Cale au Aratar 15
He did not know what he could say to ease Aragorns pain and yet he knew that he had to say something: his little Estel was hurting, he could feel the pain that radiated from the edain – and yet he could not bring himself to do more than patting the kings hand.
For moments amusement found its way into his breaking heart, he had been born a prince, heir of not only the king of the Woodland Realm and the Avari but also heir of the High King, chosen by the Valar themselves – and yet here he lay, unable to comfort the man he thought of as his son. Death, he realised not for the first time, made him wordless. So many had he seen fall, for so many had he grieved, still grieved, but only now, that he himself was dying did he understand why he was unable to talk about his grief: there were no words to describe the pain, not his own and not anybody else.
When they heard in Lothlorien the Mourning for Gandalf, Merry had asked him to translate it and he had told him that he was unable to do so because for him the pain was still to near – what he had not told the hobbit was that he was not unable to translate it because he had no way of expressing the pain, the love that was carried by the voices but because he was not able to understand them. His heart had known what the Lament said, yet his mind had not been able to name those feelings, those memories. He knew, that if he would live he would someday sing a Lament for both Aragorn and Arwen, a Lament which words he would not be able to recall but which meaning he would remember till the end of time.
Now that he knew that Mithrandir was alive the words of the Lament slowly came to him – yet the pain remained. Nothing besides death or his departure from this shores could ease that pain.
It was ironic that it were the Eldar, the strongest of the races of Arda, that were easiest to kill; while it was true that the edain could also die of a broken heart most of them were able to live on and even recover, yet the First Born who survived nearly everything else and were not even able to fall ill died from a simple thing like a broken heart.
"Legolas"
he could hear the panic and pain in Aragorns voice, a panic he could not understand. Faster than his health allowed him he opened his eyes which he had previously closed in exhaustion. Slowly he realised that that had to be the reason for his friends panic, Aragorn was not used to see him with closed eyes.
"It is nothing, my friend – I was merely resting my eyes..."
Legolas felt the strong urge to allow his eyes to slid close again, it was easier to think when he didn't have to concentrate on what his eyes should see. Only moments passed while he looked at Aragorn before his friend changed before his eyes into an other even more familiar face, a face he hadn't seen in more than eighty years. Just as he wanted to open his mouth to whisper his friends name did he realise that the person he believed to see was long since dead and before him sat not Arathron but his son Aragorn.
Fighting the despair that threatened to settle in his mind he bid Aragorn to bring Elrond to him and to find Arwen and propose to her. Puzzled and worried Aragorn stood up and went for the door, turning back he had to see that his friends eyes were once again closed.
Only when a cool hand touched his forehead did Legolas open his eyes, not even startled anymore that he had not heard the older elf enter the room.
"Aragorn told me that you wanted to see me?"
Elrond trailed off as he sat down, his eyes never leaving the tired blue eyes of his prince; for Legolas to ask for a healer meant that he was even weaker than he already knew.
"When I looked at Aragorn I didn't see him, I saw Arathron... And my heart knew no doubt that it was really Arathron. I am afraid, I fear that I will forget my friends, all those I didn't know before..."
A tear slid down the pale cheeks of the Elven prince as he told the Lord of Imladris of what had happened mere moments ago. Pain like he had only known when his wife had left his side filled Lord Elronds heart as he heard what happened to the son of his best friend: he was loosing himself, slowly past and present would merge, friends and family would be mistaken for foes... there was nothing he could do to help Legolas, to help Luin Nor his prince – nothing but drugging him into oblivion.
Both, Morgoths Tears and his breaking heart caused his mind to see false images, their combination only sped the process up – as did Aragorns behaviour. He knew that there was nothing he could do to aid the younger elf and yet his heart longed for nothing more.
Without a word he sat down besides the other elf on the bed and took him into his arms, spending him through the contact the reassurance that he could not give with words. Neither of them knew how long they had sat together this way when Elrond begun finally to speak.
"Aragorn told us of Celebrimbors last work, I always wondered why he had made only three rings instead of four..."
he trailed of, not really expecting the elf in his arms to answer him but after a while Legolas spoke, his voice even fainter than before.
"He had not planned to make Cuilya, he had only planned to make one ring, one ring as a gift for Galadriel but when he had finished the first he knew that he could do better, make a ring that suited her...for fire didn't suit her. While he forged the second ring he thought of her and the ring became the ring of water, eternal, graceful...
The last one was made for Erenion, unpredictable and proud... he told me when I last saw him that he knew that someday you would be its bearer.
Never did he expect that Cuilya would become so strong, so all consuming. Only when he died did he tell me of what he thought while forging it, what made Cuilya the ring of life and not of earth as he had intended it to be."
A shudder travelled through Legolas body as he thought of the last moments of his friends life: Celebrimbor had been surrounded, surrounded by Orcs and men alike, his only solace in his last moments the knowledge that Legolas was there with him, not in body but in mind and spirit.
In a near whisper he continued,
"He thought of me, how we had met and he had wished that I were his son, his and Galadriels. He forged it with the thought of the trees, of the earth, the water and the air and how it was all living under the guidance of the Valar... You know that he always liked to tease me about my name and that he even sometimes called me Lass whenever he wanted to embarrass me... He knew that I was the Cale au Aratar even before I had told him about my destiny and he was determined to make me a warrior worth of the Valars gift.
When I last visited him he told me of the rings and who would bear them, he confessed that he had made the last ring for himself but that when he had finished it he knew that he would never bear it but that it was meant for me..."
He could not cry for his dead friend, he had spend all the tears he could spare for him when he had fallen together with his beloved Eregion. There had been nothing he could do to ease his friends pain when his troth was slid and his life was flowing out of him together with his blood, nothing but be there for him in his last moments.
Celebrimbor had initiated this link they had shared only a few times before that moment, as soon as he had managed to break free from the falling city in order to hide his most glorious and dangerous work. Yes, Legolas knew the exact location where Cuilya was buried and what guarded it – or had guarded it. The creature that had followed Celebrimbors bidding was now death, felled by Aragorns and Boromirs swords and his own arrows. Wasn't it ironic that the very same creature that was guarding the most powerful of the Elven rings had attacked the one person that carried the One Ring of Sauron?
It had pained him to kill the beast that was carrying through one of the last bidding of his friend but he had sworn to protect Frodo and he knew that there was no arguing with the creature: it had sworn to protect Cuilya from anyone who dared to come near it and Frodo had accidentally stepped into the water, waking the guardian. He wondered if he should have warned the fellowship of the guardian but that would have meant to expose his knowledge of Cuilya to a time where he did not know the outcome of their mission and any knowledge of the Fourth Elven Ring in the hand of Sauron would have meant more destruction than his regaining power over the One Ring.
Elrond had listened silently as his prince told him the history of the Elven Rings, he himself had known Celebrimbor for many years but they had never shared anything as close as Legolas and the smith. Even Celeborn had been closer to the smith than he himself – at least before he had met those two. Both were several millennia older than the Lord of Imladris and were already no longer the close friends they had once been when he came in the care of Celeborn and Galadriel. He knew that his opinion on Celebrimbor had always been biased, based on the fact that he had first met him while he was in the presence of only Lord Celeborn and his foster father had been more than cold to the other elf. When he had later asked the Lord of Lorien why he had behaved that way he had been told the story of how their friendship had been broken by the smith.
Legolas had been still young when he had first met the greatest Elven smith and had been immediately fascinated by him -–as was the older elf with the young prince. During this first stay of Legolas in Eregion Celebrimbor had forged for him Legolas two famed White fighting knives and his even more magnificent Double Blade. Over the years all of Celebrimbors most precious works were either for Galadriel – and later her daughters – or Legolas. The crown Legolas would be wearing at his coronation was also forged by Celebrimbor: fifteen Strands of Mithril entwined with one strand of gold, one for each of the Valar and the golden one for Legolas. The crown was more than beautiful, even the crowns he had made for Galadriel could not compete.
He had often wondered if Celebrimbor had been perhaps a seer but every time that thought entered his mind he discarded it with the notion that Celebrimbor had not recognised Sauron for whom he really was and had shared his secrets with him – and yet he could not rid himself of that idea.
Absentmindedly he was stroking Legolas hair, wondering what he could do to help easing the younger ones pain.
"Cuilya is buried in the water next to the West gate of Moria, we slew its guardian when we entered Moria... I give you the permission to retrieve it should you desire so but I warn you of its power, it is even greater than Vilyas. It is the key to the power of the other three rings."
Legolas trailed off, to tired to carry on. He knew that there was almost no chance left for him to survive even till his coronation – a coronation that he had foolishly postponed till the time the One Ring was destroyed. Looking back now he knew that he had made two major mistakes during his life: he should have allowed for his coronation to take place as soon as the Last Alliance was over but most of all he should not have waited to marry his beloved Althilwen. More than anything else did he regret all those time he had wasted, time he could have spend at her side.
Abruptly Elrond stopped stroking Legolas hair as he came to a conclusion: he would find the Fourth Ring before it was to late for Legolas, his heart told him that with the help of Cuilya they could at least partly heal their friend and prince and give him more time – time that could be used by Aragorn to unbreak his heart.
"Legolas, I will go for the ring... but promise me that you will still be alive when I return, promise me you will not fade before I have returned to you and we had the chance to try the rings!"
Gone was the kind caring Lord of Imladris, replaced by the Herald of the last High King and heir to Luin Nor as long as he had no children. To weak to protest Legolas simply agreed to Lord Elronds request, hoping that he would be able to keep it. With a haste that belied the endless days of wakefulness and worry he had endured but portrayed his devotion to his prince Elrond left Minas Tirith within an hour of his conversation with Legolas on the back of Shadowfax. He knew that he had not a moment to spare if he was intend on saving the High Prince.