Title: with lonely steps to tread the unfounded deep
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Milton
Warnings: mentions of character death, a mother's grief, mourning
Pairing: mostly gen
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 330
Point of view: third
Prompt: Any, Any, Sworn
She stands at the top of the mountain, staring out at the world. Her guards stand with her, by order of the King Under the Mountain and their own loyalty to all that remains of Durin's line. Dain's wife is long dead, and so is her own husband, the father of the sons she no longer has. To avoid tearing apart their newly-returned realm, the wedding will be in three days.
Three days until she is queen in name, though - according to the elder brother she no longer has - she has been queen in all but name since their grandfather died at Moria.
She should not have let her sons join her brother on his quest for Erebor. Fili was barely of age, and Kili nearly there, but they were boys still. Her boys. Thorin had promised her, with the most solemn oath in Mahal's name, on the blood of Durin, that he would guard her boys well and return them to her whole and unharmed.
She has yet to cry for them, any of them, her only remaining brother and her babies. And now she alone is left, to be Queen Under the Mountain.
There could yet be another child of Durin's line, the people whisper to each other, she is still in the prime of life, our queen.
She smiles, mirthless, at the top of the mountain. Durin's blood is cursed, ever since Thror held the arkenstone for the first time. And she is the last direct descendant. There will be no more children. Let Dain's son have the throne.
Her brother had promised to return her sons, and he had promised their homeland back, and he had promised that all would be right again.
Of those, he kept only one.
So, for Thorin, she will rule Erebor. And for her sons, she will rule it well.
She turns away from the setting sun, holds her head high, and walks back into the mountain.