Mila daughter of Darla was certain that she was going to be in a world of trouble very soon. She hadn't meant to fall asleep while meditating. But she'd been working on some knitting late last evening and so she just fell asleep. And now, her grandmother and the other priests were going to kill her. She looked up at the statue once again. They were still there, looking at her innocently, marriage beads made of some seeds in Lord Mahal's marriage braids. There was no way of hiding them of course. There was also the matter of the bowl that had appeared on the altar which seemed to have some sort of liquid. What in the name of sacred stones was she supposed to do with it?

When her grandmother woke her up and told her she was to become a priestess of Mahal a few moons back, she hadn't been told about any such things happening. Before she could do much thinking, Mila heard a voice behind her and what she saw, made her feel certain that Lord Mahal was punishing her for falling asleep. The King was here, with Princess Dis and Prince Frerin.

Thorin had asked Balin to gather the older clandwarrows, priests and old miners later in the evening but before he could talk to them and voice his doubts, he knew he needed to speak to Dis and Frerin first. So, he'd asked them to meet him in the Chamber and here they were. Only now, in front of them, the youngest of the priestess was crying and attempting to say something that he couldn't understand even a word of. He turned to Dis. Desperate for a solution. But before Dis could move, Frerin was already next to the distressed priestess.

"Mila is it not? Please calm yourself. Are you hurt in any way? Has someone harmed you?"

"Your Highness, I.. I beg you to forgive me. I did not mean for it to happen.. it was only for a few moments.."

"You are going to have to explain what you are referring to Mila"

"I was.. I was meditating. I have only recently learned it but.. but I fell asleep somehow. Then there was this.. this clang and I woke up and they were just there.."

"What? Where?"

"The new beads in the Maker's marriage braids and this bowl"

"Frerin! move back this instant. Priestess Mila, please kneel by the bowl, meditate and then drink the liquid in the bowl."

Thorin found himself barking the orders and kneeling next to the terrified priestess facing their Maker's statue. Absently, he noticed that there were more subtle changes in the statue that the scared young one had yet to notice in her panic. He wanted to worry, but there was a certain feeling of rightness to the changes. He looked again at the priestess and his brother and realized that Frerin was likely to bludgeon him if he didn't explain himself. Very well.

Back in Erebor, when Thorin had been officially proclaimed as his father's heir, he had also been made aware of certain aspects of Lord Mahal's teachings and wisdom given that only the rulers of Durin's Line and the priests and priestess of Mahal were allowed to know. After the emergence of Durin's Bane, rulers were very particular about not ignoring any kind of advice or signals given.

Much after Smaug came, away from Erebor and when the pain was lessened, Thorin's grandmother had whispered dark secrets to him. When King Thor had fallen into the thrall of gold, he had issued orders to have all wisdom of Mahal be told only to himself. She feared Thror might have ignored the warnings, that he might have been so far gone that he may have not understood them, that he may have grown more gold mad due to the fear of whatever warnings of the dragon's wrath he may have known of. Hurt and angry as Thorin had been back then, he had refused to even consider the possibility. He had instead assumed Lord Mahal had gone silent on them due to some offense given rather than believing his grandfather was capable of ignoring their maker's words. His thoughts of late though, they weren't clouded by the anger of a prideful prince, no they came from the fears that only a King of Exiled people could ever experience.

He shook his head forcefully and focused on his siblings' faces. Frerin was his heir, and Dis was, for all intents and purposes the true backbone of their people. This was a tale Thorin should have told them many a decade ago. Well, he would rectify it now.

"Sit Nadadith, Namadith. You as well Priestess Mila. The tale I am to tell you might not be a long one, but it is certainly one that will change many a thing for you. As you all know, Durin is well known to have been the most loved of all the sons of Lord Mahal. So much so that they say our Maker had granted him with a most unique boon. The boon of being deathless. In that, unlike all other dwarrows who are to wait in the Halls of Mahal till Dagor Dagorath, Durin all-father could be Reborn every few centuries, with the wisdom of his past still ingrained in him. Tall tales are told of how he saved the dwarrows from many dangers due to this. Everyone knows of it. But when he was last reborn, things changed. For better or for worse, it is not yet known, it is not my place to ask either."

"From every King of the Durin Line, a tale is passed on to the Heirs. It speaks of a defeated King Durin, a tired father of his people asking the Maker to not let him be reborn again for saving his people until they once more became everything our Maker intended for us to become. Until someone else took up the mantle and honored Lord Mahal's teachings as they should have always been. He feared that the dwarrows as a whole had forgotten of their real strengths and purposes. But he had not yet given up on us, he merely had to play the role of a father who must send out his beloved children to learn of the world and make a place in it. So in his last moments, he asked our Maker for one last boon, he asked that while Durin could not bear to be reborn again, Lord Mahal must provide our people with words of wisdom so that we may learn. So that we may become dwarrows he could come back to. Since then, Priests, Priests, and Rulers of the Line of Durin have been known to see, hear or experience signs and words of wisdom from the maker which have time and again steered our people on a better path. Since last night, I have had a peculiar feeling as though our Maker wants me to understand something. It is, for this reason, I had asked you to be here, now I believe it with certainty. Our Stonefather wishes to tell us something."

During the course of the tale, Thorin had closed his eyes and bent his face so as to not let his siblings or the priestess see his shameful face. If they knew of his thoughts since the dragon had taken away their home, they would likely never look at him the same.

"Nadad? Look at us. Why does this tale trouble you so? Is this not a good omen? Our Maker wishes to offer us advice. Should that not be celebrated?"

"Yes Dis. We shall hear his words and we shall heed them. I simply..."

Even when they were children, Frerin had the ability to look like a sad pebble whom you would offer the world just to see him smile again. Thorin found his head being tipped up and Frerin's lost and sad face staring back at him when he looked up.

"What troubles you Nadad?"

Damn his siblings and their untimely insights.

"When Smaug came, I.. A few years before he invaded our home, Thror had ordered that any words of Mahal be told only to him. Grandmother spoke of it to me many moons after we had left Erebor. She feared Thror had ignored Mahal's wisdom. I... I did not want to believe it. So, I believed the Maker had forsaken us, given up on his children in the time of their need much as everyone else had. I believed him blind to our plight and aptly thought him named Stonefather. I never passed on this tale to you for I believed it not anymore. And now, to know that it is not so.. that my pride and anger may have kept me from receiving valuable wisdom that might have made the lives of our people easier.. I.. I have failed.. As a King of..."

"Thorin, do you know why our people call you King? Despite never having seen father's dead body? Despite you never having worn a crown? Why is it that they do not call you King in Exile but King Thorin?"

"Why?"

"For you have done everything and beyond what a King would. It is the way of our people, of telling you that you have found them homes, and what lands you call as your own shall be ruled by you with them as your people. What you felt was a result of many things, Nadad. You must not let it keep you from whatever our Maker wishes for us to know."

Damn Frerin anyway for loving him such. He smiled at both his siblings and repeated his instructions to the priestess and waited while she drank from the bowl. Not a few moments after she had drunk the last of the liquid in the bowl, her eyes flew open with only the whites of her eyes being visible. Before he could do or say anything, she started speaking in a deep voice that Thorin likely would never forget.

"Son of my Son, peril is upon you but forsaken you shall be not. Be the mithril that protects all, love the prayer that shall save all, learn your truths and find your allies. Dark times are ahead but Halls of home shall be yours again."

As though he had walked out of a mine directly into sunlight, the lights in the Chambers flared and then it was as though nothing had happened. For a moment, it was all silent but in the next one, the new beads in Lord Mahal's marriage braids fell into Thorin's hands and chaos ensued.