Chapter 32
There were words in the background, but everything had faded to a blur. Berett — or Berenor, if that was who he really was — did not know what to do, or what to think. Everything he had known was changing…for better or worse he could not tell. Numbly, he stood up and left the room, leaving Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf talking. They noticed him leave, but did not stop him.
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Berett spent some days in his room alone. He was trying to wrap his mind around the past few days, and what had happened during that time. It made his head hurt.
Someone knocked on his door one day. "Come in," he called without thinking. His back was to the room, as he had been sitting in a chair facing the window. Berett turned around — and saw King Elessar, Aragorn (as he insisted his friends call him), standing there.
The Ranger quickly stood and would have bowed, but Gondor's king made a gesture for him to stop. He came over and sat down next to Berett. "I've heard." Was all he said. "Gandalf told me."
Berett flopped back into his chair. "I don't know what to think. All my life I knew who I was, what I wanted to do. And now this…" He trailed off, but the words would not stop. "I don't know who I really am anymore." The Ranger sighed, and his face turned toward the window.
Aragorn's next words surprised him.
"I know how you feel."
Berett tuned, incredulous. "Really?"
"Yes, I do." He studied Berett's face to see if he was really listening. He was. Satisfied, Aragorn continued.
"For twenty years, I had lived my life as 'Estel', the foster-son of Lord Elrond. But then I was told my true heritage. My whole world changed in that one moment."
The Araluen Ranger pondered what Gondor's new king had told him for a long time after he had finished talking to him. It was comforting to know that Elessar could empathise with what he was going through. But his problem went deeper than an identity crisis.
Knowing who he really was came with a feeling of almost attachment to Middle-earth. But Berett had only known Araluen for his whole life. Where would he go? Or, where would he stay? Could he even get back to Araluen?
The last question that sprang into his mind startled the Ranger so much he jumped out of his seat. How — if at all — could he get back?