That afternoon Faramir spent trying to explain to Éowyn as much as he could understand about what had happened to him during the night and the past few weeks. After some time she still felt as though everything was too new and overwhelming to her and she decided that she needed to lay down for a while, hoping one day she could comprehend what had befallen her husband.
That evening Aragorn returned with Glorfindel and a plate of supper for his son. Faramir was just beginning to wake from a nap he'd slipped into after Éowyn left. As he slowly opened his eyes, he was relieved to realize that he had not been spoken to by any of the Great Powers.
"So what did you have to worry about, Glorfindel?" Faramir asked with a wry grin.
"Your son is worse than Erestor, Aragorn," Glorfindel said with a pronounced glare.
Aragorn laughed as he handed Faramir a tankard. "He was almost trembling with fright over what we had to tell him. Erestor had him so agitated in the first place. Sometimes i can hardly believe you let him get to you, Glor'."
"He is utterly insufferable, Estel!" Glorfindel proclaimed, turning back to the concoctions he was working on earlier.
"Certainly Glorfindel, of all, should know what it is to be insufferable," Erestor said, wearing his favorite grin, as he entered the bed chamber with papers and books stacked neatly in his arms.
Glorfindel fought back desperately the urge to throw one of his small vials at the dark-haired advisor. The liquids they contained were too precious to waste on such an annoying target, so he convinced himself.
"These, Faramir, should keep you occupied for a while," Erestor said, ignoring Glorfindel's dagger-like stare since it no longer impressed him. "Tell me when you have exhausted all of this and more shall be forthcoming."
Faramir smiled, unreservedly thankful to Erestor for his consideration. Aragorn thought it had seemed so long since he had last seen his son smile like that. The King briefly allowed his mind to wander and he wondered what he would have done if Faramir had not wakened from the troubled night. The piercing pain in his heart told him to stay those thoughts and to be thankful that it was something he did not have to face.
After a short time Glorfindel departed, having offered Faramir a draught of his own making, meant to help speed the healing process for the Steward. Erestor left for the night to spend a few more of Aragorn's candles in the Steward's study, and father and son were left on their own again.
"And how did Éomer take the news that his sister has married his ally's son?" Faramir asked his father, sounding mildly ironic.
"In truth i have yet to find out, ion-nín," Aragorn said. "After another hour's worth of shouting with him and Imrahil, mostly him, i had a couple of guards escort him out so i could get some peace. I did not get any peace at all that night. I had forgotten that i had him locked in his chambers, but fortunately Arwen did not and had him released and explained everything to him. I may owe her my very life," he said with a slight grin.
"That is no more than i owe you, father. And i have to thank you for keeping everyone out of this corridor," Faramir said.
"I want you to rest and recoup as best you can. I can not do much without my Steward, Faramir," Aragorn said honestly. Faramir still knew the ins and outs and the people themselves of Minas Tirith a lot better than his father. "I do think, however, that your uncle is very keen to see you again, as is your cousin."
Faramir nodded, mentioning that he would see them in the morning. Faramir was already beginning to feel a little sleepy again, a combination of a filling supper, a stout ale, and whatever Glorfindel had administered.
"Father, there was more to what i dreamed last night," Faramir said, hoping he could finish telling his father what he had dreamed before being taken into more dreams. In Aragorn's grey eyes could be found the kind of patient attentiveness that Faramir used to think was a thing belonging only to lore.
"There was a woman arrayed in the blue of Dol Amroth, i knew immediately it was my mother though she stood with her back to me. She was where she used to stand at the high Citadel wall and gaze at the Anduin as it ran south to the sea. She turned to me, and though she looked very weary, when she saw me she smiled brightly and embraced me. I asked her how she recognized me and she said that no other had the sort of integrity that she found in my eyes.
"Together we walked along the wall. I told her that i feared that i had not done her memory honor of late, but she said that she was more proud of me than ever before because every man has faults, but rare is he who accepts them and takes accountability for himself. Again, mother embraced me and she asked me to remember her to her grandchildren and to love them as she loved Bor' and I. She stepped back as i gave her my word, but without warning a horse all of sable sped through the 7th gate and charged at us, knocking mother backward and off the wall. I screamed and tried to reach for her but it was too late. Strangely, in my dream the Anduin shifted course to catch her body and deliver her to arms of the sea. When i looked for the culprit beast there was no trace of anything.
"I began to feel black despair taking me, but i heard Boromir impatiently calling me. I finally was able to fight through the black, but as i looked around i saw that i was no longer at Minas Tirith, but in a woodland. I asked Boromir if he had seen what happened to mother or where the horse ran to. He replied that he knew what i saw, but that it had not happened. He bade me heed our mother's words, but to never believe what i saw when the black horse appeared. I asked him when he acquired such wisdom and though he could give me naught as explanation he told me that there is so much to be learned of in the world that i should have to stay alive for an Elven-life to understand everything. Though he jested, i knew Boromir was concerned for me when he rested his hand on my shoulder and held my gaze silently.
"'I am holding you to your promise to me, little brother,' he said. I'd made so many promises to him i could not recall which one he might refer to until he said that i should tell you to give me his bracers to remind me of my promise. I remembered that afternoon when we were little more than children, the first time i ever bested him at foils, and afterward we went for a swim. I promised him that day that i would not give in to self-doubt. Bor' often said that i was my only judge, especially after Denethor had been after me. As i saw him there with me in the wood, dressed just as he had been the last time i saw him in that Elven boat, my eyes pleaded with him, for i felt as though i no longer understood anything, least of all myself, and i could not judge myself. Boromir smiled and drew me closer and said, 'Then base your judgment on my judgment of you, little brother.'
"I asked him what his opinion of me was, exactly, and he only smiled, saying, 'You know by now, Fara'. Anyone who does not appreciate you is a fool who can not see past the end of his own nose. I have wanted to teach you that for so long, that you might really be free, even from me.'
"'I don't mean to lean on you, but i don't want to be free of you either, brother. Though sometimes you were an incredible nuisance,' I said to him.
"'As were you, Far',' he said in jest. Then he said in a sincere whisper, 'You can lean on me, little brother.' I told him i loved him and missed and he said, 'And i you, Faramir. Sweet dreams.' We embraced and just as he started to step back, i saw a flash of black through the trees and a horde of uruks swept past, not noticing me. When they were gone, my valiant brother lay shot dead upon the bank of the Anduin."
As Faramir finished retelling his dream his father looked caught in a memory. "After a while, especially after Caradhras, the full impact of our oaths came to us and few of us expected to survive our journey," Aragorn said, sounding distant. "Your brother was different, though. He never once feared for his own life, the only things he ever showed any concern about were Gondor's fate and you. You saw your brother at Amon Hen. It was as such when i found him, i offered him healing, even though i knew no skill, not even Elrond's, could have done more than delay the inevitable. It seems a cruel fate. Boromir was our only real fatality."
Faramir smiled vaguely. "Boromir would have gone mad if he had lived to an old age. He wanted to be fighting and helping his country until his last breath. It is selfish of me to wish for him to be back, though. Both he and naneth are in a far better place."
"It is not selfish, Faramir," his father said sympathetically. "It is human nature. You miss them greatly and shall continue to. But it is true what Boromir told you in your vision, there is indeed much for you here."
"I know there is, adar," Faramir said, grasping Aragorn's hand.
"You called Finduilas 'naneth'?" Aragorn asked his son, sounding a little sleepy.
Faramir nodded. "It was the first word i spoke, she told me. I know mother spoke little Elvish, and never around Denethor, but she spoke as much as she knew around me."
Their conversation paused, Aragorn thinking of his son's first word being an Elvish one. It caused him such pride, even if it was 36 years late.
"Adar, you are tired, please go and get your sleep. I am fine now, as long as i keep my arm still, and Master Erestor gave me all these papers to keep myself out of trouble...," Faramir said with a compassionate beam.
"I am tired," Aragorn admitted. "Even after having an enforced nap this afternoon. I must be aging.... Do not stay up too late," Aragorn said, knowing that Faramir would be awake reading until the candle at his bedside had burned itself out.
ooo
naneth = mother
It felt like this chapter was never going to get finished this long weekend, but here it is. The next chapter may be the end, it is looking that way. But weep not... there is always the ever-popular... sequel.
