Bound by Shadows | Adar x OFC | Rings of Power

The Garden

Eleneth had been so lost in the details of the forest, looking for landmarks that would help her find her way back to the horses, that the clearing came on her suddenly, the sound of a bird taking her out of her focus on any unusually shaped branches or fallen trees. What lay before her was a huge open space, bathed in full, golden sunshine. The sky was pale blue and clear, the space was filled with flowers, vines, bushes, fruit trees, plants of every kind.

They stopped on the edge of it. Her heart was in her throat, so choked with awe she almost cried out. Adar watched the flush of her skin with grim satisfaction, a flicker of a smile lingered for a moment on his face. The garden would achieve his ends. Eleneth's mind raced with the names of plants, each time she caught sight of a new one. They were not lost to her after all. There were pleached apple trees, pears and quince. Grapevines curled their way along a hazel fence. Comfrey and lavender, herbs of every kind, Silverwood shrubs thatched with twinkling white flowers. A sweet smell filled the air, perfumed and heady. When her eyes caught a clump of golden, star shaped flowers, she ran to it, dropping to her knees, "Elanor." she whispered, ducking to smell the flower of her home. Beside them was a woody, old winter savoury. She crushed some leaves between her fingers to release the acidic, herbal scent of soups and stews on cold evenings. Eleneth closed her eyes, placing her palms on the warm ground and whispered to her father that she was well. She hoped the message would reach his heart.

Adar walked slowly over to her, keeping his distance. He watched her from the side, her soft face looking to the sky, eyes closed. The long waves of her hair shone darkly in the sun. His own heart steadied too, whenever he visited this place. The garden tended at night by his children. He did not allow himself to come here often. The garden was elven. He had taught the orcs how to work the land, in a past that felt remote now. Many had died obtaining the plants that grew here, for him. And yet, though he ate the garden's produce, he seemed to become blacker with rage and fear the longer he stayed away. When the fear became intolerable and he could stand the anger no more, he would come here in the daylight and sit by the pond in silence, alone, until his sadness hurt him, more than his fear. And so, he kept a kind of balance, elven and orc, dark and light, sadness and bitterness.

Eleneth was so overwhelmed with happiness and relief, she turned to look up at Adar with a gentle smile. "This is beautiful." she said breathlessly. Then, realising how overcome she was, and staring into the uruk's still face, her smile slowly faded.

"I said we would speak once your strength returned." Adar said, putting out a hand to help her to her feet. "Come." he said, walking deeper into the garden. Eleneth's eyes flicked left to right as they walked, trying to take in every plant, every leaf, every petal. The names of them almost appearing before her in the waking world.

On reaching the heart of the garden, Adar entered a circular space, enclosed with a low woven fence. In the centre was a large pond, bursting with vegetation that imperceptibly joined land to water. Along a clearer section of the ponds edge, stood a long, finely carved, wooden bench with a high back that curved over the head of anyone who would sit there. The wood was carved as if it were a mass of curling vines wrapping over and over each other.

"Sit." he said, gesturing to the bench, taking a seat himself, leaning back under the shade of the bench roof. He looked out over the pond unmoving, and eventually dropped his eyes and sighed. "I have no intention to kill you." he said. "You are no threat to me or my children. But there is something I must have from you before I can release you." He paused, but Eleneth said nothing. Her head was swimming with thoughts of freedom. She did not know if she could believe what he said, but the thought of home was bursting in her chest. "I would learn every advantage from you that would help me achieve my ends." He looked at her plainly. "Every balm, every medicinal property of every plant that would save the lives of the orcs, extend their life, make them strong. I would know every poison that can be weaponised against my enemy."

Moments before, she had imagined her own willingness to do almost anything to obtain her freedom, but had not anticipated this request. "You ask me to advantage you over my own people?" she asked, open mouthed.

"That is the price of your freedom." He looked away.

Eleneth gazed out unseeing across the water and to the garden beyond. A blackbird landed on a patch of soft grass, collecting a few fallen leaves before flying away to build its nest. She felt despairing once again. How brief had been her happiness. How bleak might be her future if she did not share what she knew. She could withhold the most powerful knowledge of course, give enough to satisfy him and win her freedom. 

It would be more proper for me to die than provide the enemy with healing cures. 

She had never before contemplated the harm she might cause in healing. This seemed such a contradiction. Healing had only ever been goodness. How could she have overlooked this possibility? Eleneth thought suddenly back to her first days in captivity. "But the drink you gave me? You have healing powers of your own?" she said.

Adar scoffed, "Long forgotten, incomplete, fragments only." He looked again into her eyes, and his own flashed with a steely glow. "You forfeit your freedom, then?"

Eleneth's shoulders drooped. She spoke with her gaze fixed on the tightly interlocked fingers on her lap. "You would kill my people, my family without hesitation. You would turn all the land into what the Southlands have become. Poisoned, desolate. Apart from this garden that you keep for yourself. And I dearly wish to return to those I love. To the woods. To sun and moonlight and life. Why must you go to war?" Eleneth asked, her eyes brimming with tears that did not escape down her cheek, but trembled on her lower lashes.

Adar could not look at her. Her pain ripped at some part of him that he had never fully erased. It was the same part that felt grief each time he saw the slaughter of one of his children. A weakness, he thought, that clouded his judgement. And his mind had to be undimmed if he was to destroy Sauron. "Your kin would never allow peace." He spat. "If I did not fight, they would kill every last one of us. You know this."

Eleneth was silenced. He did not want war? This could not be true? The orcs knew nothing but violence and yet she had seen them here living lives of sorts, talking outside her door, tending to a rich garden, obeying their Lord Father. She did not allow herself to think of the possibility that her own people might be blind to their own lust for war and destruction. If she were to share just enough knowledge to gain her freedom and return home, she might tell her father everything she had learnt. Everything she could still learn. Could she learn something that might avert war? Was this the ghost of foolish dream?

Even the smallest hope should be nurtured.

"I have no power with poison." Eleneth said reluctantly. "Only the skill to study them and find ways to draw them, or create antidotes. I am a healer only. I can give you this knowledge." Adar scrutinised Eleneth's face as she spoke, looking for falsehoods. "I do not know how my work will affect your orcs. There is every chance that what heals elves and men, could harm an orc. And what would you do then?"

Adar paused, his chest expanding with renewed strength. "I will keep my word. You will be set free."