Lady of the Elves

Chapter 12

Aelia's POV

We wandered through the room, our eyes directed towards the ceiling, amazed at the stone work of the great columns. As we passed from behind one of the columns a single light fell, displaying a symbol of an axe just over the rotten wooden door which stood open, "Oh!" Gimli cried running towards the doors.

"Gimli!" Gandalf bellowed after him, though his figure had disappeared through the opening.

We hurried our pace and found Gimli kneeling, broken over a tomb in the middle of the room, "No, no, no," he moaned in a brittle voice.

Dwarvish runes were carved in to the white stone; I myself had learned dwarvish many years before from lessons given to me by Ori. I could make out "Here lies," and "Son of," but the names were impossible for me to recognize, though I recognized the one, though I knew not how, it was like the memory of a dream.

Gandalf solved the riddle as he stood be my side, "Here lies Balin, Son of Fundin, Lord of Moria, he is dead then," Gandalf said as he removed his hat, "It is as I feared."

"So this is it then?" I exclaimed in a voice thick with emotion, "We are expected to just forget him here? Leave his body among Orc arrows? I- I didn't even get to say goodbye. By the great names of Manwe and Elbereth who dwell on the high peeks of Oiolosse, I didn't even get to say goodbye!" I cried, my voice gaining in frustration.

"Please Aelia," Gandalf whispered setting a heavy hand on my shoulder, "These deaths are not your fault, allow them to lie in peace."

"Gandalf," I said raising my head, "You do not understand; Balin often spoke confidingly to me telling me of his dream to reclaim Moria. I swore him if I managed to live out the quest that I would- that I would go with him and help him in his adventure. He died thinking I had died, it is no better then backing out on a promise, it practically is backing out on a promise.

You do not know how much it kills me to have not been able to join him in the tunnels of this wretched place. You do not know that everyday in the dungeons of Isenguard, where you did not believe I had been held captive; I swore as soon as I escaped I would join Balin here. Yet you do know, that as I was believed dead I would be very helpful to be sent about as an assassin for those who threatened the order of the Istari along with other Lords and Kings, and you convinced me that I should wait until a later date to join him until the evil had passed, yet it hadn't and wouldn't for an incredibly long time. You do not know that I would be happier here to have died in the halls of these great dwarves than to have acted as a pawn, sent where you pleased. By the Morgul blade that pierced my own dear father's heart, and the orc knife that killed my brother, I wish I had died rather than see this; I wish I was among these bones, these bones of such a great folk."

Gandalf frowned and whispered to me, "Do not speak this way; do not challenge your fate, these valiant dwarves perished, their fate is one of the worst possible known to any race."

"Forgive me Gandalf," I whispered back, my voice broken, "I have known too much death, I had forgotten myself." I reached down next to the tomb and pulled a book from the hands of a skeleton and opened it to a random page, before me lay the elegant writing of Ori, "Oh no."

"What is it?" Gandalf asked. I handed him the book.

"We must move on, we cannot linger," Legolas said to Aragorn and I completely agreed with him.

"They have taken the Bridge and second hall," Gandalf read, breaking the sudden silence that had fallen, "We have barred the gated, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming." A horrible ominous feeling overwhelmed the chamber when suddenly a gigantic resounding crash sounded, startling us all. We whipped around to find Pippin standing next to a well as a skeleton with a chain caught around its foot fell into the well. The entire skeleton crashed down the well with a sound like thunder.