Estateillio

Sleeping Evil

• Moria was dusty and reeked of rot and the darkness was stifling and it felt as if they were watched and so they journeyed quietly, carefully and Estateillio had her senses cast out as far as she dared to and so Ráven noticed immediately, when at the edge of her consciousness, subtle and barely there, a new presence could be felt, one of shadow and flame and Estateillio recoiled from it in fear, for deep down a primal part of her recognised this presence from years spent in pain.

• There was no mistaking it: Deep in the bowels of the earth, so far down that it could barely be felt - even with how far they had already descended - and hidden away from all life, there slept a balrog, one that had somehow survived the war of wrath, the early second age when the elves had hunted them and the early third age where the elleth herself had travelled for almost four centuries into the far reaches of middle earth to find and kill all sorts of foul beasts.

• "I thought we had slain all of them", Estamíriel stated, being the first to point out their failure. "We slew every we found and though our search was diligent, we could never have found this one. It's so far down, even now we can barely feel it and it is empty and we are actively searching for danger. I'm sure that all the hubbub of the dwarves covered its presence and we've not been here since Azanulbizar", Hráven considered.

• "But we should have", Halieth hissed and Estateillio gritted her teeth. "Calm down, felmë. We must not show distress, lest the others grow nervous and careless", Estamíriel admonished and Hráven added: "We had other things on our minds. Thou thyself wished to turn our attentions to the east, to Mordor and the growing shadow. This is not the first balrog we face, we know how to fight it, should it awake and find its way here."

• "But we cannot fight it", Ráven whispered, "We made a promise." "A balrog is not a foe with which an encounter would lead to almost certain death", Halieth argued, but Hráven scoffed: "For us, perhaps. But they have other standards now, their skills in fighting are lesser and thus a balrog more deadly. We will have to talk to Mithrandir and if he does not agree with us, well, we did say we would help if we are able to."

• "At least we now know what his dreams were about", Estamíriel mused and with her mind Estateillio reached out to the maia walking next to her and said: "I know what it is you dreamt of, Mithrandir. It sleeps here, hidden deep in the bowels of the earth. Shadow and flame and malice. One of the Úmaiar, your traitorous kin."

• "A balrog. I feared such thing we might encounter here", he mused. "The bane of Durin, probably. An encounter seems unlikely as of now. It is fast asleep and far away and if we stay careful and do not draw attention, then we will make it out unscathed. Should it awake though and find us, then I will make sure it will not harm us, or anyone else ever again", the elleth replied.

• "It is too dangerous a fight, Náriel, you made a promise", the maia reminded her and she scoffed: "To you it might seem so and for the others it definitely is, but I have fought many a balrog in my life." "But you always relied on your magic to do so, you said it yourself many times, and on a mission of stealth it would draw too much attention", he argued and that gave Estateillio reason to pause.

• She had not considered that. She had not thought about the amount of energy she dispersed in such fights, sending of waves and waves that rippled through the earth and the air, telling everyone skilled in magic where she was, and that was not ideal.

• "Still I have a better chance of surviving than you do. You can't use your magic either and my skill with the sword is superior to yours", she objected and Gandalf mentally shook his head: "I can use my magic. Sauron does not think me dangerous and Saruman has his attention turned to Rohan and, for all that he is named Curumo, not good at pinpointing the origin of a powerful wave of magic. They would both ignore me, for one reason or the other, but you they would send all that they can spare after, for Sauron hates you and Saruman fears you. It would be our all death."

• "I knew that Saruman does not exactly like me, but fear? That I could never have fathomed", Estateillio mused, almost amused, and Gandalf smiled: "You are powerful. More powerful than an elf your age should be, even with your lineage, and he does not understand that, as he does so many things about the children of Ilúvatar. He hates not understanding things and that hate leads to paranoia and fear. He will want to kill you, now that he has the power and resources to make the attempt, before you can overpower him, for that is what he has come to believe you will do."

• "That is ridiculous", Estateillio snorted, "I know that I am quite powerful, but he's a maia and I of the Eldar. That alone makes him more powerful than me. And what would I want with that ugly tower of his?"

• "He's grown paranoid and Sauron has made him even more so. He knows that your uncle could take down a balrog with a little ditty if he truly tried and took the risk and you learned a lot from him and Angband has made you even stronger, don't deny that", Gandalf explained and the elleth shrugged mentally: "If you say so. You will not keep me from fighting though. I will help you, as I said. You do the magic, I do the dirty work and we should be able to dispatch the balrog if worst comes to worst."

• "And in the meanwhile we hope for the best", the maia added and then they fell silent, Estateillio casting out her mind farther away again, careful not to brush against the balrog's consciousness, lest she wake it.

• And they walked ever down and her light split the darkness that reached out its misty tendrils towards the fellowship and deep under the earth she hoped.

[《◇》]
Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoyed! I hope that the story isn't going too slow for you, I feel as if I add filler chapter after filler chapter, just because I want to set up a little something that will become relevant at a later point in the story, but when I write it, it always somehow grows into a whole chapter. I initially planned to include the Mithril scene in this chapter, but it didn't fit anymore.
Anyways, stay healthy
AT