"You've been acting funny lately," Erica said one day, peering at her roommate over her world religions textbook.

"What makes you say that?" Hannah asked, not taking her eyes off of her computer screen.

"Well, let's see." Erica put down her book and began ticking off on her fingers. "You keep pausing in the middle of conversations and staring off into space. You were paying strict attention the other day in class when we were discussing Norse mythology, which I know you're totally not into. And you've been sitting at that computer for the last hour and a half googling Tolkien and mental illness and…" She peered at the screen. "Inter-dimensional travel?"

Hannah instantly reached out and turned off her monitor. "You little snoop!" she exclaimed.

Erica grinned. "Nice try. I'm always a snoop. But this is unusual behavior for you. So." She crossed her arms. "Spill the beans. Or do I have to try my new interrogation technique?"

"And what is that?" Hannah asked in a superior tone.

"Tickling," Erica said, flexing her fingers and slowly rising from her seat.

"Alright! Alright!" Hannah exclaimed, putting up her hands in surrender, then wracked her mind for an explanation that wouldn't sound insane.

"And don't even try lying," Erica said, as if she were reading her mind. "You're a horrible liar."

Hannah threw her hands in the air. "You're going to think I'm nuts."

"I think you're nuts already."

"Thanks."

"I try."

Hannah took a deep breath. "What if… what if Amondaur is actually telling the truth?"

Erica looked at her blankly for a moment, then started to laugh. "That's great!" she hooted. "No really, what are you doing?"

Hannah looked at her silently for a moment. "I was just wondering how well Amondaur had done his research," she answered off-handedly.

"Mm-hm. Sure you were," Erica answered. "Well, it's your business if you don't want to tell me," she said without rancor, and stuck her face back into her textbook.

Hannah turned back to her computer screen.

000

Hannah and Amondaur continued their English lessons. But now, Hannah actually showed an interest in Amondaur's origins. He was quite happy to tell her about Middle-earth, and didn't ask why she suddenly wanted to know. In the interests of science (she told herself), Hannah asked him some of the questions she had always had about Tolkien's world.

"This is perhaps a strange question, but were Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell the same person?" she asked him.

Amondaur gave her a strange look, then laughed. "Of course not! Glorfindel of Gondolin was killed by the Balrog," he explained slowly.

"And he was not reborn in Aman?"

"Reborn in Aman?" Amondaur repeated. "I have never heard of such a thing. I am not the right one to ask about Aman," he added.

So he didn't know about Elven reincarnation, then.

"What about the Balrog? Did it have wings?"

"What questions you do ask!" Amondaur said with a smile. "I do not know that I have ever heard if the Balrog had wings or not. If it did, it certainly did not fly with them. I have thankfully never seen a Balrog."

"No, of course," Hannah mused.

"Why are you curious about these things?" Suddenly, he looked at her with suspicion. "I thought you believed me to be mad."

"They are things that were never fully explained in the stories we have of Middle-earth," Hannah answered calmly. "I wondered what your opinion on them was."

"Ah." Amondaur fell silent.

000

Hannah found herself chatting with Mark more than she ever had before. With the let-up in her homework load, she was able to stay after her time with Amondaur and chat with Mark in his office.

Mark couldn't understand why Hannah was so interested in philosophy.

"I have to admit, I don't know much about it." He grinned. "I struggled my way through one semester of it and gave up. Which is your favorite philosophy?"

"Theravada Buddhism," Hannah answered.

"Terra who?"

Hannah laughed. "Theravada. I suppose you could say it's conservative Buddhism. Basically holds entirely to what Buddha taught. Unlike Mahayana Buddhism."

Mark laughed. "See? You've lost me already!"

"Mahayana Buddhism is more 'liberal'. It encompasses pretty much all the other kinds of Buddhism—like Tibetan Buddhism, with the Dalai Lama, or Amida Buddhism."

"Buddhism was actually my least favorite subject when I had a class on world religions," Mark admitted. "Why do you like it? It seems really pessimistic to me. I mean, each person is just a collection of parts, and when you get done being reincarnated—Poof! You're gone. It's like the entire point of existence to exist in a way so that eventually you can stop existing."

"Well, for someone who doesn't understand philosophy, it looks like you've remembered your stuff pretty well!" Hannah said with a laugh. "And I don't think it's pessimistic. I mean, if you decide that existence is suffering, wouldn't non-existence be a relief?"

Mark shrugged. "I guess so. I suppose it all hinges on whether or not you think existence is suffering. Do you believe that?"

Hannah shrugged. "Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't."

But she knew that if Amondaur really was telling the truth, her entire view of the world was going to have to undergo a massive change. The idea scared her a bit. It was a frightening idea—that all of her assumptions about the nature of the universe were wrong. It made her feel infinitely small.

000

Hannah stayed later than usual with Amondaur one evening, and as Mark wasn't terribly busy at the moment, Hannah and Mark ended up sitting in Mark's office again, chatting.

"So where are you from, anyway?" Mark asked. It was strange that in all their discussions, he had never asked her about this basic information.

"Forest City. It's about a two hour drive from here. You?"

"Franklin. My family moved there when I was in seventh grade."

"Got any siblings?"

"A little sister—Emily. She's a freshman in high school."

"Wow; big age gap."

Mark nodded. "What about you? Any brothers or sisters?"

"No," Hannah said. "Just Mom and Dad and me." She changed the subject. "How's that case study on Amondaur going?"

"Great so far," Mark said, "thanks to all the information I'm getting from you! Maybe you can help me interview him one of these days?"

"Sure. But don't you think he's object to it? The case study, I mean. I know if I were him, I wouldn't want my story published to the world."

Mark shrugged. "Maybe. We'll ask him. Most patients as mentally ill as him aren't in enough touch with reality to try and explain the situation to them!"

Hannah nodded thoughtfully.

"Mark?" a ward orderly said, sticking his head in the door. "Could you come down and see to Mr. Fisher?"

"Of course." He stood up. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then!" he said to Hannah with a big smile.

Hannah headed toward the front door of the building. Mark's words stuck in her mind—Most patients as mentally ill as him aren't in touch with reality…He had said similar unsettling things about Amondaur's condition so many times: He has me stumped… He doesn't fit any of the traditional disorders…

The picture of Amondaur's mock battle in the tower flashed into Hannah's mind. Gathering her courage, she faced the question head-on:

What if they were all wrong? What if—what if—Amondaur were actually telling the truth?

Hannah finally admitted it to herself. She thought he was.

She couldn't help the grin that spread over her face. It felt so good to finally completely admit it! She believed Amondaur was telling the truth; that he really was from Middle-earth. And that meant Middle-earth was real, and all the stories were true…

Hannah had just stepped onto the sidewalk when she suddenly realized she didn't have her purse.

"Shoot," she said to herself quite cheerfully, and turned around to go back in the building.

She checked Mark's office first. It wasn't there. She must have left it in Amondaur's room.

The door was open when she reached it, so she stepped right up to it.

"I am sorry, Amondaur, but I appear to have—" She broke off.

Amondaur had been reading a magazine as she came in, and the instant she spoke, quickly closed it and put it down where she couldn't see it. But he wasn't fast enough: she had seen the title.

The Medieval Re-enactors' Guild.

TBC

AN: Uh-oh…

I know this chapter's really short. But this is where I wanted to cut it. :)

I feel I have to clear something up, here. A couple people mentioned how ironic it was that Hannah wanted some "honest-to-God proof" of the existence of Middle-earth, and therefore the Valar. They cited the idea that if the Valar were real, then God wasn't. This is a misconception. Tolkien's Valar are actually the product of his ingenious mixture of the polytheistic mythologies he liked so much with his own Catholic beliefs. The Valar are both arch-angels and gods, but there is a creator God—Eru Ilúvatar, the creator of the Valar. Yes, he implements the Valar in the act of creation in a way that is not quite the same as the Judeo-Christian God, but it's the same guy. If you don't believe me, check out the Messianic prophecy in the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and saw Middle-earth as our earth, only long in the past. So although he wanted the polytheistic pantheon, he also had to make his world match up with his beliefs about our world, hence Eru Ilúvatar. Just thought I'd clear that up. :) So the line is still ironic, just not in the sense that some people took it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Please, give an encore performance! Happy New Year, everybody!