Mim makes an offer to Celegorm he cannot refuse despite his misgivings of the petty-dwarf.

6. The Scrying Pool

I continued in the tedium of mining while the Elurussa continued inflicting their pranks on the Naugrim. They could never settle down enough to be apprenticed, not at their tender age. I toyed with the idea of leaving the Naugrim without the twins but they would only come after me. I could not take them wandering the dark forest again without a destination. I had to find that pool somehow, but I could not afford to spend eternity wandering the tunnels.

Durin put up with my begging and badgering without batting an eyelid. I was free to leave for the forest, but by Mahal he was not going to lead me into danger. No, he would not keep the twins should they decide to come after me into the forest. The Naugrim's reputation for stubbornness is legendary. You will sooner move a mountain than a dwarf.

"Elf wants out, Mim want Elf out… Why not Elf go?"

I dodged as a fall of loose rock tumbled down beside me. I glanced up the rock face to see the sneering face of Mim the petty-dwarf as he clung to the rock like a spider. I scowled. Of all the petty-dwarf vermin, Mim had been a thorn in the collective side of all the Hall's occupants. I once caught him trying to steal my arm ring and thrashed him for his pains. Another time he broke Elured's clockwork bird out of spite. Huan bit him for that. The other Naugrim often kicked or threatened him for stealing their tools and ore but that did not stop him. I sincerely believed that if I were to kill and bury him under the rock pile, no one would miss him.

"If Mim does not wish to have his face smashed in, Mim will leave Elf in peace," I growled and waved my pickaxe at him. He only gave an ugly laugh and scrambled further up the steep rock.

"Fair elf care for little ones. Dwarrow like pretty little elves. Soft, sweet ones… so warm," he taunted and made a lewd gesture. "Maybe share with Durin?"

My jaw dropped at what he just implied. The twins slept with me and Huan for both warmth and comfort but there was nothing of the sort suggested by the scum. With a roar I hurled the pickaxe at him but he ducked. The pickaxe bounced off the rock. A fresh fall of rock came tumbling down on top of me.

Cursing soundly, I started to dig myself out. Huan was with the twins. Durin had promised to take care of them while I worked this shift. Perhaps he had a new project he wanted to show them. Huan would protect them. I was alone in this tunnel apart from that wretched petty-dwarf and he was not going to help me. Instead, he squatted to the side laughing and making more lewd comments about the twins. That was his mistake.

I worked myself free of the fall without his notice and crept up on him. He squealed when I seized him, lifting his feet off the ground.

"Tell me why I should not wring your neck now?"

"Mim, sorry! Me just joking… Nice elf, kind elf…"

"Too late, you turd," I gave him my best imitation of a wolf's grin.

"Wait! Elf want seeing pool! Mim know where seeing pool is!" he squirmed desperately in my grasp. "Mim show way."

Durin's deep place within the Halls. But could I trust Mim not to lead me off a cliff? I froze and Mim must have seen the slightest flicker of hesitation over my face.

"Mim knows. Mim lead nice Elf to pool. Mim swear by sons!" I set him down for my arms were bloody tired.

"Elf come now?" Mim asked a little too eagerly for my liking. There was a cunning glint in his eye which oddly reminded me of Curvo in council at Nargothrond. I scowled. Maybe he did want to lead me over a fucking cliff after all.

"I must get Huan."

"No time. Mutt take care of little ones, no? Durin no touch them," he repeated that lewd gesture again. I had never known any of the Naugrim to show more than a paternal fondness for the twins but the ways of the Naugrim are unknown to me. For all I knew, they think nothing of fucking their own sons.

Such things were whispered of in the old tales about Cuivienen. Even in Aman, there were whispers. Atto had gone ballistic once when I was very young and an older disciple of Lord Orome's thought it would be a lark to send me a highly suggestive letter. I had been twenty then, hopelessly naïve and no wiser as to what the impetuous fellow had proposed. The twins seemed to be only six…

"Show me the way and if you lie…" I grabbed my pickaxe in one hand and my lamp in the other.

"Mim show, Mim no lie!" With a crackle, the petty-dwarf danced ahead of me.

He took me down a dark narrow tunnel which went downwards. There was a crumbling bridge of stone we had to cross and steeply cut steps in the rock. The flame of my lamp guttered fitfully. How I missed Atto's lamps. Many times we had to turn back due to a rock fall or noxious gases pooling in the deep caverns. Often, our path took us bare inches from a fall into an abyss. If Mim thought he could shove me over the edge, he had another thing coming.

"Mim keep promise, now Elf let Mim go!" the petty-dwarf squawked.

We stepped out into a high cavern, the floor of which sloped downwards into an inky-black pool. I glanced up but the cavern walls rose into the towering darkness. Like the roof, the pool seemed immeasurably deep. I swallowed hard and approached the water. The shores were slick with slime. Mim watched like a hawk from the mouth of the tunnel we had entered by.

Eru, Lord Irmo, please… Lord Namo, Show me the way… I breathed a prayer and crouched down at the water's edge. The water was black and still as a mirror. My face was reflected in it, ghostly pale. My hair was smeared with soot. I had gone with Mim without even bothering to retrieve my shirt. The surface shimmered.

I saw myself as a newborn elfling cradled in Amme's arms as Atto looked on with pride. As an older elfling, I played with my elder brothers, running like the wind before them and tumbling into the fragrant grass. I was a grown elf, riding with Curvo, Moryo and dear Irisse through Lord Orome's woods.

Irisse. My heart caught at the sight of my cousin. She turned as if to face me, the smile dying on her lips. Her eyes were wide with fear.

Beware… she mouthed silently and motioned as if for me to stand back. Like a fool, I crept closer.

That was when the creature struck.

Ropey tentacles grabbed me, burning where they touched the skin. I tried to fight back but my pickaxe was out of reach. Mim was laughing like a maniac. The creature was too strong. I could not get free. I screamed once before I was dragged under the dark waters.

It's not just death… It's nothingness… This was it. The Void.

I saw the Halls of Awaiting through the forest. The path was lit by Feanorion lamps. Before that was a marshland threaded by a creek before we reach the pier where the path of lamps started. Before the marsh was a fleeting glimpse of pale flower meadows across a bridge through the woods. The trail led from the Halls of the Dwarrow. I had seen the path but alas it was too late…

My limbs burned, my lungs ached. My head throbbed. Red and black filled my vision. Blood and darkness, a fitting end for a Kinslayer.

I espied two bright specks of light above, and a larger but paler blur. Don't give up! Fight it! You must fight! A child's voice, no, two young voices so in sync they sounded like one. I kicked hard, trying to squirm free of my certain death. The tentacles loosened enough for me to kick free and break the surface.

Immediately I was confronted with a chaotic rush of sound and light. Huan growled, leapt and bit at the swinging tentacles. One clasped about my ankle as I pulled myself ashore but Elurin sank his little dagger into it. It relinquished its prize and swung out blindly at Elurin. Elured leapt into the fray, slicing the tip of the tentacle off before it retreated into the water. My arms and chest looked as if the skin had been burned with acid. I felt sick and vomited as Huan dragged me clear of the water by my hair.

Dwarves swinging axes and shields shouted battle cries in Khuzdul as they rained blows and arrows on the beast. Some dwarves wielded firebrands against the beast. I could not help noticing the Elurussa were glowing, far more brightly than a normal elf would. The tentacles seemed to shy from the pair and their blades. Maia. Of course, they are part Maia…

The creature was wary of the sharp blades and arrows of the Naugrim. Still, it tried to seize and drag its tormentors to their doom. The Elurussa were like little blots of light as they scrambled about, aiding any of the Naugrim grabbed by the beast with their daggers.

"Huan, go help them," I groaned and Huan dashed off towards the twins.

The creature screamed in pain under the unrelenting onslaught but it did not retreat. Durin now gave the order to pull back. We could not keep this up forever. A lit firebrand landed next to me and I seized it.

Most of the dwarves have gotten out of the creature's reach but a handful were trapped on a ledge of rock. To my horror, Huan and the Elurussa were trapped on another ledge above the water near the dwarves. The creature rose from pool, exposing its gaping maw, glistening with an oily sheen. A large yellow eye glared from above that terrible mouth. I grabbed my pickaxe and the brand.

"Eat this, you fucking shit!" I ran down to the waterline and hurled the pickaxe into the eye point-first. It pierced the eyeball. Enraged, the creature lunged blindly towards me. I dodged the swinging tentacles. When it was close enough, I thrust the lit firebrand into its maw.

The beast shrieked in agony and sank into the depths from which it had emerged. I waded out into the water as the last ripples faded and swam out as the bottom fell away. I reached the first of the ledges where the dwarves were stranded. The Elurussa's perch was too high above the water for me to haul my battered body onto and I could swim no more. I climbed onto the ledge with the help of the dwarves.

There had once been a natural rock bridge linking the ledge to the shore but the monster's thrashing had shattered it. The five dwarves grumbled as they considered their options. The Naugrim were not known to swim and their heavy armour would drag them down. A makeshift bridge would have to be built, or a raft to ferry them to safety before the beast returned.

The Elurussa and Huan were in a similar predicament on their ledge. The wounds left on me had turned an angry purple and were throbbing like the blazes. I could not bear the thought of re-entering the water a second time. I saw the Elurussa staring into the dark waters, their faces blank.

One might find answers by looking… My heart sank. I knew.

In silence, the elflings clambered on Huan's back. The elf-hound leapt into the water and paddled for shore. The Naugrim on shore rigged a crude raft for our rescue. By twos and threes we were ferried to safety.

As soon as I set foot on shore, two figures came at me and struck me in the midriff. I was knocked onto my back and the blows came hard and fast, as hard as elflings could muster with their tiny fists.

"You killed Ada!"

Two dwarves lifted the pair kicking and screaming off me. I remained staring at the darkness above as Durin enquired how I was feeling. It hurt. It hurt far more than I ever expected.

Author's Notes:

Things are definitely going to get messy for the elves. The twins definitely saw something in the pool they did not like at all and Celegorm is going to have some real heartache.