The dawn came next day, but the clouds denied the sun's wish to show itself.

Reports of battle and skirmish reached the ears of the elves in Caras Galadhon, and also the Lord and the Lady of Lorien. Galadriel listened to every bit of the news the scouts had to tell and nodded. She was already aware of what had been happening to the east, but she could also sense the battle approaching from the north.

A servant hobbled in and told her that Mithrandir awaited her outside.

She nodded and hurried to where Mithrandir stood, leaning upon his staff. "Mithrandir!" she called out to him. "We must talk."

The wizard bobbed his head. "Yes, we must... For the Enemy is closer to being ready than I thought he would be."

"Yes, you could say he is but still far away from being ready. He would have been ready if Aragorn had not set his plans backward in Harad and Umbar."

"The Enemy has pursued him to the borders of Lorien and even now stages an assault on the realm, my Lady," Mithrandir said. "Getting Sauron out of Dol Guldur in the year of the Dragon's fall was a challenge in itself and couldn't have been done without the help of Saruman. But now, Saruman won't hearken to my calls and he has closed Isengard off to visitors unless expressly called to him. Something, I fear, is at work in Isengard. The White Wizard is up to something."

"I've never liked Saruman, Mithrandir," she said as she led the wizard down a flight of stairs. "He's been gifted a status he doesn't deserve. He wouldn't have been head if you had refused the station I had given you."

"What?" Mithrandir asked. "Me as the head of the White Council?" He coughed as he spoke the last words.

She nodded. "Yes, Mithrandir, if you had accepted the position, we would have driven Sauron out of Dol Guldur earlier than we did. And, now, he is back with greater strength. There are some of the Nazgul in that dark fortress. And, Mithrandir, he has resumed the search for Isildur's Bane."

Mithrandir sighed. "The One Ring... Saruman says the waters of Anduin took it into the Great Sea and there it lies until the end of the world."

"And what does Mithrandir think?" she asked.

"That the Ring is still here somewhere in Middle Earth, hidden from the Wise."

She smiled. "Then we better hope that Sauron doesn't find the One."

"Surely he would have found it by now if the Ring still lay in the riverbed beside Gladden."

"Perhaps... or it might have been swallowed by a fish... and that fish might have been caught by someone. And from then on, who knows how many hands would it have grazed? If the One Ring exists in Middle Earth, there is a likely chance that the Ring has found its way into someone's hands. Someone who doesn't understand the Ring, and perhaps someone who's slow to temptation."

"If whoever that is doesn't use the Ring then perhaps it would be safe from the Enemy."

"Regardless, Mithrandir, Sauron can only be stopped if the Ring is destroyed."

The wizard grunted. "And could anyone really do it?" he asked. "Would you be able to do it, my Lady? Would you be able to deny the temptations of the Ring?"

She sighed and stopped in her tracks. "Maybe... maybe not... perhaps that's the test I have to pass... But would I? Could I? Those questions are irrelevant as long as the Ring still lies hidden."

Mithrandir smoked away the last of his weed. "Then we must start our search for the Ring."

Galadriel smiled. "Perhaps... if we know where to start... the possibilities are endless, Mithrandir. And even if we were to find it, how are we to know that it is the ring?"

"Surely, there will be some records left here in Middle Earth that would identify the Ring?"

She shook her head. "None in the elven realms," she said. "Maybe some records may be found in the world of men, but then wouldn't the lords of the South know of the nature of Isildur's Bane? They seem to have forgotten about it."

"Who knows what the world of men knows? My welcome there has lessened of late. They call me a harbinger of doom."

Galadriel laughed. "If you rode there often on the wings of bad news, they wouldn't be entirely wrong, Mithrandir."

She brought the wizard to a small oval clearing surrounded by tall trees. At the center was an ornately carved bowl, standing up on a grayish white stump carved out of one of the great trees. On the side of the bowl were a line of runes written in the high elvish tongue.

The wizard went around it in curiosity. "What's this, my Lady?" he asked. "I've never seen this before."

"This is how," she replied, "I know the Enemy's plans, at least where the elves are concerned. This, and this." As she spoke the latter word, she fingered the ring in her right hand.

The wizard nodded, understanding fully well what she was referring to. After all, he also had one of his own. Narya, the Ring of Fire, it was called while hers was Nenya, the Ring of Adamant.

"How does this work?" the wizard asked, amazed at her device.

"It was a craft I learned from Aule himself, the Vala the dwarves call Mahal," she explained. "The bowl itself is enchanted, Mithrandir, made from the shards of a palantir."

"The Seeing-Stone?" Mithrandir asked. "How's it that you had a Seeing Stone?"

Galadriel breathed deep, knowing she had to tell the wizard her story.

"Well, it happened this way–"

"That's good, Artanis," the Vala, Aule, said, standing tall beside a mountain, a hammer in his hand. "That's very good. Now turn the handle on the other side and watch the gem form by itself."

She did as Aule had bidden her and turned the handle to the right. The action caused two hammers collide against the metal that had been hovering in the air. The hammers straightened the metal by crushing it. And once the hammers were done, the metal dropped to the ground.

Aule picked it up and examined its polish. "Very well done, Artanis, you could be a smith if you wanted to."

She laughed. "That's an honor, my lord Aule, but I don't wish to be a smith."

Aule smiled at her and placed the straightened metal on a nearby table. "And what do you wish to be then?"

Artanis walked towards the edge of the mountain and looked down on the valleys that leveled down each league until it met the great ocean to the east. Down below was the elven city of Alqualonde, its docks filled with numerous ships. "A queen, my lord Aule, a queen who would rule, a queen who would be fair to her subjects, a queen who would do anything in her power to preserve her lands and keep them from falling to the darkness. A queen who would... but I would never be queen here."

"Hmmm, so you're set on following Feanor to Endor, Artanis," he said. "I'd counsel you against this foolish journey, but I know the pride you carry. Maybe this determination you have would aid Endor in its struggles. After all, Endor does need a savior in the dark times that are to come."

She grinned at the Vala. "The responsibility of a Savior would be a lot to bear, my lord Mahal. I don't know what I can do against the overpowering evil of Morgoth, but what I can do I will."

Aule nodded. "And that's what I expect of you. And so, I would give you something to carry to Endor, something that might aid you in your struggles against Morgoth and the darkness he would leave behind even in his defeat if he shall ever be defeated. But that might not be until the end of this age of the world, I fear."

He removed something from one of his smithy-bags and handed her a crystal globe. She recognized it to be a palantir, a Seeing-Stone, crafted by Feanor himself. She looked at the Vala questioningly. "How came you by this, my lord?"

"This was one of the first of Feanor's, Artanis, and he gifted me this himself in return for whatever I could teach him."

"I am unworthy of this, my lord Aule."

"Nay, Artanis, you're quite worthy of this," he said. "Feanor may be reckless and wayward, but your strength, rivaling his own, is something you use wisely. And thus this gift shall aid you in your ambition. Do know that I do not exactly approve of this decision of yours, but I do think that you'll do much good in Middle Earth."

"Your faith in me honors me, my lord," she said, bowing her head.

"I'll have to oppose you when you are called to Taniquetil, and that will be soon enough. Some things are going to happen here that has never happened in my lifetime before. The seaward elves are going to wake up soon, and in a few dawns, they are going to find themselves facing a danger..."

"Danger, my lord?" she questioned, worried for her mother's kin. "What danger, my lord?"

"I cannot see... that part of the future lies dark to me, tainted by something evil. Morgoth may have fled Valinor, but he has tainted this land even as he has returned to Endor. Something dark festers in the heart of Valinor."

He would speak no more.

Knowing he wouldn't, she took the gift with her down the mountain and came across an elf washed out to the shores. She hid the Stone in her purse and kneeled down to check his pulse.

The elf woke up with a loud gasp. "Who... what... where am I?"

"These are the fair shores of the land of the Vala, elf... as for who I am, they know me by the name Artanis. But who are you?"

He stood up and bowed. "My... my name is Teleporno, but they also call me Celeborn."

"I'll call you Celeborn for that is an easier name for me to call," she said. "And how have you reached here?" She looked at the ship. It bore signs of a wreck.

He shrugged. "I know not, Artanis. All I know is that I left Middle Earth to come to the Undying Lands and was making way to my long sundered kin in Alqualonde. The winds, however, drove me ever northward. Something happened, and I seem to have washed out here."

"Well, I'll lead you to Alqualonde," she said. "It is a few leagues south of here still. I'm sure King Olwe will be delighted to meet one of his kin from across the Seas."

"So, this palantir was given to you by Aule himself," Mithrandir said, surprised. "But what use did you put this palantir to?"

"Not so much in the First Age of Middle Earth... I lay low like Yavanna wanted me to. But when the Second Age came, I started using the Palantir more and more, ever so secretively. Not even Celeborn knew I possessed one of the Seeing Stones. Using it, I looked across the wide lands of Middle Earth and kept myself apprised of the events happening across. And so when Sauron decided to move against Eregion after creating the One Ring, I immediately used the Seeing Stone to reach out to the Stones that were in Numenor, hoping the sons of the Edain would remember the old alliances and come to our succor." She took a deep breath. "So they came and rousted Sauron's armies until he fled back with no more than his small vanguard. I kept using the Palantir and saw much that happened and saw the Kings come from the West and land on Endor's shores. And when Sauron fell in Mordor, I found it within myself to connect my palantir to the Seven Elendil brought out of the West."

Mithrandir sighed. "Did you communicate with the lords of Gondor and Arnor then?"

"Less so with Gondor, Mithrandir, more so with Arnor," she answered, approaching the bowl. But when the palantir started to get lost, I grew worried, especially after the fall of Minas Ithil."

At that, the wizard grew concerned. "The Enemy has one of the Seeing-Stones," he concluded.

She nodded. "There's a likely chance of that, yes, and I knew I could not use the Stone safely any longer, not unless I wished to confront Sauron himself. Nay, I did not wish to take the risk, but my mind kept churning thoughts. It would be great if I could peek into Sauron's mind in a way that he could not see mine."

Mithrandir looked confused.

"I decided to combine the craftsmanship of Feanor and the power that this ring grants me. You see, breaking the palantir apart took a great deal of effort. Undoing Feanor's craft requires great skill, but thanks to Aule's teaching, I unraveled the magic that made the palantir work and used its shards to craft this bowl. My ring is also known as the Ring of Water, having more mastery over the element. The water takes on the property of the palantir and uses my ring's power to show many things. Things that were, things that are, and things that may yet come to pass."

"It channels the power of the Unseen World," the wizard sighed. "Such magic is dangerous, my Lady."

"Not if you have full control over the magic, Mithrandir," she said. "This mirror works only when I am near... meaning it needs my ring to see. My ring preserves the craft of Feanor."

"And this is how you have been able to know Sauron's mind?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes, Mithrandir, and now I ask you, do you wish to look into my mirror?"

She stared into the wizard's eyes and noticed a conflict play out in their depths. He was wondering perhaps if it was safe to tap into the powers of the Unseen World. After much inner debate, he stepped closer to the bowl and said, "Well, I'll take a look into the Mirror of Galadriel."

Note:

The palantir Galadriel has/had is not canon, but I used it to simply explain how the Mirror of Galadriel was created in the first place, and to give more insight into what elven rings can do.

The Unseen World has been inspired from Tolkien's books as well as the Rings of Power TV Show.

There's a dialogue that Galadriel says (I'll leave you to find it and guess it) that I have taken from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring movie. That dialogue is there in the book as well.

There's also a flashback sequence that details Galadriel's time with Aule, the Vala, and her first meeting with Celeborn north of Alqualonde. This small flashback can be considered a small fanfic of The Silmarillion in itself, though this flashback has quite the ties to a one-shot I've written and published known as 'Of the Departure of Galadriel'. You can read it on my profile. That is a standalone story, but each story in my LOTR based fanfic series are connected to each other.