Oh Daughter Dear

No Hope

I drag my stick over the dirt again and again, my eyes glassy as I think. I don't even realize I'm actually drawing something until Raeniel walks up behind me and pokes me. I lurch forward and look down. In the dust three words remain. Fire. Death. Destruction.

"What is wrong?" Raeniel doesn't understand the hopelessness of our situation. It has been five years since the fateful day my beloved Ada was overcome with necromancy, and I haven't spoken to him since. He doesn't sleep, not that we elves really need it, but eventually we need to rest. He doesn't eat much either, which is concerning.

"So much is wrong Raeniel. I..." I trail off with tears in my eyes. I was hit the hardest my nana says. I went from my Ada's little brethil to a nobody in a matter of seconds. Sometimes Nana has a few moments of solidarity with the mind of my Ada. So she persisted. But I knew better. Maybe it was intuition, maybe it was Aran Gil-galad's warning. Whatever it was, I know one thing. We are doomed. In five short years we have gone from a bright and happy city to a dull and lifeless hell. A trap, built from our own defenses.

Suddenly I break out of my thoughts. "I am going to the forge. See you later Nethig."

"Ok Nethel. I will see you later. Be safe, I fear Ada is quite-" she flinches as a loud bang and a curse sounds above us, and the smooth voice of Sauron follows. "Occupied today."

"I don't care. I'm going to rid us of Sauron today. I have a plan." I hurry upstairs to our maid's room. Her dresses are plain and practical. Sauron will not recognize me in such informal garments, surely. I fasten the head cloth around my head gently, and look in the mirror. I look something dreadful, my cheeks hollow, my eyes dark. Good. There's little chance he'll recognize me as a beautiful princess.

I walk up to the forge and see Ada working closely with Sauron. They already have made sixteen rings. They work on the last one now. But I know my Ada does not work on this atrocity. He is merely a puppet now.

"Maid, what do you want?" Sauron's smooth voice tries to charm me, but I know something he doesn't. I'm Gailthîr, the strongest elleth in Arda. I don't fall to puny little tricks.

"I want to speak to Lord Celebrimbor." His face sours as I speak.

"I'm afraid the lord is busy, little maid. You will have to leave."

"And if I do not?" My eyes flash dangerously.

"Who are you, fiery elleth? Are you asking for death? I will not ask you again, stupid maid. Leave!"

"Very well, forgive me." I turn to leave. But I don't leave alone. Under my arm, in a cloth, lay all sixteen finished rings.

I run through the halls of my past life, feeling it slip away completely. I am running, running for my life as it once was. But I can no longer go back.