Children of Iluvatar by Antane

A few glimpses of the Ring-bearer and his faithful companion through the eyes of Elrond and Iluvatar. I acknowledge my debt to the professor’s translation that is quoted briefly within some of these chapters.

Chapter One: Brothers

Elrond bandaged the shoulder of the halfling he had been tending for long days and nights. The shard had finally been removed and had already been sent away to be destroyed. He held the wrist of the small being lost in a bed much too large for him, almost as pale as the sheets and blankets piled on him. The Ring-bearer's pulse was weak but steady and Elrond let out a sigh as he closed his eyes and sent a prayer of thanksgiving to Iluvatar.

He is healing, came a Voice within him.

Le hannon, Ada, the Elf lord responded.

He opened his eyes again, exhausted, but unable to tear his eyes away from the little one before him. He has Your light in him, brighter than any I have seen in the Second-born. I have never seen any mortal more fair than he.

I have hallowed your brother for a most special task.

Elrond looked down at the Ring on its chain that lay against Frodo's chest. I bless you, Ada, for giving me that gift to heal his hroa, but I grieve that I cannot protect his fea.

It is not yours to guard. That falls to others and to Myself.

The Elf lord looked now at the other occupant in the bed, the one so similar in spirit, shining softly on his own, his hand clasped in his master's, his head touching the one he held dear, sleeping the sleep of the exhausted.

Are they brothers?

Not by blood, but so they regard themselves for I have knit their hearts and souls together. But the second serves the first and the first will serve all.

He will be safe then, for whatever You have him to do.

Yes. He will know at the Council what I propose. Though he knows not what he saw, I have already sent him a dream of what the reward for all his labors will be, for the burden will be too heavy for anyone in the end and he will sorely need rest.

Elrond closed his eyes again. He felt the small hand he still held in his own. It felt so fragile, but there was in Frodo's heart and will a strength that he had thought long lost in the world. And he knew it had its match in the one that lay beside him, though he dreaded the test before them, a test he knew he wouldn't be strong enough to pass himself, one even Gandalf refused.

Thy Will be done, Ada.

He then looked down at the sleeping halflings, trying to send them the strength he knew both would need. You will be safe, my brothers, held in the strongest Arms of all. Rest there when the burden becomes too much.

Chapter Two: The Call Answered

“I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.”

Elrond closed his eyes for a moment. Is this what you made him for, Ada?

Yes, My child.

You said the burden would be too much, then he will fail in his task?

No, he will succeed.

He looked at Frodo then, so full of light. Oh, my brother. It is a hard doom, but there is strength in you. I have seen it already.

“I think that this task is appointed for you, Frodo, but it is a heavy burden. So heavy that none could lay it on another. I do not lay it on you. But if you take it freely, I will say your choice is right; and though all the mighty elf-friends of old, Hador, and Hurin, and Turin, and Beren himelf were assembled together, your seat should be among them.”

Yes, his seat is ordained to be there and his brother will share it.

“But you won’t send him off alone surely, Master?” cried Sam.

“No, indeed!” said Elrond, turning towards him with a smile. “It is hardly possible to separate you from him.”

He looked back at Frodo. Hold him ever close to you, Ada. It is even less possible to separate You from him than from his faithful brother. Let him know he doesn’t walk alone. Hold them both.

I will shelter them.

Le hannon.

Chapter Three: Affirmation

“Do you still hold to your word, Frodo, that you will be the Ring-bearer?”

“I do. I will go with Sam.”

Elrond looked down at Frodo, so small, so determined and marveled that there was no hesitation and the hobbit’s voice was strong and unwavering. The little one had already been through such terrors and he knew more were to come, but there was no quiver in his voice or tremble to his small frame. His light flared, then settled to its normal brightness. Though he thought no one else but his fellow Elves had seen it, the lord was surprised to see Sam’s eyes widen slightly at that moment, though the small gardener said nothing.

Sometimes the smallest are the greatest, Elrond thought, in service, love and humility. I am honored, Ada, that you have shown me these. They are wonders to behold.

So they have been shaped, though they know it not. Neither is aware of their own greatness, none of the four are, but they will show the whole world.

The journey will be very dark.

And filled with light.

And may Your glory shine through them and may they take their places among the Wise. He looked down at the two again. Oh, my brothers, I am humbled by your resolve and love. Let that be a light for you in the dark places you must travel. The Enemy will not be able to strike at you there. There is within you strengths that he will never understand. A Elbereth Gilthoniel, o menel palan-diriel, le nallon si di-nguruthos! A tiro hain, Fanuilos! (O Elbereth Starkindler, from heaven gazing far, to thee I cry now beneath the shadow of death! O look towards them, Everwhite!)

He felt a peace within him then and he knew his prayer had been answered.

Chapter Four: Leavetaking

It was a chill, grey day that the Company gathered to hear Elrond’s last words. The Elf-lord looked down at the four hobbits among the others and marveled anew. They all seemed so small and frail, but the bravest of all the Company. At once he feared the most for them and the least.

My heart is still wondering about the two youngest, Ada.

My heart is not, My child.

Elrond sighed, his heart more at peace then at the decision. I wish I could see their path. I see naught but darkness.

I can see what you cannot.

Elrond then spoke aloud and tried to believe in hope and light. “The Ring-bearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom. On him alone is any charge laid: neither to cast away the Ring, nor to deliver it to any servant of the Enemy nor indeed to let any handle it, save members of the Company and the Council, and only then in gravest need. The others go with him as free companions, to help him on his way. You may tarry, or come back, or turn aside into other paths. The further you go, the less easy will it be to withdraw; yet no oath or bond is laid on you to go further than you will. For you do not yet know the strength of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each may meet upon the road.”

I beg you, Ada, strengthen their hearts. He cannot do this alone.

He won’t.

“Faithless is the he that says farewell when the road darkens,” said Gimli.

“Maybe,” said Elrond, “but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.”

Listen to the wisdom of your adopted brother, My child. No oath is needed to hold these to their paths. They will all go far and one will be with him at the end.

Elrond looked at Frodo and then at Sam and he knew. Goheno nin, Ada, for my doubts and fears. I have lived too long with my own defeats. (Forgive me, Father...)

You strive ever for the light. It is for that you were all made.

Elrond turned his attention back to the gathered Company. “May the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you.”

He and many of his household watched them leave. Bilbo stood there as well. Frodo gave him one more glance and then turned away with the others. So small, the Elf-lord thought again, but larger in heart and courage than any of us.

May not just our blessings go with them, but Yours as well, Ada, and that of the Valar be ever with them. May it be Your Face that shines upon them when all other lights are veiled.

So it shall be.

Le hannon.

Chapter Five: Pinned

What is happening, Ada? Elrond asked of his Father as he felt the great struggle on Amon Hen.

Your brother is learning more of the struggle before him and in him.

It is a bitter one. How can his fea even survive it? He is being torn apart. Help him, Ada! Elrond wished he could send Frodo his own strength. But then he felt the presence of another, stronger than himself and sighed in relief. Le hannon, Ada.

This battle won’t destroy him, My child, but strengthen him. He has already seen the Enemy and now has been touched by his mind. He knows ever more of who he fights and that will give him the greater determination to defeat him. He also feels the strength of his Enemy’s opposite, though he knows not who he feels. And he is discovering his own strength as well. As is his heartbrother.

Will it be enough?

It will be enough. Your brother is Becoming all the more who I have created him to be. His heartbrother has been from the beginning and is growing still as well. It will be a sore trial for both of them, through much darkness, but the end will be bright.

Elrond felt the decision made at the last moment of Frodo’s will asserting itself against the Enemy in favor of the other voice that reached him. The shoulders of the Elf-lord slumped as the immediate danger passed. If he felt exhausted by merely witnessing the struggle, how much more so must Frodo feel? He wished he could wrap him in arms and sleep that would give peace and solace, but he knew his own arms could not do that. He would have to rely on others, better than his. He sighed. How had this little one so wrapped himself around his heart? So many mortal beings he had known and lost through the millennia of the years gone by and yet, few he had opened his heart to for fear of the grief when they inevitably parted. The wound of Isildur’s betrayal and death stung anew.

There will come the time when the weakness of that one will be redressed. And it will be through his and your little brothers.

Elrond felt the turmoil of decision within Frodo, the terror and then the resolve to go on alone. While he marveled at the courage that took, he reached out again to Iluvatar. I fear for my brother, Ada. He will be consumed if he goes off alone. Darkness surrounds him still.

As does love. He is never alone, My child.

Chapter Six: At the Black Gate

Elrond turned away from his efforts to try to see Frodo and Sam’s journey and sought refuge in the iaun where he had spent much of his time since the Company departed. He looked up at the red candlelight that signified the Presence of Iluvatar. Your son, my brother, has seen so much of the Enemy’s work already, Ada. The Marshes, the despoiled land beyond. How much can his gentle fea endure?

All he sees continue to strengthen him in his resolve.

He knows he must go on, but he is wondering which way. I can feel his agony. His shoulders are so small for this burden.

Not so his heart. He is not alone, My child. Even now Olorin, the one named Mithrandir, searches for him, for both of them. Your brother feels that.

I have felt that thought casting out for him and Frodo for his.

His brothers are there with him also, both of them. He will decide rightly the way to go. I will not abandon him and another of My favored sons is nearby and will find them.

I sense darkness around him. It continues to spread from not his heartbrother, but the other. There is evil intent there.

It will turn to the good.

Elrond sighed in an attempt to release his anxiety. Goheno nin, Ada. My fears cloud my heart.

As they do his, but My Light guides him. The darkness presses hard, but his heart is stronger. He will endure. Just as you have been led and borne every burden.

The Elf lord turned his thought to Frodo, not knowing whether that little one could hear him or not, but desiring the wish for comfort to be sent. I wish I could help you, my brother, but since I cannot, may you feel the Arms you are wrapped in, stronger than mine could ever be.

His fea returns the embrace, My child.

Chapter Seven: The Morgul Vale

Elrond was in his study when a great darkness roiled over him. He groped out for his little brother as he felt the cold of the Morgul-king invade his senses. He fell to his knees and implored, Help him, Ada! Please!

Elrond focused on Frodo and saw him surrounded by great darkness, but around him specifically was a halo of light. The Elf-lord watched in horror as Frodo lurched toward the dark tower, then was pulled back by Sam whose face was illuminated as he entered the ring of light momentarily. There was another great struggle as the Witch-king rose in might and Elrond watched helplessly as Frodo’s hand crept toward the chain around his neck. Then he saw the little one’s will master that hand and move it instead toward the phial that Galadriel had given him. The battle was won again, for the moment. The darkness lessened just a bit and Elrond and Frodo both slumped. The Elf-lord agonized over being a witness to such struggles and being helpless to intervene, but he felt honored also to see the strength in such a small one whose heart was so much larger than his body.

It is getting worse. How much more, Ada? How many more times will he be tested? I grieve for what this is doing to his fea. The peril grows so very great.

Your brother’s strength grows also.

But the power of the Enemy beats upon with every increasing power. How can any endure it?

My grace increases in him as well.

I know that will be enough, but goheno nin, Ada, I can see so little of his Road and it grows so dark.

Then trust Me Who can see his entire Road. The darkness will deepen, but ever My Light will be there. No created being has ever conquered that for no created being made it to bend it to his will.

I believe, Ada. Help me unbelief.

Listen, My child, and find ease for the trouble in your heart.

He looked back at Frodo and in wonder a sound reached him that he feared he would never hear again - his brother’s laughter. The crisis had passed for the moment and the Elf-lord then watched Frodo lay his head in his heartbrother’s lap and close his eyes. Sam watched him for a long while, then both peacefully slept, Frodo bathed in light and Sam also where his arms held his master close. Losto mae, gwador nin, Elrond sent silently. Le hannon, Ada.

A/N: Losto mae, gwador nin is Sleep well, my brother.

Chapter Eight: The Choices of Master Elrond and Master Samwise

A darkness greater than physical suddenly overcame Elrond as he walked in the garden of Imladris under the starlight. For a long, terrible moment he feared he had been blinded and he staggered forward a step, reaching out for support along a wall. He felt something sticky rub against his hand, then another hand take his. But he was alone in the garden.

He stretched out his mind to his little brothers and knew then the darkness he felt Frodo and Sam were traveling through. Ada?

They are drawing nearer to our Enemy, though many leagues and dangers are still ahead.

And around them. What is that terrible thing I sense?

Two fallen children.

And my brothers are trapped by them.

Elrond felt Frodo and Sam’s terror and also their determination, strength and courage. Ever more he was awed and humbled by these little ones. His sight returned as Galadriel’s phial sprang into life and as he heard Frodo call upon Elbereth, his heart eased a bit. Such power would protect them even as he stretched out his own senses in an effort to do so.

He felt Frodo’s wild joy at the sight of the exit to the tunnel and hope flared in his own heart at the same time and was crushed at the same time. He reached up when he felt a sharp nick to his neck and was truly surprised when his hand didn’t come away bloody. He reeled from the darkness and poison that threatened to overwhelm him and only with great effort was he able to push it back. He felt Frodo fall headlong into the same black and reached out in vain to catch him.

Ada!!

It is to be this way, My child. I am with him.

Elrond tried to believe and trust. He watched the battle Sam had with Gollum and then with Shelob and he was proud and humbled by the extraordinary courage of that little one. He knew many others would blanch at such an encounter.

He is a marvel, Ada. They both are.

Love gives him the strength and not just his own.

Elrond listened as Sam was inspired to call upon Elbereth and was answered just as swiftly. The victory that the Elf lord realized was inevitable came, but there was no time to celebrate it. Despair followed on its heels, snatching it away as Sam rushed to his master’s side and called out in vain for an answer. Elrond’s heart twisted to hear such increasing grief and he wished to enclosed Sam’s broken heart within his own, but he wondered what shelter it would give for his was just as torn.

Is this the end of their toil? Please, Ada, don’t make it so.

Everything is working against the Enemy.

Against?

Verily.

He listened as long as he could bear to Sam’s broken sobs and the darkness that shrouded the little one’s heart began to fill his also. Elrond and Sam both still held onto faith and trust, but they were being tested in ways they had never been before and both feared being unequal to the challenges before them. The Elf-lord saw Sam kiss Frodo’s brow, then gently remove the chain with the Ring around it. Tears streaked down the Elf’s cheeks unnoticed as he listened as that humble gardener and guardian begged for forgiveness and promised to return to his beloved master’s side, never to leave again.

Then he watched Sam move away, head first bowed low under the weight of the Ring, then straightened with an effort of the will and outside strength.

He is alone now. How can he bear such a burden?

Your brothers are not alone, My child. Do you doubt even now?

Elrond bowed his head. Goheno nin, Ada. I want to believe, but my eyes are so much weaker than Yours, as is my faith. I cannot see his Road. It is leading deeper and deeper into the shadows and my sight fails.

You do not need to see in order to believe. Listen and trust instead.

The Elf-lord’s ears perked up at the same time as Sam’s and new grief pierced them both as they watched Frodo be spirited away by the orcs and discovered to be alive. Hope and despair flared anew in them. Elrond felt Frodo’s fea and reached out to shelter it as it strained against the bonds that sought to hold it. Garo lim, gwador nin. He sought to comfort Sam’s as well.

Frodo’s fea stirred in response, but it was very faint. Sam’s was stronger but he did not wake.

The darkness is great, Ada. I fear so for them.

I am greater than the darkness.

_____
A/N: Garo lim, gwador nin is Hold on, my brother.

Chapter Nine: In the Tower

Elrond was walking through the gardens with his daughter when he suddenly grunted in pain and nearly toppled over as agony swept through him as though he had just been whipped. A scream echoed in his mind that he knew was not his own.

“Ada?” Arwen questioned as she touched his arm.

The Elf lord was not aware of her concern. He knew where that scream came from and searched far in his mind to reach the one whose lips it had issued from. He saw the little brother of hisfeacurled around himself on top of rags on some filthy floor, surrounded by the great enemies of his people, trying in vain to protect himself from their whips. The physical pain caused Elrond to grit his teeth as he felt each stroke as though it touched his own flesh, but what brought tears to his eyes was the agony that radiated from Frodo’s fea. He reached out to cover that lacerated soul with solace and warmth. Oh, gwador nin, goheno nin. I knew your Road would be dark, but I let you tread it anyway. It is good neither of us knew how dark it would be for fear of turning away from the Will of the One.

Arwen looked at her father and realized he was in contact with someone else. The agony in his face made her fear it was Aragorn, but the answering cry of her heart was fainter than it would have been had it been him. It was the Ring-bearer then. She held onto her father’s arm, to support him, but did not try to reach him again. His features changed and she knew her father was praying now in his torment.

Where are you, Ada? Why aren’t you with him?

I am, My child. Always.

Then, why...why...

In his weakness is My strength. Ever he moves closer to his Enemy’s defeat.

And his own destruction? Ada, please don’t let it be so. His fea bleeds so. Can he survive such a wound? Even now it is as though he is wrapped in flame.

He is continuing to Become who he was made to be.

But why must he suffer so? It cannot be Your will.

He is following My will every moment of his journey that he remains bound to the Light. He is learning much in those moments and when he is straining against the darkness and is sometimes taken by it. He did not believe in his own strength before. He has a better understanding of it now and of his weakness.

But the terrible despair he feels now, that is growing worse. Does all his toil come to nothing?

No, My child. How can you believe it to be so when all is guided by My hand? You must look beyond the immediate peril. I have led him thus far and I will continue to do so. None of this is for naught. Trust that it all has a purpose even if you can’t see it. His capture was essential to our Enemy’s defeat as you will come to see.

My eyes are weaker than Yours, Ada. I have seen too many of the Enemy’s victories. And this seems to be one of the most cruel that such a bright, beautiful spirit should be crushed so.

Yet, he continues on. Sometimes it is in the crushing of a flower that the beauty of its scent is released. Our Enemy seeks to break him but out of that brokenness will come a greater light. He is battling a foe greater than his strength, but not greater than Mine. I have seen much more than you. The Road will continue to darken, but I will ever be with your brothers. Listen and watch now and renew your hope.

Elrond obeyed and he heard Sam’s voice raised in song and Frodo’s weak response, then the tender reunion of the two heartbrothers and the peace in both their features as Sam held his beloved master close.

Le hannon, Ada. I beg forgiveness once more for my lack of trust.

It is forgiven, My child.

Elrond returned to himself and regarded his daughter, noticing her for the first time and answering the questions in her eyes. “He continues on,” he said and she nodded, adding her own prayers of supplication and thanks. She remembered well that bright, beautiful being who had accepted a terrible burden beyond anyone’s strength but the One who had given it to him. Elrond took her hand and squeezed it. “He continues on,” he repeated.

“He continues on,” she echoed.

Chapter Ten: Prayers Answered

Elrond felt the dizziness due to the growing thirst of the hobbits and their weariness, especially that of Frodo, the drain not only on his hroa but his fea. The darkness around the Elf-lord was more than the night that he treasured being out in. He felt the black over his heart even in his well-lit study, but he was in his gardens now, walking in safe, guarded lands where Frodo and Sam struggled through lands growing more dangerous all the while. He knew it had to be them, that it couldn’t be any others, but...

Please, Ada, please help them. They are alone, surrounded by their enemies.

They are not alone, My child. They are also surrounded by the enemies of their enemies.

The black had not entered his heart the way it had Frodo’s but the Elf lord wished it would if it meant that his little brother would be saved from it. The Elf-lord was gladdened that the growing darkness found little purchase in Sam’s heart so filled with love and concern for his master. Only physical darkness reached there instead of the terrible night of the Enemy that shrouded Frodo’s. He heard Sam’s prayer for light and water and added his own fervent supplication.

Let them feel Your Light as well, Ada, please. He is being drained so by the darkness.

And he is being filled.by the Light. In the struggle in that small and great heart is also the greatest hope, though he cannot hold it himself. Many others hold it for him, his heartbrothers - all those who have fought alongside him.

I hold it as well, but I grieve. How can such a hard road be borne?

By the same way it has been borne by you and all those of My children who have fought the Shadow. You have not stopped fighting simply because you have been defeated more than once. You understand there is more merit in suffering to end an evil than in fleeing it. Your brother didn’t think he was strong enough for this either, but he is discovering more and more that he is. He is growing stronger as he is growing weaker. He will not fail. The Enemy is sowing his own defeat in that fea he so seeks to dominate.

Elrond felt the Nazgul fly over where Frodo and Sam were, felt the cold in that soul pierce him and his brother and knelt down in his garden and continued to pray.

I wish I had Your sight, Ada. My faith and trust are so weak.

Then take his. He does not even know Who he trusts, but he still believes. He has no hope of his own, but he still trusts.

Soon he looked up and felt his prayers answered at the same time he felt Sam’s excitement about the bit of light. Frodo’s spirit still struggled under its burden, but then Elrond felt the pain of it ease a bit. He knew that Sam had taken his master’s hand or had otherwise brought some comfort. The Elf lord longed to bring aid of his own, but knew that Sam being there was more help than he could provide.

Le hannon, Ada.

He did not rise from his position and that is how Arwen found him an hour later. She joined him there, held her father’s hand and added her own prayers. Elrond clasped her hand firmly and together they prayed, their link adding power to their pleas. It was joy for them to know that another prayer had been answered - the hobbits found water. Elrond felt his own throat eased, though he was surrounded by water.

Le hannon, Le hannon, Ada.

The hobbits found a place to rest for the night and Elrond hoped it would be prove to another blessing for he continued to fear the hold the Ring was gaining on his little brother. More than once he had been awakened from sleep or meditation by dark dreams and knew Frodo’s fea was under another assault. Each time he had sent what support he could to shore up the failing defenses and prayers to strengthen the one so little in body but so great in heart. He felt Sam also wake if Frodo whimpered or cried out, felt support and love given, a physical touch to bolster what he tried to send.

Look up, My child. The Enemy cannot reach all the places I can.

Elrond looked up at the night sky and felt a moment of union with his other brother as Sam stared up at the stars as well. He felt peace settle within as it settled within that little gardener’s heart and soothed his fea enough that he took Frodo’s hand and abandoned himself to sleep.

Do you see, My child? He knows not Who is watching over him, but he trusts enough to let Someone else look after his master for this little while, as Frodo is trusting also. Their faith is strong even in their ignorance.

As mine is weak in my knowledge. You are teaching me much, Ada. I am ashamed that You have to.

It is enough that you are humble enough to learn.

Chapter Eleven: Captured

Elrond jerked from a sound sleep when he felt his little brothers near panic reach him. He sat up and reached out to soothe the fear before he even knew what caused it. He threw on his dressing robe and fled barefoot to the iaun.

What he saw unfold in his sight Iluvatar had given him was Frodo and Sam being pushed into a line of orcs traveling down a road.

Ada! No!

I am with them, My child. All is happening as I wish it to be.

Elrond felt Frodo’s fear that the Ring-bearer tightly controlled, pouring all his flagging strength and will into merely moving forward. The Elf lord sensed his fear about becoming a captive again of the orcs and how he tried to block out the memories of his time in the Tower. All that mattered was moving forward, though to what doom, he could not bear to think. His head began to swim from fatigue, the stench of the bodies around him and thirst and Elrond felt it all. He sent him and Sam all he could of his own strength, but wondered if his brother, his hero, was even aware of it.

How can this be right, Ada? The peril ever deepens and Frodo is already so weak.

The evil intent of our Enemy is ever working against him. It is only hastening his defeat. You must look deeper, My child. Enter not the darkness, but the light beyond it.

You can see that better than I, Ada. All I see is darkness swirling deeper and blacker and Frodo caught up like a leaf in a whirlpool to be consumed.

When the whip lashed the hobbits’ legs, Elrond felt as though his own had just been scored. He sucked in a breath and tried to shunt all their pain onto himself, shoring up their failing defenses. He watched and shared Sam’s fear that the Ring-bearer would either faint or fall and all would be revealed and lost. His breath caught when Frodo did stumble and was caught by Sam. Then he saw the fight break out among the orcs competing to be the first to get to the camp and be able to rest after the forced march and he saw his two little brothers get away in the confusion. He watched Frodo drag himself the last yards at Sam’s insistence and then collapse utterly. The orc troops passed on oblivious.

See, My child? Evil defeats itself ever more. Why do you continue to doubt?

Because my vision is not as far or as deep as yours. Because my trust is not complete.

Knowledge of self is a lifelong process. You have learned much and you have much to learn. The future is Mine alone to survey. Your sight is limited so you can show faith and trust. Harken after your younger brother. His sight is even more limited but also deeper and clearer because he trusts the way will be shown to him.

I’m sorry, Ada. I have failed you greatly in that. I continue though to be Your student and his.

Chapter Twelve: It Was Then That I Carried You

Elrond’s body felt an agony of exhaustion, thirst and hunger. He stood in his garden under beloved stars, a breeze rustled his cloak and hair, but all he felt was the darkness and a terrible pain beyond anything he had ever felt as he watched and felt the tortuous path taken by the two hobbits.

He watched as Frodo’s hand often reached up to answer the call of the Ring and slowly return to his side as his will recalled it. Each time the Elf lord could feel another tear in his brother’s feaas it fought off the assault and tear would close but not completely. It was bleeding in so many places now. Elrond wished to cradle it, but he knew not how to staunch such a great number of wounds.

Ada, please, ada, stop this. How can they bear any longer?

They are near to the finish.

To their own?

To the one long designed.

Elrond watched as Frodo stopped, unable to go further, head bent between knees, arms dangling at his side, hands twitching.

Oh, gwador nin, Elrond thought in grief and admiration. And shame. For he realized it was his own strength to endure what he felt only through the gift of Iluvatar that was failing and not the strength and courage of the ones who were truly bearing the terrible burdens.

A song rose in him then, one he had sung to his children or had heard his wife sing, thousands of years previously, as they slept. Now in his garden, under the stars, he softly raised his voice again.

“Sleep, thou child of Eru,

Safe in His embrace;

May Elbereth surround thee

With her light and grace.

Close thine eyes, beloved,

May thy dreams be blest;

Sleep, thou child of Eru,

And may thy soul find rest.

“Sleep, thou child of Eru;

Dreams I’ll weave for thee:

Dreams of rivers flowing

Onward to the sea,

Dreams of stars that glisten

In the heavens high,

Dreams of fields and forests,

Slumb’ring ‘neath the sky.

“Sleep, thou child of Eru,

Cradled in His arms;

May His love surround thee,

Keeping thee from harm.

Hush now, my beloved,

May thy dreams be blest.

Sleep, thou child of Eru,

And may thy soul find rest.”

Frodo’s body relaxed a bit after that and Elrond saw his light glow more steadily, his fea having received the balm it needed to make it through another night. It was then that he truly noticed that it was through the wounds that the light shone through and it was growing brighter.

The Elf lord sang the song once more, this time to Sam, and he tried to remember to trust in those words. It was more difficult now than it had been. He sang it once more, this time to himself, until he was almost convinced of the truth in those words that he had never doubted before.

I know you are with them, Ada, but how can any parent bear to see their children suffer like this?

It is not suffering so much as it is love, My child. The loving will suffer anything for the sake of their beloved and not count it as such. Sam’s heart encompasses his master as a warm cloak and Frodo’s encircles all of Middle-earth.

When Frodo woke to a loving caress to his brow, Elrond wished he could add to it, but he realized what more could that have been?

“I’ll be an orc no more. Let them take me, if they will!” the Elf lord heard Frodo cry out.

Frodo’s body was still bowed under the weight of his burden, but he stood more erect than before as he issued his defiant challenge.

Elrond watched as the two hobbits stumbled and fell in their dizziness brought on by dehydration. He watched Sam pick himself and then Frodo up each time and head bowed, the Ring-bearer and his faithful companion struggled on. At last they could do no more and Elrond watched with pity, grief and agonized love as Frodo began to crawl and then Sam pick him up and carried him, until he too was reduced to crawling and finally had to rest.

How could he have done that? Elrond asked in admiration. Oh, Ada, they are such marvels. I have never seen the like.

He did not carry his brother alone.

____

A/N: The song is from Queen Galadriel.

Chapter Thirteen: Claim

Elrond gasped as he woke from nightmare visions. Drenched in sweat, he rose to rinse his face and seek the source of the terrible images that clung to him, receding only reluctantly into the black well where they had sprung. In the dim candlelight burning in honor of Iluvatar, Elrond’s vision swam until he saw the source of the horror. He watched with anguish as Frodo batted his hands in front of his face at things not there but entirely vivid and real to him. The Elf lord’s grief increased as his little brother suffered this new assault but his admiration and love and humble awe grew at the same time as Frodo stumbled on despite it all.

Elrond was dismayed that the light from Galadriel’s phial did not penetrate the darkness of the Sammath Naur where it had shown so brilliantly in the black of Torech Ungol. And that his own attempts to reach his brothers were blunted.

All powers are subdued here but his. And Mine.

Oh, Ada, stay with them now especially. The darkness is so deep.

They will always see my light.

Elrond’s heart flared with hope as Frodo’s light grew as bright as one who had been on the other side. But a moment later, it was crushed at the same time as Sam’s when the power of Sauron overwhelmed the frail vessel that the light was held in.

“I have come. But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!”

Elrond lived over again not only the nightmare of Isildur’s failure, but felt very intimately the violation of Frodo’s fea. He cried out in his own fea and out loud, though he did not realize he had, wondering how anyone could bear such torment.

Ada! NO!!

He watched in agony as Frodo disappeared, claimed by the Ring and he knew a terror and a grief he had never known before in his milennia of life, not even when he had actually stood where hisfea stood now, at the Cracks of Doom with Isildur and was just as helpless to stop either man or hobbit from failing to destroy the Ring. Why hadn’t he been strong enough then to prevent now another one dear to him suffer and fail because Isildur had failed, because he had failed?

Where are you, Ada?! He is lost. Elrond’s voice seemed to echo back through the last age as he had asked the same thing then.

I am with him, My child, came the same response.

How can You be? If You are, why then has he failed? I thought he...You...

Did I not tell you that the burden would be too much for him in the end? No created being could withstand that power forever. You knew that. He knew that. Olorin, Galadriel, Faramir, all My children realized it. Indeed they hardly dared to hope that Iorhael would even make it this far. But he is endurance beyond hope, beyond all but Panthael’s.

Tears coursed down Elrond’s cheeks that he was barely aware of, tears of mirrored failures now pummeling him twice as hard. I thought...I tried so hard to trust You, Ada, that everything would be all right, but it is not.

It is as it was always to be, My child. Your brother has shown great strength and in his weakness, I will show My strength. He has not failed. I gave both your brothers the grace to be who I created them to be - Bronwe athan Harthad and Harthad Uluithiad - to help right the wrong of Isildur. They have done that. Your other brother and I will fulfill the rest.

Elrond watched helplessly as Smeagol jumped on his brother’s invisible form and wrestled with him. His jaws opened, then closed viciously on something and Frodo’s agonized howl filled the chamber at the same that of the Elf-lord’s the expanse of his silent garden as the Ring-bearer suddenly reappeared and dropped to his knees, clutching his bleeding hand, now missing a finger that Smeagol held triumphantly aloft, the Ring still encircling it.

Elrond dropped to his knees as well, clutching his own hand, gasping hard in his pain. He barely felt his twin sons rush to his side and support him, couldn’t answer their mental pleas for what he caused him to cry out and collapse. But so great was their bond that Elladan and Elrohir saw flashes of terrible images from their father’s mind and sought to ease his pain. They wiped at his tears and held him as they could against him.

Why, Ada, why?! Elrond cried out. He gave You all he had to get here, but still it was not enough. His body is maimed and his fea...his fea...

It reminded the Elf-lord far too vividly, of his wife’s after she had been attacked by Orcs. He had hoped never to feel such pain again, but now, after five hundred years, it returned to him and he groaned under the double force of it and Frodo’s. It was to Celebrian, not to Iluvatar, that his prayer now reached, for strength, for hope, for endurance. Her fea shone once more. Please, let it be so with him as well. Help me, meleth nin, help him. Help him in ways I cannot for I have not felt what you two have, not truly.

Better that he lose a piece of mortal flesh than his immortal fea.

Elrond could not tell where that answer came from.

A/N: Meleth nin is my love. The names Iluvatar gave to Frodo and Sam are Endurance Beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable.

Chapter Fourteen: Eucatastrophe

Elrond had not felt this helpless to stop another’s pain as he had since watching his wife suffer after Orcs had attacked her and he had been unable to soothe more than the violation of herhroa. How many tears, pleas and prayers to Iluvatar he had poured out in the silence of the iaun, how much grief and rage that he could only heal her hroa, but was helpless to comfort her feawhich was torn even worse. It had been as though she was bleeding to death in front of him and though his own hands were soaked in that blood, he could nothing to staunch it. It was almost worse now as he watched Frodo, now severed from the Ring, but still lusting for it, wrestling once more with Gollum for it.

You knew this would happen, Ada, that he would claim the Ring?

Yes, My child. And he knew it also. He did not wish to, but it grew on him just as My grace grew to counter it. His fea fed on both.

You know all the errors we will make from all time?

Yes.

How can you bear it?

If there was an answer, Elrond did not hear it for a great cry went up from his fea and his throat as he watched two of his brothers tumble over the side to the horror of the third.

NO!!!! Ada, how could you allow this?

It is not the end, My child.

The Elf-lord tried so hard to believe that calm Voice that had guided him through many storms before, but the terrible depth and strength of Frodo’s torment buffeted him and tore at him as a very strong wind, threatening to sweep him away.

He traveled with Sam to the edge of the chasm where the Ring had fallen. There was no sign of Gollum, but hanging very precariously onto a ledge was Frodo. Elrond tried to bolster his fading strength and joined Sam’s pleas to not let go, speaking in Sindarin as Sam spoke in Westron.

“Dannen le

A u-erin le regi

Rang ail le iestannen

Lu ail le tegin na hen.

Gwannach o innen ului

U lu erui, ului.”

“You have fallen

And I cannot reach you.

Every step I willed you on,

Every moment I lead you to this.

You never left my mind,

Not once, not ever.”

Elrond saw very clearly the struggle Frodo had, looking up at Sam and down at the Ring, longing for the pain to end, longing to join his treasure that floated on the lava.

“Anirach unad

Egor gurth hen

Han cenin vi chen lin

Egor u-erin le devi

Tellin men achae

Brennin men anann

Rago! U-erich leithio,

U-erich o nin gwanno.”

“You want nothing more

than this death.

I see it in your eye.

But I cannot let you

We have come too far

We have held on too long

Reach! You cannot let go,

You cannot leave me.”

Elrond watched as Frodo reached for Sam’s hand, responding to the love in those words, but his hand was so slick with blood that he could not get a grip on Sam’s.

Hold him, Ada! Elrond begged as his brother nearly lost his grip. Frodo looked back down at the Ring, longing and loss still filling him.

He is held.

The Ring began to dissolve and as it did, Frodo’s will became freer. He reached for Sam’s hand again, now seeking the treasure that had been his for far longer than the Ring had and a true one. Their hands caught and with his last strength, Sam pulled his brother up and they lay exhausted in each other’s arms for a long while, heaving, too weak to move, too moved to speak.

Only then Elrond became aware that there were arms around him as well and he sank into that comfort.

“The Quest has been achieved,” he breathed to his sons. He trembled though at the cost of it.

He turned his attention back inward, back to his brothers. He listened as Frodo and Sam spoke to each other. He felt Sam’s joy surge through him as beheld his beloved master’s eyes now free of strain and madness. He held his brother’s bleeding hand to his breast and mourned that he had nothing to comfort it with. Frodo smiled wearily at his beloved guardian. “I am glad you are with me. Here at the end of all things.”

“Yes, I am with you, Master. And you’re with me. And the journey’s finished. But after coming all that way I don’t want to give up yet. It’s not like me, somehow, if you understand.”

“Maybe not, Sam, but it’s like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now. We are lost in ruin and downfall, and there is no escape.”

“Well, Master, we could at least go further place here, from this Crack of Doom, if that’s its name. Now couldn’t we? Come, Mr. Frodo, let’s go down the path at any rate!”

“Very well, Sam. If you wish to go, I’ll come.”

Elrond marveled that the younger hobbit’s stubborn optimism and cheer could withstand even the heat, flames and hot ash raining down on them. When they could go no further, they settled back into each other’s arms to await the end. Frodo closed his eyes as he firmly held onto his brother with both arms. His face was peaceful and beautiful, despite the terrible burn around his neck where the chain had dug into it and the cuts on his cheeks. He was free again, he was Frodo. Sam kissed his head and did not let up his watch over him even then.

“Never did you leave my mind,” he murmured to his dear one. “Not once, not ever.”

I am glad they are together, Ada. That is the way it should be for two quitin fear. But still it is bitter. Why does it have to end this way?

It will end this way, My child, but you do not know when that end will be. Has not anything you have seen and heard yet brought you to believe that Panthael’s heart is what I have fashioned to be? Hold onto his hope, if you have no more of your own.

What hope is there left? I tried so hard to hold on the entire time, to trust in Your words and vision. But there is nothing left for me to hope or trust in.

While there’s life, there’s hope. Trust still for My watch has not ceased over them anymore than has Panthael’s ceased over his Iorhael.

The flames are so close.

I am closer.

It was then that Elrond saw what the hobbits didn’t at first. The eagles lifted them up. The Elf-lord watched the absolute wonder and peace in Frodo’s face as he was carried aloft, then closed his eyes, still anticipating the end, but to what end, he did not know. The same wonder filled Elrond. The one bearing Sam away flew close to his brother, instinctively knowing that the two needed to be near.

A/N: Quitin fears is knitted souls. There is no better description for Frodo and Sam then that, but I cannot take credit for it as Ralph Wood in The Gospel According to Tolkien likens their love to David and Jonathan which the Bible mentions as having knitted souls. The pleas of Elrond and Sam spoken to Frodo are from the ROTK transcript fromhttp://www.councilofelrond.com. The first one is called “Not Once, Not Ever” and the second “Don’t Let Go.” Words by Philippa Boyens, Sindarin translation by David Salo. I think they are two of the most beautiful love songs, another being, of course, “Into the West.”

Chapter Fifteen: Rest

Neither Frodo nor Sam understood what was happening when they were suddenly lifted up away from the ash and the fumes and the heat just as they fell together, overwhelmed at last. All they knew that their clasped hands were being pulled apart even as they feebly tried to hold on, but were both too weak. Their hands came apart and it was as though their hearts and souls so closely knit were torn asunder. That was more than they could bear, that at the very end they were going to be separated and die alone. A strong cry went up in each of their hearts, but only a croak from their lips, the beginning of a name, a futile reaching again for the hands of the other as the eagles held them tightly but tenderly in their talons and brought them far away from the death and destruction.

When Gwaihir, Landroval and Meneldor brought Frodo and Sam back, Aragorn came immediately to take Frodo and Gandalf took Sam. The hobbits were filthy from crown to toe, their hair matted, their faces cut and bruised, their cheeks sunken, their bodies emaciated. Frodo was missing a finger on a right hand stained liberally with blood. There was an red, weeping burn around his neck where the chain had bit deep into his tender skin. The feet of both hobbits were blistered and bleeding and their lips were deeply cracked and flecked with dried blood. Wizard and uncrowned king looked at each other with grave concern as tears streamed silently, unnoticed, down their cheeks, then Aragorn took Frodo into his arms and Gandalf took Sam, to give them comfort and company before anything else. Frodo sank into the embrace with a sigh, very weakly returning it. The hobbits stank but it didn’t matter. It was a sweet smell for the two who had wondered if they would ever see their beloved friends again. What horrors they had seen and endured, neither hidden Maia or king wished to imagine.

Elrond wished to add his own embrace for he feared greatly he never would be able to any other way, but he held back. His breath was taken away as he looked upon Frodo’s fea as gloriously bright and beautiful as any Elf who had been on the other side and he knew now more than ever that it was Iluvatar’s Light that shone in him, just as it did in the Firstborn. Frodo was closer to that Light now than he had ever been, bathed in it, soothed by it, illuminated by it, but Elrond could see that its reflection within him was flickering, nearly spent.

Is it already too late?

Do you still not trust, My child?

Elrond hung his head. No, Ada.

Learn then from your child.

To Aragorn’s inner sight, Frodo and Sam’s fear were almost too bright to face. As he looked upon them in awe and reverence and gave thanks to the One who had preserved them, the Elf-lord knew his foster son had a firmer faith in Iluvatar at the moment than he did and he was ashamed.

They both watched Frodo look at the shining Gates ahead of him, then at Sam who gazed at him as lovingly as ever.

Please stay, gwador nin, Aragorn asked gently and lovingly and Elrond added his own pleas. The Shadow has passed. Your Quest has been achieved. You have won. You have my thanks and the thanks of all Middle-earth.

It’s all right, Mr. Frodo dear. It’s over now. You’re safe.

Aragorn and Elrond held their breath as Frodo’s fea turned to face that of his heart’s brother. The two hobbits regarded each other for a long while, the younger guarding and nurturing the guttering flame of the elder, loving it back from the brink or trying to. For that while, neither spoke in any way that Aragorn or even Elrond could detect, communicating on a very deep level that needed no words or even thoughts. Then they heard Frodo’s response.

Lead me, Sam. I will go where you go.

Sam’s spirit held out a hand and Frodo grasped it. Aragorn smiled, then withdrew from within. Elrond continued to watch.

They all saw Frodo took a shuddering breath, then still holding him close, Aragorn raised a water skin to his lips. He coughed and choked a lot and much of it spilled down his front in his haste to drink all he could. Dimly he was aware of Sam coughing also and that reassured him that they were still together.

Aragorn grieved at the mute testimony that their water had been so sorely lacking, but he was careful that there was nothing but a smile and love in his voice. “You don’t have to drink it all at once, tithen gwador. It will not run out.”

Frodo tried to slow down. More then made it down his parched throat and he sighed in relief. His mouth was wiped and then he was laid back down.

Elrond watched Aragorn removed the Elven cloak and the orc rags underneath, then tenderly and reverently washed the ash and grime from Frodo as Gandalf did for Sam. Once that was done, they made note of all the cuts and bruises that had been previously hidden. Frodo’s hand tightened around Sam’s as Aragorn gently touched him. The whip marks along his side, shoulders and legs caused the man to take in a breath and blink against new tears, but he saw no new, worse damage than that and sighed in relief.

Tears flowed down Elrond’s face for he could see more the damage done to Frodo’s fea than his foster son and again grieved for that as did Gandalf whose weathered cheeks were also wet. The same question came from both to the One who had made them, one speaking from faltering faith, one from strong.

Why such a high cost for this? Why did this one small, beautiful being have to take upon himself all the hurts and hate of the Enemy? Why did You even allow the Ring to be forged if this was the end it would come to, so damaging this fair child of Yours?

The freedom of will is a gift I gave to all My children. Some have abused it and because of that, others have been hurt. But some have used it well and because of that, others have been saved. It was Iorhael’s free choice to accept the burden to save others from the deadly peril it held, to accept My call to remove that peril from the world, if he could do it. The cost was not beyond the price set for it and the reward will be in measure to the sacrifice.

Thy Will be done, came Olorin’s sure answer, but Elrond’s did not come so steadily.

The Elf-lord watched as Aragorn and Gandalf carefully dried the two hobbits. His pride and love grew as his foster son tenderly tended to Frodo’s maimed hand. Healer and Maia then spread a salve on the hobbits’ blistered feet, cracked lips, the angry burn on Frodo’s neck and their other cuts and bruises, before wrapping the wounds in bandages. They were then dressed in loose, overlarge nightshirts, all that could be procured at short notice, but better all the same that nothing constricting was placed upon them.

Le hannon, ion nin, came Elrond’s voice in Aragorn’s mind. Stay with them.

Aragorn looked up for a moment, his eyes distant as he felt the touch of his foster father’s mind and the pride and love in his heart. Im innas, Atar.

The man leaned down, brushed Frodo’s curls and then touched his brow with a soft kiss and did the same with Sam. “Rest now, gwedeir nin. Your bodies gave all they could. As did your hearts and souls. Let them all heal. You both did very well, better than any of our hopes held.”

He placed Frodo gently into Sam’s arms. The two curled around each other and sighed as they settled into the sleep that Aragorn sent them into. The features of the healer-king and Maia grew slightly less grave, but Elrond still feared for them.

Fear not, My child, for they rest now in My arms until they can rise again for their reward.

Stay with them, Elrond again begged to his foster son as well.

“In all of the ages I have lived,” he heard Mithrandir muse, “I have not seen the like. Again, Eru shows His glory more through the small than the great.”

Aragorn said as he sat back to keep vigil. “We have been doubly blessed.”

Gandalf sat beside him. “Indeed we have.”

A/N: Tithen is Sindarin for little, gwador is brother, gwedeir is the plural, ion is son. Im innas, Atar is I will, Father.

Chapter Sixteen: A Prayer for Frodo

Elrond and Arwen watched Frodo and Sam with the other two periannath as they wandered around the city of Minas Tirith. Sam held his master’s maimed hand in his hand and both Elves saw how tenderly he did so and how firm Frodo’s return clasp was. Pippin held his cousin’s other hand and Merry looked anxiously for his own turn. The Elf lord was well pleased that his doubts had not been founded when he had been against the younger two accompanying the Ring-bearer. Indeed, they had shown growth beyond what the Elf would have guessed possible, watching one dressed in the livery of the Tower and the other as a Rider of the Mark. Their brave deeds were already well-known to all, but it was to Frodo that Elrond maintained his gaze, seeing deep into that troubled fea.

“I see the same thing you do, Ada,” Arwen murmured sadly. “Light as bright as any of the Firstborn, but fractured like a cracked mirror. Like Nana was before she left.”

Elrond nodded. The cracks were small now, hardly noticeable, but they would likely grow. The Elf lord wondered if his little brother was even aware of them yet. “But I think he will fight for his fea and healing, much as she did.”

“And perhaps lose the battle here, much as she did.” Arwen turned her gaze away and faced her father. “I want to give him my place on the ship, Ada. I know it is not mine to give, but I would plead for him, for none would deserve it more, though it would be a grief to him to have to leave all he has fought so hard to save and those he so loves. But perhaps the grief would be worse to stay. My gem may be able to give him solace as he decides what is best for him. I remembered it helped Nana while she lingered here.”

Elrond turned to look at his daughter and his eyes were bright with grief and love. “I agree that it would be better that your place on the ship be not empty. I will still wish it were filled with you, but if he were there instead, it would be an honor and gift indeed to travel with him.”

“I have made my choice, Ada. If another could benefit from it, then it would ease my own heart, for now I will not see you or Nana again and that is a grief to me as well. But I will take the bitter with the sweet, especially if another could gain from it.”

“Then pray for it, iell nin.”

“Will you not pray with me?”

Elrond was silent for a long while and Arwen was patient. His gaze turned back to the city and he looked out from the heights for a long time. The periannath were too small and far away to be seen by any other eyes but Elven. “No, I do not think I will. I prayed so long and hard for Iorhael and there has been no granting of my wish for him.”

“He is alive. Has not been your wish, our wish, all along?”

“He is hurt, iell nin, and that is something I wish need not be. I wish Isildur hadn’t been taken by the same. I wish your nana hadn’t been either. I wish I hadn’t been so weak that I could not heal either of them, that I could not stop what the Enemy did to them both, that I could not even will myself to stop Isildur from leaving with the Ring and so doom another to carry it and another and another.”

“But now all has come to pass as Iluvatar would have willed it. The Ring is gone and theCormacolindor have returned alive from the Fire. Haven’t all your prayers been answered? Why do you doubt now?”

“I had hoped this time it would be different. My faith has been tested again and found wanting. It faltered after Isildur’s failure and my own at the Sammath Naur. And it was nearly destroyed after the hours and hours and hours I spent in the iaun and everywhere else, begging that yournana be released from her agony and she was not. She had to leave and I could do nothing to stop the bleeding of her fea. Now I must watch another suffer as well from similar wounds, even deeper.”

“But, Ada, each time, your prayers were answered. Isildur’s failure has been redressed. I thought you had come to understand that the failure was not yours, that no will or strength was strong enough to endure that evil place but the Creator Himself. And you know well that nana has healed. It was beyond your strength, beyond anyone’s, but the One Who gave that healing. You know how long I too prayed and Elladan and Elrohir and Nana herself and our whole household. And our prayers were answered. Continue to pray for the one who needs it now the most, besides yourself.”

“I do not need prayers, iell nin.”

Arwen smiled. “I will pray for you nonetheless.”

So it was that the Queen left her father upon the battlements of the great fortress and sought a greater one, where the Men of old had once prayed and would now again. It did not have the walls that Minas Tirith had, but it was filled with a still greater strength. Arwen raised her eyes to the sky. Evening was upon the land. The shadows were lengthening, but it was a glad thing to see now for it meant the sun still shone. And the cloudless sky also meant the stars would be bright. She turned her gaze to where the brightest would be, that had been all but obscured during the last days of the War.

“My Ada, my Lord Manwe, My Lady Elbereth, My Lady Este, My Lady Nienna,” the Queen began softly, kneeling on the ground now and looking into the darkening sky. “I beg that my seat on the ship going home will be given one of mortal-kind who is truly worthy of it and I fear will sorely need it by the end. I beg that it be may his choice to take it or not, but that the choice be put before him. Such a gift I would not plead for, if not for the need of it for one so small and so great. Ada, he has made such sacrifices and done such good for You, heed my prayer, I beg you. My Lord Manwe, breathe upon my prayer your blessing and speed it along, said upon the wind. My Lady Elbereth, light Iorhael’s way so he always has a path to follow through the darkness. My Lady Este and Nienna, hold him close to you, so he knows solace and relief and healing from his ills. Please, please, help him, just as you helped Nana, when she was torn. And please, Ada, I beg, help Atar, strengthen him and let him know his prayers and faith have not been in vain. And,Nana, please help Iorhael when he comes.”

Over and over Arwen quietly plead her case and as the stars began to come out and the brightest shone upon her, she heard in her heart, Your prayers have been heard, My child and it is our will as well.

“Le hannon,” the Queen whispered and prayed still more. It was long after dark that she rose from her knees. But when she did, she saw her father there.

“I have prayed for him and for you, Ada. And I have received my answer.”

“It is well then?”

“It is well. May Elbereth light his way to the One who can heal him. Oh, Ada, what we owe him and his faithful servant.”

“Everything, iell nin, and yet more is required. I wish it was not such. Such quitin fear should not be separated and now he will be losing three of them if he decides.”

“And gaining another he has long missed. It is a blessing disguised as a curse. It took Nana a long time to recognize that and for us, but when the storm of grief eased, didn’t you discover her still resting in your heart as comfortably as she always did, didn’t you see her light shine clearer and clearer? He and they will discover the same, if he comes to such a choice as she did. The malice that has hurt him came from outside Middle-earth, wouldn’t it then be right that the cure also come from outside? The way is open, but it is still his feet that must trod upon it and it will be a hard road, but what awaits him at the end!”

“You have certainty, iell nin, that I doubt now.”

Arwen looked directly into her father’s eyes. “How can you, Ada, when you know how badlyNana was hurt and how she was healed and the peace that is in your heart now and how you will soon hold her in your arms again. Hold her for me, too, and thank her for holding him too.”

“I shall do that, at least, iell nin. It will grieve her that you will not hold her yourself.”

“If I had not made my choice for love of Elessar, then how could I have made my prayer for love of Iorhael? Iluvatar know all our ways and wanderings and endings. You showed me how to hold His hand at the same time you were holding mine. I must let yours go now, but it is so Iorhael can hold the one I will still be and I have prayed you still will also.”

Elrond looked long at his daughter and there were tears hidden deep in his eyes. How much she would be gaining for love, how much she would be losing. How much he would be losing, how much he would be gaining. He held out his arms and she came into them. As they held each other tightly, they knew it was likely to be the last time.

A/N: Iell nin is my daughter. Cormacolindor is Ring-bearers.

Chapter Seventeen: A Gift

Arwen watched Frodo when he came to her and Aragorn by the fountain and begged leave to depart to see Bilbo. She was struck as always by his beauty and humility and the Light from within him, but she saw also the darkness that still sought to possess him, a jagged tear in hisfeathat she knew neither she or anyone but Iluvatar Himself could heal. Frodo seemed to be growing slowly aware of it himself as it eclipsed his joy and she grieved that he should be burdened again. But it was through the tears there and the other wounds he bore, that the Light of his fea shone. She knew it would shine brightest in the West, when all the tears were mended and he was whole again. Until then, she wished to help him in any way she could; still she could not unwrap the gift grace had given her, but only present it.

“A gift I will give you,” she said. “For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him now when he departs to the Havens; for mine is the choice of Luthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. But in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it. If your hurts grieve you still and the memory of your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed. But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven!”

And she took a white gem like a star that lay upon her breast hanging upon a silver chain, and she set the chain around Frodo’s neck. “When the memory of the fear and the darkness troubles you,” she said, “this will bring you aid.”

Frodo bowed. “My lady,” he breathed in awe of such a gift.

Arwen watched him leave. He would have to make a choice, like she had, like her mother had, like Luthien had, and she feared that as it had been for her nana, it would be only through the very bitter would he reach the sweet.

Please, Ada, give him the strength to make the right choice, she prayed.

I shall, My child.

When Frodo returned to Sam and his cousins, they saw the chain and he showed them the queen’s gift, but as to her other gift, he spoke not a word.

All the way to Rivendell, Elrond watched over Frodo and saw that at times his hand reached out to touch the gem, though sometimes he stopped short and his features spasmed as though he wasn’t sure exactly what he was reaching for. But each time he completed the action and clasped the gem, his features relaxed and his light flared a bit brighter. Elrond was sure Sam noticed it as he knew that small guardian could see into his master’s soul as well as any of the Firstborn and better, he suspected, than Frodo himself could.

It was shortly before they left that Elrond chanced to hear Frodo and Sam talking one evening.

“Well, Mr. Frodo, we’ve been far and seen a deal, and yet I don’t think we’ve found a better place than this. There’s something of everything here, if you understand me: the Shire and the Golden Wood and Gondor and kings’ houses and inns and meadows and mountains all mixed.”

“Yes, something of everything, Sam, except the Sea,” Frodo answered.

Elrond heard the longing and the pain in that voice. The painful decision had not yet been made, but it was growing in his heart. He turned his thought to the One who created them both.

Why are you asking him to make another sacrifice? He has already given you everything. There is nothing left inside of him and yet you still ask for more.

I ask so I can give him everything he has given Me. Still it is his choice whether to embrace this journey, just as it was his choice at the Council I called.

He will say yes. He will not deny you. But it is a bitter choice.

And the other one was not? He is empty now, but he will be filled again.

He should not be parted from his kin, especially not from the fea that is knit to his closer than any other.

He will not be.

Could he not stay? I will be coming to a home prepared for me, but he will be leaving one.

A home long prepared awaits him there also, but still it is his choice whether to occupy it or not.

Elrond remembered a similar conversation he had had when he begged that his wife be healed, that they not be parted. But parted they had been and his faith that he had thought so strong wavered and foundered upon the sharp rocks of his grief and rage and helplessness, just as it had when Isildur had failed him and he had failed Isildur. He knew or feared in his heart that Frodo would make the same choice as Celebrian, know the same desperation that had driven her West, the same terrible pain neither he nor anyone could do nothing to soothe. All his prayers had seemed to be in vain, but she had prayed differently, and her prayers had been answered, and in time, he understood that his had been also and in the same manner as hers. So though he feared for Frodo, he also hoped his little brother would make the same choice. He remembered well the desolation he had felt when he had stood at the Grey Havens and watched her ship leave, but he also the joy that had filled him, tentatively at first as she first began to heal and then more fully as each new step was taken until she shone again in his mind brighter than she ever had. As he watched the four perian, one of Frodo’s hand was always around Sam and the other around one or the other of his cousins, the Elf lord knew he would feel all those things again in his own heart as his little brothers felt them.

Yes, all of them, My child. Remember that. I have given Iorhael the grace of the Firstborn, but the mortality of the Second for I want to closer to Me, though that too will be his choice.

He will be drawn. You have molded his heart by Your hand and he will not resist that.

So has your heart been, My child. Why do you resist now?

Because he has been hurt. I thought from all that you had said, it would be different this time.

How could it have been? None of My children could have resisted such terrible power at the end. And your brother endured beyond anyone’s expectation. I knew from all time when and where that tremendous will would fail and so I placed there with him those who would help him complete the Quest he had embraced at My bidding. And I placed Myself there. Who held him steady enough for that necessary amputation from the poison of the Ring when it claimed him at last? In Whose arms did your and My Celebrian cry out her agony when her arms were chained to the wall and she could not embrace anything but despair? It is not to cause further pain to My children that I separate them from their beloved ones, but to call them to their full flower and glory, to shine out without agony or shame or despair. Neither your wife or brother asked for the pain I allowed them to feel, but both have been or will be glorified through it. It is not for nothing that they have suffered. As you watch their journey continue, you will see that I have never abandoned them and I will continue to walk with them. Will you continue to walk their Road with Me?

How can I not?

Then may their light and Mine guide you back.

Chapter Eighteen: The Light Beyond

Elrond knew well the agony he felt in the hearts of his little brothers as they said goodbye to their beloved own. He had stood where they did now, five hundred years before, had said his own farewell, had embraced half of his own heart and soul and had not known when he would be able to do again. He had wondered then why it could not have been different, why his Celebrian couldn’t have been healed. He hadn’t wanted to let go, but he couldn’t have not let go either. He couldn’t have done any differently than what the four hobbits were now doing. Frodo’s light was just as shattered as Celebrian’s had been and they all knew that this terrible parting was a necessary one.

Bilbo made his own goodbyes and then watched the others with a sorrowful face. He looked most at Frodo and then at Sam. At least he had the hope that the son of his heart would be reunited with the brother of that one’s heart. Sam’s tear-filled eyes looked up at Bilbo after he had let his beloved master go and Elrond could almost hear the wish and promise that passed between them. Look after him, until I can come to do it again. Bilbo smiled and nodded and Sam let go a held breath as a little peace stilled some of the turbulence in his heart and soul. Elrond was glad that the little gardener’s light shone a bit brighter because of it. That dear one’s light was almost as bright as Frodo’s but now almost as dimmed as though each depended on the other for their own light as the moon depended on the sun.

They have ever been each other’s light, living Silmarilli for one another and for all created lands and people. And they will continue to be.

Not now. They are lost in darkness.

It is in the darkness that the light shines best. Do not fear for them, My child. This will not separate their hearts or fear. Even in the dark, they will find each other.

Elrond had no answer. He had wondered long in his own darkness after Celebrain had left him and long it had been before light had returned to him, before he found her and held her again. Still she was always a dim light ahead of him, that he had followed. His only way out of his own darkness was to pursue her through hers and ahead of them both had been a brighter light. Her feet had always been on that path, finding her own way out. He had followed, but for long, he had not believed or trusted enough that the darkness would end. But if it had not been for her light and the Light ahead of her, he had would have wandered forever lost in the black.

Elrond watched as Frodo and Bilbo boarded the ship, Frodo walking alongside Bilbo’s pony while Gandalf guided the pony of the younger Ring-bearer. Frodo’s head was bowed. His maimed hand rested in Bilbo’s. Elrond followed with the Lady Galadriel and other fair folk. When they were all boarded, the scarred hobbit turned to his beloved brothers and watched them as they watched him. They were all crying, but had such tremendous love in their eyes and hearts, that Elrond’s own heart clenched at the beauty and sorrow of it.

He now has his lights to guide him in the dark and I will be there also.

Elrond didn’t answer. The scene was too much like it had been when Celebrian had left, down to the number of family left on the shore. Elrond could see the same hope in Sam’s eyes and broken heart that he had himself so hard tried to hold on, saw in fact that it was stronger than his had been, but what could Merry and Pippin hope for? He knew the grief they did in a way he had never wanted to or thought he would. For it wasn’t just five hundred years ago that he had been saying goodbye, but also now and he knew their pain just as intimately as he knew Sam’s, for he knew he would not see his daughter ever again.

This is not the end, My child. You know well that love does not end simply because the beloved is no longer at your side.

It is still a bitter sorrow to endure.

It shall be endured and the sweetness of love will be rediscovered as you rediscovered yourself and will rediscover once more.

Frodo held aloft the phial of Galadriel which grew bright in his hand and the hobbits watched that light until it was swallowed by the ever-growing distance. And then they watched some more.

* * *

It was raining the night before they arrived in the West. Frodo had spent part of the time on the deck, not caring whether he was soaked. The rain hid his tears and there were many still to be washed away. Elrond watched him silently as he stood with him.

“I used to sleep outside in the summer and stare up at the stars and dream of going on adventures,” Frodo said softly. “Sometimes Sam would be with me or Merry and Pippin. Sometimes Bilbo came. When will I be able to do that again?”

For the first time since the Fire, Elrond found himself wanting to trust in Iluvatar again, needing to find meaning in the meaningless. He reached out almost as desperately as he had those long nights watching his wife suffer and he helpless to stop it and the Why!, Why!, Why! echoing through his head.

“You will be able to do it here, Iorhael. And one day even with Panthel.”

“But not with Merry or Pippin. And probably not even with Bilbo. I don’t know if I chose right.”

The Elf lord took Frodo’s maimed hand gently in his own and felt the perian’s fingers wrap around his after only a moment’s surprise and hesitation. “You chose right, Iorhael. You made the only choice that could be made for one hurt as you are. My wife made the same decision when she was similarly wounded. The One Who made you would not have allowed such a pain without already having in place a remedy for it. Be at peace with your decision, tithen min. There is not a moment you are not being held tight.”

Frodo sighed. He went back in, dried his hair and got into a dry nightshirt, then curled up against Bilbo. He tried hard to believe what Elrond said as Elrond himself tried to.

* * *

It was during one of Frodo’s early explorations of his new home that he had found the iaun. The darkness of the room appealed to him for here was another place in which he could hide his tears. He and Bilbo had settled along the shore and it wasn’t long before the very air of the place had invigorated the ancient hobbit enough that he wanted to go on a “proper walking party” and insisted that Frodo join him. The younger Ring-bearer took longer to accommodate himself to his new surroundings, but the Tookish part of him was roused enough that he often went tramping around with his uncle or sometimes on his own. He was alone the day he found theiaun.

Or at least he was alone until he entered the room. He sensed a warmth and a Presence that he had always felt, but dimly and not understood. He had felt It clearest at the Council, but still he did not know what It meant. He felt It very strongly here though. His gaze was drawn to the red light that hung from the ceiling in the front center of the room, giving off the only illumination in the room.

Welcome, My child, came a Voice in his head and it sounded like all the voices he had ever heard that had ever spoken words of love to him. That Love wrapped around him like cloak, like his parents’ and Sam’s always had.

Who are you, my lord? Frodo asked for the Presence seemed to him to be of very great majesty, even greater than any of the Elves he had known.

I am your Father and your father’s Father and your mother’s and the Father of all.

Frodo bowed deeply, though he didn’t quite understand the whole meaning behind the words. “Frodo Baggins at your service,” he said.

The trouble hobbit felt the warmth spread inside him, like the largest smile he had ever seen, even more powerfully than he had always felt when his parents had smiled at him or the first time Merry and Pippin had and any time Sam had.

You have served me very well, My beloved child.

You were at the Council.

Yes. And every other moment of your life.

Then you know I failed at the end. How can you still love me?

I have loved you, My dear one, since before time began. I formed you from My own heart as I have all My children. How can I not love you?

Because of what happened, because I claimed that terrible thing, because I want it still.

Do you think you should have been able to withstand something no one could?

Yes.

So you did, as I created you to do, until your task was complete, but the power that had made that thing was beyond any child of Mine to withstand forever. Do not blame yourself. You did not fail Me.

But I didn’t complete it. I failed myself, I failed Gandalf and Sam and the Council, all of Middle-earth.

My beloved, stubborn child, and again Frodo felt the smile and Love increase in him, you accepted a task to rectify failures of other of My children. It was beyond the hope of any to accomplish, but still you did accomplish it because it was not beyond My strength, even if you feared it was beyond yours.

It was beyond mine. What little I did was because of Sam, because of Smeagol.

It was also your own will and Mine that got you there. The others supplemented it or became it when you could not supply it yourself, but you were not wrongly named, Bronwe athan Harthad. You endured beyond anyone’s hope and fear, beyond anyone’s but Panthel and Mine.

Who are you, lord? Frodo asked again.

I am the One Who fashioned you and knit you together in your mother’s womb, Who watched you quicken inside her and give your first kicks. I watched your birth as you took your first breath and gave your first cry. I was there to see your first smile and laugh and step and word. I was there to watch you grow, when you learned to read in your and My Bilbo’s lap, when you wrote your first story and every story after that, when you marveled at the world around you. I was there when you presented your first flower to your mum and when you took her and your da by the hand and tugged them into your next adventure. I was there when you giggled as they tickled you and you rode on your da’s shoulders and danced at the Free Fair. I was there when they tucked you in each night with your Beorn, as they sang to you and hugged and kissed you goodnight and you hugged and kissed them and you told each other how much you loved one another. I was there with them when they died and with you when you found out and every moment you grieved and cried. Even if no one else saw your tears, I saw them and every visit you made to their graves, placing flowers there and telling them how much you missed them and loved them and wished they were with you. I was with you when your and My Merry was born and you smiled for the first time in two years. I was with you when you laughed again. And when you stole mushrooms. I was with you when you met your and My Sam. I was with you when Bilbo left and no one else saw your tears, but I did. I was with you when you left with the Ring and when you were left without it. I know all about you, my beloved.

Frodo was confused and had actually colored when the thieving of the mushrooms was mentioned, but he also felt nothing but love from the Voice. His Tookish curiosity was roused that someone he had never known could know all about him, even things no one else knew.

Are you a wizard then? You don’t sound like an Elf.

There was a bright sound in Frodo’s mind and heart like a hearty laugh, almost like Gandalf’s, but deeper and richer and like all the laughs he had ever heard rolled into one.

I am the Creator of wizards and Elves, but no, My child, I am not one Myself.

Are you older than Gandalf?

There was amusement in that Voice as he remembered being in his parents’ and in Gandalf’s and in Bilbo’s when in years before, his curiosity of the world had been overwhelming. He remembered it in his own voice as he answered Pippin’s questions which had been even more endless than his own had been. Yes, far, far older.

Older than Treebeard or Tom?

The smile increased. Yes.

Who was your father?

I am Creator, My own, not created. I am the uncreated Light from which your light and the light of all My children spring.

Frodo sighed. I feel very dark inside and empty, he admitted.

I know. I will fill you again. But I will need your help. Will you give it to me?

Yes, my lord.

* * *

Frodo spent many hours in the iaun, learning how to heal from all the damage done to him. It was exhausting work and sometimes he even slept there, curled up on of the benches. It soothed him to be there more than any other place on the island and he spend much time in silent conversation with the One who was there and, as he found out, everywhere. Many tears he shed there and he felt them wiped away.

Celebrian was in the room one day when he came. He stood at the entrance and her breath was taken away by the brilliance of his light and incredible beauty. Her heart broke at how fractured that light was, like a mirror that had been broken, a mirror that she knew reflected her ownfeawhen she had come here seeking the same thing he was. She had noticed the twoperiannath

when they had come off the boat in the company of her husband and so many others. She had noticed his beauty then, but not so much his light in the bright morning, but now it shone in the

darkness almost as brightly as one of her own kind.

He hesitated on the threshold and almost turned away, but she called out to him softly. “Stay,tithen min.”

He came and sat down by her side and he felt the Love around him increase.

* * *

As these two kindred fea met, Frodo continued along his Road, now guided by one who had walked the same path already. To Celebrian, Frodo was like a bird whose wings had been broken. It was the same way she had felt after she had been attacked and when she longed to have wings like her husband’s mother did and fly beyond the torment that engulfed her. It was here that her fea had learned to fly again and it was under her tutledge and the One Who had made them both, that Frodo took his first little hops on the ground, then his first hesitant flutters into the air, flying a few feet before floundering again.

Elrond watched his progress as well. To him, Frodo was a flower that had nearly been beaten down, but was leaning into the Sun and growing again in the rich soil of the West. Slowly his trust was rebuilt that his little brother was truly in the best hands he could be. He began to pray again and find his own healing.

Bilbo watched as well. The ancient hobbit smiled and steadied the beloved son of his heart as he gathered the strength and heart to fly again. It was an uneven progress, but it was steady. Further and further did Frodo learn to fly as he slowly broke the fetters of his pain. Sometimes he and Bilbo even flew together for short distances as both needed healing. Those times, they flew farther than on their own, as though to encourage and challenge each other. It was after those times that Frodo’s smiles were the brightest. It was a struggle though, not always easy and at times quite frustrating. Tears of effort and continued pain tracked down the younger Ring-bearer’s cheeks or followed him into sleep, but always he went on. He told himself that he needed Bilbo to see him healed. He also needed to do it for Sam who had always been there for him. Sometimes he thought he still felt his brother by his side, encouraging and loving and comforting. But it was stronger than Sam had ever been.

You are doing very well, My child, came Iluvatar’s Voice as Frodo lay in bed.

Was it you I always felt when my parents or my Sam or Merry or Pippin looked at me, or Gandalf or Aragorn or Faramir or the Lady?

Yes, My own. My Love shone through their love for they are all reflections of Me.

Sam was the best.

So I made him to be.

Because you knew all this would happen?

Yes. I wanted to be near you.

Thank you, my lord.

 
Elrond was praying the same words at the same time in the iaun. Celebrian noted the tear in her husband’s fea healing and closing at the same rate of Frodo and smiled at the progress both were making. Her own crisis had drawn her closer to Iluvatar, had strengthened her already strong faith and made her realize how much she needed Him, though she knew it had threatened to destroy her husband’s belief. How many days and nights she had spent in prayer to Him for release, for succor, for strength and had prayed also for him. At times Frodo cried in her arms, just as she had in Elrond’s, and she held him as she had been held, had murmured some of the same words, and had prayed some of the same prayers.

* * *

On the anniversary of their arrival in West, Frodo and Bilbo celebrated in a very special way. The light was back into the younger hobbit’s eyes and he had flown farther that day on his own than he ever had and he had gloried in the love and Love that surrounded him. It was still not as far as he would fly though. Elwing met him in the evening and took him into her arms and spread her wings and together they flew up into the skies and stepped onto Vingilot. For those who stood watching below, as Bilbo and Elrond and Celebrian did, there appeared that night, two evening stars, one lesser, one greater, but both very bright. The darkness had fled.

Thank you, Ada.

* * *

There was a very bright being standing alone on the shore when Sam came. The brightness of the whole land almost hurt his eyes and his legs were unsteady from the days he had spent on the ship. But it was all forgotten when he ran into those arms he had so dearly missed, saw that beloved face and heard that dear laugh and voice and felt the myriad kisses his treasure bestowed on him. His own pain was drowned deep under such brightness and love and Frodo was not the only One to welcome him so joyfully.

It was some years after that Elrond found them asleep in each other’s arms, their light slowly fading and knew then that they had left the Lands that had so blessed them and they had so blessed. He brushed their silver curls as he sang softly.

“Sleep, thou children of Eru,

Safe in His embrace;

May Elbereth surround thee

With her light and grace.

Close thine eyes, beloved,

May thy dreams be blest;

Sleep, thou children of Eru,

And may thy souls find rest.

“Sleep, thou children of Eru,

Cradled in His arms;

May His love surround thee,

Keeping thee from harm.

Hush now, my beloved brothers,

May thy dreams be blest.

Sleep, thou children of Eru,

And may thy souls find rest.”

He kissed their brows.

Thank you for always taking care of them, Ada.

Text © Antane