New chapter! Only 1 or 2 chapters left! I tried to make this a bit longer (it's about a page long) but it just seemed like a good place to stop. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

Chapter 17:

I saw Lúthien once more and as soon as I did, I knew it would be the last time. I was in that place again. That Shadow Realm.

She gazed at me sadly and I suddenly felt an extreme sense of failure. I had failed her, hadn't I? She had given me a very simple mission; don't die and get Legolas to fall in love with me, and I had failed. At that moment, it didn't occur to me that she probably wouldn't be angry at me for not getting Legolas to fall in love with me. I mean, that part of the "mission" was only for my own gain. She probably didn't even care all that much. But at that moment, I felt like a child who had disobeyed their mother. It felt to me that she was disappointed in me and that seemed worse to me than any other thing that she could've been feeling.

"I'm sorry," I said. She tilted her head, a look of confusion on her face.

"What for?" she asked.

"I didn't succeed." I said softly, feeling tears well up in my eyes as it suddenly hit me that I had never told Legolas how I felt.

The confusion fell from her face and she gave me a slow soft smile. She came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Not yet but you still have a chance." She told me. I looked up at her, wondering what she meant. I was dead, wasn't I? Or something along those lines at least. "You aren't dead yet," she said as if reading my thoughts.

"What am I doing here then?" I asked, incredibly confused now.

"You are almost gone." She informed me, her saddened expression returning as she stepped away from me slightly, as if touching me would be dangerous. I looked down at my hands and almost yelped in shock. They were fading away, slowly dissipating and becoming smoke.

"What's happening?" I asked, the fear evident in my voice.

"You are not part of any single world anymore," she explained. "Which means you do not belong to any afterlife either. If you die, you'll disappear forever. You need to be tied to something in a world. A person, a place , a thing, it doesn't matter. You aren't tied to anything in Middle Earth and you aren't tied to anything on Earth."

I felt panic beginning to overwhelm me as I listened to what she said. Dying I could deal with, but this sounded like I didn't have a soul anymore. To no longer exist at all terrified me.

"Now," Lúthien said, her eyes sparkling. "If you were tied to anything on Middle Earth, things would be different."

"What do you mean?" I regarded her suspiciously, wondering what she was getting at.

"You are not dead yet," she repeated. "But you are incredibly close. If you can pull yourself out of it then you might be able to still succeed. It would also give you time to tie yourself to something before you actually died."

"How do I tie myself to something?" I inquired. "How do I pull myself out of this? What was that thing that made me end up here?"

"It was the scream of a Nazgul," Lúthien ignored my other questions. "Things affect you differently than the others because you aren't of that world. That's why the poison from that Orc was so potent on you and the scream had such an effect. All it usually does is strike intense fear into the hearts of men but you, you it almost killed. It pulled you into a different reality. A reality in which you would've stayed, if I hadn't pulled you out."

"Well that's just great," I said sarcastically, referring to the fact that only bad things came from being from Earth, not even including the fact that I wasn't really trained to fight or anything like that.

"It does not come without its advantages," Lúthien gave me a meaningful look. "How do you think you blocked Sauron out with your mind when you took the Orthanc stone? If anyone else had tried that, they would've died."

My mouth opened slightly in amazement at that information. Of course! It all made sense now.

"So…my body is weaker in Middle Earth but my mind is stronger?" I asked, trying to put what I had learned into words.
"Something like that," Lúthien replied with a smile. "Which is why you have a chance at pulling yourself out of this but only if you start now." She shot a pointed look at my hands which were almost completely ghostlike.

"Thank you," I said sincerely. She kissed my forehead once more and smiled again.

"Go," she said softly. I nodded. "I wish you the best of luck." I smiled at her.

And with that, I turned and walked away, not daring to look back, barely daring to look forward at what awaited me.

Love it? Hate it? PLEASE REVIEW! More reviews mean more chapters! Hope you liked the chapter and it explains some things so everything makes more sense. The next chapter should be up in a few days but I'm not sure. Anyways, I hope this enough to tide you over!

Thanks,

~Liliana