The moonlight was still cascading down in silver waves from the great glass dome as Xanderian came slowly awake in the Chamber of Stars on Tol Lochul. She blinked, the room still robed in darkness save for the moonlight…and a single candle gleaming near the central map table. She slowly rose, briefly tangled in the bedding before she gently kicked it away and set bare feet on cool stone. She looked across the room to the map table, where lost in contemplation of maps and tomes and stones, stood Calidis.
The dark eyed elf was deep in study, with a keen eye and a furrowed brow, occasionally pulling the gossamer sheet she wore more securely around her shoulders as she fidgeted with something small and shiny between her fingers. She looked up when she heard her lover’s breathing change and the lines between her brows vanished as a small, guilty smile appears on her face making her appear almost child-like.
Xanderian stretched slowly as she walked, the last few sheets falling away to pool on the fine stone floor as she padded over to Cal. "You are fortunate I am not a jealous soul, sweet Nighteye, for all the nights you abandon my bower."
Calidis blushed and kissed Xan softly. "I shall endeavor to make it less of a habit. Though I dreamed and then rose with new questions in my mind."
The huntress kissed her back then stole a sip of the woman’s ever present wine glass. "Questions?
Cal nodded and her eyes suddenly lost in a memory. "I dreamed I was at my father's forge in the guildhall of the Murrain watching him craft a ring."
Xan nodded softly, knowing the possible import of an appearance by her noble father in her dreams. "And did he speak to you?
Call shook her head, partially in regret, partially in relief. "No. He continued to craft the ring, weaving a will into it as he was taught. As I was taught. But... I could hear the name he bequeathed it." She held out her right hand and revealed the ring that her father had crafted and hidden away from her thousands of years past, now resting in her palm. “Circamire” she whispered.
Xan nodded softly, watching Cal with the admiration and wonder she always felt when seeing her in her element, in the world of knowledge and power and ring-craft. Xanderian had once hoped to be a historian, then was ever after a soldier, so Calidis seemed to her as wise and graceful at these moments as her patron, Nienna herself. "Clearly you were fated to wield it with his blessing...this dream makes that all the clearer.”
Cal glanced at the ring, watching how the seven points of light within the adamant gem twinkled like stars. "Perhaps. But what for? I have now used it once upon Ryn and confirmed its will. But even then it was clear that there was still more to understand of it. The dream of my father faded and took me to another place altogether. A place I had never seen. Down a road lined with pink-petaled trees which slowly became trees of birch and pine. Snow was in the distance and a river running into a larger body of water far away..."
Xanderian listened silently, only speaking when Cal paused. “How did you feel in this place?” She had some familiarity with cryptic visions or unknown places.
"The further I moved in, the less light I felt around me." Calidis looked to the maps on the table again and reached out to lay her fingers hesitantly upon the region of Ered Luin.
Xan rested one hand on hers. The pale hues of Cal’s skin made Xanderian’s appear practically tanned in comparison. "Whatever your dream, your vision, you would never face such a path alone...and the light within you will dispel any shadow.”
She smiles and set the ring upon the map table, watching Xan through half closed eyes. For a moment she remembered when they first met, on a fateful night in Rivendell. After living most of her ageless life within the confines of the Valley of Imladris, Xanderian seemed almost comically young in Calidis Merifindiel's eyes yet represented adventure and courage and passion, all that seemed best in the wide world she had yet to see. When she asked Calidis to accompany her and her comrades, Calidis did not hesitate and grabbed the opportunity, as well as Xanderian’s hand…and has not let go. "I am honored you have such confidence in me, my love. But I remember well my own actions within Imlad Gelair... And my questions remain. Was Circamire influencing me as I slept tonight? It is a ring of truth and has shown me what is true in a similar fashion before. If so why was I dreaming of its making? And why did I dream of that path?"
Xan nodded, leaning back against the map table. “Well, few know as well as I that such things can be fickle....and act of their own desires. Consider Heartbreaker...I am but a convenience for it and I know not what it truly intends in the end.”
Calidis glanced over to the fire where she has left then pendant containing the crystal called Hastaina upon the mantle. "Perhaps. Circamire is unlike Hastaina. It cannot act of its own accord. It is not a creature, it is a tool, that does as it was made to do... But to divine the truth it is trying to reveal to me, I must have more pieces of the puzzle." She sighed and wrapped her arms around Xanderian, pulling the sheet around them both in the chill air.
"And where might we find these pieces?” Xan rested her head against hers.
"That is the question... But if this place in my dream is in Ered Luin as I suspect, then perhaps I need to know more of that place and what happened there.” Cal moved back slightly, meeting Xan’s eyes with her gaze, and then glanning at the elleth’s throat where a scar once was. “What happened at Kheledul... it is whispered of, and hinted at, but seldom really spoken of."
Xanderian nodded, biting her lip. "Kheledul...many things, over many years...it is a place of evil and greed.”
Calidis led her back to the bed, picking up a comb along the way. "I understand you fought Mans there before."
"It is where we fought him most directly....where I...fell, I suppose...it is complex. But its history dates back long, a port built by Thorin of old to trade with the folk of Cirdan, eventually taken by force to serve the Dourhand. When Mans led that dark tribe in the name of the False King he soon controlled all the illicit trade between Kheledul and Angmar. Arms...relics...secrets....and most of all, slaves. The green hills of what was once Cardolan were ripe for his grasping hands.”
Calidis nodded and ran the comb gently through Xan’s hair. She loved listening to her speak of the history of Arnor, even when it was tragic. It made her think of how the huntress, now known as the Monk of Osgilliath, must have been as the eager young scholar called Lethril. "I understand Addiela and Nethrida were there as well? And Eduwiges... How did you eventually defeat him?"
Xan nodded softly. “Yes, Sister Addie and Nethrida battled undead hordes while Eduwiges faced the necromancer Erach, but she will not speak of it now. The wounds I endured and my…condition for a time, filled her with terror and grief, so much so that it breaks my heart. Mans was defeated finally by the elder, Enthen, dispelling the glamour of his Ring.....and Hawke struck true and severed his arm, robbing him of its power. If not for those two acts, we would not have won the day. Now Enthen has sailed for the West…and we do not know where Hawke’s road has taken him. I miss them both."
Calidis, paused in her combing. “What became of the ring?”
“Sindya...crafted by the enemy and gifted to the Dwarves of Dwalin’s house. It is the Ring of Artiface, confusing and deluding the mind. We had thought it lost but the shade that is Mans hid and regained it, now returned to bedevil us more. It has allowed Mans to elude and deceive us again and again, most recently in Linhir. ” Xanderian sighed, remembering that their old foe, now in the form of Nethrida’s mother, lurked in Kheledul again, plotting like a spider in a web.
Calidis rested her hands on Xan’s shoulder. "A ring of artifice... I believe what you've just said is one piece to the puzzle, my love."
“Indeed?” Xanderian raised an eyebrow.
Cal nodded and kissed her neck softly. "Artifice. Untruth. Circamire shows what is true even if it is hidden. I used it to illuminate the hidden corners of Ryns mind to see who or what resided within. What was previously hidden from her is now all but laid bare.”
Xan frowned. “Is this a good thing, my beloved?”
“I believe so despite some of the truth being a source of concern...” Cal tried to sound reassuring.
Xan was not reassured. “Concern? For Unhooded Ryn, or for all of us?”
“Hmm, both.” Cal shrugged softly. “Some of the entities residing within her are... Dangerous. One is most certainly evil. Enough to strike fear into my heart.”
“And how then did they come to be inside her?” Xanderian frowned more deeply, thinking of the fact that Ryn was even now in Bree, with Addie and Elsa.
“That I am uncertain of.” Cal continued combing. “But, I believe Ryn may have the answers if we can only ask the right questions. But returning to the puzzle at hand... I remember when my father made Circamire and when I thought he had destroyed it, but it had been hidden away and given to Lord Cirdan to keep all this time. If I was meant to have it then perhaps it was fate that it came into my hands now. Sindya may obscure the truth.... but Circamire may draw the truth out into the open.”
Xan smiled “That thought fills me with hope renewed.”
Cal smiled back. “That thought fills ME with all manner of worry... But if you are hopeful then I shall try to be as well. And double my efforts in understanding Circamire better.
Xanderian looked into Cal’s dark eyes. “There are none in whom I would sooner place my faith...or entrust my life to, then you my Nighteye
Cal froze, nearly in tears suddenly. Softly she spoke, her voice filled with an emotion and conviction she once had not thought herself capable of. “All I wish for is your love and to remain with you to whatever end.”
“Then you shall have all that you wish for, Calidis Merifindiel.” Xanderian smiled, and stroked her hair.
Cal sobbed and kissed her slowly, setting the comb aside to pull Xanderian closer. Ring craft and confusing visions could wait until morning.
