Chapter 17: The best laid plans…
The faithful as they were called did slowly manage to establish their own realms and CeKay was hiding among them and tried to help as much as she could without being exposed. She had a strong feeling that her true nature would have frightened these humans who had seen the effects of a corrupted superior being first hand. She would roam around the area, change her appearance, take several different identities and try to help with everything from construction to the way they got themselves fed and clothed. The king and his two sons were always busy and they were also very much beloved by their people so the growth of the different realms was rapid and also well organized. The cities which were erected or re-established were grand and beautiful and CeKay hoped that this would mark the beginning of a peaceful and prosperous period. Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion were good rulers and knew how to make a realm thrive in every possible manner but that didn't mean that everything went smoothly. The nine ships which had escaped the fall of Numenor had of course not carried every single person who was to be counted among the faithful, and also, some had family who had perished simply because they had refused to heed the call and chosen to stay behind. Some simply didn't believe that the valar could be that cruel and that any doom would fall only on those who did openly worship Morgoth and his maiar priest.
There were people among the group now referred to as the Dunedain who were bitter and thought that the king and his sons ought to have done more to save more people. Most were just being loud and obnoxious but there were a few who were a potential threat. CeKay started to make sure that none of them managed to cause any real problems. She didn't murder people, that would be suspicious but these were humans and humans do fall ill right? She didn't want to see these new realms risked by some deranged person with a grudge. This did require that she got into contact with people from all social levels and she did find them fascinating. The new realms did also become home to people who never had lived outside of Middle earth and the natives and the newcomers did mix and formed a new and exciting culture. Some of it was definitely numenorean in nature and other aspects came from the cultures of the area, CeKay had seen that before. Where different cultures did meet in a peaceful manner much could be gained and new and exciting things would appear.
The cities of Minas Ithil and Osgilitath were very numenorean in looks and CeKay would often wander the streets in some unassuming disguise, admiring the work done there and the hopeful and positive atmosphere. But she was always alert and she knew that Sauron was beaten but not gone. Sooner or later he would return and cause problems once more. So she decided to take a swift trip to Mordor, just to check things out.
She left early one morning with the morning mist and entered camouflage mode as she crossed the ragged mountains. She immediately knew that something was off. The dark land should have been desolate and abandoned but it was crawling with orcs and they were well organized too. The fortresses were resounding with the sound of weapons being forged and she knew it, Sauron was back indeed and he was preparing to attack before Gondor and Anor could become truly strong.
For once she wasn't sure what to do, she could cause unimaginable damage there if she tried to but that would make Sauron aware of her presence and she had no idea of what the maia was capable of now. So she did try to cover as much ground as possible and tried to get a good overview of the resources Sauron did possess. Ar-Pharazon had done a monumental blunder when he did bring Sauron with him to Numenor, not only had he allowed the enemy into his own home but he had failed to understand that Sauron had masterful servants in his service. He had just grasped his price and taken off with him, not bothering to check what was left of the realm. Sauron had probably presented Ar-Pharazon with a fake army, one consisting of just small weak and malformed orcs who were expendable. The real force had stayed behind in hiding and they had obviously been officers had created an army which was very frightening and efficient and she was shocked to see how large it was. The orcs had been breeding like rabbits ever since Sauron was captured and she realized his tactics. With him gone from the land it was left to itself, nobody ventured into it and it had been sort of forgotten. As long as the orcs didn't roam too wide and stayed low everybody did turn a blind eye to the dark land.
CeKay didn't underestimate Sauron, he was truly a menace and a threat and she wondered if there was a way to stop his plans before he could launch an attack. If she told the king and his sons of this she knew that Elendil would listen but his people were not yet ready for such a fight. They were too few, it was very simple. The realms were populated by many who had no concept of what a maia could accomplish and now the short lifespan of a human being did work against them. They forgot so very fast and the history could be corrupted and changed over just a couple of generations. The war of wrath was forgotten long ago, now it was only a legend and CeKay knew that she couldn't do anything that would alert Sauron of the fact that he was being watched. It had to be something nobody could be blamed for, an act of nature perhaps.
The land was not desolate everywhere, it was a rather huge area with a very varied topography and the volcano which was its tallest peak was active. But CeKay knew that Sauron was watching Mt Doom like a hawk, she couldn't cause it to blow itself up. No, volcanism was not possible, it was very destructive and also, she feared that Sauron was powerful enough to stop an eruption before it really started. She remembered the story of the fifth moon of the gas giant Hai'agadh in the Harda system, it was volcanic and very unstable and as the inhabitants of the system tried to terraform the moon it caused the entire balance to become terribly shifted and the moon blew itself apart. She didn't want to cause a disaster of that scale. So what was left? She had to eradicate as much as possible of Sauron's army in one go, it had to be efficient and also something which could be explained as a natural occurrence. She went through her catalogues and found the one thing she could use.
That night she flew again, for the first time in centuries. She soared above the dark mountains and left nanites everywhere, she was sowing the clouds. A few days later it started to rain, Mordor was a dry land, one which didn't receive much rain at all but now it suddenly received the equivalent of a monsoon. It was pouring down, the rivers and lakes did swell and the orcs were not exactly what you could call good swimmers. It was made worse by the fact that much of the facilities Sauron had built were underground and orcs were drowning in the thousands. It was a doomsday flood and CeKay snickered as she returned to Gondor, hoping that she had set Sauron and his plans back a few years. The valleys and gorges of Mordor were scoured clean and many of the settlements there were washed away too. She just hoped that the dark maia didn't understand that it wasn't a natural disaster at all.
The population of Gondor and Anor became aware of the fact that Mordor had suffered a rather violent case of extreme precipitation and many were cheering the fact, some even believed that this was a sign that Eru was on their side. CeKay didn't really know what to think about the reactions, she was a bit nervous that people would become over enthusiastic and try something stupid. The great number of orcs which had drowned did mean that Sauron would have to postpone an attack and Elendil and his sons did use that fact for all it was worth. The realms did prepare for war and CeKay was pleased with this. At least they were prepared and she did her best to influence people and give them a chance to make weapons and train for combat. Since she was trying to keep an eye on all the different processes which were a part of ruling a realm she did discretely make sure that the men the king sent out did find minerals and ore enough for the forges. She did also allow groundwater to reach the surface so the farmers could water their crops and she found that she liked this, being so busy and helping people while hiding among them.
The population wasn't very uniform after a few years, settlers came in from other areas and it was rather clear that many had seen first-hand what Sauron was cooking behind his tall intimidating mountains. To the south orcs were raiding the near valleys for food and slaves and Elendil was worried, and rightfully so. CeKay wondered if she could do something more to decimate the orc population but decided against it. It wasn't an easy decision at all but one she had to make. Her desire to wipe all the orcs out would ultimately lead to her discovery and she was rather sure that Sauron had become very paranoid now. They said that there had been spies caught in numerous places and strangers were never initially trusted until they proved beyond doubt that they weren't a follower of the former high priest of Morgoth.
Elendil and his sons did in fact execute a few people who got caught as spies and for once Sauron's pride did work against him. His servants and slaves were all marked with the eye branded somewhere on their bodies, it was as if he had to mark all that he had to make sure that everybody knew it was his and the wise and smart would chuckle and say that the maia was on the verge of losing it. CeKay knew that they were right, Sauron had played a very tight game while in Numenor, he had allowed himself to be humiliated and used and abused and he had boosted Ar-Pharazon's ego while allowing himself to be degraded. Of course that had left its mark on his personality, it had hurt his pride and thus he tried to compensate.
The peak of Orodruin was active now, and the volcanic heat was used to forge metal into weapons and CeKay was very worried about the sheer efficiency of the dark maia's plans. He was nothing if not industrious and also very efficient and that made him way more dangerous than somebody who is ruled by hatred alone and becomes overeager and sloppy as a result. He had been a plaything at Ar-Pharazon's court, then a counsellor and a religious leader but he hadn't really been controlling that much. It was no doubt that he remembered the days as the fallen vala's lieutenant and he had thrown all caution aside and went for a full out war. Rumours said that people had encountered odd figures in black which had no apparent physical shape and yet killed and CeKay did remember those rumours and stored them in her mind. They were disturbing to say the least and she tried to wrap her head around what it could be.
So for a couple of years she did more travelling, she did visit the other realms and spoke to both elves and dwarves very discretely and she discovered that Sauron tried to use the rings he had forged to his advantage. Somehow he got control over the very soul of the wearer and could control him or her and it was a very clear sign that Sauron was trying to regain all the power he had lost. But how much did he really have left? That was a question she would have loved to find an answer to and yet it did elude her. She couldn't show too much interest, some may become suspicious and she was glad to know that at least the dwarves seemed to be completely immune to the influence.
When she did return to Gondor it was to find a country which was armed to the teeth, Mordor was covered in darkness now and it was a trick to intimidate no doubt but it did also speak volumes of what Sauron intended to do. He had been refused his vengeance when the valar interfered with his plans regarding Numenor and CeKay was rather sure that he was fuming with impatience and wrath. She did not pity him at all. Her frequent trips in camouflage mode did tell her that the entire area was close to the boiling point, the orcs impatient and bloodthirsty and for once she did give a bit of a damn about her self imposed rules and sent out some nanites to wreak havoc upon the larger trolls. It did seem as if they suffered from some sort of deficiency since the bones became brittle and broke even from the very weight of the creatures and since it could be something about the sparse diet the beasts had to live on nobody did react much.
She had discovered one more thing about the might of Mordor, it was perhaps a giant but one with some growth problems. The flow of information was slow or non existent and that left the leaders on their own. Some showed some level of initiative and tried to come up with solutions while others preferred to just sit there and wait it out for if they did nothing at least they didn't do anything wrong right? It was a safe approach but not one which did resolve much. The king was preparing the realm for an attack but when it came it came as a surprise still, it was way grander and more well organized than they had expected and CeKay was shocked by the sheer gruesomeness of what she did see. The orcs never fought fair and they had the advantage of being very many. They had no regard for their own safety and no discipline or at least so it did seem and the defences were overwhelmed very fast.
CeKay did fight, she felt that she had to. But even with the fact that Gondor had been prepared it soon became clear that they were in trouble. The city of Minas Ithil was overrun and it took all of CeKay's willpower not to shapeshift and simply fight as herself, killing every orc she could see with her nanites. She could do it, she could end this in a matter of hours but then what? She would have to face Sauron then and even if she now was rather sure that she could win she didn't want the dark maia to know what she was, where she came from. The knowledge of other worlds out there, what couldn't that trigger within that corrupted seething mind?
She wouldn't risk unleashing Sauron onto some other world, one with no defences. Sauron was the great corruptor, she knew that now. No matter his intentions, he would destroy and twist things and if he once had hoped to do things with the intention of making them better that was no longer so. He just wanted to rule and control and she was very sad that this monster did roam freely as of yet. The king's son Anarion did manage to hold Osgiliath and Minas Anor and for a while there was a sort of balance. Neither part made any headway and the front was locked in one place.
The situation was rather dire and CeKay wondered if she in the end would have to leave her anonymity behind and do something when the leaders finally assembled and an alliance was forged. The realms would cooperate to get rid of the threat of Sauron once and for all and she was utterly relieved. The trust and the strength of the days of old wasn't dead yet and armies started to assemble on the other side of the misty mountains. Both humans and dwarves and elves came together and for a while there was a slight chaos but the leaders were strong and had good plans but CeKay did notice that things were far from completely smooth. There were tensions, in special within the elven groups and she wondered how that would affect the war itself.
The armies did cross the mountains and suddenly Sauron was being attacked as much as attacking. The realms were no longer besieged and could regroup the armies and gather new strength and CeKay did join the soldiers, disguised as a normal gondorian footsoldier. She soon discovered that war here was something very different from the things she had encountered before, and the area in which they did fight was far from ideal. It was hot and dry and dirty and the camps became tent cities where the smell of food, horse, sweat and excrements became overwhelming. There was little water to waste so bathing was out of the question and after a while even the elves did start to obtain an interesting odour.
CeKay didn't really bother with smells but she did see what the living conditions did to people, the dwarves and elves were hardy, they could survive even this without problems and were in no danger of things like food poisoning and such. But their human counterparts did suffer, and the worst thing was not disease as such but the fact that everybody was cramped together. It brought parasites, and that was something which made the elves in special almost hysterical. No elf had ever had lice, except those captured by the enemy of course, and the spread of lice and fleas did cause some outbursts of hysteria. CeKay would have found it hilarious if it wasn't so serious. Some had to shave and in the end the leaders did order some of the people who did follow the army as servants and helpers to take the role as groomers. They would comb through peoples hair and beard in search of nits and then administer whatever remedy they had which was efficient.
The fighting was another thing which did shock her, it was so vile and brutal and no mercy was shown. She didn't exactly hold that against anybody for the orcs were ghastly and since the resources were few they would often devour the dead. There was nothing valiant there, no honour and glory, just a desperate fight for life and survival and the battles were often turned into melee's without any order at all. She knew that the elves of the great greenwood had joined the alliance with most of their forces and their king was not exactly too fond of the Noldorin leaders so there were some sparks flying there. King Oropher didn't like the attitude of the Noldor elves and CeKay did agree with him. The silvan were excellent fighters and there was nothing wrong with their skills nor their culture but they were somewhat regarded as lowly by the noldor. They were fighting using only leather armour while the noldor had steel and CeKay was a bit angry because of this. She had lived with the avarin elves for years and these silvan were quite similar to them, she would have loved to provide them with good equipment but how?
The armies had gathered at the Dagorlad, the plain in front of the dark gate leading to Mordor and it became evident that this was it, they would have to win now or Sauron would most probably take the victory and CeKay couldn't really believe it when Oropher did order his troops forth way too early. Gil-Galad and the other leaders had a plan, they wanted to taunt the orcs and lure them out of the gate and as close to their own position as possible. When the orcs came within range they would trap them using a pincher move and breach their lines. The silvan archers and swordsmen were excellent fighters but they stood little chance without support and CeKay knew it was a suicidal attack.
She switched over to an elven disguise and joined the troops, fighting desperately among them. Since Oropher ordered the attack way too early the silvan elves became trapped by the enemy and there were nobody near enough to help them. The fact that they wore leather was a problem now, it offered little protection against the orcish arrows and blades and CeKay did realize that this would end up as a disaster if nothing happened. She fought her way forth, to the very front. She had taken on the appearance of a noldorin elf, with metal armour and she tried desperately to reach the king and his son to make them call the troops back but it was too late. The king was already dead, felled by an arrow to the throat and the king's son was close to going berserk in his grief and despair. CeKay knew that the realm couldn't afford to lose them both so she ordered some of the best warriors to bring the king's body and his son back to safety, she gathered the remaining silvan elves around her and it was a pathetic bunch.
More than two thirds of the troops had perished already and she was afraid that the realm would lose all their abled males this day. So she gave a damn about her own rules and her own safety and fought, she fought like a demon possessed and allowed herself to glow as she sliced and cut her way through the orcs. Her blades did cut everything now and she released nanites which did choke orcs and others which did make the equipment disintegrate. The noldor and the dwarves and men did come to the rescue and the small remaining group did escape but it was a very close call.
CeKay did camouflage herself again, she didn't want to face anybody so she just became a face in the great mass again, unassuming and anonymous. The battlefield was transformed to mud, blood and guts and bodyparts covered the land and the smell was abhorrent. People had relieved themselves in fear and the bodies started to stink immediately too. It was hellish. The leaders were stunned, they had no idea of who the glowing figure had been but the victory was theirs that day, they won and now they were putting Sauron under siege. The great fortress was surrounded and they could try to get a view of the damage. CeKay did worry about the new greenwood king, she had never seen the former prince but he did seem like a very strong ellon, just one wracked with grief. Oropher was buried among the others who perished there and CeKay had a feeling that something was set in motion now, something which could prove to be important later on.
The tent camps were moved but the conditions were in no way getting better, rather the opposite. The fights did continue and CeKay held a very low profile for the next years as they tried to break Sauron's hold of the land. She did work as a healer at times, then she was an ordinary soldier and she even worked in the dwarf camp for a while as a person who did fix armour. The anger and determination there was rock hard and the will to crush Sauron was one nobody could break, they all knew that this was it. Then Elendil's son Anarion did fall in battle and for a while there was a bit of turmoil, the gondorian king wanted a new full out attack but the other leaders did convince him to wait. It was the grief speaking and he ought to think before he did something silly which could possibly cost them everything.
The silvan elves who had suffered such horrendous losses could have returned to their own realm by now but they chose to stay and fight on and CeKay did admire their determination and courage. It was very clear that they had been underestimated. The armies did manage to hold the siege for a year, and it was a costly one for the transport lines were long and the amount of food and drink and equipment needed staggering. The orcs would often try to attack the transport lines and thus they had to be protected and CeKay did often join the soldiers protecting them. The days between the fighting left her with time to think, and wonder about her role in it all. She did make a difference, maybe not a great one but she could have chosen to step back and do naught and she was a bit proud that she didn't spare herself but worked every day.
The camps had become rather large and it wasn't just soldiers there, these days others too joined the armies and there were both women and children there now. And servants, and dogs, and even more lice than before. The women were there to help wash the clothes and clean the tents and so on but CeKay knew very well that this was just a façade. Most of them did offer other types of services and the healers had a hard job with the many cases of less than pleasant side effects of bedding these camp girls. There were all sorts of diseases rampant and the healers faced everything from crabs to some very serious diseases which in some cases were fatal. The elves didn't have that problem, they didn't have casual sex so they were safe there and the dwarves wouldn't touch a human woman with a ten foot pole since there weren't enough hair to turn them on but the human males were sometimes in deep trouble. CeKay had seen that before, her memory bank did contain lots of information gathered by others and she knew that it was a very human way of reacting to death and despair, in the nearness of death one seeks to feel alive and it was worst the days before the battles. The camp girls went from tent to tent, not even bothering to wash between the customers and CeKay did cringe. For once she was glad she wasn't a biological entity and able to master her own body.
Fear can in some cases be an aphrodisiac and that was very apparent these days, there would be born an lot of kids with no father and she could understand the desperation these people felt and yet it was alien to her. It did yet again make her wonder about her own nature in contrast to that of the humans and elves. She was unable to reproduce, surely she could make a copy of herself but it would be a clone and an exact replica. She couldn't truly create something new, for that you would need the combination of two different strands of DNA and she had no such thing. Knowing this did some times feel a bit sad, she walked among them and presented herself as one of them but she could never have what they had, for all her power and all her knowledge.
She could see their weakness and their struggles and yet they kept going on. She saw soldiers willingly sacrifice themselves to save their comrades and she saw others run and hide at first sign of danger. She saw the grandeur and the frailty of mankind all packed into one glorious and ghastly image and she was yet again shocked by the differences between the races. Compared with the elves the humans there were like shooting stars, they would burn brightly for such a short while and still they could leave such an impact and change so much. If you compared them with the dwarves they were frail and impatient and also egocentric but she saw the impact one single individual could have.
The battles were often drawn out over several days and only the sheer stubborn will of the last alliance did prevent the line from breaking. The fortress of Sauron was still under siege. But in the end that didn't last, the orcs and their officers did break out and a final battle was inevitable. Everybody threw all they had into it, the armies did meet at the plain in front of Orodruin and CeKay just knew it, this was where they either won or lost completely. They were making headway and she was fighting alongside the elves, there were so many assembled there that nobody did react seeing an unfamiliar face, and she knew that the kings had learned how the orcs were fighting now and they were able to predict their next move.
But then it felt as if a cold wind had swept over the field and CeKay recognized the feeling, it was Sauron. He was there, in the flesh and she saw him from a distance, a towering figure clad in a terrible dark armour which did resemble his fortress in design. The giant did attack, and swung a huge maze with devastating force, people fell before him like wheat for a farmers scythe and CeKay felt chilled. Sauron was still very powerful, and he was fuelled by his anger and hatred, he wouldn't allow himself to be stopped.
She felt a different presence there too, something magical and strong and she saw a glowing ring on his finger and she immediately knew that this was the source of his power now. He had stored parts of himself in it, like you can store parts of the information on a harddrive on a flashdrive. She tried to get closer to the action to see if she could do something but it was too late, the high king of the noldor and Elendil did charge at the monster. She saw that Sauron easily avoided Gil-Galad's spear and grasped the elf by the neck and quite literally burned him to death. Then he sent Elendil flying and snapped his sword like it was a twig by stepping on the weapon. But that was when Isildur grasped the hilt of the broken sword and as Sauron bent over to finish him too off the brave man did cut the finger which held the ring off the dark maia. The reaction was not what CeKay had expected at all, there was a boom, as if a bomb had gone off. A blastwave did flatten large areas and threw people over and the dark maia was gone. The orcs did panic and tried to flee but they were chased and slaughtered and she saw that Isildur did grasp the ring.
Elrond did seem to talk to him and CeKay did not want to interfere, the half elf was pointing at Orodruin and she guessed that he asked Isildur to destroy it, which was the only option really. As long as that blasted thing did exist there was a chance of Sauron regaining his power again. CeKay did approach Barad-Dur, the fortress was solid and mighty and yet it had some weaknesses so she did release some nanites and they went to work on the foundations. People weren't that shocked when they did see that the fortress did collapse after a while, they just reckoned that it was to expect since Sauron was gone. Some did cheer and thought that he was gone for good, that he was dead, but she knew that it wasn't so. She could still sense his energy, he was just not capable of taking a physical shape. The next days went fast, the orcs were obliterated, the area searched through to avoid that anybody were hiding there and the dead buried. Many were wounded and the camps were even more chaotic now since many wanted to leave for their homes as soon as possible and were hard to control.
But CeKay did get one nasty shock as she returned to the main camp after having helped flush out the last orcs of Mordor. Isildur hadn't destroyed the ring even if Elrond had begged him to do it and she was actually angry for a while, genuinely pissed off. The man wanted the ring to remain in his family as an heirloom and CeKay wished that somebody could have convinced him of the folly of this. The thing was very dangerous, it was made to seduce and entrance and it would utterly ruin a weaker being. CeKay listened in on the talk of the elven and dwarven leaders and knew that they didn't trust that Isildur would be able to resist its allure. They said that it already had caught his soul and that he would be become more possessive of it than he already was. The noldorin elves were mourning their lost high king and there was some rather hefty discussions going on for some felt that they did need a king and others said that their time was over anyhow so why bother? Many did leave for the west for they were now allowed to return to Valinor and those who chose to stay were seen as bit stubborn or even perhaps cowardly.
The fact that Elrond was a relative of the high kings of old and also technically of the new king of Gondor made many beg him to take the crown and become the new high king but as many said, that title was suicidal. There hadn't been one single high king of the noldor who had escaped that job alive. Gil-Galad had been holding on for longer than the rest but even he had perished in the end and Elrond didn't want that sort of power at all. He stayed in Imladris and turned it into a sort of sanctuary and CeKay knew that he was very wise to turn down the chance of gaining power. He simply wasn't the kind of person who sought that sort of thing, he had seen first hand what it could do to others and he was a fierce warrior but also a very caring and empathic person so he would probably make sure that his tiny realm was a peaceful and prosperous one.
They said that this was the end of an age and that this new third age would be one of growth and bliss but CeKay had her doubts. She could almost taste it, problems would rise also after the fall of Sauron and she didn't have to wait for a very long time to be proved right. The gondorians tried to restore their kingdom and their power, a seedling from the white tree of Minas Ithil was planted at Minas Tirith and it became the new capital of the realm. Now it became the gathering symbol of the realm and as if the war had never happened the court which gathered there was boiling with its own processes and ideas and CeKay did visit, just out of curiosity. She was a bit shocked by how fast humans seems to forget the sacrifices made and the horrors many did live through. The farms were once again the home of hard working people and the streets did fill up with salesmen and their shops but the ghost of the war was still visible. There were fewer men present than before and many had become severely wounded and as time went by they went from being supported as heroes to being ignored or even shunned. CeKay came to the conclusion that it wasn't war but the peace which follows which did show the true colours of a civilization and she wasn't so sure that she did like what she did see. The Numenoreans had been strong and they had accomplished grand feats but that pride had been also their downfall and she did yet again see it in the people there.
The court was a snakes nest and she knew of countless noble families who now saw it as their obligation and also their privilege to be able to get their daughters married into the royal family. Isildur became like a wounded deer with hunters at his heels and he was probably extremely tired of it. There were ladies, both fair and not, almost throwing themselves at him all day long and he was trying to escape them by joining his troops. There was still orcs around and other dark being too and he did fight them every day. Isildur had never been a courtier at heart, he was a warrior and his brother Anarion had been the one who truly could have fitted the role as king. Isildur was a man of action, not pleasant conversation and hidden scheming so he did resent the games the court played. It was in his eyes false and artificial and just disgusting and the life among the soldiers so much more honest.
CeKay was visiting the dwarven realms to see how they did fare when she heard the news of Isildurs demise. He and his troops were attacked by the Gladden river and it was a vicious ambush which did leave the troops heavily decimated. But Isildur himself was lost due to his faith in the ring, he had put it on to escape the orcs and as he waded the river the ring did slip from his finger and he became visible and got shot. CeKay just knew it, the ring was Sauron's very essence and as evil and deceitful as its master. It had become lost within the river and she did race towards the site as fast as she could to see if she could find it but it was no point. The river was deep and the current strong and the ring was simply gone. It could be anywhere and she couldn't spend time sifting through the entire river system. She knew it would surface again, sooner or later. All evil does re-emerge when you least of all expect it to so she decided to stick around to keep an eye on the area.
CeKay did chose to stay in Lothlorien for a while, she needed some peace and quiet and that realm was protected by Galadriel. It was a good chance at observing the elven culture and she did live there as a humble weaver for some decades. That was when she heard the rumours, that Elrond was wooing Galadriel's daughter Celebrian and CeKay felt that this was very sweet and she was happy on their behalf. The half elf was courteous and also very respected and the courtship did last for some years before they did decide to get married. CeKay knew that it was rather natural for a race which after all is immortal to take their sweet time. Humans couldn't spend decades wooing each other. But the wedding was a grand one and CeKay did remember her own mate and did miss him, she hadn't really thought about it before but now, when there was some peace and quiet she did realize that she was feeling a bit lonely. She couldn't truly allow anybody to get really close to her and she had to leave yet again, this time she did go off to explore the realms to the south and east of Gondor and she found a culture which was very different from the ones she was used to. She shape shifted again, being female was dangerous and so she became a very short and rather ugly looking male who was an expert on fine gems. She did travel safely thus, and she saw many wonders and yet she also encountered much misery and death. The areas were under kings no less fond of power and dominance than Ar-Pharazon had been and she knew that Sauron easily could influence these minds if he managed to regain some power.
CeKay felt it in the very air, things would change and the realm of Gondor was like a sitting duck, yet it was strong and a formidable foe but that could change fast. So she returned west and took residence in Gondor yet again, as a merchant. Sooner or later she would be needed again and as one of the common folk she could keep an eye on things from street level. CeKay was patient, she knew that things yet again would turn around, that was the nature of the world after all.
