Many thanks to those who are sticking with me through this tale. Your comments are appreciated. It's always good to know folks are reading.

CHAPTER 4

The idea of Arwen's jewel being linked in some way to Celebrian is one that Frodo Baggins of Bag End and I have discussed several times. Here is my take on it.

Earendil charted his steady course across the evening sky, almost at the zenith of his journey. The overgrown garden was bathed in the silvered glow of Elbereth's bounty and shafts of moonlight played hide and seek with sleeping roses beneath the branches of gently swaying beeches.

Elrond drew his gaze closer as a gentle breeze carried to him the soft murmur of voices. These he knew and so he waited patiently for their owners to find him in the elegantly overgrown garden.

"Good evening, Adar." The soft brush of lips upon his head followed Arwen's words.

"Good evening, children."

Hand in hand, Aragorn and Arwen stepped around him, pausing to brush aside some stray tendrils of ivy before seating themselves upon the bench opposite. The King glanced about this once elegant sanctuary, hidden deep within high stone walls.

"I think it about time that some attention was given to such places as this. I understand that there has been little time over the past years. Perhaps Master Samwise would be willing to assist while he is here."

Elrond's fingers dropped to stroke the petals of a pure white rose and the blossom stretched up to accept his caress. "It would be a pity to bring such exuberant beauty to constrained order for this city has known too much military precision. It is good to see that life can go on, creating its own balance without the interference of we, so called, higher beings."

Arwen's soft voice mingled with the perfume of the night scented flowers. "This place reminds me of Mother's garden. I think I would like to care for this myself." A smile played at the corners of her lips. "I promise to let the flowers bloom where they will."

Lifting his eyes to the west, Elrond nodded. "Your mother has a gift for fulfilling the needs of living things. Her nature was ever to be generous and loving and I am glad that she has passed that love to you, to grace this place. Gondor has gained more than it will ever know."

Aragorn slipped an arm about his queen's waist. "Gondor knows what it has won and will worship it each day."

His grave face was turned by Arwen's gentle touch upon his cheek and she smoothed away the beginning of a frown upon his brow. When had he begun to gain these badges of mortality? Her soft grey eyes captured his.

"And Arwen, too, has gained more than she hoped or dreamed of. I need no worship . . . only your love and my family's blessing." She turned back to her father, fingers straying to her throat, where a single clear crystal dripped from a fine silver chain.

"You have my blessing children. This you already know. As for your mother, Arwen, you would know her thoughts as well as I."

Arwen smiled as she unfastened the chain, holding the necklace in her palm, where it caught a stray moonbeam and glowed softly. She held it out for her husband to see.

"This was gifted to me by Ada when Ami took ship to the West. It carries an image of her soul song, set there by him. Whenever I needed to feel her comfort I had only to touch this and her memory lifted and supported me."

Aragorn brushed an awed finger across the smooth teardrop shaped jewel, his eyes widening as Numenorian blood connected with elven mystery. Now both father and daughter smiled as his eyes softened at the melody he heard there.

"Now I understand why you both miss her so much." He glanced aside at his wife. "It is humbling that you would be willing to surrender all chance of seeing her again, to bind yourself to me."

Arwen closed her fingers upon the jewel. "I have chosen and I have no regrets. The memory of her touch will always be with me." She held out her hand to her father, the fine silver chain slithering from between her fingers. "I do not need this any more, but there is someone I wish to gift it to . . . with your permission and help."

Elrond captured the cool whisper of mithril, and the polished gem landed with a soft chink upon the pool of metal in his upturned palm. "What do you ask, daughter?"

Leaning forward, Arwen's voice grew earnest in entreaty. "You told me that you had memorised the soul song of Frodo Baggins. I know that you see the damage done to him. He will need all the aid we can give if he is to survive now."

When her father nodded she pressed on. "You set a copy of Ami's fea in this jewel once and it brought me great comfort. Can you not do the same for Frodo? Give him a copy of his own song to sustain him when pain and grief press too hard."

For a moment, Elrond considered. "What you ask is a difficult undertaking, but not impossible. But I wonder how effective it will be for someone with no elven blood. He may not be able to sense anything from the jewel."

His daughter nodded. "I know. But I would like to give him this if I can. He may not sense all, but you see the light in him even now. I think he will feel something, and that something may be enough."

"If you wish it, then it shall be done," her father replied simply.

Closing his mind to all else, the elven lord reached into the flawless stone, sighing as Celebrian's soft music enveloped him in greeting. For several moments he allowed that gentle melody to wash through and around him before, sadly, he smoothed it all away. Now only his heart, and perhaps two others, held true memory of Celebrian this side of the Sundering Sea.

Elrond lowered the stone to rest upon soft earth at their feet. This was a gift from all and so all should be involved. Reaching across, he captured Estel's hand in his left, Arwen's in his right, so that their conjoined hands formed a circle about the gem.

Calling forth the memory of Frodo's song, Elrond set it playing in his mind. Even in that memory there was some thread of darkness for he had not met Frodo until after his wounding at Weathertop. But the melody was still largely in tact and, if this worked would blend with the damaged song that was today's Frodo Baggins, forming shadow bridges across the chasms caused by the rending of the Ring from his soul.

He felt Aragorn trustingly open his mind to his foster father even as Elrond asked, and the elf took a moment to caress that mind, as he had the lost and sorrowful child that had come to his home so many years before. From the man's fea he gathered a line of melody, weaving its strength into Frodo's song, bringing steel to a section that had faltered. Arwen needed no asking and she offered her own gentle chorus to enfold and support the song. Elrond wove all, threading them through with his own calm and peace.

It took only a few minutes, then all three were blinking open their eyes and looking down at the gem at their feet. Whether simply from reflected starlight or from elven magic, it glowed warm and bright against the dark earth.

Elrond held it out to his daughter, watching the crystal teardrop spin in the moonlight. It was Aragorn that took it from him, moving the silken wing of Arwen's hair aside to fasten the chain at her nape. The jewel nestled, as it had done for hundreds of years, against the creamy skin of her throat.

"Thank you, Adar. I knew you would not abandon him." Arwen reached across to stroke his cheek and for a moment Elrond leaned into the touch, very much aware that there would be few such moments left to them. He reached up to capture her fingers and held them between his hands.

"There is another gift that we may offer Frodo. I could not speak of it before." He gathered both his children into his gaze. "We can offer Frodo passage to the West, if he wishes it. I do not know what healing he will find there but it may be that the land's virtue will offer succour that Middle earth cannot."

Elrond smiled at the light kindled in his daughter's eyes. "When your grandmother told me that giving Frodo this option would be your task I did not understand. But now I do. Your love and compassion makes you the perfect person to inform him. My Titheniel."

Both his children reached out to enfold him in grateful embrace. Arwen's pure laughter delighted his ear and Aragorn's strong arms held tight. Elrond, the father, lost himself to the moment, locking away in his heart every nuance of their duet of love.

TBC