replaced by cleverness and ambition. This coldness steals within like a thief and most do not see what it is they have become or what it is they have lost until they are too far gone to care. His voice is chill poison in thy veins. Thou must resist or thou shalt perish.*
'Twould be little loss, my life to lose.
*Son of Thranduil! Is this the courage I believed didst dwell in thy heart? CEASE THIS! Cast his darkness from thy mind and heed not the treacherous lies he pours into thine ears! Thou dost love and are beloved beyond measure.*
...Aye... a love. A love that is fleeting… fragile. A mortal's love is a bright flame that is swiftly kindled and consumes all it touches ere it dies, turning desire into naught but ashes. He will grow weary of me or death will claim him, and in the end he will leave me. To whom then shall I reach out?
*Our fears and hopes, our desires and sorrows... they lift and weigh upon the heart until we find them at times impossible to bear. But to feel even grief is far better than to feel nothing, than to be empty, to breathe the air and be dead within. His time here is short, as is the time given to all mortals, yes. But one cannot measure love by time, nor judge the value of a life by how quickly it passes from this earth. He would give to thee all the time he has. A most precious gift it is, but thou didst know this when thou didst pledge thyself to him. Free thy mind from the twisted ways Saruman would have thee follow, and remember...*
I... I cannot... Mithrandir, I cannot...
*Come, Legolas! Thy will is stronger! Wouldst thou leave him? He feels he has failed thee and he despairs. Dost thou now deem him unworthy? Speak!*
Nay! Unworthy! No! He should never think so. By all that I hold dear...no... I will not abandon him! He is everything to me. I cannot lose him...
*Yet thou shalt lose him, if thou canst not free thyself from this black spell under which thou hast fallen. Wilt thou bow to despair and give him up?*
I shall not! I will not lose him... to the wiles of any craven, base-born sorcery! I... will... NOT!
*His hold upon thee is failing. Banish it and heed his words no longer! They are but the ravings of a madman and they have no power over thee. Come back, Legolas Greenleaf, and walk no more in his shadow.*
'Tis I who have failed him in allowing my mind to be o'ertaken by such feeble means. What pain have I caused him? I will never be parted from him. Aye, it is so that I would give up all... all for him, to share the briefness of his life.
*A blessing it is to hear the passion return to thy voice, and yet be wary, child. Such is not thy path. Cherish the love granted to thee for the time it exists, but ask not too much. Few there have been who have renounced their immortal life for love, and that choice is not given to thee, son of Thranduil. Thou canst not forsake thy undying heart for him.*
Then I shall do not as others have done. I shall take him with me. I shall break the chains which confine him, and if he wills it, he shall give up his mortality for me. All he is and all that he shall ever be will go on; he shall never die and be forgotten!
*Alas, even the Valar cannot withhold Death from him, Legolas. What the final doom of the children of Aulë may be even the wise have not been given to tell. Thou sharest a bond but not a common fate, I fear.*
Then the Hand which bound us together knows not His strength, for I shall never be severed from him. We have sworn to follow where the other may go.
*Such a thing has not been heard of, Prince of Mirkwood. Thou wouldst challenge Order and alter Destiny.*
So be it. It has been a task to those who have known us to judge which between the two is the most unyielding, and that has yet to be determined. If we are denied, who can tell? The will of Elf and Dwarf combined may prove a stubbornness to try even the infinite patience of Illuvatar!
Gandalf's sudden laughter startled Gimli and Aragorn from their low conversation by the fire. "I doubt it not, dear child," he said warmly under his breath, and he touched a hand to the brow of the Elf who lay before him. The old wizard's eyes were twinkling when he rose from Legolas's side and turned to the Dwarf and the Ranger. Seeing the worry upon their faces he smiled reassuringly.
"Be at ease, my friends. He has not been lost. Indeed, I believe I may have awakened in him a spirit brighter than he knew ere Saruman sought to poison him." The wizard's gaze fell upon Gimli. The Dwarf did not move, but sat weary and bent in his chair before the glowing embers of the fire.
Compassion filled Gandalf's face and his eyes met Aragorn's. Aragorn looked at his two companions, one with clasped hands staring into the flames, the other resting nearby. He understood. Aragorn nodded gently and rose quietly to follow Gandalf outside, fastening the door behind him.
"Are you certain he is free, Gandalf?" The Ranger and the wizard walked thoughtfully up the path, breathing in the brisk night air.
"He is indeed. The corruption has fled from his mind and shall not return. He has witnessed a palpable darkness and emerged with a heart that is stronger, perhaps, for having been tried. I have seen within him a hope which quells my own doubts, and it may be that it shall ease the burden of the trial I must myself face at tomorrow's first light. We shall see."
"They are an odd match." Aragorn lifted his pipe to his mouth, striking a spark which illuminated his face for a moment and revealed the smile that played upon his lips.
"Hmm? Ah! Perhaps," said Gandalf. "These are strange days, my friend, and change is nigh; for good or ill, naught shall ever be as it was. But for two such as they to overcome the animosity of their races, and for them to choose love over hate? It gives me faith, Aragorn, that we strive towards better times and that there might be a strength in all of us that the Enemy cannot touch."
The old wizard paused and chuckled thoughtfully. "And yet... I do think I shall make a point of being out of earshot when Glóin and Thranduil are told."
