The Light Between Our Scars | Adar x Galadriel | Rings of Power

Chapter 2: Old illusions and new sacrifices

"No!" Galadriel lunged at Sauron with her sword, but the Deceiver was faster than her in using Morgoth's Crown to smoothly parry her attack attempts. She was breathing heavily now, anger and frustration exploding through her body. Sauron's face was impassive, but Galadriel caught a little sparkle of danger in his shadowed eyes when he noticed the ring on her finger. Her stomach twisted while Sauron started to transform back into Halbrand. 

The Elf tried to shake that image from her mind, as she knew it was just an illusion. But she couldn't. Being near to him reminded her of the feeling they shared fighting side by side. If I could hold on to that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being... he had said to her at the time. His touching words resonated in her mind again like a warm, inviting sound. She slowly lowered her sword, feeling a sudden impotence, getting lost in that familiar feeling and forgetting about space and time.

"I would have put a Crown upon your head, and I wouldn't be satisfied until every creature of Middle-Earth would have kneeled before their Queen" Halbrand's gaze caressed her face, his lips smiling invitingly.

"It was just an illusion" she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Not all of it" Halbrand's eyes softened, "You're still in time, Galadriel. Give me the ring at your finger. I will forgive your recent actions... Stay by my side healing this land, and we will have that feeling again".

Forgive.

That word clicked in Galadriel's mind. Someone had said that same word to her some time...recently? She shook her head and squinted her eyes while the pieces of what was really happening began to make sense. The Elf reopened her eyes and met the gaze of Adar who was trying to stand and lean against a tree. They stared at each other intensely for less than a second, but many emotions flew between them in that brief moment in time. Compassion and understanding from Adar, shame and guilt from Galadriel.

She turned angrily to Halbrand: "You're deceiving yourself, Sauron! You say you want to heal this land? Heal yourself. I would prefer to die than to share your destructive plans for Middle-Earth!" she exclaimed through gritted teeth.

"Die then!" Halbrand hissed, reverting to his Sauron form again and raising the sharp Crown with the intention to stab her squarely in the chest.

What happened next was so chaotic that Galadriel's thoughts couldn't follow the events. At first, she was jerked backwards and felt a warm, dense liquid flowing down her chest, but no pain. Confused, she looked down and saw that the blood on her body was black, not red. Then, a heavy body crashed on hers, causing her to fall on her back. 

Adar! She had time to think before feeling an intense warmth starting from the hand that wore Nenya and running through all her veins and nerves. A dazzling light exploded from the ring, illuminating the clearing with a blinding white radiance. The trees of the forest shook from the shock wave. Galadriel lay on the soil for a minute, in complete disbelief of what just happened, waiting for her ears to stop ringing. Adar was still weighing on her, unconscious.

She carefully freed herself from his body and looked around. Sauron had disappeared with the Crown, while the orcs were annihilated on the ground all around. She couldn't see if they were dead or just unconscious. A terrifying thought crossed her mind, and she let out a sigh of relief when she found the nine rings in their place under her armor.

She looked back at the Uruk; his wounds were bleeding, and the blades of Morgoth's Crown had opened new, horrible lacerations. When she got down to see if he was still breathing, she noticed the paleness of his gray skin. Shallow, but he was still breathing. Galadriel's thoughts started racing, trying to find an escape plan for them both; she couldn't leave him like this, not after what he had done for her. And what I had done for him, she ruminated.

Suddenly, she perceived a noise. She quickly stood up, grabbing her sword and taking a defensive position. The gallop of an approaching horse became louder and louder until she glimpsed the muscular white animal through the trees. Her heart jumped when she recognized that the knight had an elven mantle, and a new hope illuminated her eyes. The horse stopped just in front of her with a loud whinny and started to nervously stomp his front hoof on the soil, gazing at the motionless orcs all around with worried black eyes.

The knight dismounted with a leap and exclaimed "Lady Galadriel!". She looked at his face carefully; his features were familiar, but she couldn't recognize him. Also, his armor looked singularly too big for his stature, and some parts of it were lost. Dirt and blood covered his face; he appeared to be in a pitiful condition overall, but she had to admit her appearance was no better than his.

"I need your help!" She pointed at Adar. The Elf gasped, backing away and staring at the Uruk with terrified eyes. Galadriel felt a thorn in her heart. How could she forget that the Commander of the Orcs had killed thousands of Elves in the past few days... this unknown Elf could never understand why she wanted to save Adar. And neither can I, she admitted to herself.

She gently stepped in front of the unknown Elf, locking her eyes with him. She saw pain, fear, doubt, and weariness. "What is your name?" she asked. "Belanor" His voice was trembling.

"Hear me, Belanor. I know that you won't understand what I'm going to ask, but I beg you to trust me. I need you to help me put this Uruk on your horse. Will you do it?"

Belanor's questioning gaze moved from Galadriel to Adar and back to Galadriel.

She urged him: "I need your help now. My military rank is higher than yours so I could order you, but I prefer to leave it as a choice. Are you going to help me or not?". Her patience was running out; she felt a heavy soreness in all her muscles and waves of nausea starting to rise from her tensed stomach. Her eyes were stinging with tears of pain.

He nodded: "If you say that it's the right thing to do, I'll do it". She sighed in relief and kneeled down, trying to lift Adar's back from the ground. It was the second time that day that she had to carry his body, and she couldn't help but think about the absurdity of the situation. Belanor helped her to carefully move Adar's legs. While they were lifting him, a moan came from the Uruk's mouth, he opened his dark eyes but quickly fell unconscious again.

The horse whinnied with fear, tossing his mane. Galadriel looked around and noticed that the orcs were slowly moving their legs and arms, and some of them were already sitting up, looking confused.

"Hurry up!" she screamed. They lifted Adar onto the horse, where he sat with his back slumped and his long black hair covering his lowered head. Belanor mounted in front of him and Galadriel behind, trying to keep the Uruk stable between them.

Belanor whistled to make the horse move, but at first it didn't respond to the command, huffing nervously. The weight of the three of them was a little too much for him, but the terror of the orcs awakening all around prevailed, and the regal animal started to gallop away through the dark, thin trees of the forest until they disappeared into the shadows of the twilight.