Cale au Aratar: 22
Pippin shuddered as he looked out of the window, he had not imagined the lightning or the eerily blue light of the sky, he knew it and seemingly just to confirm his thoughts a second bold of lightning flickered over the sky. What was happening? It was not normal that there was lightning without thunder or without a storm but that was exactly what was happening and no-one besides him seemed to be noticing it. Unsure he looked around the room and found that most of the elves were focussed intently at the door to Legolas bed-chamber and those who were not looking at the door were starring out of the window.
Ok, so maybe he wasn't the only one who had noticed but still Merry was sleeping as were Frodo and Sam for that matter. How could they be sleeping when the world was ending around them?
The next lightning was accompanied by the sound and smell of heavy rain – yet there was no water! Trying to conceal his panic Pippin shook Merry awake whose grumbling also roused Frodo and Sam as well as Aragorn. Before he could say anything the others turned to the window shocked and fascinated by the unusual display.
"What is happening? Merry? Stri...Aragorn?"
For long moments no-one answered Pippin till Aragorn finally turned to the scared hobbit:
"I do not know Pippin but whatever is the cause of this... strange ... weather does not feel dangerous to me but I will find out what is happening in my city!"
„There is no need for worry, Elessar. No-one with good intentions will come to harm now that our strongest as well as Mithrandir have called on their power, their gift, their birthright." Erestor, one of the advisors of Elrond and one of those who had raised the little Estel, stopped the human king as he made to get up.
"What do you mean?" piped Pippin up who was still frightened by the power he saw and felt.
"Can't you feel it, master hobbit? The power that is filling the room, the stones, the very air that surrounds us? You have seen fire and water awaken to be joined by air, now only earth, only life is left to answer the call. This is the first time that all four are called together, the first time that our prince opens himself completely to his power..."
With a soft smile in Sams' direction he continued: "What you feel young hobbits is the magic of the Eldar in its purest form. There are no restrains, no holding back. This time the magic is directed by love, everything good will grow, pain will lessen and wounds will heal – the only thing that it can not heal is a broken heart. Seldom is our magic used in anger or hate but if it ever happens nothing that inspired those feelings will be able to stand against it..."
Erestor trailed of and for a time it seemed as if he had said all he was going to say but as continued to feel the inquiring gazes of the hobbits and men on himself he spoke again:
"None of you have ever seen an Eldar truly angered or controlled by hate, none of you have seen what it does to us... no, not even you Estel...yes, we might have been able to hold Sauron at bay for many years to come, even if he had gained control over the one ring -but the price we would have paid would have been too much for us to bear. One by one we would have fallen into the shadows, one by one we would have lost our souls to a mortal death. For a few more years Arda would have been kept save but our race would have perished completely and the gift Eru granted us would have vanished with us. Nature would have followed us, wilting more with every soul that would have been lost... No, we were not willing, not able to pay that price when the result would not have been satisfying for as soon as the last of us would have had passed Sauron would have still been as strong if not stronger than before."
A pensive look settled onto his face before he spoke again, this time in warning:
"Brace yourself, the earth is awakening, it has slept for more than four millennia and no-one knows how she will react to being called to aid us."
Erestors words had done nothing to calm the present mortals – on the contrary, some of them asked themselves for the first time in their life what powers elves really possessed. If they were able to control nature as complete as only three of them were doing at the moment, then weren't the more powerful than wizards? True, Gandalf was also helping them but hadn't Erestor just told them that they alone would have been able to hold Sauron off for many years?
However it was not fear that settled in their hearts but awe and fascination for the immortals. No, none of them scorned them that they were not willing to wipe out their complete race to buy others a few more years of peace – who would dare to destroy such a wondrous race?
The shaking of the ground was at first barely noticeable and no-one was sure if they had not only imagined it, even the Eldar were not sure if they dared to hope that they had really felt it. Hours had passed since three of their rulers had entered the bed-chamber of their dying prince and they had all but given up on their hope that he would find enough strength to invoke Cuilya. For long hours after Erestor had told the mortals what was happening nothing indicated that the earth was answering their call and many began to believe that they had imagined the one faint tremor that had run through the earth when it happened for a second time. Even those without the delicate hearing of the Eldar were by then able to hear the chanting that came out of the bedroom. Chanting that was constant but also desperate and the voices they heard conveyed the tiredness their owners were feeling.
"He will not survive, will he?"
All eyes turned to Frodo as he voiced the quiet question, some were shocked, others regretful but all were filled with pain.
"No, he will most likely not survive this day... but even if he does not survive shall his last hours be as painless as is possible with a breaking heard." Glorfindel confirmed their fears from his place besides one of the large windows. "What they are doing is not about saving his life. We do not have the capability of saving his heard and life. All that is within our power is to save his soul. When he dies and Morgoths Tears are still in his body his soul will be denied entrance in Namos halls. He does not deserve an eternity of pain. The souls of orcs are mortal while our souls continue to live till the end of time. If the poison were to still be within him, if it had encased his being his soul would not be recognised as one of the Eldars and it would be unable to find rest."
Sorrow clouded his eyes as he continued:" Do you know the history of Orcs? That the first Orcs were of our people? We can still feel their pain, after all these millennia the pain of the Orcs has not lessened. The reason they hate us with such a vigour is that they know that they should be one of us, that they were bereft of their true life. They hate us because we are what they should also be. If Saruman had succeeded to turn Legolas he would have hated us more than any other Orc because he would have remembered who, what he once was. He would have carried the pain within him, unable to release it, unable to flee from it. Not even death would have been, would be able to release him from the pain because his soul would have remained immortal. So many souls were lost since the creation of Arda, so many souls were trapped within the shadows..."
Turned to Frodo and Sam who were listening with rapt attention he spoke his next words: "You have seen the Dead Marches, you have seen what has become of the battlefield of Dargorlad. Those who were buried there after the battle three millennia ago were trapped there by the malice of Sauron. It is their souls that call out to those who dare to wander through that cursed land. Their souls are what seems to be fire. Should they fail to drive the poison from Legolas body he will become like them, trapped in this world with no way to escape.
Yet if they should succeed the souls of Dargorlad, Orcs, Men and Eldar would finally be able to find peace."
Peace for his soul, was that really all that was left for his best friend? Was the proud elf really lost because he had failed him? No, he could not, would not believe that there was o way left to save Legolas! He would not believe that it had been himself who had destroyed one of the proudest, the gentlest, the noblest being he had ever known! Legolas would live and if he had to give his own life to insure it! – But hadn't that been what had started it? Hadn't it been his resolve to fall in that battle, to fall with the others that had caused the elfs heard to break? He was no longer sure what he should do, the one person he had always been able to turn to was dying at his words and he didn't know how to stop it. What was there that he could say, could do to force the life back into his friend? He could hear what Legolas would have said to him if he had been able to ask him: "Follow your heard. Listen to what it tells you. Even when your mind falters your heard will know what is right, what you have to do." But wasn't that what he had done wrong? His heard had been afraid and he had lashed out at his best friend.
So lost in his thoughts Aragorn didn't notice at first as the ground began to tremble beneath his feet. It felt at first like a low rumble deep within the earth, the mountain Minas Tirith was built from. Yet only moments later he would have described it as the very earth arching her back in pain and grief. Like a wave movement seemed to roll through the earth. Drawing circles around Minas Tirith the earths movements rolled from the topmost level of Gondors capitol outwards. Each wave seemed to gain in magnitude, in strength but not once did anything in the room shatter. Most of the elves had hurried to the windows as the first wave crashed under their feet's and looks of awe were settling on their faces causing the mortals to follow them.
Once, long ago Minas Tirith had been called the Green City where it was then only called the With City. Yet the more waves were rolling under there feet's, the more green became visible to the eyes of the Eldar in the city below them. Dry trees started to come back to live, grass and flowers were growing wherever their eyes settled.
It was Taulë who voiced the thoughts of most of the Elder: "Life does not want to let him go! Yavanna has bestowed her gifts on him, he is granted a new chance. Their blessing is renewed."
Hesitantly, as if barely daring to, hope flickered in the eyes of the First Born yet none of them dared to truly believe in it at that time.
Once again hours passed after the last wave had passed beneath them before the doors to the bed-chambers opened and Orophin stepped out. His gaze flickered over the assembled and stopped at Erestor, Taulë, Glorfindel and Arwen. With faltering steps he walked over to them.
"Lord Elrond does not believe that he will survive till the next dawn. Before they called to the Four he had a vision of Tinmirwen telling him that if the poison had not left his body by dawn he would be lost to us... Yet not even an hour ago she visited him again. Lord Elrond reported that she was near panic as her brother was able to see her – something only the dead should be able to.
He has given up, his soul has started to leave his body. The princess told us that Lord Cirdan will arrive on the day of the coronation but whether his ship is decked in silver and green or silver and black she refused to tell.
She had one other message for us but none of us are sure what she meant: Confident, father, friend and brother, the son broke the heart, the one who confided the trust, the friend the love and the brother the bond – only together can they mend the heart.
The little princess refused to tell the meaning of her words and while Lord Elrond believes to know who at least one of the mentioned is he can't be sure about the others."
Barely suppressing the pain that shot through him as he heard those words Aragorn turned away from the elfs and stared grimly out of the window. Oh he knew what those words meant, he knew it all to well. Hadn't he himself called Legolas more than once his brother, his friend, his confident? And wasn't the elf as much of a father to him than Elrond? After all Legolas had been the best friend of his father and it had been Legolas who had brought him to Elronds house. But wouldn't that mean that Legolas thought of him as his son and not just his best friend or even brother? He flinched as he realised that he had hurt his friend even deeper than he had realised. How could he ever look the elf into his eyes with the knowledge that he had disappointed him in that way? Legolas had been his anchor during his whole life and during the time he had been banned from Imladris it had been Legolas who held to him and who had brought him news from his family. What had driven him to speak those words in Helms Deep? No, he thought, it was not the question what had driven him to say those things, he knew what had led him to speak them. Desperation, pure desperation and the fear not to survive that night. – No, that was not true, not the fear not to survive but rather the wish not to survive. Never before and never after that night had he felt so hopeless, so helpless and never had he though that it would be easier to just die. He knew that he never should have spoken that way to Legolas but were those words really enough to break the others heart? It wasn't that that had been their first fight during the long years they had known each other – so what was so different about it? Yes, he should have never told his friend to die like those around him or that he intended to do the same and he had never before insulted the others race. But was that really enough to kill him? He was sure, that there was something he was missing, something that would explain to him exactly what he was missing and what was now costing his best friend his life.