Far Horizons ❦ Boromir

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*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"HE passed on during the night." A herald had come while Ohtar and his daughter broke their fast on a hearty brown bread and fruit preserves. Her father nodded solemnly and Aeardis looked at the armored man with wide eyes. "Denethor is to be named steward on the morrow and Ecthelion honored today."

The course of the day changed drastically with those words. Aeardis wore black from head to toe for the first time in her life. She did not like the veil that shrouded her face but it was expected of the women in the realm to wear such pieces when in mourning. The girl followed her father, never straying far from his side. Dark clouds began gathering above. Before midday the rain had begun, washing over the city like tears.

The Citadel had been opened to the commons, throughout the day people from all levels of the city and the closest villages came to mourn the loss of their beloved steward, Ecthelion. Witnessing such sadness in the wake of death was foreign for Aeardis even though she had come into the world by taking the life of another. Many of those who lived in the village outside of the castle on Tol Eressëa were elves or still had the blood of Númenor flowing through their veins. Truly the only encounter with death the girl had at such an age was when the bird she had found with a broken wing was too weak to be nursed back to health. The gull had died in her hands and she had cried for hours at her failure.

Across the throne room was Boromir and Faramir, each with downcast and lachrymose eyes. She could not help but grieve with them despite only being in their company for not even a week. They had been kind to her and that was something she could never forget. Yet their kindness had been met with the harsh reminder of mortality and neither of the brothers so much as looked in her direction that day.

The late Steward of Gondor was carried on the shoulders of four Fountain Guards out of the Tower Hall and into the Houses of the Dead. Denethor, Finduilas, and their sons followed behind the procession as the sorrowful cry of a lone trumpet echoed off the white stone and across the land. The city mourned, the realm wept.

Aeardis and her father stood in the rain with many others. There were no whispers, no songs, or tales. There was only solemn silence.

It was late when those who had been bid to remain reentered the warmth of the throne room. There were no more than a hundred people, all of them silent and somber, soaked to the bone. One of the Fountain Guards came forth announcing himself as Elboron. He was the most senior of those who stood watch over the White Tree. He removed his helmet and rose with a scroll clasped tightly within his gloved hand, the seal of the Steward had not yet been broken. "The last wishes of the late Ecthelion the II shall be read in the sight of his family, loyal counselors, and close friends."

Many of the requests were trivial in Aeardis's mind, some grim in nature as the talk of battle was mentioned. While still others were arrangements for trade and the dissemination of information in internal and foreign affairs. She did not understand why her father was needed at his hearing until the last request came.

Elboron turned his eyes toward the place where Ohtar sat with his small daughter at his side, the court followed the man's gaze. He looked back down at the scroll and began reading. "Ecthelion wishes that Ohtar son of Rirosdaer be named chief adviser to his son, Denethor."

If Ohtar was shocked at the request then there was nothing about his expression that hinted at anything but an unwavering calmness. Aeardis looked up at her father, her murky green eyes pleading that he decline so that they could return home. They did not belong so far from the sea. Her father's countenance was that of stone, there was nothing that could be dispelled to anyone of his inner thoughts.

The old warrior stood but swiftly took a knee and crossed his right arm over his chest, speaking with a lowered head to all those of the court, "If that is Ecthelion's wish then I will see it done and do so with the best of my ability." Whispers swept through the hall and he said no more.