Dawn's golden fingers crept slowly over the land, bathing the shadows and valleys in resplendent light. Arwen and Él woke, coming to consciousness at once without the dazed time between sleep and wakefulness. Together they turned toward Ælfleda, her body still in repose and knew with a numinous certainty that it was a sleep from which she would not be wakened.
Arwen took one of the wrinkled hands in her own, and Él held the other. Their eyes shining with hidden tears they vigilantly arranged the body in preparation for any last rites.
"She was happy, there at the end, wasn't she?" Arwen asked in a tremulous, childlike voice that startled her. It had been so long since she'd felt like a child.
"You gave her dreams back, I don't think anything could have made her happier," Él replied solemnly a hopeful smile beginning to trace the corners of her small bow-shaped mouth.
As the village began to throw off the fog of night and sleep, two figures slipped away across the fields, beyond the edge of the village until it was no more than another mysterious place over the next hill. When one intrepid villager went to go see what had become of the mysterious strangers all he found was Ælfleda's body. It was apparent from the smile on her face that she had gone peacefully and it became generally understood that she had passed, serenely in her sleep.
They traveled easily, with Arwen following Él in what was coming to be a usual occurrence. Once they were far away enough away from the village, Arwen's wish that Él talk to her proceeded to come true, and Él's story began:
"Do you know what the saddest thing in this world is?" she asked gravely. And although vivid images of death and destruction came to Arwen's mind she shook her head in negation.
"It's when people forget their dreams," Él finally said rolling the pearlescent gem between her tiny fingers, "They cast their wishes into the night, with barely a hope that it will come true and once that is gone they have nothing left in them to hope for." She turned to Arwen with stormy indigo eyes that pleaded for understanding.
"We bought them to her, my sisters and I, and she took all the dreams into herself to collect them--- keep them safe. But she couldn't hold it all, so much loss and so much sadness--- and so she wept this single tear..." Él whispered, pressing the pearl so hard in her palm that Arwen was sure the imprint would always be there as a reminder of what she had been.
Arwen nodded her head. The Moon's Tear held all the hopes and dreams that people had let go in the desperate hours of the night. But she still didn't understand why she had been called to accompany Él on this quest and she asked the girl her question, not really expecting an answer.
"Did you know that was going to happen?" said the peredhel, meaning the whole journey beginning with her tenuous, restless night beneath the eaves of Lórien's borders and ending with her use of [I]Olnäthron[/I] to weave together Ælfleda's lost dreams. Arwen was unable to hide the small seed of resentful at having been so maneuvered and yet as she recalled the old woman's sorrow turn to joy, couldn't stay angry... it had been for a worthy cause.
Él looked at the elf woman, saying obliquely, "I didn't know exactly, but I knew that the one sent to me would be the one able to help me in this first task."
"Do you mean because of this?" Arwen asked fingering the thin band of gold around her finger and Él nodded.
"It is forged from star-fire, the same thing that I was made of and so it guided me to you and you to me... And also because my Mother knew that you were looking for something and had almost given up. You were almost on the edge of despair, about to let go..."
Arwen drew a harsh breath in indignation but kept silent when Él leveled her with those luminous azure eyes. "There are some things you cannot hide, and some you hide only from yourself," the star-child said kindly with a wisdom beyond her seemingly diminutive years. "She knew what it was that you needed, a purpose, a reason to be..."
Uncomfortable with this bleak reflection of herself, Arwen briskly changed the subject. "What did you mean when you said that this was your 'first task'?"
"That wasn't the only lost wish..." Él said referring to Ælfleda, her eyes downcast in mourning. Arwen watched with horror as fat tears began rolling down the girl's face.
"Hush, love. Everything will be all right," the elf said gently, cradling the child next to her heart.
"How can you be so sure?" the girl said on a hiccup and for once Arwen heard uncertainty in that ethereal voice and she pulled the child closer.
"You'll see," the peredhel said, mimicking Él's words to tease the girl out of her listlessness and it seemed to work because Él hugged her tightly before jumping out of Arwen's lap to run gaily across the meadow.
Watching her go, Arwen blessed the resilient nature of children and at the same time felt a moment's fear at such unfounded trust but she knew she wouldn't have to face it alone.
Just as she had instinctively used her ring actions to help Él, so would others like her and it would take all the powers of the elements of this world and the heavens above ...Air, Fire, Earth, Water, Order, Life, Chaos, Death, Moon, Sun, Star, Dark, Light, and Melody... to bring faith to those who had forgotten how to dream.
As she set their direction toward the AHUR, Arwen wondered with a buoyant smile what the other ringbearers would make of her new addition to their wondrous halls and the immense hope she bore in a space no bigger than a Moon's Tear.
The AHUR is the name of the guild-house for the Rings of the Element's Guild on Torc (www.tolkienonline.com). It stands for ALCARIN HALL i UIREB RINGORN, which translates into The Glorious Hall of Eternal Circles.