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"It means 'go towards goodness,"' he had told them.
As he walked away from Durin and Disa's household for the last time, Elrond couldn't seem to convince himself that he truly was heading towards anything good. It pained him that Durin's tears and Disa's stoic grief would be the last he would see of them. Still, there were things he had to do and he suspected that it was better to cut the ties now rather than make them watch him grapple with the choice between abandoning them to the coming darkness or fading away into nothing. He tried to keep his own tears to himself. There would be plenty of time to grieve on the journey back to Lindon.
He had nearly made it to the end of the corridor when the sound of Durin's panicked shout of "Elrond" reached his ears.
Something had happened. He could feel it in his bones. Before he even registered the action, Elrond had turned and run back through the corridor and into the household he was sure he would never set foot in again. He paused at the door with a hand on the wall as he surveyed the room for any threat. All there was were Durin and Disa standing near the table with his leaf and the mithril piece.
"What is it?" He asked trying to mask his worry. "What's happened?"
"It worked, you wee snip of an elf," Durin said with breathless astonishment. "The mithril healed your bloody leaf."
"Elrond, we can help you," Disa said.
Elrond felt himself move towards the table. He looked down and the leaf he had carried all this way from Lindon. True to their word, the infection was gone. The veins had receded. With a trembling hand he lifted the leaf into the light. It was perfect. He could feel it in his very being.
He felt lightheaded. He gently set the leaf back on the table. This was too much. It was one thing to hold a theory, a belief that something could work. It was another entirely to know that it would.
"Elrond?" Disa called to him. "Love, are you alright?"
She grabbed hold of his arm and he let himself sink to his knees. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Durin rounding the table to get to them. He couldn't focus on that. This was too much. There was too much. It would work. He knew for certain that it would. He also knew that the dwarven king had already forbade him access.
This feeling was too much, too great and bitter a hopelessness. He pulled away from it. He let his mind fade, let himself sink to a place beyond feeling. He couldn't move. His body felt too far away to move. He couldn't feel it, not really. He thought that maybe he felt cold.
Around him, he could hear Durin's increasingly frantic voice climbing in volume with each moment that passed. Disa responded in kind. He could feel her tighten her grip on his arm. The pressure was almost painful but it was also steady and firm. He found himself listing in her direction and his hand twitched. It felt as if she had anchored some part of his essence back to the world.
Over his head he heard her call out, "Durin, get on his other side. He's responding to pressure."
It seemed to Elrond that no time passed between her words and the moment he felt Durin's steady hand on his thigh just above the knee. He knew somewhere in his mind that there must be time, but he found himself an even poorer judge of it than usual. The steady pressure on his leg became another anchor, another tether. It would be enough eventually for him to drag himself back, he could tell but then.
Oh.
Both Durin and Disa leaned into him. The heat and the pressure on either side of him combined with the steady hands on his arm and leg dragged him back into the world. It felt as if they were reforging him into being.
Elrond let out a shaky breath as he fell back into his body. That wave of emotion he'd run from in the first place came back, but it was different this time. The ache of it was deeper but it felt less like it would knock him over. He felt a tear slip down his face.
"I'm terribly sorry for my behavior," Elrond said and paused to clear his throat. "I don't know what's come over me-"
"Oh hush, dear," Disa soothed as she pulled his head to rest against her shoulder. "You're alright."
Durin place a hand on Elrond's shoulder. He kept the pressure of his grip steady and firm even now. "Can you tell us what happened? I was worried you were about to fade before our eyes."
Elrond laughed wetly into Disa's neck. "No, my friend. That would have taken more time. This was... it happens from time to time. I always come back to myself eventually. It hasn't happened for some centuries now. I've spoken with elven healers about it. They supposed that it was an imbalance in the... it is the result of an emotional or physical shock."
Durin shifted his grip to hold onto the back of Elrond's neck. "Aye, I've seen that in a few of our warriors or miners before."
"What are we going to do?" Elrond asked. "We know now that the mithril will work, but we cannot... we do not..."
"Hush, love," Disa murmured. "We will help you."
Elrond tried to lift his head. "Disa, please. I cannot ask you to-"
She pushed him back down and pet his hair. "You are not asking."
Durin sighed. "Aye. We'll help you, alright. Consequences be damned. I'll not leave my friend or his people to drown."
Elrond let out a heavy breath. "Thank you."
"Ah, think nothing of it," Durin said with a huff. "For you, anything."