A Ruby's Shine (Thorin Oakenshield X OC)

92. Watching Madness

I flipped through the pages of the book, sighing as I leaned back in the library chair, staring up at the crystal ceiling. It's been three days since Balin spoke to me and my fears only grow worse as the days pass.

Thorin is not getting better, he's getting worse. Where I was able to encourage him to eat, to drink and even sit for a while and talk to me... Now, none of that happens. I stopped trying to bring him food this morning when he growled and glared at me like... like...

Like Smaug did.

I fear my theory may be right. This is no ordinary sickness of the mind, this is magical in make. I have kept my eye close on Fili and Kili and have seen no signs of it, which is making a theory slowly develop in my mind. If only I have another of Durin's blood who had been here in the mountain when the dragon took it so long ago... I might be able to prove that theory true or false.

I think Smaug, in his own magical way, cursed those of the line of Durin he knows of. He did not know there were more than Thorin, Thrain, and Thror. He might have known about Fili and Kili's mother Dis, but he did not know of Fili and Kili. So he didn't curse them.

But, if this is the answer... then it makes me all the more worried. While, if this is just a sickness of the mind, I would be able to find ways to help Thorin, to help him see things around him again, but this is no ordinary sickness of the mind. If this is truly a curse... then only the person under it's affects can break it.

And I don't know how I can convince Thorin to try with how he is now. He has been forcing us daily to search through all that gold for the Arkenstone and, while I was definitely looking for it, it wasn't to give it to Thorin.

No, I planned to throw the damn thing into the lava cavern, consequences be damned. The way the other's describe this Arkenstone makes it sound like it's not a stone at all. I started wondering if it was magical and began feeling out with my sense to try to detect it. Yet, I never felt anything more than the dark, sickness like feeling laying upon all this treasure, growing stronger by the day as Thorin slowly lost his mind more and more.

I sighed as I looked back at the book in my hands, reading on to see what I could discover. Curses are not as common as one might think. It takes a lot of magic and a lot of focus to curse something and the only beings known to have cursed things before is Sauron and Morgoth. I shuddered just thinking of what they have cursed. Thinking of Sauron and the Rings of Power made me think of Bilbo once more.

I have been doing my best to keep an eye on the hobbit, as Gandalf had asked, and I haven't sen anything out of the ordinary, beyond him be as worried and down as the rest of us. Bilbo is around Thorin even more than I am right now, watching Thorin quietly from the shadows. I get the feeling Bilbo may have spoken with Smaug as well. And, like me, the hobbit has hardly spoken. But I haven't missed his hand being in his pocket, making me wonder even more if that ring is truly a Ring of Power.

So little is known about most of them, the elves saw to it that such things were forgotten with time and within good reason, those rings are powerful but they come at a price. Only the elves, with their immortal lives, can resist the side affects of wearing such rings. At first I wondered if Thorin found one of the rings Sauron gifted to the dwarves, it isn't completely impossible with him being of the line of Durin, but I quickly realized that is not the case, none of the rings he wore were at all magical, I would know like I do with the one Bilbo carries.

No, this is a curse by Smaug. That cunning evil dragon just wanted to watch the world burn, but he enjoyed watching it slowly, so it isn't hard to believe he would have wanted to watch the line of Durin loose their minds.