A.N. Sorry for the lateness. Mostly to do with fucking technology crapping out and, due to that, a lack of communication between Tali and I about this chappy. Getting it proof-read and all that crap. Sorry for the shortness, also. We'll get back on track soon enough. Also….

I just saw these screenshots ( © Blizzard and all that crap) and in my mind they fitted perfectly with the city. So just image these, but whiter, bluer, etc.

http/ tried to climb your steps
I tried to chase you down
I tried to see how low I could get down to the ground
I tried to earn my way
I tried to change this mind
You better believe that I tried to beat this,
So when will this end
It goes on and on
And over and over and over again
Keep spinning around I know that it won't stop
Till I step down from this for good…"

Lifehouse – 'Sick Cycle Carousel'

Chapter 34: Sacrifice

The massive stone tiles below my feet were bleached by the sun, which seemed so much closer as far as I was above the sea. The Eagle had grudgingly flown here with me clinging onto its back as it gained altitude. I couldn't have imagined where it might be heading, but then I saw it. The mass of clouds that clumped together unnaturally, like a hurricane brewing for eternity. The creature's wings pounded beneath me, sending wisps of vapour dissipating into the air as it bore a hole through the clouds, and then suddenly it was in front of me. The giant structure, suspended somehow above the ground, as if the very terrain itself had been torn from the earth. I was deposited and left by the eagle within a matter of seconds and I was alone. There was something wrong about it, though, something I could feel by looking around at the artful buildings, the decorated streets, all of which should have been surrounded by life. And then I noticed the horrible lack of noise. It wasn't the serene stillness of Lórien, nothing like that, more like the sound of a thousand voices suddenly silenced. The air tingled with a strange kind of energy, like the place was made entirely of wizards' magic and enchantments. I reasoned, as I looked over the edge, that I probably wasn't far off.

The architecture was like nothing I had ever seen. Footpaths curved up the sides of impossibly shaped towers, bridges everywhere, over canals that had long since dried up. Pagodas and bandstands of all sizes littered the city, some with strange markings, possibly runes, etched up the sides of the pillars that held up the stunning shapes of the roofs. Stone was meticulously carved into statues, decorative pedestals, rooftops, stairs, banisters, windows, everything seemed embellished somehow, and the entire place glowed with the beauty of the long forgotten civilisation. But then it was again. The sinister insinuation of…something. Pieces of the stone were chipped off here and there. Cracks, snapped wood, things that did not happen merely with age. A massacre. A battle. Something had happened here that caused these people to be silenced...

'…the barest whim of the master driving brothers to attack brothers, never ceasing 'til their ends are met…'

Was this it? Was this all that remained of their glorious culture? Lanterns hung on curved stands, flagging my path through the city to the gigantic central structure that loomed overhead. A temple, perhaps. A palace. Something that was as grand as the building itself suggested. Maybe I would find Yunalesca there. If at all. It occurred to me suddenly that I still had no idea where she was, just a very vague and seemingly impossible reason to believe that she was in this ethereal place. But that was better than nothing at all. I had to find her. Had to save her from whatever it was she was running from, even if it was herself. My bow in hand, ready for the worst, whatever that may be, I continued.

The huge building ahead got closer. Perfectly sculpted ponds, probably at one time having been filled with lilies and aquatic flowers, were set out in front, round basins beside them indicating pots for trees. Now it was barren. But that was to be expected after so many thousands of years in solitary under the hear of the sun above. But something else caught my attention. The doorway of the temple was massive, extending inside to a corridor and dotted with pillars, the pattern marking out the walkway worn with age. From within it, I saw movement.

Squinting harder, I made out the image of a figure dressed in a tunic of light grey and black, with charcoal hair and a blade at his side. Next to him, there she was. Her silver hair shone white in the sun, the tan of her skin seeming even richer in contrast. The first thing that struck me, however, was what she was wearing. I felt the sudden reflex to drop my jaw to the floor, but suppressed it barely. Tiny amounts of fabric were stretched and draped over her figure, showing off far more than was practical or necessary. But she didn't seem to care. Not about that, nor anything else as she descended the stairs alongside him.

Suddenly, his gaze caught mine, and his well-concealed shock was evident in the flaring of his nostrils and gritting of his teeth. But he held his composure well, and continued at the same pace as before, as did I. As for Yuna…she looked directly in front of her with her posture strong, the very image of nobility were it not for the entirely blank expression on her face. Although, I considered with irony, the majority of the non-royal nobility, particularly humans, tended to wear expressions reminiscent of chewing cows. But that was hardly an appropriate thought for the current situation, so I pushed it aside. Her features remained entirely neutral, not even a flinch as she saw me. Nothing. And her eyes. Devoid of their usual range of expression, black as ebon, fathomless whirlpools where that beautiful green that haunted me still once was. What had he done to her? For a moment anger overcame my every sense and my hands itched to drive a blade into his neck. It was him, it had to be. As he got closer I saw he was one and the same as the man whom had come fourth or fifth in the Tournament. I never found out his name. There was something disconcerting about him. How he was so conspicuous that you wondered how you never noticed where he was until he talked to you. Not that he ever had.

It didn't matter. I would find out what it was he did to her. If he hurt her I would kill him myself. Whether he held a weapon or not. He could beg for mercy for all I cared. The Prince of Eryn Lasgalen was not supposed to think such thoughts, but this was different. I was not in it for the honour, it was for her. He was close now. My eyes bored into his as he approached, Yuna lifeless at his side. I noticed that she held Lucreccía with a light grip that gave away nothing. Adorning her wrist was an elaborate silver bracelet with a large clasp, several chains attaching variously sized and shaped rings on her slender fingers. The blue, opal like stones set throughout the cuff seemed to shine brighter than was normal. The same could be said for the long amulet encircling her neck, the perfectly round gem set in the centre of a circle of inscribed silver. Her garments were like nothing I had seen before. It left very little to the imagination, with a small slip of cloth clasped in the centre of her chest, which was made all the more ample by the large strip of skin exposed in the middle. Her midriff was bare, as was the rest of her save for a length of white chiffon fabric at her front and back suspended by a complex network of chains and threads to protect her modesty, what little of it remained. Why was she wearing such a thing? Had he told her to do it? But I could not think of any scenario within reason where she would agree to dress like an exotic street walker, for lack of a better term. What was going on?

He stopped a few metres away, and she obediently followed suite a few feet behind.

"Why do you insist on interfering with affairs that have nothing to do with you?" He asked in his unidentifiable accent, his voice unhurried and calm. Or so he seemed.

"This had everything to do with me the second you chose to involve Yunalesca. What did you do to her?" I demanded, my voice equally schooled to give away nothing but the barest hint of my blind rage.

"She involved herself, whether you believe me or not. She came to me. She wished to leave the Wood and seek out where she came from. So I took her here. I assume from your presence that you have already spoken to that fool Arandir. He would stop her from living out her destiny, what she must do." He smoothly ignored my question. And I knew when I was being lied to. He was trying to make me lose my footing. To forget why I was here, and to think that perhaps Yuna wanted this. That she wanted to leave us…leave me…

For a moment it worked. I was suddenly unsure of what I was doing here. Perhaps she did want this.

But no. I caught the glint in his eyes that said I had every right to be there. That told me he was using her.

"If she is here of her own accord then why does it look like you've sapped the life out of her? And why isn't she saying anything? What did you do to her?" I demanded again, drawing my white knives.

"You talk too much, elf. You would stand in my way, like all the others." His eyes narrowed, and the barest of smirks appeared on his chiselled face as he turned his head to Yuna. "Kill him." Came the brief order. To my horror, she nodded, turned to me, drew Lucreccía from its ornate scabbard, and advanced.

"Yuna?" I addressed her directly for the first time, whilst backing away from the, I had to admit, terrifying sight of her coming towards me with murder in her eyes. She was under his control completely. She didn't even flinch…

"There is no point in trying to reach her, she is too far gone. Her appearance should be evidence enough of that. Accept your fate." He said with a casualness that enraged me as he watched, motionless

Suddenly she lunged, and, with a surprising strength, swung her blade at my abdomen. I barely parried it, but was more ready for her next flurry of strikes as she advanced, caring about nothing but her order. When I had fought her before, she was never this intense. But now I was the enemy. In a simple first blood duel, mortal wounds were not an option. Here they were a must. If she was holding back before, it was certainly not the case now. The wrongness of it all struck me. Even at her most obstinate, at her most aggressive, I had never seen her like this. Even when she fought hordes of Orc and all of their kind, when she cried out with rage at any that would dare attack her, no foe had she faced with the concentration and ability that she showed now. And I was to be the focus of her attacks. When I came here to help her.

'I will kill him.'

Her attacks were strong, sure, every muscle in her arms flexing as she swung, her bare abdomen twisting with her body as she spun to strike again. There was no conservation of energy, she was putting her all into her mission: to kill me. Was this what Arandir had spoken of? The power to turn brother against brother until their deaths? Had it already been unleashed? If it had, it seemed all our hopes were dashed, but perhaps not…

Her eyes, they were the same soulless hollows that had plagued her that night not so long ago…And then, somehow, she was broken out of it. I had saved her once, I would do it again. Or she would kill me trying.

I stumbled backwards as a block with my knives faltered under her onslaught. Quick as the wind whistling in my ears she spun, her foot arcing to make my legs buckle beneath me, and then her blade drove itself into the stone where my chest had been a split second earlier. A slash again as I rose, and the sharp pain in my arm informed me of the fresh wound, blood splattering on the pristine white floor. I gritted my teeth through the discomfort and upped my game, managing to push her backwards, if only for a while. I didn't want to hurt her. But that was the problem, because she certainly didn't have a problem with hurting me.

I imagined Yuna's response to this train of thought, and reasoned that she would have found my concern more insulting than touching. She would tell me that she'd been too close to death too many times to be concerned about a few scratches and I would do best to think the same. With these thoughts in mind I had a new objective, besides simply surviving. Shock her out of it. Somehow. I did it before, I could think of something that would do it again. Sudden pain, perhaps that would do it? It was a course of action I had to take, if only to eliminate it. Because as I was I could think of no other.

She swung again, I caught her blade in the crevice between my knives and forced it upwards. As she took a step back I saw an opening and struck, a line of red blooming on her right shoulder before she parried me back. I saw the barest flinch in the rigidity of her stance, and in that I saw hope. But not for long.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him! Use the blade's power!" I heard him order, and obediently, she did.

"Fainsen" She whispered sharply in a voice that was hers but had nothing of her in it. Lucreccía followed her will, the gaps glowing with a soft blue light that intensified as she raised the blade and swifly cracked it down as it separated into the whip with the razor edge once more. And once more she advanced. I was out of options now. My knives could barely parry her attacks as it was, with the same instrument that I saw take down legions of Uruk-Hai against me, I stood little chance. I backed away as she came closer. He had a smile on his thin lips now.

She swept the sword across the floor, and I jumped to avoid it, barely ducking after in time to dodge the second attack overhead. Behind me was one of the many bandstands jotted around the place, and perhaps if she didn't shatter the pillars to shrapnel with her onslaught, I would have a few seconds to think of something more. Somehow I deflected an attack with one of my daggers and this bought me the time I needed to move back into the chamber. As I had hoped, the sword caught the pillars and their edges were dented, but they remained intact enough to protect me, at least for a time. After another attempt at a similar ranged attack she hissed "Alye" And the blade closed once more. She strode towards me purposefully, but still with nothing in her gaze. Something made her more powerful than she should have been. She was a very strong woman, and an incredibly skilled fighter, but something was adding to this. I should have been able to at least get a few attacks in, but nothing. It wasn't just my own irrepressible desire not to hurt her, but something else. Maybe it was the same unearthly power that tore this place apart so many thousands of years ago…

I inhaled sharply as a dagger went skidding across the floor, my left hand barely escaping a stab wound and instead getting a sizable chunk of flesh cut from the side. She raised the sword against me once more and this time I barely managed to parry her next attack with my right dagger. And then her bare leg came up and with impossible force booted me in the stomach and suddenly I was on the ground, winded. She was a demon as she fought, but now, that I stopped and saw her as she paused, if only for a second, I remembered why I came.

"Yuna, stop!" I pleaded. I had no other option. Between my death or hers, my life would have no consideration. She raised her sword above me for the final blow. She could kill me for all I cared, but not before I saved her. I had to.

"I…I love you." It just came out, with barely any thought involved to consider the weight of the words, nor their implications. But something happened. She jolted. Within those swirling depths of nothingness a spark appeared. Like ink down a drain the blackness bled away to the brightest green beneath. If I had meant to shock her, on whatever level, that had done it. She blinked, and normality returned in its entirety.

A confused expression crossed her features, like she had just awoken from a particularly vivid and disturbing nightmare. She stared at me for what seemed like a lifetime but in reality was a few seconds and no more, her eyes uncovered and teeming with things unsaid. Then, as a sudden gust of wind wove through the pillars and hit her practically naked side, she glanced down at her attire. Her eyebrows clashed together in a mix of outrage and white-hot anger and she whirled around to face her captor, Lucreccía at her side practically buzzing with her energy as she trembled from her own fury. I imagined her teeth grit together as her face contorted, like it had done so many times before when we faced enemies that were no more than murderers, rapists and pillagers to us. Monsters. She took slow, deliberate steps towards him, fighting to keep control to stop herself from charging at him full speed.

"What!" He exclaimed, an unsteady note clear in his normally so calm voice. "What are you doing? Kill him!" As I shakily got to my feet, still reeling from her attack and the sudden turn of events, I noticed him backing away in, I assumed, fear. I didn't blame him. He had taken away her freedom, her will, and most importantly in her eyes, her dignity. It never occurred to me to move outside the battered stone shelter I stood in, for I could do very little to help her once she was set in her path. This was a mistake, I learnt, as he moved backwards even further to a shorter pillar. There was a noise of some indescribable quality, and suddenly it was like I saw the world outside the boundaries of the pillar through a strange, blue-hued film. I struck at it with my hand only to have it bounce back at me. Impenetrable. What sort of 'things' had this astounding race truly invented?

"There!" He shouted triumphantly, pointing in my direction. Yunalesca glanced back at me, my predicament, then back at him once more. "He is trapped, and one small movement from me will send him falling to his death!" To illustrate his point, the diameter of the floor beneath me began to appear and separate, just enough to fit a person through, but leaving enough space for me to stand without falling in. What was below was unknown. The sea, it must have been. An expanse of pale blue was all that greeted me as I looked. "Do as I say, or I swear I shall do it. I have come this far, do not think cold-blooded murder is above me." He threatened, with just a hint of desperation in his otherwise so calm voice.

"You disgust me!" Yunalesca spat out, speaking for the first time as herself. "You Men, all you search for is power beyond your control, nothing will ever suffice, and by the time you ever find something that does, you will be dead. Plagues upon the earth are those like you, Daeguerro! Another megalomaniac with more ambition than sense. I will stop you yet."

"Petty threats. You may think all you like, but at the moment it is I who hold the advantage."

"Kill him." She said indifferently, shrugging her shoulders. "And what will stop me from doing away with you after? My own life is of little importance."

"But you will not have me kill him. I know you and I have seen into your deepest thoughts, my Lady, and you would not have me kill him. Not even at the expense of your own life. That is why you wished to leave in the first place." He said almost tauntingly. I felt so useless. I had come to save her, and now the stakes had been turned and it was she doing the saving. I was the hindrance that held her back. I would make up for it somehow, though.

"How dare you! Your presumption shall be the death of you, human!" She snarled, gripping her sword all the tighter and raising it up to point in his direction.

"And your anger shall be the death of the Prince if you do not pay heed to my demands." I could feel the frustration coming off her in waves. The last thing she wanted to do was to help this man, and yet she would.

"What do you want of me? Speak quickly."

"Your blood. It awakens the potential of the artefacts you bear. The jewelled glove, the amulet, and the blade you have carried all these years. These three together, awakened by one of your kind, will allow you to pass through the impermeable barrier erected around something of great interest to me. Retrieve it."

"You! It was you who killed your master and stole from Arandir!" I shouted at him over the small distance. "It is you that attempts to control a power never meant to be controlled! If such an advanced people were destroyed by it, why not yourself? Do not be a fool!" Suddenly, everything the wizened, old, pure Avari had said came to life. This 'something' must never be allowed to surface again. Yuna turned back to me, and I could almost hear the calculations she made, and a plan forming in her mind.

"Silence, Elf, you know nothing of the artefact! But you will learn soon enough…Now, Yunalesca…"

"Fine. I shall do this for you. On one condition, you must not hurt him. Whatever happens, he goes free, and unharmed. You will not raise your sword against him." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted to shout out to her, tell her that my life was nothing next to Arda as we knew it. But I knew she would not listen. I could do nothing but trust in her.

"Agreed, but then I must ask you to give me your word that you will not harm or kill me. I must look out for my own interests, after all. And a heroine such as yourself cannot break her word." He said almost slyly.

"I give you my word of honour. Now tell me what it is you want me to do." Her voice was menacing. Anger was barely muffled by her own sensibility. I had to trust her. I had to make it up to her somehow.

"Over there." He pointed to a structure similar to that in which I was imprisoned, and I noticed that this one contained some sort of a pedestal. "It must be in there. No other place. Get it for me." He demanded again. She nodded, and set off towards it, giving me a look I recognised all too well as she did so. A complex plan was being carried out, and most of it was dubious as she wasn't sure it would work, but all she could do was hope, and she had to trust me to be ready. I had seen the same look many times before, communicating so much in a simple glance. But this time there was no trace of humour, nor anything else but her own rigid determination.

She came to the steps of the construction and paused for a second before steeling herself and stepping through the wall of light.

-------------------------------------------End Interlude---------------------------------------------

I regarded the tiny object before me curiously. There in the centre of the pedestal, sitting prettily on a blue silk cushion, was a black sphere, just big enough for my hands to enclose, shiny, and yet somehow absorbing the light around it. Two parallel grooves ran around the circumference, indicating some way to open or activate it. Was this it? Was this tiny thing what had caused so much chaos? I had thought the same thing about the Ring of Power before I had seen it in action first-hand. But the evidence of the destruction this thing caused was all around. But I knew what I had to do. Whether or not my plan would work…now that was another issue.

It still seemed so wrong somehow. What was I doing here? What had just happened? I had worked out enough in a few seconds after awakening to surmise the situation, and I didn't like it. As for what he had said…well, I didn't need to think about that now. Maybe he didn't even say it. Whatever the case was, I couldn't think about it now. I couldn't be distracted. Was this my destiny finally? So I had a purpose other than to live and die? It was all so surreal. But if this was a dream, it was a painful one. And I never lost. Not even in dreams. I never went down, not without a fight. This fool. His biggest mistake was not to live out his ambitions, but to include me in them. No, wait, his biggest mistake was to include me in his ambitions wearing a napkin. My fists clenched. I would bring him down.

I picked up the object, which had a strange weight to it, and exited the small building, feeling strangely refreshed as I stepped through the invisible barrier from the confined chamber. I stared directly at Daeguerro as I walked towards him with slow, deliberate steps. I was barefoot. That was stupid. So was most if not all of what I was wearing, but that was another matter entirely, and another triviality which I had to stop focusing on.

His expression was calm, collected, almost passive to the situation. At least on the surface. I could see the slight tremor in his folded hands that told me he was deathly afraid of something untoward happening. But how could it? He held all the cards, it seemed. But I was anything but stupid. I quite literally held in my hands the greatest leverage of all. It was what he had been searching for all these years, what he had gone to so much trouble for. And if he thought I would roll over and give it to him just because he had Legolas at what he thought was his mercy…he was wrong.

I glanced from Daeguerro to Legolas, and to the latter I gave another meaningful look. I needed him to trust me and not question what I asked him to do. I needed him to figure out what I wanted him to do if I couldn't ask him. I needed him to trust me that I knew what I was doing. In return he gave a nod unperceivable to the human eye. Good. Now it was time to act.

I waited. I bided my time with my unhurried march towards the dark-haired villain in this picture. I waited 'til he glanced away from me, to the Prince who stood, defiant in his captivity, glaring right back at him. Legolas held his gaze for just long enough for me to make a break for it. I dashed towards the pagoda holding the Prince as fast as my unclothed legs would carry me, and prayed to whichever Vala I hadn't cursed something by that I was right.

By the time he had noticed my deviance and had time to do whatever it was that made the floor beneath open to the sea below, it was too late. I was right. I easily passed through the barrier by willing it with any power I had left for it to open, pushed Legolas to one side and to safety, shouting my orders as I passed, and plummeted through the chasm in the ground into the mass of clouds and beyond.

Sacrifices had to be made.

A.N. Sorry for the minimalist way we've explained everything. It will all become clear soon enough. And no, there isn't a glass bottom to the opening, nor is there a safety net. Happy cliff-hanging J.

Reviews:

Levanna: Sorry about the MSness . . This chapter reeks of MS, but hey, considering we wrote out the storyline when we were (more) ickle, it's not too bad… ;)

Illona: Sorry about sporadic updates and short chapters. Promise it won't last for long! And it'll be worth it:D

FFAMasquerade2005: Oh, don't worry, I have every intention of continuing with this fic til the end. J

Huggins Legacy: Sorry for the cliffie, but here's another. And thank you for mentioning the 2AM bit. Makes us feel loved

MoonSerenade: Cookie time.

Arcamenel: Yay! You're not dead! Thank you so much for the massive reviews. We expect another. Don't disappoint us :D

Raider-K: And it's not finished yet. Yuna's still got a little way to go before we're done with her…