Giminzil listens in on the argument between her father and her brother.
GIMINZIL breathed in the salty air of Romenna. The largest port city in Anadûnê glowed golden under the afternoon sun. Even without the salt in the air, the squawking of the seagulls and the shrill cries of the seabirds made it difficult not to know that this was a seaside city.
"Close the window, dear. The air is chilly." Zoreth yawned, then went back to dozing under the afternoon sunlight.
Giminzil closed the window, shutting out the noisy sound of the seabirds. Her brother once told her that he could tell they were near Anadûnê even before they had the sight of the land because thousands of seabirds would fly over their ship and the noise of them could be heard miles off the shore.
"Do you think Abrazan will return today?" Giminzil knew Zoreth probably didn't hear her, but she asked anyway.
Her father had been displeased, to put it mildly, to find that Abrazan was not at the manor house when they arrived quite late in the night.
They thought Abrazan had only recently arrived from the Middle-earth, but it seemed her brother had been at Romenna much longer. Her father raged when Abrazan did not show the next day morning.
Giminzil waited for her brother just as his father did, and she had a lot of questions. How was Isildur? She knew his name only after her brother mentioned it.
Why had she not asked the man earlier? But more importantly, how did Abrazan know about what happened to Isildur? He must have known of the incident early in the morning of the day they left Armenelos for him to have arrived at Center Tavern before they did. The tavern was halfway, a twenty five mile distance, between Romenna and Armenelos. And after taking Isildur, her brother had ridden back to take back a velvet pouch from her nurse. Zoreth said it was just some orb made of black stone. But whatever it was, it was something of obvious importance, enough for her brother to come back for it, risking getting caught.
What worried her more than anything was how deeply her brother was involved with the rebels.
When the sun tilted westward on the second day they arrived in Romenna, she heard a sound of a horse and knew instinctively that it was Abrazan.
Giminzil rushed downstairs to find Daira there.
"Did my brother return?"
"Yes, mistress. He with his lordship." She pointed to the solarium built on the south wall of the mansion. It was a favorite place of her mother's when she was here at Romenna.
With a glad heart, Giminzil entered the solarium. Although it was late fall, the air inside was warm and many delicate lilies of varying hues were still in full bloom.
"I forbid it!" Her father's shrill voice ripped through the peace of the solarium.
Giminzil stood still where she was. She could not see them behind a cluster of pots with goldenrods and sedum, but she could hear her father and brother clearly.
"I have already agreed to command one of Lord Amandil's ships."
"You left the king's service, and you said you needed some time alone. I let you go even though I knew I didn't have much years left in me because I believed you will return and take your rightful place. It has been six years, Abrazan." Her father sounded tired. "Don't you think you should settle down, get married, have children? You will be the next Lord of Mittalmar. Being a member of the Council of Sceptre is not just my legacy to you, son. It is a duty you were born for."
"Duty, father? What duty? To sit quietly in the council chamber and agree to everything the King does even when I know in my heart it is wrong?"
"Abrazan!" Father's voice rang through the solarium. Then, he softened his voice. "Is this about the queen?" Her father lowered his voice. "Ar-Pharazon did wrong by you, but ultimately, it was her decision."
"I am aware of that. And I don't blame her. But, this isn't about her or even about me. He broke every promise he made to me. That he broke his promise to respect her, to rule along side her, I could have forgiven had he done it for the sake of our people, in pursuit of the great ideals of our ancestors. If he lived up to what he calls himself, I still would give my life for him as I once would have."
"He has brought us more wealth and power than we ever had."
"When did having power and wealth the mark of a great leader, father? Is he a mere merchant whose success depends on profit alone? You told me yourself that a king is a father of our nation. You said a father needs more than strength or even knowledge. He needs empathy because he needs to understand the many different members of the family, from mother to children to servants and even pets because they are all part of the family. He needs wisdom to listen to good council and have knowledgeable people around him because a father does not always know how to do everything his home needs. But most importantly, you said he needs to be a good example for his children because the children, no matter the amount of love they bear their father, will emulate what their father does. But what does Ar-Pharazon do? He makes slaves of those who are weaker than us, turns away from those who give good council. He dismisses people who are wise and instead he surrounds himself with those who would only praise and hang onto his every word. He turns instead to the words of the Deceiver, turns away from those who are our friends and makes mockery of the values of our ancestors."
"What values do you speak of? It may have been disallowed to marry his first cousin, but there was never a written law against it."
"I am talking of the freedom, justice and the equality for all that our ancestors believed in, fought and died for. Instead, we take the freedom of those less fortunate than us, then ignore their grievances and commit atrocities."
"You speak of the slaves? And what atrocities? The temple is just a place, my son. And Nimloth is just a tree. They are just symbols. Building one and burning the other are not going to change anything."
"So, it is true that the king plans to burn the tree." Abrazan's voice shook. "Do you not see, father, that the temple is not just any temple, and that tree not just any tree?"
"If Zigur is to be believed, we may gain even more than just wealth. You seem to know very well what is going on. Then, you must also know that there is a possibility to gain everlasting life. If you can have that, isn't building one temple and the loss of one tree worth it?"
"Your desire for longer life, I understand. I am hundred and seventy, and I feel the weariness in my bones. But what makes you think Zigur is telling you and the king the truth? You said yourself, father, 'if Zigur is to be believed.' And for that we have invited a dragon into our home made of wood. You know who Zigur is. What he once was. Have you forgotten what our people suffered under him and his dark master for whom the king builds this temple? Do you think there will be no consequences? What good would having everlasting life do for us if we lose who we are, the values that defined us."
"We haven't forgotten them."
"Have we not? Every year, we want more land and more gold. But do you even know how those things are attained? Do you know what the King's Men do… what I and the king did against the people who barely know how to make a decent sword? We burned down whole villages of women and children. They were just farmers and fishermen." Abrazan's voice cracked. "And we killed them or made slaves of them. And now, we want to burn them in that dark temple. What are we becoming, father?"
"That is just a talk. And even then, they are savages. Only those who resist us are taken, those who would dare to fight back."
"They fight back because we oppress them. Because we demand or take more than they could give. And when they give in, we treat them less than the way we treat our horses. But are we not all same Men? Shouldn't their lives matter?"
"So, you were feeling sorry for them, is that it? Is that why you were helping them secretly? Oh yes, the king knows of it. But His Majesty is generous, son. He told me he will forgive you for all your trespasses if you come back to him. Come back to Armenelos with me, kneel before the king and ask for forgiveness."
Abrazan was silent. But the sea wind outside the Solarium howled.
"Son, why risk your life for the lives of the slaves?" Her father spoke, his voice gentle as if to appease a child. "Haven't they killed our soldiers, too? Shouldn't the lives of our own people matter first and foremost? Lives of those slaves shouldn't be the only thing that is important."
"Can you not hear yourself? Of course, lives of our people matter. That is given. But, we are the ones in power, father. We are the ones holding the blades at their throat. How absurd would it sound to the person whose neck is bleeding at the point of our blades to hear us say that our lives matter, too?"
"You will turn away the mercy the king has shown you?" Father's voice turned sharp. "You care about these savages, these slaves, more than your own family? Our king is not perfect. No one is. But you owe him your duty. Where is your sense of honor, duty and the loyalty to the king? Our House served the king since the time of Tar-Minyatur, and part of his royal blood flows in your veins through your mother. What will your mother say if she found out that you are now a traitor to the king?"
"And what would mother think of you if she lived? When have you become the blind follower of what Zigur spouts? You who once stood with Lord Amandil and spoke against Zigur. Now, it seems the Council of Sceptre is in name only, a mere decoration of what it once was. Are you the Lord of Mittalmar and an adviser to the king or just another sycophant full of flattering lies."
"How dare you!" Her father's words trembled as if about to blow. Giminzil worried whether she should interrupt them or not. "What would you know? You left! I was left to defend this House alone. This House which has stood in this land for two thousand years. What would you have me do? Those who go against the king, against Zigur, they all fall or they leave. Just as Lord Amandil did. He shuts himself behind the walls in his manor house. Go with you to Middle Earth? Why when this is my home? I will not have it crumble into ruin during my time. At least, I am standing my ground."
"So, you sold your soul for our House? To keep it standing?" Her brother laughed, sound hollow and bitter. "I suppose, I cannot blame you. If mother knew what horrors I committed in the name of the king for these past twenty years at his many campaigns in the Middle Earth, it would have broken her heart. And all those years, I did so, thinking it was for the glory of Anadûnê."
"You did what you had to. That is what we do as Men of Anadune. There is no shame in it."
"No shame? How could there not be? What was it all for? Did you know how I felt coming back from the world of death and destruction to find the king thinking of building the black temple to the Dark Lord who had once enslaved us? The king I trusted, given my life, the one to whom I tore out my heart to...he promised to love her, but he had turned her into a ghostly version of what she once was. But, even that I could have forgiven if he would have listened. The king I used to know listened to advice given in good faith even if he did not like the sound of it. But now, his ears are too proud and is tuned only to the lies and the adoration. The criticisms given in loyalty and friendship, he takes as the words of a traitor. The absurdities he spouts. I don't know if the king truly believes them or if he goes along with Sauron because he thinks they will benefit him."
"What absurdities?"
"The absurdity that Elves are the hoarders of knowledge and riches when it is the Elves who had given us the knowledge to build this land, when it is they who had brought us the fragrant trees and flowers and the many goods that enriched and made this land what it is. But, do you know what is the most absurd of all? The king and his predecessors denouncing the Elves when it is the Elven blood that runs through their veins which gives them the power and the long life they enjoy. If Sauron is to be believed, then it is the King's House that we should hate the most. We should destroy all our history written in Elvish, hate all the cities, trees, flowers and people whose names are in Elvish, the very core of what makes our kingdom what it is. Do you not see the absurdity of it all?
"And now, he tells us to burn slaves in his master's temple. For what? So we could have everlasting life? Do you see anyone being shocked? Be warned, father: those who can make you believe in the absurdities can also make you commit atrocities. He may say to burn the slaves now, but how long do you think it will take for Sauron to say burn us, the ones he considers his enemies? And the people will blindly follow that, too. Well, I am not going to be a part of it."
Her brother went past Giminzil without seeing her.
"Abrazan! Come back here. You will destroy our House. You hear me?" Her father called for her brother, but Abrazan did not stop and left the solarium.
Giminzil ran after her brother. There was something about the way her brother was walking that made her feel that she wouldn't see him again.
"Wait, Abrazan!"
Her brother stopped, and she caught up to him.
Her brother's gray eyes were stormy like the angry sea.
Giminzil felt tears well up in her eyes. "Where are you going? You are coming back, aren't you?" Tears clouded her eyes as a hard lump burned in her throat. Her brother was the only other family beside her father.
Abrazan opened his arms, and she rushed into it. He held her tightly.
"Is it true what you said to father?"
"I am sorry you had to hear that," he said softly. "I wish things are different." He sighed. Then, he pulled away to look into her eyes.
"I am leaving for Middle Earth as soon as it is safe to sail. Come with me, Silmë. I will keep you safe. There is a land in Middle Earth where some of our people have settled. I will be taking more of the Faithful there. I do not plan to come back."
"But, father..."
"I have asked him to come with me. But, I don't know. He is stubborn. But you. Do not go back to the palace. After what Isildur did, it may become a dangerous place for you." Abrazan sighed. "I told him to wait, but he is young and rash."
"How is he? Is he well?"
Her brother's face darkened. "His wound is bad. He lost a lot of blood."
Giminzil clenched her fists. Somewhere in her heart, a knife struck.
"He is going to be all right, though, isn't he?"
"We can only hope."
A/N: Abrazan's words are a quote from Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.