Chapter Text
THRANDUIL awakened for the first time in years completely relaxed. There was no cloud of despair hanging over him. Darkness was not filling him with it’s chilly fingers. His mind was clear. His heart more so. He rose with a grunt, careful to try not to irritate his wounds. His body aches were less. When he looked to his side, a plate of fruit and tea sat on his bedstand waiting for him. He stood, and stretched gingerly.
His brow creased when he looked around, and realized you were not there. He felt your presence nearby… a throbbing golden thread tied to his very being now. He knew you were here somewhere. He knew you were safe. He crossed the room and looked in the long mirror at himself. His hair had been brushed of its tangles, and the night shirt was clean. No hints of what he had tried to do remained, save the wrappings on his wrists. He bent his wrists in experiment. They hurt, but were already healing well. The stitches could possibly be removed in a day or so.
He looked rough, yet not as someone who had just endured a brush with death. Nor did he look as pale and hollow as he had been for over a century… He looked whole. There were still dark circles under his eyes. There was still a slight glimmer, if he looked hard enough, of what had plagued him for all these years… but it was fading. He turned to look at the door behind him.
Was the creature there? He did not feel her nearby. He felt her dark presence in the castle, but it was far away from him, a dark speck of smoke among those who still carried the light of a full life. He was unsure if this was due to his weakness in body, or she simply was not around for once waiting to pounce. He turned back to his reflection, and felt a smile cross his face. It was brighter now.
For a brief moment, he had to reflect on the past. His own choices, and the subsequent abuses that followed them. It had, though he could never admit to himself before now, taken a toll on his very soul. You had become a beacon in a darkness that enveloped him body, mind and soul. If you had not come when you did you would have been returning to a corpse. Love, both powerful and a blessing, had been a curse and a choking noose for so long. He thanked the Great One for his blessing of you.
He took in a deep breath, and felt the world about him, in the castle and beyond.
Things were beginning to change, shift and rework. Whatever fate, the Great One, or just sheer circumstance had in store was ready to make its way known.
A knock sounded on his door. It was one he had known for many centuries. “Come.”
Legolas entered, greeted his father, and a slight smile came to his lips before his eyes betrayed the concern he was hiding.
“I am still fairing very well. Sit.” Thranduil gestured to a nearby chair, and his son complied. Thranduil remained standing, and waited.
“I am more than happy to hear that Father. I…” his son faltered in speech as he looked at his father, Thranduil seeing his eyes darting to the bruises and the wraps on his wrists, before resting on the rug beneath his feet. Thranduil refused to follow his instinct and put his arms behind his back. This was his son, and it did no good to hide this from him.
Thranduil tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Forgive me…” Legolas continued. He finally looked up, a mixture of fear, but raw determination. He stood, and stepped towards him. “I know what has been stalking you, and I will help you destroy it.”
Thranduil’s mouth opened in surprise, as he shook his head. He regained his composure, went back to the bed and sat down, Legolas following. “Please explain.”
~*~
You awoke to a note on your bedstand. Sitting up, you blinked and seen underneath it was a book, and a hand mirror. You rubbed the grit out of your eyes. You had cried yourself to sleep, leaving your eyes feeling raw and sandy when you had awakened.
You got out of the bed and stood, picking up the note.
This is the Mirror Of Memory, and my father’s great spellbook from the Room Of Making. I would rather you did not be forced to look through it down there again. The shadow-walker still stalks the room.
I pray you will find a way to undo what has been done.
Legolas
You picked up the mirror and set it aside on the bed, then looked at the book, running a hand over the worn leather cover. You began to open it when the mirror caught your eye. You picked it up, and looked in it. At first it showed your reflection, then it faded and a woman you did not recognize appeared.
“What is your bidding madam?” in a kind, lovely voice.
You screamed and unwittingly flung it away from you in shock. After all you had seen and experienced, you did not know why this startled you so. You eyed it warily, then heard the woman in the mirror ask, “Are you there madam? You called for me, therefore I answer.”
You raised an eyebrow, and stepped over, bent down and picked it up. You looked into it again, seeing the woman’s face once more.
“I do not believe I called for you…” you said weakly.
The faerie in the mirror laughed. “Indeed you did. I do not answer unless you call. It is the way of our kind.”
“The way of your kind?”
“Yes. I am a mirror faerie. My home is within this mirror. I hold the memories of all who clasp my mirror’s handle.”
“Mirror of Memory…” you spoke aloud quietly, remembering what Legolas called this mirror.
“I need to undo this... thing that Thranduil has done. May I see the memories again?”
The faerie smiled and looked away wistfully. “Yes, but it is not the truth of the matter. You will need to know that if you wish to undo his foolish deed.”
“The truth…?” You gave the mirror a perplexed look as you went back to the bed and sat down.
“Memories are subject to the person who wields them.”
“Which means it is not always the truth, because of our point of view.” you worked out, speaking aloud.
“Yes.” the faerie in the mirror confirmed.
“The truth… how would I see….?” Then it dawned on you. “Is there a Mirror of Truth?”
The faerie smiled widely. “Yes. It is in the place where we were all made. It is one of the ancient mirrors though. One of the first magical mirrors to be made here.”
“The Room of Making…?” You said feeling slightly sick to your stomach as you subconsciously remembered your ordeal down there.
“Yes.”
You thought silently for a moment, then asked, “How will I know which mirror it is?”
The faerie laughed finding the question ridiculous. “It will say it on its frame of course. As do all of us.”
It was only then that you realized the mirror you were holding had “Mirror of Memory” engraved on it’s outer frame around the silvery surface. It was so entwined with the mirror’s decorations that you would not have noticed it otherwise.
“Then I must find it then…” you said rising and beginning to lay the mirror back down.
“My lady!” the faerie called out, forcing you to bring it back up. “You must read the spell first. See how it was written to be done. Then the spell to undo it.”
You nodded.
“Also, when you find the mirror you must speak in rhyme. They are old, and the faeries who dwell in their realms are even older. Rhyme is the only way they will understand your words for this tongue is not their own.” the faerie advised, her voice serious and cautionary. “Choose your words carefully, and be sure to enunciate clearly. Many a thing asked of our kind is fumbled due to this.”
You nodded. “I understand.”
Wait… if this was but a mirror of memories. “Tell me, why did my face come when the… queen asked who the fairest of all was?”
The faerie sighed. “Because in her shattered memory you are the fairest in land.”
You nodded. Weird, twisted logic, you mused. “I must go. I will follow your instructions carefully.”
“The Great One be with you in this, my queen.”
The faerie faded from view and once again all you seen was your own reflection.
“My queen…” you repeated. The words felt foreign. You wondered briefly how all of this started and came about. You shook your head of it. Reminiscence was something afforded to those with time, and those who were about to breathe their last. Not for someone who had an urgent need to act.
You could feel it. Something was in the air. It was thick and palatable. Energizing and full of purpose. You knew not what force was leading you now, whether it was your own, or something or someone much, much greater and older, but all you knew was that you were out of time. The time to act was now.
You laid the mirror down on the bed stand carefully. There would be no more throwing of mirrors as far as you were concerned. You opened the spell book, and leafed through it feeling an energy coming off its very pages.
Finally, you reached the cursed spell you were looking for. You read it over carefully. Memorizing each thing in turn. The spell was dark, and its needs were simple but made your blood run cold again just as it did the first time. There was a line in it… blurred either from age or from its prior use being muddled. Whichever it was, you could not make it out. You felt it was important. You felt it was the key as to how this had gone so wrong in the first place. You looked at it from every angle, even putting it up to a torch light, but to no avail. You sighed, and turned the page over reading the way to undo all of this.
It was even more simple, but just as chilling.
“This can only be undone in the place it was made
With familiars, and book, and candle lit and mirrors inlaid
The one that passed must be brought and put in the center
And another that is living to take the dead’s place must enter
Mirrors shining all things to the heavens and testifying to the deed that has been done
The reaper must call and the dead will heed their new master to come.
When the time comes and the light turns bright
That which has been wrong will be made right.”
You barely understood it. You read it over and over again. After the fifth time it finally made sense.
“Oh… so what happens to me then?” you reread the line that said “And another that is living to take the dead’s place must enter.” That made you apprehensive about the entire thing. You noted again that it needed to done during a Sabbat of Samhain, or Beltane. You closed her eyes and began to chant. “I can do this. Whatever becomes of me is worth it.” A sliver of personal preservation peeked through making you doubt the resolve you were trying to build up. You didn’t want to become another one of those… things. You didn’t want to die in her place. What the hell does this line even mean?
You caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. The resolve came back. In finality you said, “What will be, will be. As long as this is all made right.”
You stood, and walked to the door, book in hand, and took a deep breath.
“What will be, will be.”
~*~
“It could work.” Thranduil stated thoughtfully as he paced his room.
“It has to. There is no other way I can see that will lure her to the middle of the symbol. But do you believe she will do it?” Legolas asked his father keeping step with him.
Thranduil shook his head. “She will have to be there regardless. But I will not force her to do anything she does not wish. “
“I understand Father, but it is the Sabbat . It started already. Soon it will be dawn upon it.”
He nodded and called out to guard, telling him to go to your room and bring you.
Both stood impatiently waiting until the guard returned a couple of minutes later. The guard looked frightened. “She is not there sir! I can not find her anywhere!”
Both father and son exchanged looks and ran out the room.
“I will search the cave!” Legolas called as he ran in its direction. Thranduil nodded and proceeded forward walking quickly before stopping.
He shut his eyes and gathered himself, took a deep breath, turned his sight inward. He focused on the golden thread that binded him to you, and he seen you clearly. His eyes snapped open in alarm. “Why would she return there alone?!”
He sped off in the direction of his Room of Enchantment and Making.
~*~
You entered, almost stumbling to the ground as you began to light torches and lanterns around you as well as any candles you could see. You carried the lanterns two at a time to circle and placed them at what you assumed were the four corners displayed in the book. You looked around briefly to see if the shadow was there. Not seeing it at a glance, though you could feel it nearby, you went to the center of the motif on the floor and looked around you at the covered pieces of furniture. They stood at least five feet taller than you. These were the mirrors. You knew it. Your body sensed an energy pulsating from each one, and the golden symbol on the floor pulsated under your feet. You ran up to one of the covered objects, and pulled the cover away, being sure to pitch it clear of the rune and any lit candles.
You could make out writing, but not what it said. You shook your head, and went to the next one, and the next, until all the mirrors were exposed.
“I suppose I needed to do that anyway.” you muttered to yourself. You spun in a circle and looked at each mirror in turn desperately. “Which is it?”
“And what, pray tell, has you in such a frenzy…?” you heard a familiar voice call out from the shadows.
You rolled your eyes, and watched as the former queen stepped forward, arms crossed, eyes curious but for once not malicious. They appeared swollen and even darker beneath them. Had she been crying? Could she still cry?
“I am looking for the Mirror of Truth if you must know.”
She scoffed and a snicker formed on her lips. “Why do you not call out to it then?”
“Call out to it?” you questioned confused.
The queen merely shrugged and waved an arm out in front of her sweeping across the mirrors.
“Maybe it will answer you. If you think you can know the way of it.” she snickered again, and began saying, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” before she pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows.
You gave her a perplexed look, and repeated in a mumble the shadow’s words before you remembered what the faerie had said.
“Great mirror of truth heed my call, I seek thee out to see the truth of all.” you called out, trying to your best to come up with something that made relative sense in a rhyme.
“I am here, my queen
Take a look and the truth will be seen” called out a mirror to your right in a booming male voice. You seen it light up, while the surface of the others remained cool and dark.
“Why do you seek it?” The shadow asked as you approached the mirror, and stood before it.
“So I can see what really happened to cause all this mess.”
“I have already showed you!!!” the former queen spat out in annoyance.
You forced yourself to stand taller, though the creature made you wish to recoil from it. You had to stand closer to it thanks to the mirror’s position. The creature revolted you even more than before.
“You showed me the way you remember it. Not the truth.” you said calmly. It took everything within you.
“As you wish, ‘my queen’.” the shadow said in a mocking tone, and turned around to retreat to shadowier place.
You shook her head. “You’re just one merry boat of sunshine aren’t you?” you turned back to the mirror, seeing a studious faerie man standing there, in what looked like 18th century attire. You did your best to not think about what that could imply too much.
The faerie gave you an impatient look and stated, “Many centuries I have rest. Kindly tell me what your business is more or less.”
You sighed, and thought for a moment. It had to be precise. You gave the faerie a weak smile, and happened to look in the direction of the former queen. She was looking away from you, and it seemed in that moment as if broken in to fragile pieces. You seen a glisten on her cheek. A tear. She looked up at you and wiped it away. There was not a mocking, resentful look on her face. Only sadness… abysmal sorrow.
In that moment, all resentment, repulsion, and hate left you. It was replaced by another emotion entirely - pity. She was a victim in all of this too. Maybe the mirror will hold the answers to end it. The words came to you then, as if by instinct as you looked upon her:
Mirror of Truth hear my call
Show me what really really happened to Elizabeth, the so called fairest one of all.
Show me with out any hidden themes
The true tale of of this horrid scene.
I need to see with eyes unclouded by hate
What happened to the king and his former mate.
Show me now, let me completely see
How this enchantment of sorrow came to be.
The wife stepped forward and looked at you, more tears on her face, and she replied again with no hint of ill will, “I have already showed you. Please let it be.”
“Yes, but you are broken. You were then, and you are now. ” She looked away from you, and then towards the mirror.
The mirror came to life and drew your attention from the creature standing uncomfortably close behind you. For whatever reason, she wanted to see it too.
You took a breath and forced yourself to focus on the mirror in front of you alone.
Things began just as you had been shown before. You seen the infatuation that Elizabeth developed for Thranduil and it’s subsequent arguments between the queen and he. One even going so far as the queen accusing Thranduil of just wanting to bring her there as a concubine to beget more children. That particular argument ended with her revealing that she felt old, and useless as she could not bear anymore children. Thranduil however, lovingly reassured her that was not the case, and he loved her more than anything in the world. He even went so far as to tell her to not bring Elizabeth there if it was going to cause this rift. This seemed to quiet her fears, and in the end it was agreed that she would still bring her, and hope that Elizabeth would outgrow her puppy love. However, the queen started to become obsessed with her mirrors and the faeries within them. Even asking them daily who the fairest in the land was.
It began`to show something else. Something new. The farmer taking Elizabeth aside after they visited her, and telling her to stop thinking of Thranduil in that way. It was sickening, for Thranduil was to be a father to her, was the way he reasoned with her. The girl, evidently took this heart, and began to take steps to rid herself of it. She apologized profusely on the queen’s next visit, which she accepted happily. Elizabeth began focusing instead on a guard that always accompanied them in later visits. This seemed to quiet the queen’s mind for that time.
You began to get the idea that the queen was starting to become mentally ill in some form long before this, but pushed it away to concentrate on the images before you.
Some time later, Elizabeth caught the attention of a man in town who made it clear that he was going to have his way with her, even if it was by force.
You felt the shadow move closer to you, and you looked towards it breifly, but refused to completely focus on it. You heard a whimper come from the creature behind you.
You seen a beautiful bodice or corset of sorts being given to Elizabeth by the queen, along with many beautiful ribbons for her hair. You seen a look on Elizabeth’s face that you hoped you never would again. A moment later you realized why.
The man had began stalking Elizabeth, and leaving cryptic notes for her in various places on the farm, following her all over when she was in town. It was making Elizabeth for lack of a better term, suicidal. Coming down to a day when Elizabeth took the corset the queen had given her and attempted laced it so tight she could not breathe. Adding the ribbons to her neck, and tying the other ends of them to a rack in her washroom and lunging forward in an odd way to asphyxiate herself. You didn’t know how she had managed it, but she somehow did.
The farmer found her moments later and thankfully untied her just in time. The farmer was furious, believing that the queen was responsible for this. Leading to him having a screaming fit and forbidding the queen on to his property as a result. He would keep Elizabeth there and the queen could go back to where she had come.
Elizabeth followed the queen to the edge of the forest and finally broke down, telling her about the man. She made arrangements to visit her once more before she would come to bring Elizabeth home with her in secret. When she returned she was dressed as a human merchant, and gave Elizabeth a poison comb, cautioning her to not use it for herself. She was to carry it with her, away from her skin, and if the man approached her again, grabbed her, or anything of the like, if possible take it out and if nothing else merely touch his skin with the teeth of it. She said she would return in a few days, advising her to be ready to leave when she did.
The next day the man actually came to the farm and found alone her in the barn. She took the comb out and tried to at least brush it on his skin but he restrained her too quickly, and it fell from her grasp. He forced her down, and it was very clear what his intentions were. Elizabeth screamed, tried to bite and fight, which fortunately, was heard by the farmer and a farm hand. They managed to get there just in time to stop the attack.
You heard whimpering and sobbing behind you, and a very soft voice saying, “No… I do not wish to see this”.
The whole ordeal was painful to watch, but you forced herself to do so using all your willpower to not look away.
The days after that seen Elizabeth silent in her room just rocking back and forth, cradling her head in her knees. You counted three moons passing, and on the fourth, Elizabeth, pale and listless, in an almost trance-like state, stood and dressed in clean clothes. She combed her tangled hair, and grabbed the comb, putting it in the pocket of her apron. The farmer was surprised to see her, and she told him she was going to do her chores for the day. He advised her not to, because she looked unwell. But she insisted and he agreed.
You had a bad feeling about this, especially when the muttering behind you became more insistent. You a bit her lip when you seen Elizabeth exit the house, and take out the comb fixing it firmly in her raven hair.
“Oh, no.” you found yourself exclaiming, realizing what would happen without fail next.
You watched as the girl purposely threw herself into her work to force perspiration. Then late afternoon, you seen Elizabeth begin to falter. The poison beginning to take hold. Elizabeth threw away a pitchfork she had been using to scoop hay, and began to stagger towards the open field that led to the forest.
Once in the middle, her strength failed her, and she collapsed in the middle of the tall grass and wildflowers. As the sun began to set you watched as the queen appeared out of the tree lining, scanning the house for her child-to-be. It was then that she seen an unusual indent in the grass just ahead of her and rode towards it.
She screamed when she came upon Elizabeth, who was just barely alive. She nearly fell off her horse trying to get off it in such a hurry.
“My child, what has happened to you?!” she shouted, and fell to Elizabeth’s side, grabbing her hand. Her eyes widened when she seen the comb tangled in her hair. “Why have you done this thing to yourself? I am here to take you home!”
Elizabeth’s eyes focused on the queen, and she weakly whispered, “Mommy, I’m scared.”
Then one last rattling breath escaped her lips, and she grew still, her eyes staring up at the queen lifelessly. She was gone.
The queen shook her head, and began repeating the word, “no” to herself. Then her whole body began to shake. “Elizabeth wake up. It’s time to go.”
She shook the girl below her, “I said wake up. You have to wake up.”
The queen caught sight of the comb again, and let out a scream that one would liken to that of a banshee wail. She then picked up the comb and looked at her hands, dropping it the next moment.
She began rubbing her hands, and you seen in the queen’s eyes her mind beginning to shatter. She stood and began to walk back to the woods, leaving her mount behind, muttering incoherent sentences as she went.
After night had fallen you seen Thranduil searching for his wife, who should have returned by then. He found her deep in the forest, surrounded by a wolf pack, and the doe in the distance. He called out to her, and when she did not acknowledge him, he came to her, and began to listen to the mumblings she was uttering.
“She is dead. No, sleeping. She is coming home. My fault. The comb. She is sleeping. She is dead. My fault.” She kept repeating it over and over. Confused, Thranduil tried to inquire what happened, but she just kept saying the same things. After sitting with her for a while he took his cloak from around him, and put it around her shoulders, had her stand and walked with her back to the palace.
Later on, he found out that Elizabeth was found dead in the field, with the poison comb in her hair. He listened to the enraged and grief riddled ramblings of the farmer and his hands. Not knowing that the queen had made peace with the girl, and what Elizabeth had been enduring, he made his own assumptions, as his wife could not longer explain herself. Why he did not asked this mirror for the truth, you did not know. The queen would remain like this until the fateful day of the feast of Beltane, where she proceeded much as you were shown, and from what Thranduil had told you.
“Please stop showing this…” you heard the shadow say behind you.
You sighed and said gently, “I’m sorry. But I can not stop. I must see it all.”
You watched the queen’s body being prepared, the glass coffin being made, and Thranduil consumed with grief, and finding the necromancer’s spell bringing her body to this very room.
As you began to watch this, you heard a thundering voice behind you yell, “Get away from her you fiend of hell!!! “
You turned just in time to see Thranduil lunge himself at the shadowwalker, grabbing her by the neck, and hurling her across the room. She hit a wall, but did not fall to the ground, instead she caught her footing like a cat falling off a wall, and yelled back at him, “I was doing nothing! I was not going to harm her!”
“You lie!” he shouted back and went at her again. You expected her to dodge it, but she didn’t and he took the shadow by the throat again. She, in turn grabbed his, and both began strangling each other. You began to cry out, but the pair broke from the other, before going at the other again. You knew it was pointless to attempt to break it up without help. You had to concentrate. Some invisible force told you that you must.
You forced yourself to glance at the mirror again, and stopped dead. This was the part you needed to see. The spell he had worked.
The mirror went dark, and then behind it’s reflective surface you seen another flash.
You ran over to it, avoiding the scuffle ensuing just a few feet away from you, and looked at the lit up words, “Mirror of Hidden Things”. You gazed into it, and gasped when you seen the figure in it. It was the former queen.
She was not dark, and sinister to look at, but as she was when she was truly alive. Beautiful, with an aura that radiated her goodness. She smiled at you, and held her hand out. In it was a crown of silver decorated with inlays of flowers. The queen’s crown. She looked at the struggle to side, and frowned.
When you looked over, you seen that neither was gaining ground. You looked back at the mirror and the queen in it had a sad, but kind look on her face, as she shook her head and returned her sights to you.
With a sweet smile she reached out to you crown in hand. You took a deep breath and stepped forward. For a moment, it seemed as though you had been pulled into the mirror, yet was somehow still standing where you were. The queen smiled again, and gently lifted her hands up, placing the crown on your head. You stared up into the woman’s eyes and all you seen was kindness, and love. Also, hope.
At that moment, you heard a drop of water, then another. You held out your hand, a drop of glowing essence fell into it. The queen smiled at you again, and you were pulled out of the mirror world, and looked back to the Mirror of Truth, then at the woman in the mirror before you.
Suddenly, you understood what went wrong. The soul had been torn in two.
“Stop the struggle. End this sordid affair.” the woman in the mirror said, and looked over at the fight continuing in the shadows. ‘The crown is yours. It was surrendered long ago. She is.. we are ready to be whole again, and leave.”
It took you a moment to gain your wits, then you ran over and pulled the creature from Thranduil’s grip and placed yourself in front of the former queen protectively.
“Stop! Both of you stop! It is time to end this! Stop hurting her again! She was doing nothing wrong! She never did anything wrong until she became this thing! Elizabeth killed herself. “
“What?” Thranduil asked perplexed lowering his arms from his fight stance.
“She took her own life. There was a man who tried to… “ you looked away, and then back at Thranduil, and the realization dawned on him. “He had been harassing her for weeks. The queen gave her a poison comb to try and protect her. All she had to do was touch his skin with it. But then he came there. To the farm, and he… he almost got what he wanted.” You seen Thranduil glance at the shadow walker behind him, and then back at you. “She used the comb on herself a couple of days afterward. If she had just held out one more day… she….” you gulped down the taste of tears beginning to form. “Both of them would still be here. Elizabeth and your queen.”
You stepped forward closing the distance between you and Thranduil, taking one of his hands in yours. “The queen did nothing. She thought she had, but she did not.”
“How do you know this?” he asked taking a shuddering breath.
“The mirror showed me. The Mirror of Truth.”
All eyes turned to the shadow walker, who had been backing up slowly towards the center of the golden motif, looking at her hands, and sobbing. When she was in the center of the symbol on the floor, she looked about her and crumbled to the floor. Suddenly, she let out the same heartbroken wail from before. As it echoed off the walls a golden spark of light came from chest and floated toward you. It floated until it landed on your forehead, being absorbed within.
Somehow, you knew your transformation as the queen was now complete. You could not explain it, but you simply knew it. You moved forward to stand in front of the creature.
“Mirror of truth show me listen to my command, who is the fairest in all the land?” you said feeling a surge of power, and answer on the wind. A deep understanding of what it would be, before the you even heard the mirror speak.
“Look at it shadow-walker. See the truth you have forgotten.” You commanded the creature on the ground, and if by some unseen force her head turned to look at the mirror by the same crushing power the king had once used on you with his voice.
The mirror remained dark, but it’s occupant spoke. “Dear queen I am afraid I can not oblige, for all of creation is fair and foul alike in The Great One’s eyes.”
“That’s a fancy way of saying we all possess good and evil. There will not, and never will be anyone who can be called ‘the fairest one of all’.” you told the former queen who looked upon the mirror wild eyed. Then realization and full comprehension came to her, and she looked at the mirror across from The Mirror of Truth, and seen her other self within. She let out a sob, and reached a hand out, as Thranduil came to the center of the motif as well. He gasped when he seen the other half of the soul in the mirror.
“It is time for you to become whole again.” You grabbed Thranduil’s hand, and gave him a reassuring smile. “You were a lady, and a lady always knows when it’s time to leave.”
The shadow creature turned to look at you, and you watched in unison as both the light and dark portions of the former queen’s soul bowed their heads to you.
You felt Thranduil’s grip on your hand tighten before you seperated, and you both walked to opposite positions in the center. You closed your eyes and you felt words come to you, words from a language and time you had never known, and you began chanting them. You heard Thranduil chanting the same thing, as a surge of power began to fill you, and your eyes opened to watch it unfold.
A moment later, the sound of the dragon, Smaug was heard, followed by the light step of a pair of deer. The sound of wings followed them. From the opening of the forest path came Smaug and the white stag. Then to the other side from the opening in the palace came the doe and the female dragon. Behind them, Legolas.
Legolas stopped at the sight before him, and he watched as the female dragon flew over to rest on your shoulder. She wrapped herself about your neck and rested comfortably. The doe and the stag had began circling the symbol and mirrors. The doe looked from you to the creature who lay still on the ground. Once the doe made a circuit about the symbol, it stopped and dipped it’s head in a bow to you.
A sob was heard from the body in the middle of the floor, and all turned to see the shadowwalker crying as she sat up looking at Legolas. Quietly she said, “Don’t look at me. Please.”
The doe and stag began to run with all their might around the casting circle, becoming a blur. You both continued chanting, as a golden light began to swell about you. Beginning to blur into a pure light. The light became brighter until it was a pure white,. engulfing the entire room. A high-pitched scream came from the center of it, bouncing off the walls. All had to turn their eyes away from the light, and put their hands to their ears as the scream sounded out even as you and Thranduil forced yourselves to continue to chant.
Slowly, the light began to fade, and the stag and doe stopped running. When all were able to look again, standing in the middle was the former queen. But she was not dark and full of shadow, nor a creature in a mirror, but glowing with the gold hue of a spirit. Not quite solid, but not completely a mist, she stood before you all and smiled.
You were the first to begin to approach her, Thranduil followed. Once before her he fell to his knees sobbing.
“I am so sorry. So sorry….” Years of guilt and the torments of thepast century crushing him at this moment. You wondered if he had forgotten what she was truly like before now.
“Please get up, and look at me. There is nothing to apologize for. What’s done is done. We have both visited evil upon the other. Dwell on it no more. If you forgive me, I forgive you.” the spirit replied sweetly. He did as she asked, and nodded.
She then looked at you and gave you a slight bow. She smiled and placed a hand on your belly, giving you a knowing look. You found your mouth dropping open, and mouthing the word, “Really?” receiving a confirming nod in return.
She then gazed to the back of all, at Legolas who was unsure what to do. He approached slowly.
“Mother?”
“ My sweet boy. Look how you have grown.” she did not reach out for him, but merely gazed at him with adoration. “Take care of them.”
He nodded. “I will.”
She looked at Thranduil, and with a serious tone replied, “Take care of him too, and her… and the seed of new hope within her.”
Thranduil’s eyes grew wide at this, and then gathered you in his arms, placing a hand on your belly.
“Forgive me for all that has passed I pray.” She looked up towards the sky. “I am being called.” She began to fade with this, and the light began to break up, taking on the shape of numerous golden butterflies.
The last words that were heard on the wind was, “I ascend.”
With that, the form of the woman was no more and the butterflies scattered, flying out towards the opening to the forest.
You and Thranduil, followed by Legolas begin to follow them, the stag and doe in suit. The deer walked past and took the path to the forest below. Reunited at last they sprinted forward in glee. The dragons about your necks purred in unison, and caressed the necks of their elvish companions.
“It’s gone.” Thranduil said. Legolas nodding beside him.
You realized then what they were referring to. The shadow, darkness, and heaviness that always seemed to permeate every inch of the castle in some form was gone.Thranduil closed his eyes and let out a sigh. You took his hand, and continued forward.
As you all stepped out on to the path you seen the dawn of a new day approaching. A warm golden glow engulfing the whole forest. Flowers and trees beginning to sprout and bloom all around. Beltane. You instinctively knew it.
Thranduil pulled you closer as the butterflies disappeared from view. He said with a smile, and placing a hand on your belly, “I pray, with this new life, let a new chapter begin.”
The End