The End of the Third Age (repost)

by Nebraskafan

The Third Age was supposed to dwindle into one of peace. Instead darkness reaches out from the forgotten past for the very heart of Gondor, and as he steps into the age of ruling Aragorn finds himself staring into the mouth of a beast he’d thought long ago destroyed. Not all evil was born of the Dark Lord Sauron, and not all evil was vanquished when he fell.

12. Chapter Twelve

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Chapter Twelve

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"My friend."

The soft, familiar voice drifted to him on the East breeze as he stepped quietly into the room. His eyes settled quick on the silhouette of the man in a chair on the balcony. Tall and regal even as he sat, his face proudly to the moon as it spilled silver light down over his hair.

"Come. I have finally figured it out. You must be the first to hear it; the first to know."

"To know what, lord?" He knew that it was he himself who responded. He could hear his voice speak the words. Feel them. But even as they left his lips something tingled at the base of his spine; a shiver of unease that pulled faintly at something in his mind that was not clear to him. Something about the room felt wrong. Simply the lodgings of the King and Queen; still he felt as if he must be on alert. He tried to shake the feeling as he walked slowly towards his friend.

Aragorn did not move. He remained rigid, staring out across the fields. "You truly do not know?"

Legolas suddenly found that his feet had halted him; settled hard on the floor. He did not want to move and he did not know why. "Know what?"

"Why both of us must rot this way. Why finally we must be eradicated, you and I."

When finally Aragorn turned, the words of numb confusion on Legolas' lips died. He recoiled in horror. Instead of the familiar eyes of his beloved friend there were holes, jagged and torn, as if carved into his face with a blade. The King was beaming at him. "We always knew I would die first. You must not weep for me, my friend. You will follow me soon."

Legolas viciously swallowed tears and continued to back away, opening his mouth, grasping desperately for words; a demand for answers amidst his shock; his terror. Instead of words came blood. He could hear Aragorn laugh; a maniacal and abhorrent sound as he choked on it and light built behind his eyes until the sound, his body, and the world was fading, slipping swiftly away from him.

There was one sound that seared through his mind the split moment before the darkness took it from him. As he heaved on the blood and stared at the floor he listened to the voice of Arwen cry repeatedly the name of the King.

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TBC