Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, places, ideas or anything else from Lord of the Rings. I do however lay claim on Elrond's twin daughters as Tolkien never wrote about any twin elven girls anywhere in his books. Everything else though, as much as I wish it, is not mine and belongs to the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien (a wonderful, wonderful man). Except for a 2-year-old toddler by the name of Estel (forever called tithen min by his siblings) who needs looking after.
~~~~OOOO~~~~~
In two centuries little had changed in the northern reaches of Middle-earth. The Nazgûl seemed unusually quiet after such a sudden and violent capture of Arnor. The Dúnedain had fled to the safest places they could find, and the years had passed; silent years of harsh life and bitter fear. Little of such things touched the fair valley of Imladris, though the knowledge of what passed was known to most; and they worried and feared of the future.
But elsewhere in the world, others were not so fortunate. Year after year, reports came up from the southern kingdom; each one worse than the last. The elves mourned for the seeming fall of the once noble land of Gondor, but Elrond suffered most as he watched in helplessness his brother's descendents fell into ruin.
But men have hidden strengths that even they do not know; and Gondor, though it suffered greatly, did not completely fall, despite attempts by its enemies. By the beginning of the seventeenth century it seemed to those on the outside that the kingdom might just survive. Until, suddenly and without warning, disaster struck.
The Lord of Rivendell was sitting very still in his study, although Arómenë was not certain what he was looking at, for his gaze seem focused on something and yet she was certain he was not staring so intently at the trees.
"Adar," she whispered cautiously. "Adar, Erestor wishes to speak with you, but you weren't answering the door. What has happened?" For she was certain something disastrous must have occurred.
Her father gave her a startled look. "Rómë, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. You were saying?"
"What it is Ada? What troubles you so?"
His eyes unfocused again for a moment, before he seemed to physically pull himself away from some memory or other. He held out to her a letter she only now realized he had been holding.
"Grave news I fear; even more so after all that has happened. They ask for help, but there is none I can give."
She read quickly, her fear growing with each written word. It was written in Common, which would have been strange had the letter not come from Gondor; the Steward and not the King, she noted.
Plague; the Royal family dead; the White Tree withered; the sickness spreading north…
"Adar," she started, but did not continue; there was nothing she could say.
"There is no help for Gondor, and the Dúnedain shall be warned to stay away. It is the people west of here that will suffer; the men of Eriador and the Periannath. But I know not of this sickness, nor how to stop it. I know you would council me to do what I could, that perhaps in helping we might find a cure, but Glorfindel will council otherwise. He will advise me to close the valley to all visitors until this has passed. Which then shall I do? Such a decision I do not feel it is my right to make."
"I have no council for you Adar nin, for I am young yet, and not of the Wise. Whatever choice you make will be right one, I know this." His daughter paused, but Elrond had returned to his thoughts. "When Gil-galad died you gave up the power he had wished would pass to you. You said you did not want it, and neither was it yours to have. But still you are a leader; our leader, and such a choice as this must be left up to you, and to daernaneth and daeradar. You three have been left as rulers of what is left of the Elven kingdoms. Do you think that you would be here, if we did not trust you to make the right choices; not only for our people, but all others as well?"
Elrond stared at her: struck speechless. She bowed slightly and left him alone.
Barely a millennia old and already so wise. When did she become so much like Celebrían?
Choices to make, and ones he could not make entirely alone. He rose and left the study to find Glorfindel and Erestor.
~~~~OOOOO~~~~
"We leave at week's end," her brother supplied, but he did not glance up from his packing.
"Aye, I heard as much; there is talk spreading throughout the house since the council this morning." Andúnë paused, drew a breath, and steeled herself to ask the next question. "Did Adar say anything about who will go?"
Unseen by her, her brothers exchanged an amused look between themselves; the silent exchange of unheard words passing between them.
"Not really, Dúnë; well, besides us that is. I think of few of the less experienced healers will be going, and a guard will come with us as well. Other than that, I do not know Ada's thoughts."
Andúnë looked annoyed and exasperated for a moment, until it sunk in that her brothers were most likely playing with her. Well, two (or three) could play that game.
"You mean, you did not ask him?! But you told us you would!" She made a very passable attempted at looking sad and hurt.
"Of course we did seler, but as I said, he told us nothing. Honestly, we promised you we would. Do you really think we'd break a promise to our favorite sister?"
He sounded almost sincere, and she nearly broke her composure to laugh aloud. "But surely he would have said something? You are simply not telling me. He is refusing to let us go, isn't he? That is why you will not tell me. Fine then, I will leave you to your work. But if Ada thinks for one moment that we're just going to sit at home and—"
Elladan interrupted her tirade with a laugh. "Enough! Enough! You have made your point. Yes, you are coming with us. We can hardly afford to leave two of our best healers here. Or one at least," he added, unable to give up the chance of one last joke at his sister's expense.
But either she did not hear him, which he thought unlikely, or his previous sentence had so thrilled her it had driven all other thoughts from her mind.
"I must tell Rómë!" and she disappeared from the room.
Elladan grinned at his twin, and added silently to himself: option number two apparently. She's so predictable sometimes; how boring. Oh it was going to be an interesting few weeks.
He resumed cataloguing the herbs they were packing for the trip, his mind turning back to more serious thoughts. The next few weeks would be among the most difficult of his life, of that he was sure.