Chapter Text
BOOM!!!
Galadriel softly shook her head at the sound. This was the fourth time this week there had been an explosion in the forge. Had she known that this new project, would cause so many issues she would have gone with Celebrian and Elrond, wherever they were going.
She hastily ran up the stairs to check on her Cousin Lord Celebrimbor and the other Smiths.
Smoke and Dust covered the room as she entered. Smiths ran to the corner of the rooms to clear from the dust.
“What Happened this time?” She asked Celebrimbor who was holding tongs with the metal that alluded them all.
“This Mithril is proud my Lady. I am sorry for the disturbance but it could not be helped.”
“It is not the noise but the consistency of it Cousin. You are putting yourself in danger along with the other Smiths and the people of the city. You have been at this for weeks now, I know you want to solve this mystery but perhaps the unseen world should not be tampered with the way we have been attempting.”
Celebrimbor, stubborn like all her kin, was not happy to hear this, so he put the mithril down on the table next to the lockbox it had been held in.
“I just don’t understand?” He said almost in a whisper, Elves him and Galadriel ages should know everything but seem to still be learning. Galadriel was quick to rest a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Please Cousin, let us rest for a week from these labors, it will do you and the other smith good.” Celebrimbor knobbed dismissing in defeat the other smiths, agreeing with Galadriel.
Galadriel grabbed Celebrimbor some water from a pitcher as he sat in defeat. He spoke as he took the water in hand.
“Even with the week, we would need a miracle or a mind wiser than our own to solve this. I fear we will have to abandon these shores.”
“Hope is not yet lost. You gave me that I will give it back to you.”
They both knew of what she spoke of.
End of the First Age
The pain was sharp and aggravating. Galadriel had been Laboring for nearly two days now, Her pregnancy had lasted over a year now and she was tired of it. The weakness and ache were not her and she swore on the One she would never do this again if he came back.
The He was never spoken of in the company of but a few. To many of the Elves, she was seen as a victim of a terrible deed. But that was not true. Galadriel was no victim, in fact, she had wanted it, wanted to be with him, wanted to have this child, wanted to be his queen and wife.
She labored as her cousin held her hand as the midwives finally were able to begin to see her daughter's head crowning.
“Celebrimbor if I don’t survive this please, raise her well.” She said panting from the pain in body and spirit.
“No my Lady, you will raise her, you owe yourself this. She needs you and you will need her so fight like the warrior you are.”
She screamed on her next contraction a name she wished and had been there.
“MARION!!!”
Now
Galadriel had seen to it that Celebrimbor ate dinner and was off to bed before returning to her home. It had started raining outside and she looked out the window of her chambers. She had been living in Eregion this whole age her daughter coming and going as she pleased usually with Elrond at her side. She wished that Elrond would gain the courage to ask her permission to marry her daughter and not drag this out another century. But he would wait for the right time.
But while her daughter could leave and had companionship. She for all purposes was caged to Eregion. The few who knew of the origins of her daughter now seem fit to continue the punishment of her brother before their death. Cast out, to live away from the Glories of the Nolder people.
She loved the people of Eregion greatly they had treated her well and had raised her daughter well. But she was truly alone in this world. Stained by a love she could never speak of or recognize.
Sometimes on a night like this one she allowed herself to wonder, if was it love or was it wartime lust, and a notion of power that had drawn her to him during her capture at his hands.
As she lay down to rest as the soft rain hit her window, she thought of him. Begging whoever would listen to her prayer to find an answer for Celebrimbor and help her heal this scar on her soul.
—------------------
The darkness does not sleep it waits. He had often told her in their time together. This was true but he was done waiting. For this whole age thousands of years he had slowly pulled himself back from nothing to find the light.
Slowly taking the form of man to hear the whispers of Middle Earth again to forge his plan and plot his revenge. The Uruk had taken more than just his physical form from him. He was forced to be away from his beloved. And if he was correct before he sent her away a child and heir. Oh, how sweet would be the destruction of the Uruk family for taking him away from his.
Whispers in the forest and by men were that his Beloved was kept in the city of Ost-in-Edhil. The capital of Eregion was where her cousin was Lord. And if the Unseen revealed anything the elves were fading. He could help with that. He must help them.
Twisted as he was he did love Galadriel. For she was power indeed.
For months he had toiled away in the lands of men, suggesting, sowing the seeds of anger against the orcs. Who were attempting to invade the Southlands and claim it for their own. He would have nothing less than their complete extinction now.
Now that his seeds of chaos were in motion and war was soon to break out, he made his way to Eregion. Knowing the city would never let a man help, he changed into the form of an elf. Much like one his beloved had described as someone she thought she would love. Golden blond hair, blue eyes, handsome as the fairest of the Eldar.
A storm had come in with his arrival to the city. Whereupon his entries, said he had a message for Lord Celebrimbor aid was here from the Valar themselves to prevent the Fading.
—---------------------
Strange dreams haunted Galadriel’s sleep. She was back in Tol-In-Gaurthoth, with Sauron as he was called by her people but she didn’t call him that anymore. She was staring out a window looking out to the forest, such angry trees but trees nonetheless. Sauron was at her side with his hands around her waist, his head resting on her shoulder, His long red hair just in view of her peripheral.
“Do you miss us?” He asked.
“I suppose, it has been so long and we were together so short of a time, before you sent me away.”
“I was protecting you for Morgoth.”
“I know, but it did not make the separation or the centuries after any easier. I choose you as my husband and you abandon me all the same.” She turned in his arms to look at him. It was not the face of the servant of Morgoth she first had met but of Marion, the servant of Aule, who she alone had been allowed to see.
“Time to wake up my love, this shared nightmare is almost over.” Galadriel was puzzled by his words. But the dream faded and the sounds of her lady maid knocking on her door woke her.
“My Lady, you are needed in the Forge immediately.” Her maid practically yelled through her door.
“I am awake, Enter.” Her young handmaidens walked in with a robe and breakfast. “What is going on at the Forge?”
“Last night, an Emissary arrived. He is in the forge with Lord Celebrimbor.”
“An Emissary… from High King Gil-Galad?” Asked putting on her robe extremely confused by the situation.
“ No, My Lady, The Valar themselves. He journeyed from Valinor.” This astonished Galadriel. The Valar had all but banned the return of Elves to Middle Earth if they had sent one to aid the fading it was a sign of Greater things to come.
“Quickly, the Green Gemstone dress. Please.”
“Shall we braid your hair my lady, perhaps a headpiece?”
“Yes to the gold and silver headpiece, but no time for the braid. With haste.” She said taking her tray of food to her vanity she would eat while they rushed to put her together. Nothing less than perfection for an Emissary of the Valar.
When Galadriel made her way into the courtyard of the Forge she found many of the Smith's families buzzing with excitement. The guards open the door for her to go up the tower. Whispers and light-hearted laughter in the voice of her cousin reached her ears.
She walked through the doorway of the forge to see her cousin talking with a tall blond elf whose back was turned from her. He was dressed in regal black and gold, postured as if all things were beneath him but his aura was what struck her the most. Light around him but a dark core that was Alluring to her. It was then her Cousin spotted her at the Doorway. He walked briskly over to her.
“Ah, Lady Galadriel, I have someone I wish for you to meet.” He took her arm and guided her to the Elf. Galadriel kept her head and eyes down as was proper as the Elf turned to face them.
“My Lady this is The Lord of Gift, Annatar.” She looked up then and was stunned to see this face. The face of Marion in the body of an Elf.
“My Lady Galadriel, it is an honor,” Annatar said bowing his head. Grabbing hold of her hand, giving it a quick chaste kiss. Far too familiar for Galadriel's comfort.
His voice was not like the Marion she knew but it was his face. The face she saw in her dream this very morning.
“Lord Annatar,” She spoke testing this name out, holding the shakness from her voice but not her eyes. “ I am told you are an Emissary of the Valar sent to aid us is this true?”
“I am My Lady, The fading of your Great tree is felt widely, in both the seen and unseen world. I was sent to aid in your endeavors to heal the tree and protect these lands from the further spread of darkness.”
“Would one such as yourself not find answers better at the Tree itself than coming here, my Lord?”
“ I have seen your Great tree, my Lady, but here, here in the Great Forge you possess the means of your Salvation but have to solve the how that is why I have come. To aid in the forging of this new power.”
“Your words speak as if you have great skill in this arena, my Lord.”
“I was a student of the Great Forge master himself Aule. I would hope my time under him would show some skill, My Lady.” If Galadriel's suspension and were not covered by her disbelief of the situation, she would have found the nearest sword and stabbed him.
Right in front of her was Sauron.
—-------------------------
He knew she knew the moment their eye met. Deny it all she wanted, she did know who he was and what his real intentions were here.
He was here for her. He wondered how long she would go before saying anything, just for fun he would see if she could keep up with him after centuries apart.