Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC's and the plot, everything else belongs to Tolkien and those who currently own the rights to his work.
Chapter 42 – Destiny (Part 1)
Third Age 3018 (38 years later)
Eruanna ran through the halls of Imladris, her footfalls echoing loudly upon the bare stone walls. The tapestries were long gone, the paintings sent across the sea. The time had come to leave Middle Earth.
Arwen departed last night. It had not been a dream. Eruanna remembered kissing her sister's cheek and looking out across the dell until the last marching figure passed out of sight. But not ten minutes ago, in the stables, she spied Arwen's horse munching happily on a bale of hay. It took a moment for the noble animal's presence to register in her mind.
Arwen's returned.
She took off at a pace toward the House, so swiftly Glorfindel would have laughed that she ran from a band of yrch. He would have been mistaken. The stab of pain she felt now hurt a thousand times more than any orc blade.
She reached the door to Arwen's rooms but stopped upon the threshold. She had no words… but it didn't matter now. Steeling herself, she threw the door open and stepped inside without awaiting an invitation.
There she was. Seated on a low divan, head bowed, staring into the pages of a small book, the weight of her long years and the finality of her choice etched in every line of her porcelain face. The silence between them extended for what seemed like an eternity.
Arwen did not raise her eyes to meet the intruder. She only breathed a tired sigh at the younger elleth's long awaited arrival.
"I could not leave him."
There was more passion and pain in those five simple words than the whole of the Lay of Leithian contained. This was Arwen's choice and Eruanna knew it would haunt the Lady's loved ones forever.
"Does he know?" There was no need for Eruanna to clarify the ellon in question.
Arwen lifted her eyes from the page, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"He was very upset when I left him," she lifted a handkerchief to wipe the tears from her eyes, "but he knows this choice cannot be unmade…not by his will."
"Where is he?" Eruanna asked, her concern turning now from the Lady to her father.
Arwen smiled sadly, "I left him in his study."
Eruanna nodded and turned toward the door. In the last forty years, through all the days that passed, Eruanna found it impossible to offer Arwen words of support. At first she'd made gentle, pleading attempts to turn Arwen's heart away from Estel, and when that failed, she fell silent. But today, today she had to say something...
"I have no gift of foresight," Eruanna whispered. She did not look back at the Lady when she spoke, but kept her gaze firmly fixed on the ornately carved doorframe. Her thoughts, however, were not on the crafted wood but on a young mortal child she once held in her arms.
The words she'd long struggled to find now formed easily in her mind and they flowed like water down the mountainside. "I do not know for certain what tomorrow will bring…but I believe in Estel. I believe he will be victorious and you will be a Queen of Men. It is not the fate many of your loved ones would have chosen for you, but I think, perhaps, it was written long ago when the world was young and the Music, unmarred, still echoed in the wind. And so, if Ilúvatar wishes you to be counted among Men, who am I to argue?"
Eruanna slipped silently out the door but before it closed behind her she heard a quiet sob from inside the room accompanied by a softly spoken, thank you.
Author's Note: This is the first part of a longer chapter but since I haven't posted in ages I'm splitting it up so you get something to read.