Eowyn The Cage Ch 11A

[

Setting the scene:

the events of this chapter take place after the battle of Helm's Deep. Aragorn, the Rangers of the North, and the remnants of the Fellowship are preparing to leave Dunharrow for the Paths of the Dead. Éowyn has again openly declared her love for Aragorn and her desire to ride with him, and has been rejected on both counts. Elladan and Elrohir, the twin sons of Elrond, arrived with the Rangers and will journey with Aragorn's company. Historical people and events to which this narrative refers (often obliquely) include Melian, Maia and wife of Elu Thingol; Beren and Lúthien wresting a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown; the capture and torture of Elrond's wife Celebrían; and the relationship between the sons of Elrond and their sister Arwen (Aragorn's fiancée) in the aftermath of their mother's premature departure into the West.]

7 March 3019 (Third Age), Dunharrow

Éowyn raced through the night, fleeing her chaos. Fleeing her shame. Fleeing to escape, even though she knew it was hopeless, for that which she sought to leave behind was with her still.

I'm not even running towards any particular destination. Only away. If I run much longer, my nudity can't help but be noticed. Shouldn't I care? I don't. All I can hear, all I can see, all I can feel is failure and humiliation. What more damage can be done? What does it matter if someone sees me like this? Only escape can save me now.

Despair overwhelmed her.

Death is an escape. Perhaps the only one left to me.

She ran faster...blind, deaf, numb, and heedless.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Elrohir peered into the mists that flowed from the sinister mountain pass. The Dimholt held no special terror for him, for Elves didn't fear the mortal Dead, yet the endurance of his immortality was far from certain.

I could be slain on this road. So could my brother.

Despite this grim knowledge they'd willingly set forth from Rivendell, for the fate of their entire family — indeed, their entire race — was at stake. For them, it was an opportunity to (at last) be on the front lines of the eternal fight against darkness. For their sister, the culmination of all her desires...and also the eternal sadness that would follow...might be conditioned on their success or failure. For their father, their journey began the final countdown to a long-feared but long-predestined farewell. And for the Firstborn, any outcome at all would mark the end of their role in Middle-earth's ongoing story. Some might remain, whether in bondage or in lingering memory of what once was, but....

But the alternative is inaction, and that is worse. We are here now, and we must do what we can.

While he was far from young, neither was he old by the long measure of the Elves, and despite millennia of bravery a scion as yet largely unproven outside Rivendell's environs. As a result, he was in no way immune to the pressures he faced. He wandered the camp in deep contemplation, ignoring all others, and his brother followed close behind, silent and lost to identical thoughts.

Neither perceived the swift misery bearing down upon them until it was too late.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Uttering no cry to disrupt the night, Elrohir was nevertheless caught by complete surprise as a moonlit whirlwind laid him low. Elladan leapt to grapple with his brother's assailant, but was instead carried to the ground by the force of their toppling.

A grunt. A gasp. Another grunt. Simultaneous, yet from three disparate sources.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

What a fitting end to my most abject humiliation yet. I'm on the ground in full view of any who might pass, sandwiched between two men I don't even know. Worse, I'm naked and weeping like a simpering idiot. I hope that, whoever they are, they're high in the King's counsels. Better yet, I hope they're already well-known to me, and I to them. I hope they'll depart and tell everyone they know what has happened on this night. All is now absolute perfection, and my well-earned shame complete. Perhaps I'll be fortunate enough to die of embarrassment. Or maybe, sensing my unsatisfied arousal, they'll instead decide to bear me away to some remote glade and have their way with me. In my desperation, why wouldn't I let them? For what does anything matter, anymore?

She opened her eyes.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Elladan reacted first. Grasping the unknown attacker, he pulled him from Elrohir and pinned him to the cold ground.

Well...not exactly "him."

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Elrohir preceded his brother in recognition, but he was slower to react. Even amidst the confusion of his fall, he'd felt her smooth flesh and smelled her musky perfume. Immediately, he identified it not as some artificial unguent, extracted from the flora of meadow and mountain, but instead the heady scent of a woman's arousal. Yet as stunned as he was, he still hadn't moved when she was pulled from his splayed form by his protective brother.

Nevertheless, he was equally shocked at his first sight of her.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

She writhed against Elladan's restraint, yet with little apparent effort he held her in place. "Stay your struggle! We do not mean you harm. But the nighttime assailant should first identify herself and her purpose."

Elrohir was momentarily bewildered.

Certainly my brother knows her name.

"Unhand me!"

It was Elrohir who spoke next. "Having been unsubtly tackled to the ground for no obvious reason, you must forgive my brother's caution. The answer is no, at least until his question is answered."

"You know who I am!" she sputtered.

But I don't know who they are.

"That may well be so, and yet," he gestured at her naked body, "here you are, in a most unexpected state. So while we may or may not know your name, the question remains: who

are

you?"

She gaped, lost for words.

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

She bears no shame regarding her nudity. That much is clear, though it is somewhat unexpected from a mortal.

Elrohir let his question fester and decay in the cold evening, not failing to notice her crisply erect nipples, nor in fact any other detail of her body.

She is, mortal or otherwise, an exquisite specimen of beauty, despite her mood. In another place, another time, another context....

But she

was

wracked with despair, and with his finely attuned senses he could guess much of a story he suspected she'd rather not tell.

The question is: why? And more importantly, to what does she run? The "from" I already know.

He spared a thought for his sister.

Has she already been betrayed?

Elladan caught his eye, as though the thought had been spoken aloud.

No, she hasn't.

Then what has happened?

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>

Elladan's and Elrohir's minds merged. All Elves could accomplish this to some extent, and the most powerful of them with practiced ease, but among close family in direct proximity the skill was among the very first learned as a child. If Men retained the talent, absent the aid of the long-lost Palantíri even those of noble lineage had long forgotten how to use it. "Instinct" or "intuition," they named it, mistrusting all it told unless it reinforced what they already believed.

They are blind to one another, missing so much that is essential. But perhaps that is their destiny,

mused Elrohir.

Never mind that now. She has attempted to seduce Aragorn.

But why? Oh...yes, I see.

Do you think he returns her love?

Do you think she would be here, like this, if he did?

Yet I can sense the remnant of his arousal.

Look at her, brother. Do you seriously question how such a thing might occur?

No. Still, he would require more than beauty.

She hides something. Something dark. Her form would be irresistible to almost anyone, but....

Are you seriously thinking...?

No. I mean: yes, I would welcome it. Wouldn't you? But not here, now, like this.

I marvel at your wavering interest.

I say again: look at her, brother. Feel her power. She is a magnificent sexual being, almost not to be understood from a mortal, especially with what I sense is a very brief experience with the art. She has access to erotic energy that would be enviable even among the Firstborn. How she comes by it I cannot imagine. But it is there.

Do you think she knows it?

I think she suspects, or perhaps fears. But she has no idea how to control it, and is thus controlled by it. Currently, I believe she is blinded by her feelings for our future brother-in-law.

You know that future is uncertain.

Do I? Then I am on a fool's errand, risking my life needlessly. As are you.

You say truly. I do not see how it may come to pass, but I believe in their fate. So, then...what do you propose we do?

What do you mean?

Are we to...?

No. We cannot.

Feel

her. She needs, she yearns, but if we...no. I am sorely tempted — beyond tempted, actually — but it is wrong, and she has not consented. Even if we gained that consent, we would leave her more damaged than before. Nor is there sufficient time.

I agree. So again I ask: what do you propose we do?

Allow me to win a throw in my fight against temptation and think.

As with all such Elvish dialogues, in which minds communed in instantaneous concert, their entire conversation had been accomplished in the space between moments. She was still struggling to free herself from Elladan's hold, but he paid her little mind.

We might try....

What?!? Think about what you are saying, brother!

Elladan's mien was shocked, verging on true outrage.

You cannot possibly be serious!

Do you have an alternative suggestion?

Yes. Let this poor woman suffer her unavoidable mortality and the pain which comes more sharply and more often to the short-lived, regrettable though this choice might be. Their passions are not like ours, nor are their struggles, for they have so little time. We cannot salve that which is native to their race — that which is the gift of Illúvatar — no matter how strange it seems to our minds. We should ever be slow to interfere.

I do not think this is part of His gift, save in the sense that all that transpires is part of the Music he commanded. Look more deeply. Surely you see that all is not...well, do you not sense the wrongness within her?

There was a fractional pause.

You are correct. There is an element that was not part of her until recently. Whence this strangeness?

I do not know. It feels like wizardry, but among the Istari only Curunír would do such a thing, and I cannot see how they could have met. Nor should she have encountered those who practice the black sorceries of the Enemy. Not yet, at least. But I also sense that she has tried to harness this energy for her own purposes, believing it no more than a tool.

She will be destroyed if she continues.

For now she merely purchases hope. She remains afraid of the consequences, and rightly so. This is not wisdom, and you are correct about the outcome should she be undeterred, but neither is it the manifest evil it could be. She can still be redeemed.

Even if she restricts herself to occlusion of word and memory, she is using others.

You see that she cannot otherwise control or restrain her energies, do you not? Perhaps it is a personal fault, perhaps it is just inexperience, but either way, is it not at least somewhat understandable? Her people are inherently modest, at least outwardly, and would not understand. A fear of public denunciation is warranted.

Yet I deem that what she demands others forget or ignore is instead what she wishes to deny within herself. She lacks faith in her...in her....

Partners? Conquests? If she is choosing them poorly and with recourse to some form of sorcery when she errs, then it is a well-founded faithlessness. That may be the foundation of the error she made with Aragorn. Had she come to him in supplication, without tricks, she may very well have succeeded. He is noble far beyond the norms of his race, but Man is he nonetheless. Moreover, he is easily moved by pity, and for her he would feel much. You can see for yourself that she is surpassed in physical beauty only by our grandmother.

And our sister.

Another pause without time.

Indeed.

This woman has been a victim.

Profoundly so. Can you discern the cause of it?

No. It is strange that I cannot, but it is beyond my sight.

We cannot heal what we cannot identify. We can only heal what is before us. Unfortunately, I see no alternative.

Your suggestion remains madness.

Does it?

It is a secret known only to our family. So it must remain!

So it

shall

remain. We are telling no one else, nor do I intend to conduct the rite in public. And she will never know.

But....

But what, brother?

Lúthien is a legend. Of her life, even our endless stories fail the full truth. Out of her deathless memory is our sister's story written, as if reincarnated in aspect as well as destiny. It would destroy her memory should this secret become known, and irreparable shame brought upon our sister.

But

we

already know. As does our father, and as did his mother before him, though I believe Arwen has been deliberately spared this knowledge for reasons related to her fate. Is Lúthien's memory thus irredeemable, given how many already know? I do not believe so. In fact, believe we, her descendants, honor her better than any in Middle-Earth. Moreover we

know

that it works.

So the tales insist, but....

She is in need, brother. I cannot see how it can be resolved any other way. Look at her path and the grim inevitability of it. You do not require the foresight of the Elves for its conclusion to be plain. There is struggle unmendable in her future, and that cannot be helped, but if we do nothing, you know what will happen. On the morn she will once again appeal to Aragorn...this time with no more than desperate words to support her plea against what, given what has transpired, will be a vastly more adamant resolution to the contrary. He will reject her, and at some point after we depart she will ride alone unto the Paths of the Dead. She will die in the attempt to pass to the other side. But along the way she will suffer unimaginable torment, for they will not permit her to compete for the attentions of the heir of Isildur. As for the form of that torment...the Dead have been alone a long time.

Yes. Yes, I see it now. It is too horrible to contemplate.

And so?

But Lúthien's magic...what surety do you have that we can employ it?

It will work.

But how....

His eyes widened in shock.

You have used it before!

I have. But it was only....

On our own family!!!

It was necessary. You know when. You know why.

The trial to which their mother had been subjected was one neither of them could ever forget or forgive. And the aftereffects among their family had been devastating.

I remember unexpected events in the aftermath, but I didn't realize....

There was no need to afflict both of us with the burden.

The burden?

Among those of us who remained after our mother's departure, certain choices were made that were necessary at the time, but that will bring greater pain at the final parting. The burden of which I speak is knowing that I am entirely responsible for one of those choices, and how much harder it will make the end, whenever that comes.

How did you...? Oh! I understand now. I thought it a newly awakened but genuine curiosity, not an illusion.

It was no illusion. The feelings were genuine. It was an unexpected outcome in the aftermath of what I intended to be a somewhat simpler form of healing, and even though it might not otherwise have arisen, we did not waste it...then or later.

We will speak more of this later, for I have many questions. Still...even to heal ills, this act feels wrong. Why do you not feel the same, brother?

There is a measure of wrongness, both because it is interference in the natural order of a life, and because it demands a responsibility that cannot be acknowledged in the aftermath, only accepted in silence. But it is not evil if employed with pure — rather than prurient — intent. And in this case, I deem that a much greater good will come of it. Her path is dark, and will remain so for some time, but there is a major event or deed in her near future that I cannot otherwise perceive. Despite my uncertainty, I know that she must live to achieve it, for it is the moment she will begin to shed her darkness. It will not happen at once, but it will place her on the road to healing. If she does not live, I foresee great evil arising from her failure to be where she otherwise might. I cannot understand what it is that I do not see, or why it should be so clear to me despite this ambiguity, but I do not doubt my judgment.

I see as clearly you do — both the surety and the uncertainty — but you should also widen your consideration to the entirety of her future. She might never be free of the lusts that threaten to overwhelm her, if we do this. In fact, we will almost certainly make them worse, by binding her survival and her sense of self-preservation to those urges.

It is as you say, and yet I can only repeat that there is a burden imposed, and she will have to help us bear it. Perhaps you now understand my choice to take this upon myself the first time. In any case, if she lives she may learn to live with or even master her desires. But she will

not

live if we do nothing.

It will be hard on her eventual mate, should she choose one.

He might never know. For example....

No, let us reserve that discussion for another time. I would simply caution that a lack of knowledge does not make it less difficult. And yet I wonder, given what we now face, whether the situation to which you were about to refer is any defense at all. Does it not in fact condemn the choice we are about to make?

Our purpose is not to fortify every act against all possible evils. We have not that skill. No one does. But come, brother: here is a deed we can do, and surely it is no evil to help her live. Especially not in this case. For despite your caution, in a strangely circular way we may be helping to amend the issue you raise. Her survival, albeit on a different path, also serves him. We cannot undo what has been, but we can strive to improve what will be.

You are right. We must do this. Still, I would not have this secret revealed.