Chapter 5 - Ages Of Wisdom And Weariness

Hardly a year after the strange dream, she woke, and no longer did her heart pain her. It was strange to not be burdened, for so used to it she had grown, but once more she felt at peace.

Another few years passed without much event, with no dreams haunting her sleep and no terrible feelings ailing her heart.

But one day, the air felt different. The birds seemed happier and the sun seemed brighter.

Thuriniel sat in her usual spot as she looked out over the harbor once more, and now did she see a strange sight. Three small beings stood near the dock, where a large ship stood, ready for sail. A tall, fair elleth strode forward, and she was full of light. Such a sight, that Thuriniel remembered the maiden from her dream. But this was not the same elleth, for the one in her dreams had hair as dark as night, and this elleth had hair as golden as the sun. Another followed behind, a tall man of white, but he was no elf nor was he mortal. She did not know who he was, but he seemed powerful, and in his white garments, he seemed to glow just as bright as the elf maiden. Both had spoken with each of the small beings before boarding the ship. Two more small ones stepped forward, one much older than the other. The younger one aided the older onto the ship, before returning to speak with and hug each of the three that remained.

But just when she thought the ship would set sail, another stepped forward. An ellon of grace and wisdom, and as he turned to speak with the small beings, Thuriniel gasped. Elrond! Could it really be him?

And as if he heard her question, he glanced up at her with a nod and that same look he always used to give her before he turned to board the ship with one of the little ones following him. Thuriniel stared stunned at the ship, even after it long sailed to the West.

Why was Elrond sailing to the West? Where had Elrond been? With these questions, Thuriniel realized she knew nothing about Elrond, only that he was a lieutenant under Erenion, and an obnoxious one, in her opinion. But with that look, even though it was the same he used to give her, his eyes held ages of wisdom and weariness.

Once she snapped out of her daze that rested on the setting western sun, she nearly jumped up and ran to the library. What words did the scrolls of the Grey Havens hold about Elrond?

Her long, slender fingers did not bother to touch each and every scroll delicately, as she had done many times in the past, but her bright eyes furiously scanned over the writing that littered the outside of the old parchments. At last, she found one that held Elrond's name: 'Elrond's Imaldris.'

Gliding swiftly to the nearest table, she slid into the chair and rolled open the scroll before her eyes began to read through the neatly scribbled words on the ageless parchment. She didn't get far through Elrond's history before her bright eyes stopped on a name that caught her breath: Luthien. That was the same name of the maiden from her dreams. How could she have forgotten it when it had been said quite clearly by Celegorm?

Immeadiently, Thuriniel abandoned Elrond's scroll before rushing back over to the shelves to search for a new name.

"Excuse me, my lady," a low and soft voice interrupted her search with slight hesitation. "We have to lock this room."

Thuriniel had no intent in stopping her search until the ellon who stood across the room from her spoke his last words. "Lock this room?" she repeated in near shock as she turned to face the taller ellon who stood across the room. "What do you mean? This room is never locked?"

"Yes, it is usually as such, but I received special orders that this room is to remained locked until further notice, my lady. I am terribly sorry."

Her bright eyes narrowed slightly as her rare anger began to gather. So close was she to finding answers, and yet she was not even allowed to stay only a moment longer to reach them.

A hand dropped on the younger ellon's shoulder as a familiar face stepped into the fading light of the room to take a glance at the elleth who now stood glowing slightly stronger than normal. But instead of surprise reaching Gildor's face, as smile reached across his features.

It was not the same for Thuriniel.

"Gildor?" she nearly cried in her sudden emotional state as she could not hide the surprise in her voice nor her eyes. She had thought she would never see her old friend again. He had looked after her so well in Lindon, it was only assumed as fate that Erenion had assigned Gildor the task of watching over Thuriniel. And Gildor accepted willingly before he managed a chance to speak to the lost elleth while she slept in her year-long slumber. She did not wait for a response from him, but instead rushed to his side to throw a hug around his large frame. Erenion's old guard gave a nod to the apathetic young caretaker before turning to exit the library with Thuriniel still in his arms. If she noticed his sly move of making her leave, she did not object for so glad was she to see him.

He only stopped once they reached Thuriniel's room, and it was then that she released her hold on him to offer him a teary smile. His deep green eyes only lit up as he chuckled and he sat her gently down on her bed before wiping the tears from underneath her bright eyes. "My dear Thuriniel, please do not cry on my account."

"But Gildor," she protested weakly, any sign of her earlier rage long gone from her mind. "I left, I made you break your promise to Ereinion, I—How did you know this was my room?"

Once more did his deep chuckle sound through the quiet, twilight-lit room as he pulled a chair close to sit across from her. "One thing at a time, my friend. I have been here for three days, and it only took me a few hours to find you. And you should not know of that promise."

"But I do, Gildor. And I made you break it—"

"Thuriniel, you did not make me break any promises."

"But--!"

"Let me explain. Please?" Gildor asked quietly as his green eyes turned innocently on her.

Thuriniel quietly nodded, holding back her frustrated sigh, as she folded her hands in her lap and watched her old friend with her usual bright and curious eyes.

Gildor took in a breath before beginning, "Let me start from the beginning. I knew the moment you left the palace. It is hard not to recognize your presence, or even to miss it when it is no longer there. I was not the one standing guard that night, as fate would have it, and you managed to get a few hours ahead of me. But over the many years I have watched over you, I knew well your reasons for leaving, so I followed you on foot and did not mean to catch you unless you needed to be caught, until you reached here a few hours before me. Once I found you myself, from a distance of course, I realized that you would stay here."

"What made you realize that?" Thuriniel dared to interrupt, her eyes still very curious and very worried about what she might have done.

"You were watching the sea. I watched you for nearly an hour and you did not move an inch. You had finally found some place to rest for a while. So, I was satisfied with the Grey Havens for being safe enough and I returned to Lindon."

"How did you know I would stay here and not travel further or even sail west?" she questioned again without being concerned about him growing irritated with her interrupting him.

"Well, if you sailed west, you would be far safer than anyone here could keep you, so I was not concerned if you did choose that as your path. As for you travelling to a different city, you were content and more at peace here with the sea than you were in Lindon in the later part of your stay there, and I doubted you would want to leave a place where you felt at peace again. It turns out I was right," he added with a smile. Her response was her folding her arms with a very light and almost indistinguishable grunt; it sounded more like a hum to Gildor than anything, but it made him smile all the more.

"I did manage to keep tabs on you through traders when they came through Lindon, though," he continued as he relaxed a little more in his chair, "And spoke of heading in this direction. I always gave them something extra as incentive to find you and eventually come back to Lindon and report that you were alright. And believe me, they all had good things to say."

At this, the elleth's cheeks flushed lightly and her eyes darted down to her arms for a moment to recover as Gildor continued, his previously broad smile diminishing suddenly.

"But one day, a few decades after you left, Elrond decided to leave Lindon and take a group with him to what is now called Imladris. I was among those he took with him as my allegiance was more with him than with Ciridan. Imladris was a peaceful city, but much more travelled through than Lindon. I met many strange folk and I was able to keep better tabs on you as more travelers were headed in this direction. Elrond eventually married to the Lady Galadriel of Lorien's daughter—"

"Was she the one who was here today? The woman in white?" she interrupted again, but Gildor hardly minded.

"Oh, yes, that was Lady Galadriel, and her husband. I didn't realize you were watching the harbor ithat/i often—"

"Lady Galadriel? What about Elrond's wife, why was she not there?"

"She underwent a terrible trial and once she recovered she sailed west, which is why Elrond decided to leave now that the war is over—"

"War?"

"Now you are getting ahead of me, Thuriniel," Gildor replied with a chuckle before continuing. "Elrond had three children, two boys and a girl. The girl, who's name was Arwen, reminded me so much of you that I found myself watching over her more than I should have. Elrond never objected, but I suspect that he knew why I acted as such. Why, when she was young, she even tried to give me some ridiculous nick name, but Elrond quickly talked her out of it.

"Several hundred years later, Elrond gathered myself, his sons, and two of his most trusted friends, Glorfindel and Erestor, to find a young mortal of very great importance. His father was killed and his mother desperately wanted her son safe from harm, and I soon found out why. This young mortal was in fact a king of Gondor in the waiting. His name was Aragorn, but we renamed him to protect his identity to Estel.

"To make a long story short, once Estel came of age, Elrond told him of his destiny and the young mortal was sent to become a ranger in the north, but not before he had come to love Elrond's daughter, Arwen."

"I'm sure Elrond was pleased…" Thuriniel muttered under her breath, but the only sign that Gildor heard her was a broader smile as he continued.

"Anyway, after many years, and many small visits, Estel returned to Imaldris with a strange company and a great council was held not long after. It was then that the quest of the ring began."

"The ring?" Thuriniel finally interrupted again. She had so many questions, and most could wait, but some she just did not quite understand. This was one of them.

"Ah, well, perhaps I should skip over all of that business. Besides, I can see you are still as curious as ever, no doubt you will find out soon enough once the scribes are finished writing the stories.

"Anyway," Gildor continued as he still kept Thuriniel's constant gaze. "There was a great war, yes the same war I mentioned earlier, as the result of this ring, which was a great object of power for Sauron."

Thuriniel visably shuddered at the name, but Gildor still continued.

"The ring itself has been around since your time in Lindon and it was Elrond himself who sought desperately for its destruction at first."

"At first?"

"Yes, once Sauron was defeated during the Last Alliance, the king of Gondor gained control of the ring of power. Elrond told him to destroy it while he still could, but men are easily corrupted. After that, Elrond let the thoughts of the ring of power settle in the back of his mind until recently.

" The war ended only a couple of years ago—"

"A couple of years ago?" Thuriniel asked in a higher and more surprised tone than before.

"If you keep interrupting me, I don't think I will ever fini—"

"A couple of years ago I had this dreadful feeling, the same when Erenion left."

"Then it is as he guessed," Gildor continued without even a hint of surprise at her words. "You know when darkness becomes a threat, you can feel it. You must have known of the war and all of the trouble going on east of here with the Fellowship and the hobbits subconsciously. Tell me, Thuriniel, have you had any dreams since you have been here?"

She looked utterly confused by his added comments of this Fellowship and hobbits business, but she quickly recovered and answered, "Yes, one. And I was about to find out more about it when—"

"I'm sorry, perhaps I should have waited to ask you. I have not yet finished my story, sweet Thuriniel."

The elleth let out a frustrated sigh as she refolded her arms, which had come unfolded at some point in Gildor's explination, and slumped her shoulders as much as she could, though it wasn't much.

"After the war and after everything returned to the way it should be, Estel took his rightful place as the king of Gondor with Arwen as his wife and queen, Elrond made his decision to finally sail west and join his wife. So he came with a small party which included the heroes of the war, Lady Galadriel and her husband, the great white wizard Gandalf—"

"Gandalf?"

"Now that one will have to wait. He is a wizard that I am afraid I cannot explain in one night. And Elrond's party also included myself, much to my surprise and my worry. The entire journey here, I was concerned that Elrond wanted me to sail with him, as well me being concerned if I would be able to find you again."

"Why wouldn't you want to sail west? I have heard that it is supposed to be the most peaceful and beautiful place imaginable, much better than Middle Earth—"

"I just wasn't ready to sail west yet. I've got more important things to attend to, such as that promise you kept mentioning earlier.

Her cheeks flushed again in reaction to both the reminder of his burden-filled promise he made long ago as well as the memory of her persistency earlier, but her bright and slightly embarrassed eyes didn't dart away from his green ones.

"To continue, when we did get here three days ago, the first thing I did was look for you; and it didn't take me long to find you perched on a balcony overlooking the harbor. But for the past three days, I wasn't sure if I should speak with you or not, since I still feared that Elrond would request me to come with him. I didn't know how you would react to seeing me only to have me leave again for good. Instead, the opposite happened. This afternoon, Lord Elrond told me that I was relieved of all of my duties save for one, the one he could not relieve me from. So, now here I sit before you, with nothing ahead of me but to trail you."

"Trail me?"

"Now that I know that you know I am here again, I am not going to let you slip off so easily this time. How bored do you think I would be if I was relieved of all of my duties?"

"There's always knitting?"

At this they both chuckled, a deep and light chuckle that somehow matched better than expected. It was a sound Thuriniel suddenly realized she missed very much.