Chapter Text
It had been two days since High-King Gil-Galad had visited the dwarven city of Khazad-Dum with the purpose of seeking his Herald who had apparently gone missing from Rivendell for several weeks at the least. Ereinion stopped receiving rapports on the state of the settlement so he had sent two of his messengers to Rivendell but they were unable to locate the Half-Elf. No one within the settlement knew exactly where he had gone off to so the messengers made their way to Khazad-Dum to gain any possible information from Durin but returned to Lindon empty-handed with the news that Elrond had gone missing.
At this disturbing news, Ereinion immediately gathered the finest of his Royal Guard and set off for Rivendell himself. As the messengers had been told before, no one knew exactly where Elrond was, only that a dwarf named Narvi had been here inviting the Half-Elf to Durin’s coronation. So Gil-Galad had set off to Khazad-Dum in a sour mood, believing it to be highly irresponsible from the Peredhel to have remained inside the dwarven city for weeks on end celebrating the coronation without even thinking about sending a rapport back to Lindon on the condition of the new settlement.
Despite Durin’s earlier claims that the Peredhel was nowhere near his city, Elrond and to Ereinion’s great surprise Galadriel, both appeared together with King Durin at the modestly sized gateway. Judging from the rather guilty look in the Peredhel’s face and incoherent story, something more was going on than just attending a coronation. Ereinion knew that both elves in front of him had done something against his wishes but he refrained from interrogating them further until both of them were back at Rivendell. The last thing Gil-Galad wanted was to cause a scene right in front of Durin and damage their already fragile alliance which was held together solely by Elrond’s friendship with the dwarf.
Elrond and the others in his following prepared themselves to depart from the dwarven city back to Rivendell but this time they were to be joined by King Durin and his army of capable dwarven warriors. Even though the Half-Elf was ready to move out at any notice, he waited until Durin had assembled his army so that they could make the trip together. Fortunately this didn’t take long as Durin was already in the process of mobilizing his men after Elrond’s prolonged silence had him worried for his life.
And so it was that two days after Ereinion’s visit, the company of elves, men and orc set out on the short journey to Rivendell together with a host of dwarves and for the first time with Durin in their midst. Durin had made the journey to Eregion several times before prior to the destruction of Celebrimbor’s city so he knew well how to navigate the area. Durin hadn’t however visited Rivendell yet but he did send his trusted advisor Narvi before to invite Elrond to his coronation.
Despite the elven settlement’s location being considered a highly kept secret, their previous aid in guiding the surviving elves out of Ost-in-Edhil made them one of thew few people alive who knew the exact location of Rivendell. This time, Narvi remained behind in Khazad-Dum and was responsible in aiding Queen Disa in ruling the city in his absence.
Rather than riding ahead of his army, Durin had joined Elrond and his company to catch up on all those lost months of his absence. Large parts of time spent on their journey towards Rivendell was filled with Durin questioning Elrond on all that exactly occurred during their trip to Pelargir which the Half-Elf happily complied to. Elrond’s following had by now spent quite some days among the dwarves and were getting rather used to their company. Vorohil and Beriedir rode together with Beriedir carrying the orc Bugak behind him on the back of his horse.
Despite Bugak being virtually on the other side of the world from his fellow comrades, he grew to like the two large elves who taught him how to play cards. The green-skinned orc was still wearing Camnir’s cloak and had been furnished with a dwarven blade upon departure which Bugak seemed to admire immensely. Despite the initial reluctance of Durin to let the orc inside his city, his people have grown to like the odd creature in their midst and were unwilling to let him depart without good means to defend himself.
Nothing notable occurred during their short journey towards Rivendell. Camnir responded rather elated at the first sight of the settlement in the distance. The pleasant summer whose warm weather had graced them since they departed months ago now slowly turned into autumn which made their new hideout look even more beautiful, hidden here in a valley at the foot of the misty mountains. Some of the trees had started to colour yellow and released its leaves all over the place giving the place an even more magical look to it.
More buildings had been erected in Elrond’s absence and now all of the refugee tents had finally gone. All of Eregion’s survivors had procured for themselves a comfortable and now permanent place for themselves inside solid but richly decorated buildings. The great hall, which was connected to Elrond’s private quarters, was greatly expanded upon and a small bridge was added that led to a cozy gazebo adorned with gorgeous curled white decorated arches. The large field of tents had now been reserved for the army of dwarves and elves that were slowly starting to gather while still leaving enough room left for the army of Númenor who still had yet to arrive from Mithlond.
Elendil and Isildur took great care trying to settle Berek down at the stables. The terrain was all but familiar to the adventurous yet fiercely loyal horse of the young Númenorean and began to stamp its hooves nervously on the ground until Isildur managed to calm him down. Elendil was not sure what had startled the horse so far, nothing threatening had surrounded him here. Perhaps the steed could sense the slight nervousness of the soldiers who had started to gather themselves which could only mean one thing, war was coming.
Before Elrond could enter his sanctuary, he was approached by one of the King’s messengers who looked as agitated as Ereinion did when he neared the gates of Khazad-Dum. “Lord Elrond.” The messenger began politely despite his perturbed appearance. “High-King Gil-Galad requests your presence immediately in the war council.” With a small bow the messenger left and returned to his other duties.
“I will come with you.” Galadriel stated as she overheard the messenger speak to Elrond. The Half-Elf nodded and together they made their way towards the council chamber which wasn’t very far away from their current position. The journey on foot only lasted about ten minutes before they reached the doors to the council room which was adjoined by his own private quarters within the settlement. They opened the doors and made their way inside only to be greeted with the sight of an agitated King but curiously none of his guards were present which was usually the case.
“Have a seat please.” Ereinion gestured to the empty chairs in front of him. The King had sent for his Herald alone but wasn’t all that surprised when Galadriel stubbornly tagged along with him. “I believe that my messenger had send for Elrond alone.” Ereinion remarked finally looking up from the piece of paper he had been staring at on the table.
“I understand aranya, but I thought it would be more effective to receive a rapport from both of us. We can fill each other in just in case any information has been forgotten.”
Ereinion just sighed in defeat but decided to continue nonetheless with what he wanted to do back at Khazad-Dum, getting the truth from his Herald. He knew that the Peredhel had been lying to his face, the whispers of his ring told him so. “Listen, I know you haven’t spent months inside of that mountain yet my messengers have reported that you were gone from Rivendell ever since the dwarves invited you for their coronation.”
Elrond shifted uncomfortably in his chair, he should have known that his King wouldn’t have let this matter slide so easily but a part of him wanted to believe that Gil-Galad was satisfied with his former explanation. His grey eyes stared into the dark and stark eyes of his King telling him that he wouldn’t yield until he got his answers.
“So, would you care to explain your unannounced absence from this place after I have explicitly ordered you to take the time to rest from your harrowing experience in Númenor?”
“Like I said before aranya, I have been aiding a dear friend of mine and that is the truth I swear it to Eru.”
“Enough!” Ereinion snapped while pinching his nose in frustration. “You are going to tell me exactly what you have been up to in these past months before I will relieve you of your command.”
“It’s true!” Galadriel cut in fiercely. “When we arrived back in Mithlond, I made a promise to Elendil to help him find his son no matter how difficult it would be. Elrond pledged his help to him as well and so we set off together with Elendil to find his son and bring him back safely.”
Gil-Galad eyed both of them with suspicion. “You told me that this Isildur was the one who provided you with information on Sauron and that he travelled to here from the Southlands. Where exactly did you find the boy?”
“High-King…” Elrond began again but Ereinion waved off his attempt to reconcile with his King.
“I want the truth right now. Where did you travel to and who went along with you besides from Camnir, Vorohil and Beriedir. Should I call upon the Cartographer myself right now to demand an explanation. I am certain your friend will put up less of a resistance to my questions.”
“Leave Camnir out of this.” Elrond exclaimed indignantly, his fear now for the first time turning into anger during this conversation. Galadriel immediately laid a hand onto one of his that had been gripping the armrests of his chair with such force that she was afraid he might explode in a tirade.
“Guards!” Ereinion called out. His order was obeyed almost instantly as two large, and clothed in golden armour, elves entered the chamber with their weapons at the ready, prepared to defend their King if necessary. “Yes my King!” one of them called out.
“Go and fetch my Cartographer immediately without any delays.” Ereinion stated firmly.
“Right away my King.” Both of the guards bowed politely and hurried out of the room to find the yet unsuspecting Camnir.
“I told you to leave Camnir alone!” Elrond’s voice rose up now into an angry shout as he flew up from his chair and pointed at his King. “I will tell you exactly where we have been if you promise to remove that cursed trinket from your finger.”
“You will not order me around Peredhel!” Ereinion shot up from his chair as well while Galadriel desperately tried to diffuse the growing tension between the two.
“Stop this, both of you. Yes my King, we travelled together with Elendil all the way to the Southlands to find his missing son but the idea was mine and mine alone. If you want to punish someone, punish me instead and leave Camnir and Elrond out of this.”
“You did what?” Ereinion exclaimed with fury in his voice. “You marched all the way down into the Southlands against my express wishes and got caught up in another one of your foolish plans! No doubt you heard about the news directly from the Deceiver himself! Are you two really that daft to throw your lives so recklessly away in a time such like this for a mere mortal?”
Gil-Galad’s shouting match could now be heard quite a distance away from the chamber which drew the attention of quite some people wandering around closely including Durin and a bunch of his dwarven soldiers who had been waiting to formally announce his presence to the elven King. Durin followed the concerning shouts all the way back to the large green doors that led to the council chamber and saw to his horror how two of the foolishly dressed golden guards were almost dragging a terrified looking Camnir through the doors.
“Hey! What the bloody hell do you think you are doing!” Durin gave chase and burst through the doors straight into the chaotic scene inside of the council chamber accompanied by at least four very heavily armoured dwarven warriors. He did not care whether his actions led to a hostile response from the golden armoured fools, no one was about to abuse Camnir like this without him having a say in the matter.
Ereinion was beside himself with anger as he pointed at Elrond in particular with a terrified looking Cartographer being delivered to him by his guards. “You endangered all of their lives by chasing down some human boy in the most hostile land where Sauron is reported to be hiding! What were you thinking! Do you really think you can keep such a thing a secret for me under the pretense of attending a coronation? Do you think me a fool Peredhel!” Ereinion shouted at the Half-Elf in front of him.
“Oy, don’t you dare talk to him like that!” Durin cut in fiercely with his guards at his side. The two elven bodyguards drew their swords swiftly and aimed their weapons at Durin ready to defend their King at a moment’s notice.
“I presume you knew about their little quest.” Gil-Galad spoke to Durin in a much calmer voice after collecting his thoughts for a moment. Alienating one of their allies was the last thing Ereinion wanted at this very moment despite his growing anger at them all.
“Of course I bloody knew.” Durin answered his eyes narrowed in slits as he gazed upon the golden cloaked elven King with an increasing dislike. “Perhaps if you placed a little bit more of your faith in ye subjects, he would have told you as well before he left you at Lindon.”
“How dare you…” Ereinion slammed one of his fists upon the table. “Peredhel! You are under arrest and will be placed in a holding cell until I decide what to do with you.” His dark eyes settled upon that of Elrond’s as he continued. “Be assured that I won’t be as lenient with you as I was last time.”
Before the two elves could move in to apprehend the Half-Elf, Durin’s guards sprang into action and drew their weapons as well. “If you take him away now, I will assure you that you will lose all my support and I will march straight back home with my army this very instant.” Durin growled. He meant it, he was prepared to pummel the face of the elven King if that was required to defend his friend.
Gil-Galad sighed in frustration raking his fingers through his hair while uttering a silent curse. He knew full well that the entire alliance of both dwarves and men lay fully upon Elrond and his diplomatic connections with the two races. Especially the stubborn dwarven King seemed closely connected to his disobedient Herald.
“Please Ereinion, take off the ring!” Galadriel pleaded with tears welling up in her eyes. “You are not yourself right now.”
Gil-Galad gazed downwards at his hand which bore Vilya and shook his head at both the elves and dwarves in front of him. “Go then! Disappear out of my sight, now!” He told them in defeat as he crashed down again onto his chair while lowering his head into his arms on the table in an uncharacteristic display of weakness rarely displayed before to anyone in public.
Camnir didn’t have to be told twice and immediately exited the room in a hurry followed by a rather hesitant Elrond and Galadriel with Durin and the dwarves in their tow. No one of them had expected such a violent explosion from their King and Durin took Elrond apart together with Galadriel to warn them about the growing dark influence the ring had on their King and that he had seen the exact same thing happening before to his own father.
Word spread around quickly throughout Rivendell that the High-King had gotten into an explosive shouting match with his Herald and Elrond decided to stay as far away from their agitated King as possible and offered his aid to help setting up the tents for the dwarven soldiers. Durin gladly accepted his aid and together they spend the remainder of the afternoon helping the dwarves settle in together with Camnir who like Elrond had wisely decided to avoid Ereinion’s space for now.
To Elrond’s great relief, the elvish soldiers from Lindon, who had started to settle themselves in next to the dwarves, were being led by Cirdan the shipwright, who had followed Ereinion from Mithlond. His calming presence across the field of tents reassured Elrond that Gil-Galad wouldn’t just march out here and demand his imprisonment. Surely Cirdan would interfere if such a thing happened.
Galadriel spent some time wondering how they were going to convince their King of the danger his ring posed to him but couldn’t find any direct solution so she decided for now to help the others of their company settle in the guest quarters. Fortunately, both Elendil and Isildur did not get any wind of the fierce argument that just occurred and likewise Adar and Arondir seemed unaware as well. Vorohil and Beriedir naturally offered to provide shelter to Bugak in their room while Galadriel warned them to avoid Gil-Galad at all costs for the moment. The last thing they needed right now was Ereinion becoming aware of the orc they brought along.
It took for the afternoon to turn into the late evening before Elrond dared to creep back up to his quarters which adjoined the council chamber where the fight took place several hours ago. Elrond was glad to find that Gil-Galad had abandoned the room and was apparently resting somewhere else as his quarters were mercifully empty. He settled down on the chair at the desk that was placed near his bedroom window and sighed deeply wondering how they were going to fix the mess they created. He did not expect his King to explode like that and he pondered how much of Gil-Galad’s behaviour was to blame to the ring on his finger which he stubbornly refused to take off. Was this how Durin had felt? How did he eventually manage to convince his father to abandon the ring? This was another thing Elrond resolved to ask the dwarf the first thing in the following morning.
He began writing down some very primitive plans to convince his King to abandon the ring on a piece of paper in front of him until he could barely keep his eyes open from the exhaustion that this day had wrought. He abandoned his efforts as he could barely remain coherent with his raging thoughts and moved towards his bed, cursing his half-mannish side that required regular sleep. He laid his head down on the pillows and listened to his surroundings. He could hear Galadriel speak to Camnir in the council room next to his and wondered how his friend was doing.
Gil-Galad’s actions must have frightened the Cartographer terribly and it unsettled Elrond deeply how Ereinion was willing to hurt his friend to draw the truth from him. This was not how elves normally behaved, especially not one of royal blood who called himself King of the Noldor. Elrond listened to the voices in the other chamber until sleep slowly began to take him.
He was once more walking in a desolate wasteland but it didn’t look anything similar to the land of Mordor he had recently walked through with the rest of his company. There were no ashes around him, no remnants that this land was once a thriving patch of forest or meadow. There were no dead branches on the ground or decaying leaves littered around his feet. In fact there was absolutely nothing. The ground beneath his bare feet was just empty rock devoid of colour and life. As far as his eyes could see, there was just total emptiness and silence around him.
Elrond’s chest tightened and his breath began to quicken as he faintly remembered seeing something similar like this before. His eyes traveled upwards towards the sky and until his horror, he noticed that the skies themselves had an unnatural dark greenish hue to it and a thick layer of clouds hid the sun far away from this seemingly cursed place. The soft rumbling of thunder could be heard rolling through the clouds as some of them lit up for a split second to reveal a lighter greenish hue.
Elrond lowered his eyes once more to the ground as it suddenly began to shake beneath his feet. The tremors increased rapidly in intensity until he lost balance and fell backwards onto the ground. A large gap appeared in the earth right in front of him and the crack was expanding swiftly around him. Elrond crawled backwards in fear, afraid that the abyss would swallow him whole until to his immense relief it stopped as sudden as it had appeared.
For a moment, Elrond gathered his thoughts and tried to keep his breathing under control before he crawled towards the edge of the abyss and carefully peeked down inside of it. Black smoke was billowing out of the hole and a deep gutteral growl could be heard. “What is this, who are you!” Elrond called out into the dark.
With a sudden violent motion, an invisible hand threw him several meters backwards and he felt his throat closing as if someone was choking him. Elrond’s hands flew upwards to stop the thing that was attacking him but found nothing but empty air around his fingers. He began to panic fully now that he was unable to breathe but couldn’t do anything about it. Images flashed across his mind of a familiar looking crown with three sharp pointed edges each adorned with a jewel that blinded his eyes.
He could finally see a black gloved hand wrapped around his throat with above it a face looming over him. The eyes were like fire and there was a malicious sneer on his face. “I will return, child of Luthien, I will return and I shall have my revenge. I will destroy your world and turn it into the desolate wasteland that it once was before my very existence. No one can help you now….”
“No!” Elrond screamed in complete panic. “Please, let go of me!”
“Elrond!” a familiar feminine voice could be faintly heard from just beyond the darkness.
“Elrond, wake up!”
Back inside Elrond’s bedroom, Galadriel had been alerted by the strange noises coming from his sleeping form as she burst through the doors thinking he had somehow been attacked. Camnir followed suit and both stared in horror as they discovered the Half-Elf gasping for breath on the bed his hands seemingly crawling at something invisible.
Galadriel rushed over to the bed and sat down next to the Half-Elf who was stuck in what appeared to be a nightmare and shook his shoulders roughly to wake him up. “Elrond! Open your eyes Elrond!” She shook him even more wildly until finally Elrond was able to snap out of his nightmare and flew up from his bed straight into the arms of Galadriel who hugged him fiercely.
Elrond’s breath stuttered but he was finally able to inhale again and take in a fresh batch of oxygen that his body so desperately needed. His hands grasped Galadriel’s shoulders frantically afraid that she would let go and he would fall back into that wasteland filled with dread all by himself. “Don’t leave me.” He mumbled incoherently still not fully aware of his surroundings. The only thing on his mind now was to not let go of Galadriel, she was his anchor holding him in place while his mind was still lost on the wild seas.
“Hush now….” Galadriel soothed the Half-Elf who was still lost in a web of darkness by rubbing his back gently with one of her hands. “It is alright, you were having a nightmare.”
Elrond opened his eyes and saw that the familiar looking bedroom was now back into view. Everything looked normal as far as his eyes could see and that finally made him calm down a little. He buried his face in Galadriel’s neck and started to sob.
“What did you see Elrond?” Galadriel asked warmly but she was worried how his nightmare had unsettled him so deeply of of seemingly nowhere. She was forcefully reminded of his night terrors in Númenor and briefly wondered if Sauron had somehow managed to invade his mind once more. While she kept one hand soothingly on his back, the other traveled to his shoulder and pulled his shirt half down from his shoulder to inspect the old wound. Thankfully, the scars from the injury were still gone so it didn’t appear that the old injury was to blame for his night terror.
“I saw….I saw the same vision that the sea serpent gave me during the trial by abyss….” Elrond stuttered. Galadriel continued rubbing his back urging him to carry on explaining what he saw. “Everything was dead Galadriel….The land itself lost all life and the skies were green… A voice appeared from a large crack in the ground and it tried to strangle me.” Elrond suddenly remembered the fiery dead eyes and the silmarils stuck inside the crown he was once stabbed with. “It was Morgoth….Morgoth called out to me, he threatened to come back and destroy the entire world…”
Camnir sat down in fear on the chair near the desk with a loud plonk clutching his heart. “But that was just a dream right? It was just a dream…” Camnir replied more to himself than to the others. He did however remember how unsettled Sauron appeared to be when Elrond confronted him about the Balrog in Khazad-Dum and the ominous warning the Deceiver gave him that he would be the least of their troubles if the fallen Valar would return.
Galadriel frowned but kept her appearance calm for Elrond’s sake. “We can ask Cirdan for advice. He must be able to tell you whether this was just a dream or a foresight of what is about to happen in the future.”
Elrond nodded gratefully but his body was still shaking from the effects that the vision had on his body. “I agree, we will visit Cirdan first thing in the morning.” For once he felt immensely thankful that Cirdan had left the ports of Mithlond and journeyed along with Ereinion to Rivendell as he rarely left his house these days. He didn’t think telling his King about his vision was a good idea right now but the old shipwright might be able to provide an answer that could explain his nightmarish vision.
“Will you stay here with me?” Elrond asked Galadriel rather sheepisly. “I admit that this vision has startled me badly and I am afraid of sleeping so soon after again. I do not wish to be swallowed up by the darkness once more.”
“Of course Elrond.” Galadriel replied warmly, brushing some of his hair out of his face which was sticky with sweat from his night terror. “I will remain at your side for as long as you need me here.”
Camnir left the room with the promise that he would accompany them to Cirdan the following morning as Galadriel settled down beside the Half-Elf on the bed. She did not feel any need to sleep but drew the Half-Elf to him in a warm embrace to grant him the chance to gain a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Only with her close by his side, he felt safe enough to close his eyes once more and fortunately no more nightmares or foresights troubled him until he woke up again in the morning still firmly into the embrace of Galadriel who spent the night watching over him closely, sometimes whispering soothing words in his ears when she was afraid he would lapse into another nightmare.