Kingdom of the fallen

Knives in the dark

For the gondorians, the past two days have been full of strategizing and preparing for the upcoming peace meeting. Despite his headache building up throughout the hectic preparations, Aragorn refused to let up from work and rested only when absolutely necessary.

To the displeasure of probably everyone, Aragorn ran himself pretty much into the ground with work and organisation of the encampment, avoiding any and all arguments on why he should rest with the arguments about the future of Gondor which he pretty much thought up on the spot, not that he didn't care about it.

Firstly, he refused to stop because the worry for him and his new orders kept the soldiers on their toes, temporarily forgetting the fear of the looming war. Secondly, if he worked he could easily avoid as well as spy on Celebrimbor who started leaving camp from time to time. Aragorn was never truly able to follow the wraith deep into the landscape because he would always slip into the unseen world.

Aragorn's suspicious, however seemed to slowly become visible to his soldiers as they never actually left him to himself with at least three showing themselves infront of their king whenever he was approached by the elf-king. Despite their success with his defence, they weren't able to stop him form working until Gandalf entered his tent, holding a letter from Arwen.

Even now, waiting next to Shadowfax, Gandalf was giving him a concerned look as they waited on a soldier to bring them a few different drafts of peace treaties.

"You should rest my friend. Bags under eyes are not befitting of a king."

Aragorn smiled lightly as he looked up to the star filled sky. He wrapped himself a little more as to avoid as much of the late evening's coldness as possible.

"I can hardly call myself a proper king on the battlefield. Maybe within the mountains of paperwork still waiting for me. I might have been crowned, but I'm still a ranger at heart."

Gandalf's small laughter seemed to lighten up their surroundings.

"I have no doubt of that, but even Valar need to rest sometimes. The fact that you're trying to work as long as they do at a time concerns me."

"I'll do by best to rest as soon as my work here is done."

At that, Gandalf's smile has fallen a little, clutching his staff a little tighter.

"I can see something's bothering you, Aragorn. Perhaps a certain pair of elves are occupying your thoughts?"

The king's sigh and mouth opening and closing was pretty good indicator that Gandalf hit the nail on it's well enough for Aragorn to forget all his excuses at once. After a moment of examining the ground, the king in question gave Gandalf a tired, defeated look.

"There's just something... off about their demeanor. Eltariel leaves camp for days on end, she hasn't been back for three days. Celebrimbor seems nice and helpful enough I admit, but he seems to be... manipulating the truth to some extent."

Gandalf's brows furrowed.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, not being told of what happened in Mordor before and during the war of the ring doesn't exactly invoke trust towards them. Especially with another ring of power within the hands of a nazgûl."

"Aragorn, as much as I'd like to give you that information my orders are to..."

"It's alright, my friend."

Aragorn's hand fell gently upon the wizard's shoulder, giving him and understanding smile.

"I know that, for whatever reason, you can't share that with us. As long as you say they're trustworthy, then that's what we'll go with."