Power from the Silmaril flowed into Arien the moment the cold stone touched her hand. It felt familiar- warm, even. She took a deep breath and light gathered around her, a bright contrast to the darkness creeping toward Thuringwethil on the bank of the river.
"Give up." Arien's voice permeated the air with command. Her hair and clothes began to twist around her as a cold wind circled the glen. She took a step forward, pulling the Silmaril close to her chest and waved her free hand. The wind started to howl, pushing through the upper branches of the trees surrounding them.
"Or you will do what, young Valar?" Thuringwethil spit Valar with vehemence as she smirked at Arien. "The walls of Rivendell are not here to protect you from me any longer."
"I am weary of you underestimating us." Arien narrowed her eyes and stretched her free hand toward Thuringwethil in one sharp movement. Silver sparks crackled at Arien's fingertips and before Thuringwethil could move a bolt of lightning erupted from her palm, brighter than any she'd made before. It hit the demon square in the chest where Hanna's dagger had sunk minutes before, and she fell to the ground screaming.
"Tell me where Melkor is," Arien shouted over the roar of the wind, closing her hand and extinguishing the lightning bolt. "Tell me, and I might spare your life."
"I would rather die," Thuringwethil hissed, raising herself up onto her hands and knees with great effort.
Arien could see the effects of her lightning bolt on the demon's face through Thuringwethil's disheveled hair. Her white skin was charred on her jaw and cheeks, looking almost the same as the injuries dealt to the dead Elven soldiers they'd found in the clearing. Arien tasted bile in her mouth.
"Let me kill her." Hanna's steely tone made Arien flinch.
Arien shook her head and turned to face her. "No. We need her to tell us where Melkor is."
Hanna glared. "She is not going to talk. She wants nothing but death and destruction. We have to stop her now or -"
"All we have to do is negotiate, surely we can reason-"
Arien could not finish her sentence before utter and complete darkness surrounded her. The air was suddenly silent, and the light from the Silmaril could not be seen, though she gripped it tightly in her hand. She tried to create a floating light orb, like she had so often done, but nothing happened- no spark of light, no visibility into the chilling black in front of her.
"Hanna?" She cried, tripping over the ground as she moved toward where she thought Hanna stood. The air pushed against her and she felt like she was walking through water. "Rian! Taelen!"
"Where is your light now?" Thuringwethil's voice sounded in her ear, too close for comfort.
Arien pulled her sword out, still keeping the Silmaril close to her chest, praying to Varda all the while that light would manifest itself. Several times she tried to leap into the air, for maybe the end of the darkness was right overhead, but could not for the weight it bore down on her. Why could she not dispel the darkness?
Behind her, Arien heard a shout and a scuffle. She turned and screamed as a searing pain spread across the surface of her chest. Thuringwethil screeched in triumph as Arien dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she pictured her torn skin greying after the demons attack. The Silmaril slipped out of her fingers as the pain mounted, disappearing into the black void. She reached around on the ground and could not feel the Silmaril, but she could feel the wounds on her chest bleed heavily as wet warmth seeped through her shirt.
"No!" Rian's voice was near, but Arien still could not see her. She heard the swing of a sword through the thick air, and then the darkness was gone. In front of Arien was a pale, white hand, with scorched fingertips and no arm attached at the wrist. Rian stood over it, her sword covered in dark blood. Arien started to speak, but her breath caught, and she looked down at her chest.
Five deep gashes ran from one shoulder and down through her breasts. But as Arien cried out in pain, white light started to pour out of the wounds. The light threaded each gash, and the wounds began to close, leaving no scab, no scar. Arien's knees gave out and she fell to the ground, pulling her hands away from her chest.
"Taelen?" She gasped, trying to remain calm. "Is this you?"
She looked around, but Taelen was holding Hanna on the other side of the glen, staring at Arien in awe.
"Rian, what did you do?" Arien turned back to Rian, who still stood with her sword in front of her.
"Nothing- I, I just cut off her hand after she took the Silmaril." Rian knelt to clean her sword, and Arien could see her hands shake. "I think she turned into a bat and flew away with it."
"You could see through the darkness?" Arien asked, not taking her eyes away from her nearly healed chest despite her surprise at what Rian said. The fabric of her tunic was still torn, its edges charred as she would have expected her skin to be.
Rian stopped fiddling with her sword and looked at Arien. "I assumed you could too, until Thuringwethil came at you and you did not react till it was too late."
"I do not understand," Arien winced, touching the tears on her dress. "How could you see through it, and I could not?"
"You could see through the darkness, Rian?" Taelen asked softly, coming up behind Arien.
Rian nodded her head, closing her eyes. "I let her get the Silmaril. I was not fast enough."
Arien reached a hand toward her. "It is not-"
"None of you could see!" Rian snapped, sheathing her sword as she stood. "If I had not fumbled with these idiotic matches, I would not have been too late." She grabbed a small pouch hanging off her belt and threw it on the ground in front of Arien.
"Why were you carrying..." Arien grabbed the pouch and looked inside to see several broken matches and a small piece of stone.
"Can we leave?" Hanna interrupted. Tear tracks shone in the setting sun on her cheeks.
"Yes, alright." Arien nodded and stood with some hesitation. "I hoped we could stay for a moment longer and find out what that darkness was, and possibly see if we could tell where Th-"
"That darkness should not have happened."
"It feels like an impossibility," Arien shrugged. She'd never read of anything like the thick black that surrounded her so instantaneously.
"No," Hanna scoffed, "It would not have happened if you just let me kill her."
Hanna's anger surprised Arien. She hadn't thought it was her fault, but now she wasn't so sure.
Arien took a deep breath. "Well, if you did not want to do what I thought best, then why did you ask me before killing her?"
"I think we should leave now," Taelen said, stepping between Hanna and Arien. Arien felt a warm wave wash over her, loosening the tense muscles in her back and neck, and helping her let go of the tension building up inside her. She knew it was Taelen, and the problem wasn't resolved, but she was grateful for the relief from the shock and argument.
"Can I have my dagger, Rian?" Hanna asked, shaking her head before glaring at Taelen, who smiled sheepishly.
The question stopped Arien's heart- Thuringwethil had thrown the dagger at Rian!
"Rian, are you injured?" Taelen walked quickly toward her.
Rian frowned and took a step backward, away from Taelen. "What are you talking about?"
"Thuringwethil threw the dagger at your back. I thought I saw it hit you."
"I am fine." Rian turned to mount her horse, and they could all see that her back was dagger-free. There wasn't even a tear where they thought the dagger had hit her.
A sob escaped Arien's throat and she hurriedly mounted her horse to hide her tears from the others. The darkness, losing the Silmaril, a dagger that hit Rian but didn't. Fighting an evil entity was nothing like she imagined it during all of her training sessions.
She continued to cry off and on through their ride back to Caras Galadhon, wiping her tears on her sleeve when she thought no one was watching. She could feel Hanna's glare on her back as they rode and occasionally picked up on a few words Taelen was saying in an attempt to calm Hanna down.
"Let her be angry," Rian said after they'd been riding for an hour or so.
"Why?" Arien sniffed, willing her nose not to run while Rian was talking to her.
"She has wanted to kill Thuringwethil since she saw her parents dead bodies at the demon's feet."
"I did not know Thuringwethil killed her parents." Arien sniffed again, feeling the tears well up. "But we could have used Thuringwethil for more information."
"You have never lost someone, have you?"
"I- what?"
"You have never lost someone, been alone, been hungry." Rian was watching the path they followed, which Arien was grateful for as her face turned red.
"No, I suppose I do not understand those feelings. But that does not mean I do not care about them. If Hanna had just told me before-"
"Or if you had asked her."
"I, yes, or if I had asked her. But how was I supposed to know Thuringwethil could create darkness that would stop me from using my powers?"
"The whole fight was disjointed." Rian shrugged and glanced back at Taelen and Hanna. "I have fought side-by-side with the Dunedain for years. I know what a well-planned and well-executed fight looks like, and that was not one."
Arien was grateful they rode past the entrance to Caras Galadhon before she'd had time to respond to Rian. Galadriel was waiting for them with Celeborn and several others who took their horses to the stables.
"You need rest," Galadriel said as they stood awkwardly in front of her like criminals awaiting their sentence. "And I need only to speak with Arien."
Arien's gratitude lessened a little, but she was still glad to be out of Hanna's sight.
She followed Galadriel to a set of stairs that wound down into a sitting area lit with small white lanterns. Galadriel motioned for her to sit, and Arien practically fell into the chair as her knees gave out. She wished Taelen was there to send another wave of relief from her internal swarm of thoughts and emotions.
"It is not easily that a Vampire demon defeats the children of the Valar," Galadriel said. Arien couldn't tell if she was scolding her or not.
"We had the Silmaril, but she created darkness only Rian could see through-" Arien started, but Galadriel shook her head.
"I am not concerned with what Thuringwethil did, but rather what you did. Tell me what happened."
Arien nodded her head and recounted the fight, trying not to omit any detail, though she desperately wanted to gloss over the moment she and Hanna were arguing before Thuringwethil got away.
"And what questions do you have after all of this?" Galadriel asked at the end. She had not changed her expression through the whole explanation.
Arien looked away, willing herself not to cry again. Should she ask about the darkness? Hanna's dagger? Or the light which healed her chest?
"Why were we not all raised together?" The question spilled out the moment she thought it, and her cheeks burned from embarrassment
Galadriel's expression did not change. "Why were all four of you not raised together?"
"Yes," Arien nodded, "Why were we not all given the same training, the same upbringing. We all act as individuals - we need to act as one."
"I am sure Lord Elrond has told you-"
"He told me it was to protect us from Melkor, yes, and I did not question because I did not know I should." She stood, taking a deep breath. "None of us trust the others as we should. Rian does not know how to use her powers, and I am supposed to lead this group but do not know what to do."
"And you would question the wisdom of your guardian?"
Arien turned away from Galadriel. Tears were streaming down her face again. She didn't understand why she could not calm her mind.
"It is not bad to question," Galadriel said, her tone gentle. She moved to stand next to Arien and placed a hand on her shoulder. "These worries may have lain dormant for some time amongst the four of you; it is good to express them. The battle with Thuringwethil did not go as you hoped, but there will be another. All is not lost."
"But she took the Silmaril -"
"There is more than one Silmaril." Galadriel looked at Arien pointedly. "She will return."
Arien felt a strange push in her chest and looked down, expecting to see the same light which healed her near the Nimrodel. She knew there was more than one Silmaril. She had always known that. Why did it now feel like her chest was burning when she thought of it?
"When she does, trust in the others," Galadriel continued, "and they will trust in you in time. You must not let the desire to lead blind your decisions."
"Do you mean I should have let Hanna kill her?"
Galadriel shook her head. "You cannot change what has happened, Elentari. You must learn and move forward."
Arien felt like a child again, listening to Elrond scold her after using her abilities thoughtlessly in Rivendell. It didn't feel good then, and it didn't feel any better now. By why, after all these years of training and careful research, did Arien feel hopelessness?
The feeling stayed with her as she left Galadriel to rest in her Talan. But rest did not come, and she found herself walking on one of the many unfamiliar paths of Caras Galadhon that wrapped around the bases of its mighty Malorn trees. She did not care where she was going, just that she stayed away from the questioning gazes of Lothlorien Elves. Faint lights floated around her, and she conjured a few more every so often just to remind herself she could.
"Lady Arien?"
Arien turned around in surprise, the orbs of light rotating around her.
"Legolas!" She smiled and clasped her hands together. "I would not have thought to look for you here!"
"Indeed, I had little hope our paths would cross at this time." He returned her smile and bowed his head. "This happy circumstance is a breath of relief after the journey we have had to get here."
"We?"
"I am one of the nine companions of the Ring, though you left Rivendell before that was decided. Lord Elrond was not particularly happy with that."
Arien blushed and let out an uncomfortable laugh. "Yes, ah, I assumed he would not be." She took a deep breath - she wasn't sure why his comment made her feel flustered; she had known her departure would be cause for concern and worry from Elrond. "Please, I would love to hear about Rivendell and your journey. Will you walk with me?"
"I should return to my companions," Legolas frowned, "but I shall find you tomorrow, and we can exchange our hardships then."
"It will be nice to commiserate." Arien laughed again. It had been too long since she had laughed, and the weight in her chest eased for the first time since the day began.
"I see you have not lost your affinity for your floating lights," Legolas said as he walked past her, reaching out to touch one of the glowing orbs. "I am always impressed by them."
Arien smiled softly, beckoning the largest one to her hand and letting it sit before she extinguished it.
"They are not meant to impress."
"I know," said Legolas, gazing at the lights as she put them out one by one. "I'm not sure why, but they comfort me. To know there is light in these dark times gives me hope." He looked at Arien thoughtfully, and she wished she could read the sorrow in his eyes "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Elentari."