The Lady of Light paused…then nodded slowly. 'We will consider your requests, Calidis, but for now the Faradur will remain under guard at my pleasure....and if either of you, Eduwiges or Calidis, know of this Mirror of Twilight that the Gwerth-i-cuina made use of, then we will have counsel to better understand the damage done. This audience is concluded.”
Turning to depart, Galadriel paused and looked at Calidis. "As for how intimately you know Xanderian...we must speak further regarding that, daughter of Aegrod. We have much to discuss.” And with a swirl of golden-white gown, the Lady of Light was gone.
As the Captain and his guard returned, Calidis sighed. “Well that won’t be uncomfortable at all…
After Galadriel had departed and left Xanderian, Calidis and Eduwiges in her garden, the Captain and his guards escorted them to a deserted flet where a simple meal had been laid out. The Captain bowed politely. "You will remain here until called for. The paths below are being watched, but do not force us to restrain you, Faradur. We grant you this courtesy due to your service in days past." And with that he departed, with Calidis glaring at his back. She then eyed the food laid out with some apprehension.
Xanderian shook her head softly and stepped to the table and poured a glass of clear wine. She tasted it, paused to be certain she had not been poisoned and brought the elegant glass to Calidis, holding it out to her, eyes downcast, in the manner of the servants of Imladris.
Calidis nearly laughed but took the wine, taking a deep and very long sip.
Eduwiges frowned and paced back and forth on the flet, the height not bothering her at all. She punched the palm of her hand with her fist, 'By what right Lethy, by what RIGHT do they have to hold you here like this?'
Xanderian watched the tall woman fume with a look of love in her eyes. 'I would not have you…either of you...damage the esteem you are held in over this matter...and as for right, this is their land, I am no more part of this place than you are of Dale simply because it is a city of Men. We may share a lineage, but I am an outsider here, in more ways than one. You should inform the guards below that I am remaining, and the two of you go onward to Bree. I will follow when able.'
Calidis sighed and shook her head. "Do not ask us to leave you here, Xanderian."
Eduwiges agreed, moving back to the pair, 'Ohh, no, absolutely not, by Bema! we will not leave you here. We must get you out..' She scanned the nearby flets for a path out of the tree tops.
Xanderian saw what Edu was doing and nearly laughed. "Dear one, we cannot flee...just as none can enter without the will of the Lady, so can none leave either. Even should you swing from tree to tree like an unusually vicious squirrel, my lynx, there is no escape that way.'
Eduwiges glared off into the distance. 'I can take the guards' she said in a low voice. 'All we have to do is make it to the horses..'
Xanderian’s voice grew firm, the humor gone. 'Edu...enough. That is much too great of a risk, and it would be impossible at any rate. I know this for a fact…It is not my first time...restrained here in this fashion.'
Calidis spoke just as firmly, 'In any case, I wish to know exactly - and I mean /exactly/ - what your sister has done so that when we do reach Bree, I may have a proper arsenal with which to thoroughly share my thoughts with her.'
Xanderian kisseed Cal softly. "You studied this mirror shard....then what did you do with it after, my love?
Calidis had another deep sip of wine before answering. "I had thought that I had put it away. It seems that your sister exercised a bit of cunning and took it with her upon leaving Tol Lochul."
'She is quite capable of theft when it suits her....' Xanderian chuckled ruefully, unable to be surprised at the lengths Xandilif the Banshee would go to.
Calidis nodded, 'Indeed. But not evasion. Not this time. I shall hear her answer for it, when next we meet.'
Calidis downed the rest of the glass and exhaled slowly, the gem at her throat dimming slightly.
Eduwiges sighed. 'To be honest I am not very happy with Lif myself right now. When I see her she is going to wish she was back in the ring at Minas Tirith...' She poured herself a glass of wine and sat, feet dangling off the flet, cheeks flushed. 'Though I could think of worse prisons...and we’ve been in a few.'
Xanderian shrugged...and poured Cal more wine. "Do not be so harsh with the Banshee...it is clear she did what she did due to Small Finchley’s impending doom. If I feared for the lives of either of you, what would I not do to learn more of how to save you? Would I not risk anything?"
Calidis set her glass down reluctantly. 'It seems I must later make an audience with the Lady. But I feel that I lack information with which to find a diplomatic end to this. Xanderian, I must know everything. From start to finish. Only then can I prepare and fight on your behalf."
Xanderian raised an eyebrow..."Everything?
Calidis nodded seriously. "Everything. What happened during your service in Mirkwood. What gave rise to the title of 'Faradur'. Why are you and Xandilif are held in low esteem here, despite them often commenting on your good service in battle. If the Lady is determined to dislike you, Eduwiges' prowess and friendships here and my father's legacy may not be enough.'
Eduwiges looked confused, 'The lady has always been fair. This makes no sense to me.' she quaffed the wine and tried to let go of her anger.
Xan sat on the edge of the table, looking up into the treetops. 'I did service with the Malledhrim as you both know...and I was often sent into Dol Guldur on official business....'
Eduwiges looked over her shoulder at Xanderian, 'Official business? The only official business i know of in that place is with a sword Lethy...'
Xanderian nodded softly. "Indeed my Lynx....However, there was a matter that I was not aware of....regarding Fuirgam, the commander in Ost Galadh. He had once had a dear friend, a boon companion of his youth, no different to him I imagine as either of you are to me....by name of Etharian.'
Calidis took up her wine again and sat herself, listening intently.
Rian continued to look up into the treetops. 'But I only learned the name some time later....when all that had transpired was past. You may not know, but this Etharian touched both of your fates as well as mine.'
Eduwiges tilted her head, 'How can that be?'
Calidis thought for a moment, and recognition dawned on her, 'When Xanir was sent to us...'
Xanderian nodded, 'Yes, Etharian's shade bore the head of my brother to Tol Lochul. My father slew him in Thangulhad.'
Eduwiges stared, 'Your father slew one of his kind?'
Xan lowered her gaze to meet the shieldmaiden’s eyes, 'Eduwiges...My father slew dozens of his kind. Soldiers sworn to his command....did you never hear the story in Imladris?'
Eduwiges stood and looked back at her love, 'I never listen to rumor..and perhaps it was too sensitive to be discussed around me. You have never told me this...'
Calidis did not want to be distracted, 'And what took place within Thangulhad. I have heard the tales but there were no details. The focus was upon the bloodshed and not the events prior or following.'
'Little is known regarding how my father went mad....” All emotion drained from Xanderian’s voice as she spoke. “I was just a child then, holding onto my older sister’s leg, I only know of his ravings from hearsay....that he swore he was saving his men from their eventual fate when the enemy would overrun all the world...that he was doing them a mercy for he had seen the eye and knew it's power. He slew his entire company and returned to Imladris thinking himself a hero...and was sent to the west in chains for the soothing touch of Mandos to heal. My mother went with him.'
Eduwiges shook her head sadly, 'Lethy, I had no idea..' she said softly.
The elf continued, 'But so I am called Kinslayer Spawn in Imladris...and here, Faradur, Dark Huntress....or worse. Fuirgam knew my heritage...and one day, my mission was to go ahead of a party of soldiers deep into Dol Guldur and scout the movements of a great force or orc....and I did so.'
Calidis took another sip of wine, expression unreadable for the time being.
'I located the orcs, arrayed as if prepared for an invasion of the fortress....and signaled to the war party to attack....but they did not.' Xanderian sighed, the memory considered impassively. 'They had aborted the mission without recalling me, withdrew, and sealed the gateway that we had used....I was alone. I kept to the shadows as much as I could, but there were too many and they were supported by Cargil…and they were on alert. I was quickly found and battle was joined....and I screamed again and again for aid as I feared being overwhelmed....none of the Malledhrim answered, none of them could, as they were far away beyond the stone walls of Dol Guldur…But Xandilif, who was serving near the fortress of our woodland kin....she heard....and came...and battled her way to me. And so the two of us, sorely wounded, eventually fought clear over countless dead orcs and other horrors. That was the first time I spoke to her from such a distance…and bonds were formed between us that day that had not existed before. In some ways, she had been more a stern mother to me before that battle, now we were truly sisters despite our differences.
Xan took a bit of cheese from the table, her manner still cold and distant. 'When we returned to Ost Galadh, there was much surprise...my “comrades” had pronounced me lost..dead within Dol Guldur....and Xandilif confronted Fuirgam.'
Calidis set the wine glass down on the table, all of the contents gone again. She had to take care to not set it down too hard, lest it break.
"She accused him of giving the order that I be left to die...that the purpose of the mission was his own vengeance...and that the Lady Galadriel ordered it or at least knew of it.' Xan shook her head. “Xandilif was in a rage unlike either of you have seen. All of her resentment of our people..of our parents...boiled out of her like a poison...she could not be silenced or restrained. She frightened me. Blows were given and received...when swords were drawn I came to my sister's aid.'
Xan took a moment to breathe, then continued, 'When the blood cleared and the wounded were counted we were both dismissed from the Malledhrim and sent here for judgement. Fuirgam charged us with dereliction and mutiny...and suspicion of collaboration with the Witch King, for how else could we have survived that debacle, how else could Xandilif have come to my aid?”
Calidis scowled, 'They assumed your guilt without even testing the truth of the matter. Judgement was rendered with no proof.'
Xanderian shook her head, 'The Lady of Light never declared our guilt or innocence...she stated that as subjects of Elrond, her son in law, we were not hers to judge, and we were banished from these lands. And so it has been since....until the Banshee did what I must assume she did.'
Eduwiges drained her wine, 'The Lady knows truth. She scries it in her mirror, or so i have been told. She is also fair, I do not understand...'
Calidis nodded to Edu, 'And yet, it seems that she is unduly determined to dislike Rian due to her parentage. On that, she has no ground to stand as her uncle was not held in such high esteem in later days... And as for the charges of Dereliction and Mutiny, they were given unfairly and the responsibility, or lack thereof, was and is glaring. That is something I can work with. I know not of what interactions she had with my father. But, I hope that they give me some leverage.'
'There is no way to argue our innocence. Whatever our reasons, we did mutiny and attack our commander. Xanderian shrugged. “....Upon our escape from Dol Guldur, I found out some time later the Malledhrim took to calling us Farea Nasto...Beasts of Prey…And I am sorry this has now ensared the both of you as well'
Eduwiges clenched her fists, 'If I hear that they will be drinking mushed lembas from a straw Lethy, by Bema! I swear it!'
Calidis seemed as angry as Eduwiges did at the thought. 'Would that I could speak to the Malledhrim directly... But it would likely go poorly. I am my father's daughter after all. While I share kinship with the Lady, I do not with Lord Celeborn and his subjects."'
Eduwiges said, 'I could speak with them, I have a certain reputation.' she glanced at Calidis, 'Not THAT kind, I mean with a sword! But I do not think they would listen.'
Xan walked to edge of the flet and looked out at the horizon. 'There is another question we must address, before looking at so trivial a matter as my fate....the mirror.'
Calidis followed and took Xan's hand in her own while sparing a very small smile for Eduwiges' comment. "Your fate is not trivial. But what is the other question?"
Xanderian squeezes Cal’s hand. “Galadriel mentioned the Mirror of Twilight. The Lord Elrond spoke of a mirror which had been involved in my father's madness...that he told the council judging him of seeing the eye in a mirror, and hearing the enemy’s voice....a portion of that mirror Xandilif found in our fathers goods and buried for safe keeping. This shard seems to be similar, if not a fragment of the same foul device...and with an affinity for our line as it responded to her...as it did to Desad. Could Desad have had a hand in my father's fall?'
Calidis nodded slowly. "Perhaps. Desad or someone worse..."
Eduwiges frowned, 'He spoke of the eye? But the eye can only mean one thing Lethy...'
Xanderian nodded to her..."And if Desad is taking orders not from the false king, but from Mordor itself...
Calidis completed her thought gravely, '…It does not bode well for us at all. That brings us so close to the Black Land even if we do not stand within it.'
Xanderian nodded softly, a single tear running down her cheek..."And means that the road we now walk was first drenched in blood by my father and despite all, you are wrapped up in the foul destiny of myself and Xandilif...the Stranded Sisters indeed.'
Calidis touched Xan’s face softly. "The path we walk upon may have been first bloodied by your father Xanderian, but it was drawn out first by the Enemy."
Eduwiges punched her fist again, 'And what is this here but not a work of the enemy with The Lady holding you here.' She looked at Calidis, 'That must be your argument Nighteye. We may not be caparisoned in silver and sable, but we do our part to defend middle earth, keeping us here can only delay that.'
Suddenly the captain cleared his throat, standing at the head of the stairs. "The Lady is prepared for the Lady Calidis and Eduwiges of Faldham to attend upon her in her garden.'
Calidis looked to the captain with a neutral expression and then stood, making a curtsey. "As I have said before, Xanderian is a member of my household and therefore my responsibility. I ask that she attend with me rather than remaining here alone to her own devices."
Eduwiges put her hands on her hips and stared at the guard, silently daring him to refuse Calidis.
Xan shook her head, 'Dear ones...go..I will be fine here, but it clear things must be said without my presence...I will...attempt to contact my sister in your absence.'
Calidis looked to Xan in concern. "After what they did to you while you were with the Malledhrim, I think not. I do not trust them to treat you cordially."
The Captain looked offended...."The Faradur will not be molested while awaiting judgement, so is the will of the lady of Light.'
Calidis took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Eventually, she nodded. "No, they will not." She reached behind herself and unclasped Hastaina, draping the gem around Xanderian's neck.
Eduwiges looked at Cal, 'The Galadhrim are different Calidis, she will be fine.' she hitched Badu Druit behind her and prepared to follow the guard.
Xanderian kisseed them both, whispering to Edu "Do not let Calidis grow too angry...." and whispering to Cal "Do not let Eduwiges kill anyone."
Calidis nodded to Xanderian and then smiled at the Captain in a way that is both serene and somewhat chilling. “Come, we have a great deal to say to Galadriel.”
