- Good day my Lady, I hope to speak to you again soon.
- Speak to me? Speak of the sorrow and pain? You hope for this?
- Not all from that age was darkness and despair. There was hope.
- Hope is at the hands of the Hammers now, few in number yet many at heart.
It was a fair summer morning, the young day’s rays falling upon the falls, creating rainbows on sprays. There Lindeledhriel saw, beneath the trees, the glittering black hair of her beloved elder brother. At last, there he was standing, close to her touch, with his tall, broad stature and black hair glittering in the rays of sun falling under leaves.
She screamed his name in wonder and cheer like a birdsong at the break of dawn. Sudden joy filled her soul, the long awaited hour of union had come at last!
She ran to him, put her hand on his shoulder and the elf turned around to face her. It was the moment when her sudden joy faded. The elf’s face showed he was not whom she sought. Despairing, she fell silent, her cheer fading into her ever resident sorrow.
“Did I disturb you, lady?” asked the elf, Lindeledhriel could only shake her head slowly. She apologized for herself but the elf was kind and understanding, perhaps, he had also seen much sorrow and loss.
She glanced at his hauberk, the very same as her beloved Galahadlas had of late. Then she learned that he was the Lord Estarfin whom had sworn his oath to the Tur on the very same day with Galahadlas. Thus they met under the morning sun, two of the last remainders of their kind.
They exchanged words from their past, from Beleriand to Lindon, most filled with bitter memories.
Every now and then, Lindeledhriel’s searching eyes looked at his face, still praying to believe in the wonder and hope of the earlier moment, when she saw him from a distance, under the trees.
Taking leave, she walked back to the House of Elrond, glancing at the tall figure with glittering raven black hair reliving the fools hope and a moment’s joy again and again.
She climbed up the stairs and walked into her chambers where Galahadlas was. She told him of their meeting with Estarfin and her deception. Galahadlas had not seen her so much in grief for a while. He promised her many times to do his best to find her brother, yet he was under the orders of the House and thus his actions were limited, bound to the will of the Tur. There they sat, he prayed for a beacon of hope and a way to ride forth to search for the lost knight. She wept and fell into a soothing slumber in his warm embrace for there was no other cure to her sorrow... until she received a gift from Lothlorien.
