Into the West (A Lord of the Rings Fan Fic)

Chapter Thirty Five

Rivendell felt empty without her old friends, without Elrond. It was like, Amaruil imagined, gazing on the body of a loved one after their death when they looked the same but something intangible but vital had shifted, a small change with all the effect of an earthquake; she wasn’t sure what her old home had become and she wasn’t sure she could stand to stay there any longer.

Fleeing the memories which it held and barely stopping to pack up her family’s belongings she fled south to Gondor, racing Ninquelote across the open plains and through the mountains, their caps shimmering blue in the autumn sunlight. As she flew further south, heading inexorably towards the deep blue ocean and the whispers of the waves on the shore, the world warmed up around her and the winter faded, its grasping fingers receding into the shadows of her memory and taking with them the pain of leaving people behind at the Grey Havens.

As she neared Minas Tirith, its gleaming monolithic towers a standing monument to the good in the world, a small group of people rode out to meet her foremost amongst them Legolas, Arwen and Aragorn. Seeing their faces again warmed her heart like the cooling sun warmed her back and shoulders and she called out to them with happiness, her cries met with ones just as enthusiastic, if not more so, from the other side.

“Faramir and Eowyn were made so melancholy that they could not greet you but they were obliged to return to Rohan for a time just after we received news of your coming,” Arwen told her, her eager words spilling out of her mouth like a river as they rode back towards the gates. “It does my soul much good to see you returned safe Amaruil,” she continued, “I do hope that… everything went well.”

“A little too well if you ask me,” Amaruil replied with a sad chuckle, “for I do believe that at least one of us here was hoping for some kind of delay in their departure.”

“Such a tragic thing to possess a heart, is it not?” Arwen mused. “One could almost call it an illness, this pain which we cause ourselves. Our bodies do not mean to do it to us and yet, despite knowing exactly what is going to happen, and making the choice for ourselves, we still end up feeling as if a crucial part is missing; if only the pain would stop ‘twould be fantastic indeed.”

“Though I agree with you Arwen and I sympathise fully, I am often of the belief that it is this pain which makes us humane, sentient beings capable of living lives which amount to greatness. We tell stories to learn from the tales that have come before us and we change ourselves once we have learnt from the pain which befalls us as we live.”

“I do sometimes wish it did not hurt quite as much,” she murmured, “and that our choices were not so equally balanced on the sides of good and ill for there is no choice which does not cause some manner or modicum of pain,” she replied. “Still, it is useless to dwell on the past, especially since there is so much for me here which is what I have spent my life wanting.” With this Arwen looked up at the spires of Minas Tirith towering above them, and the many windows of the many people who now relied on her, the woman who was destined to be great and to heal them, and a small smile stroked her face before she passed under the arch which marked the entrance to the city.

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Within a couple of days Legolas and Amaruil were well settled in Minas Tirith and enjoying their lifestyle together, within a couple more Legolas and Aragorn had begun to cement the plans which they were making to reclaim Ithilien; Aragorn had already installed Faramir as Prince of Ithilien but, as the forest had once held a large colony of elves, Legolas was keen to start another city there, especially since he now anticipated regular elven arrivals in Minas Tirith and frequent visits to his great friend.

“Mirkwood is too far to travel easily,” he explained to Amaruil one evening as they sat by a window, gazing at the very forest of which they spoke, “and it would pain me, as I am sure it would you, to be away from our friends for so long.”