Anger was not something Calidis of Rivendell had much experience with, despite her long years; not even as Calidis of Eregion. But the first spark of it appeared when the life of Nethrida of Gondor was threatened by the very person who, she had since learned, was bound and determined to make Hawk's life a living nightmare; this Viper.
It was a wholly foreign sensation to her and fuel was added when, during the struggle and fight, she was bitten. Yes, bitten! Of all the things that could have possibly happened to her whilst mustering the little courage she had to help, this was the proverbial last straw; as if someone added a heaping amount of fuel to the fire with no real measurement, wanting to make the blaze burn brighter for only a moment or two.
And burn it did, for she could not stand for it; this brutish cur of a Man, working for the Viper, setting his teeth into her fair, unblemished skin like some sort of wild animal. How dare he touch her?! How dare any Man harm her?! It was not to be borne! Seething rage overtook her, even as her enchantments finally put him into a deep slumber. She had picked him up and thrown him away from her, like a child having a tantrum. And, perhaps, she was in the heat of her anger, unable to control the movement of her very limbs.
But the fuel was not measured or meant to last. As soon as the Man was dead, head severed from his body by Xandilif, the fire quickly died and she found herself lost to the darkness and terror of things she has long since forgotten again. By the time she came back to herself she was left with the same void in her memories as well as the remnants of the blaze: Frustration.
As with anger, frustration's burn was wholly unfamiliar to her. However, it was much easier to keep contained; locked away under the guise of a calm expression. But, she quickly found out that frustration was but another fire waiting to turn into a blaze once more. The more she tried to ignore it or pretend it didn't exist, the more it demanded to be felt.
On route to Minas Tirith, following behind those taking Hawk to face the Steward for his alleged crimes, everything had gone so incredibly wrong far too quickly. More fuel was added to this slow burning fire. The mere sight of the Viper and his men on that hillside was enough to set her anger to blazing anew. Calidis saw red and had not hesitated; not this time! Fire had set the wagon ablaze and sent everyone into a desperate panic and fight. The fire of her ire had been stoked beyond her limits. So, by fire would the Viper feel the heat of her wrath.
And as soon as her enchanted agate struck him with the full force of her throw, as rage had awoken even in the very muscles that had long since been unused, he burned and felt pain. For that short moment she felt satisfied to watch him struggle while Xandilif looked on in surprise. The blaze burned to its highest point... until the fuel ran out again and her satisfaction quickly turned to horror over what she had just done.
But, all terrible things seem to come in threes.
When it was over - a companion lost to the eastern sea, another bleeding out upon the dirt, others feeling the fullness of their shock, herself struggling to stand after having the wind painfully knocked out of her, and the Steward's men surveying the scene with a certain detachment that made her feel slightly sick - the Viper laughed.
More fuel for the last of the sparks that remained, tempered by the oncoming grief blossoming in her chest. It was enough. She'd had enough. Evil is as evil does whether it came from the Enemy or the hands of a mere Man.
Calidis stood, picked up a boulder, and 'knocked his lights out', as Men say, with a single swing. And then she had laid a curse upon him. As the descendant of Exiles, she knew much of curses and had been implored by her elders and betters for many many years to not make them lightly. But, in the last remnants of her anger, caution was thrown to the wind.
She had cursed him to never find peace. Not in the present. Not in the future. Not even after his death, when his fëa left this sphere for a place unknown. And she felt it was less than he deserved.
Only after that had the fire died out completely. She lent the last of her strength to preventing yet another death. And then, Calidis succumbed to the dark and the quiet, not to awake again until all she had spent was replenished.
