The Edge of Night

The Golden Hall Revisited

They arrive back in Edoras as the sun is sinking below the plains, bathing the Golden Hall in a golden hue. With an almost child-like urgency, Elfwyn runs up the stairs to the Hall and flings open the door, allowing the stale air to escape into the courtyard. She passes through the halls of her childhood sanctuary, back to her room where she carefully pushes open the door.

Memories of her last few nights there flood her mind. Her brother, gone on a scouting mission, had not been there to see her off. Her anxiety over her future, a future that Saruman and Wormtongue tried to destroy, had been ever present in the forefront of her mind.

Sleep is hard to come by that night and so she finds herself in the stable, brushing out one of the many horses that had been able to make the journey home. "He should not have had to die." She whispers when she senses she is not alone.

"You believe him redeemable?" Haldir asks softly as he places his hand atop of hers, stilling her motions.

"If we cannot find it in us to forgive others, what hope do we have for ourselves? This war has caused us all to do things we would not normally do. I do not want to lose myself to it, to the hate that war brings."

"You will not. You will, however, hate yourself in the morning when Eowyn comes in to get you ready for our ceremony and you have not rested enough."

"Ah, but I am an elf now. I do not need as much rest as before."

"The plans I have for you tomorrow evening, my love, you should be sure you are completely healed for. Healing comes with sleep." Her eyes darken into stormy seas at his words and it takes everything in her to keep her breathing normal. With one final nod she allows him to see her back to her room, placing a kiss upon her hand as he bids her good night once more.

...

The morning dawns and bathes her room in a golden light, causing her to groan and roll over, blocking her face from the intrusive rays and curse herself for not shutting the curtains the night before. She rolls over, determined to get at least a few more moments of sleep before Eowyn charges in, banging the door against the wall in her haste. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this early wake up call, cousin?"

"It is your wedding day and you are not already awake?" Eowyn's voice rises an octave in panic.

"Haldir has seen me covered in dirt, grime and blood and loves me still. I think whatever time I allow for myself to get ready today will be just fine with him."

"You are hopeless. Up! You need to get ready." Instead of fighting her, which would have been the more preferable option, Elfwyn concedes defeat and slowly rises from her bed, only to be pulled towards the screen set up in the corner of her room and forcibly disrobed and tossed in a bath.

"I could have done this part on my own." She says shyly. The beauty of the elves was something most in Rohan had never witnessed and the ladies staring at her now were making her feel self-conscious. That seems to shake them from their trance and they flutter about her, scrubbing and plucking and prodding her until her skin practically glows like Lady Galadriel.

Eowyn forces her down in front of her and begins piecing apart her hair, pulling sections to the side and beginning to braid. Once she was satisfied with the look, she reaches under the bed and retrieves the circlet that had been hidden for months, carefully removing it and placing the fragile gold tiara against her cousin's brow, smiling at how nicely it completed the look. "There was not a lot of time to plan, so we had to pull your mother's wedding dress for you to wear." One of the ladies says, holding up the pristine white fabric.

With tears in her eyes, Elfwyn gently reaches out and touches it, carefully, as if she was afraid it would turn to dust and disappear before her very eyes. "It is perfect." She whispers, once more painfully aware of the absence of the woman she had never been given a chance to know, now doubled with the loss of her brother.

"Do not cry cousin."

"This was not how I envisioned this day would go. That Theodred would not be here to bear witness to this. That we would be in the middle of a war."

"Such is the way life goes though. Nothing is certain. Nothing except the love you feel for him. I have seen it; Uncle has seen it. This is what you want, is it not? For Haldir to be fully accepted by our people?"

"Of course it is. I am just... I am not sure."

"'Tis normal, Your Majesty, for a woman to feel such ways before her wedding." One of the older women helping her prepare said. She turns back into herself, contemplating what all of this meant. In the wake of the battle, the burials, and their return, she hadn't been able to devote much time to her future, a future that seemed to go on for ages now.

"Might I have a moment with my cousin?" Eowyn asks, sensing Elfwyn's growing distress. The ladies nodded before curtseying and filing from the room. "What is wrong?"

She turns, as if in a daze. "Nothing. I cannot fathom myself to be happier, and yet, this was not how I envisioned this day to go. That my brother should be missing from this occasion, that my family not be happy with this match, this marriage."

"It is not that we are not happy, Elfwyn. We do not want to lose you. Not after Theodred."

"And you will not lose me. I will remain here, until the last of you have passed into the halls of our fathers."

"But it will not be the same, not the way we intended it to be."

"As much as it pains me to think of the day that I will no longer see you, or Eomer, or Father, the pain I felt when I looked upon a future without him, without Haldir, it was too great to bear. I wish you never feel that pain, even for a moment. You will grow old, married, with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You will have the fullest life, filled with every good thing your heart has ever yearned for. Should I not have the same?"

"Of course you should. I just wish that I did not have to live without you in the process."

"It is I who will have to live without you. As long as there is breath in your lungs, I shall never be too far from your side."