Immortalitui // Faramir 🥀

Chapter Forty-Six - Waves

Word Count: 1,115 words. 

Warnings: None. 

Numenór...

"Do you always look so peaceful?" Halbrand asked, approaching Arathiel.

She sat on a bench, watching the waves of the sea lap against the ends of the Palace walls.

"I am only peaceful when here," she answered as he sat beside her. "The waves calm me, their pattern and their consistency. Numenór stands as the only place which experiences no change."

He watched her with bated breath. "You amaze me."

"You try living for hundreds of years," Arathiel countered with a smile. 

Today his eyes resembled the sea, the gentle waves that crashed. Yesterday they were the colour of the trees of Lindon and the day before the dark earth of Durin's tunnels. They pulled her in, enthralled into his... web.

"I dread the thought," he replied, accent thick and rough. "Living forever doesn't seem like the best way to make it through life. Who decided that elves should never die?"

"Now, that is a very long story of battles, of victory."

"Not every battle is a victory."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I am yet to lose one."

He watched the side of her face as she turned back to the sea, taking a deep breath. Some would find the salt-filled air bitter, or sickly, but to Arathiel, it was her home.

"May I be forward?" Halbrand attempted his best pronunciation.

Arathiel opened her eyes, facing him. "Well, do not be backwards."

The man let out a low chuckle. It warmed the she-elf's heart, affection rushing in without her consent.

"I believe that you have bewitched me," he explained, expression falling serious as he locked his eyes on hers. "I believe that I have fallen under your spell and that the only way to move forward is to let it consume me."

He had kissed her that day. Halbrand had made her believe that it was he under her control. It was he who could not deny her, but that was not the truth.

It was that day, that calm and gentle day, that Sauron had made it through Arathiel's brick walls. He found a crack in the barrier of her mind and he dug his way through like a maggot. Sauron's creatures never stopped finding their way to her, not when she threw back up her walls, not when she denied him.

Once one is granted entry... it is almost impossible to drive them out.

ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ

Arathiel woke with a gasp, jolting upwards. The covers around her fell, touching her sweating skin and attempting to cool it. The she-elf could feel them, his maggots digging for food. What was left to eat?

"Arathiel," Faramir breathed, eyes opening slowly. His hand reached out, gently pushing her to her back.

She let out a relieved sighed, his touch calming her beating heart. Turning to face him, Arathiel ran a hand through his hair and away from his face.

He smiled, pulling her closer and dropping his lips to her collarbone. Faramir's breath on her skin sent a wave of calming shivers through her spine. The pace at which he breathed reminded her of those seas, of the waters of Numenór that had ever so often been her source of relief.

"What was it?" he posed.

Arathiel kissed the top of his head. "The first time Halbrand kissed me," she explained.

"Halbrand?" Turning his head up so that he could watch her expression, Arathiel admired how much she adored him like this. He appeared... happy.

"When I met Sauron, he was disguised as a man called Halbrand. It was through him that he managed to pull me into his hands. When he revealed that he was the darkness we aimed to destroy... I was too far under his spell to care."

Brushing a thumb across her cheek, Faramir wiped away a tear that Arathiel was not aware she had shed.

"He manipulated you." There was no spite in his tone, no judgement, no disgust. Faramir simply listened... learned. He spent every second he had memorising every detail about her... in case seconds was all they had.

"The signs were there from the beginning. I was simply too curious to put them together."

Faramir kissed her gently. "I love your curiosity."

She laughed, placing her hand over his. "I think you love a lot more than that."

He gasped. "You insinuate rather inappropriate things."

Arathiel rolled her eyes, tangling her legs with his under the sheets. "I insinuate nothing."

Casting a look to the balcony, Faramir noted the moon. "Well..." he dragged, kissing a line up her jaw. "...the sun has not yet risen."

"How perceptive," Arathiel commented, gasping as his lips touched her neck.

"I think we have time for more... inappropriate things."

"Do we?"

He kissed her lips with hunger. "Undoubtedly."

ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ

The Nazgul had been circling Osgiliath for hours, biding their time as they searched for their choice of prey. The solders there would need reinforcements. Arathiel and Faramir would bring them.

She checked each man in their company before leaving, ensuring that every armour strap was secured tightly and that every weapon was sharpened to cut with every strike. Arathiel handed each man a helmet before ushering them to the gates.

"I want to go with you," Pippin told her, rushing to Arathiel's side. He wore the crest of Gondor.

"You are in the employment of the Steward. You go where he goes," she countered, noting a strap that had broken on the next soldier. "Find a new chestplate or get that repaired before we move out."

"Yes sir." He rushed off.

"Arathiel, I want to help," Pippin tried.

She turned. "You are helping." They both cast a glance to the rising sun and the unlit beacon. "You are the only one who can do it."

He shook his head. "You just think I'm useless."

Arathiel stopped what she was doing to bend to her knees. She placed her hands on his arms.

"You listen here, Peregrin Took," she began. "Hobbits are some of the bravest people I know. When the war comes, and it will come, you will be by my side on that battlefield, but this is not that war. These are skirmishes, and we must take them for as long as we can. If you cannot light that Beacon, call to Rohan for aid, then all will be lost. I would not call that useless."

Pippin took a shaking breath. "And what if I fail?"

"Then you are second to Bilbo Baggins as the greatest Hobbit I've ever known."

"Arathiel!" Faramir called from the Gate.

"I will see you when I return, Pippin," she told him.

"Do you promise?"

She straightened, ruffling his hair as though he was a child. "On my life."