Tears of the Valar

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: I own nothing but the Original Characters and their adventures. Everything else belongs to JRR Tolkien, the Tolkien Estate, New Line Cinema/Peter Jackson, et. al. This was done purely for entertainment and as an exercise in creativity.
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She walked through the garden, fountains splashing around her, gleaming white columns of massive buildings blending into the surroundings unobtrusively. A pleasant breeze blew through her hair and across her body, the large tunic she wore billowing behind her. The light was sparkling and looked to be reflected from a massive sphere high above the garden.

Reaching out to brush her fingers through the stream falling from one of the fountains she was only mildly surprised to hear someone speak.

“I thought you would come here,” a rich yet gentle and melodious voice said from somewhere nearby.

She looked around and spotted an Elf leaning against a column off to the right of the fountain. He had long, silver hair pulled back with two braids on each side. He wore a light blue tunic and cream colored leggings and boots and he glowed with a slight luminescence she had only seen on Elves in the moonlight.

“I don’t know where ‘here’ is,” she told him as she walked over to where he waited, a kind smile touching his perfect lips.

The Elf laughed softly. “It is … simply here,” he said. “Do not worry about such things; they do not matter.”

She nodded and looked around bemusedly.

“Why did I come here? This isn’t … there aren’t any Elves in heaven.”

“Are you certain?”

She thought for a moment then shook her head. “I’m not certain of anything anymore.”

“Perhaps,” the Elf said, putting a soothing hand on her shoulder, “there are Elves in your heaven.”

His words brought a smile to her lips and she nodded slowly as understanding dawned. “Yes. I think heaven should be full of Elves; they’re earth-bound angels, after all.”

Her companion smiled and inclined his head. “You see truths some others would not recognize. I am pleased with you, my child.”

“Really? Thank you. I’ve always tried to please you though I know I haven’t always succeeded.” She looked down at her hands. “I’ve killed a lot of living things.”

“Out of desire or necessity?”

She chuckled. “Well, some of them needed it and I was happy to do it.”

The Elf smiled and put his hands on her shoulders, kissing her forehead gently.

“Do not worry about what you may have done; you have remained true and all detritus has been burned away and washed clean.”

“What about Legolas? Orophin? Our friends? Are they …?” She didn’t want to say the word.

“Elves never truly die,” her companion said. He brushed his fingertips over her belly. “And neither have you.”

***

Opening her eyes and drawing a deep, gasping breath, Alexandra was momentarily blinded by sunlight.

“My love!” Legolas’ voice was close by and she felt his arms wrap around her, smelled his scent as he embraced her and at once felt safe.

She heard voices and blinked several times until she could focus her eyes on the others in the room. Allase and Elladan stood by the foot of the large bed she now recognized as the one in the room where she and the other woman had been kept prisoner in Lastharos’ palace. Orophin sat on the bed on her other side, Haldir beside him.

“We thought you had …” Legolas began then paused and swallowed, closing his eyes. Opening them he smiled and began again. “We thought you had gone to the halls of your fathers.”

“I went … somewhere,” she murmured though she couldn’t remember much about it now. It had seemed terribly familiar and there had been someone there, someone she knew …

“As long as you are back here, that is all that matters,” her husband said, kissing her gently.

She looked around the room. “What happened? The last I remember is Lastharos kicking me and then I was somewhere else. How long have I been out?”

The Elves exchanged glances before Legolas smiled and kissed her again.

“Four days. Lastharos has been dealt with. He no longer rules Khand and his creatures have been sent back to the shadows where they belong.”

Frowning, she looked at the different faces. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Orophin replied. His fair skin still bore some signs of bruising and his cuts were healing quickly. She noticed the others looked the worse for wear and wondered what had happened while she had drifted between life and death.

“Crasthion now rules Khand with the assistance of Naveradir and Maglor,” Haldir told her. “Just when we thought all was lost, the Khandun army arrived and overtook the palace. When the people saw the army was overthrowing Lastharos, they joined in happily. His prisoners have been freed and now the people of Khand must rebuild their society.”

“Wait; how did the army get here? I thought the mountains made it impregnable.” She was confused.

“They do; but they moved quickly and did not try to bring in any of the siege machinery or horses. On foot, it is much easier to accomplish.” Glorfindel spoke from the doorway, his bright blue eyes gleaming with good humor.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to see you here. I was afraid … Helcarin! Where is he?”

“Right here, my lady,” the golden-haired ellon said from the balcony where he stood with Saelbeth and Erestor.

“Oh, thank God you’re alright. I was afraid … you looked pretty bad when I saw you last.”

“So did you,” he retorted. He took her hand and looked into her eyes and for a moment, both saw something in the other.

“You were there; you saw him,” Helcarin whispered, almost inaudibly.

“Yes,” she answered.

The northern Elf smiled and they shared a secret knowledge they knew none of the others possessed except, perhaps Glorfindel or Naveradir. Still, they somehow thought they were the only two here who knew Inderion’s true name, though neither called him by the same one.

“She needs to eat something,” Allase told the Elves gathered in the room. Her tired face reflected her exhaustion. Having helped Elrohir and another healer sew the damaged parts of Alexandra’s body and seen the anguish in Legolas’ eyes as he remained by his wife’s side, refusing to leave her alone for even a moment, she was emotionally as well as physically drained.

One of the servants entered with a bowl of steaming broth and a pitcher of fruit juice. The young man bowed to the Elves, eyes wide. He sat the tray down beside the bed then left, his gaze drifting back to Orophin.

The blonde ellon smiled and nodded to the youth who seemed to stand a little straighter when he left the room.

“A friend of yours?” Haldir asked.

“He was quite taken with Dehlina when he was Lastharos’ slave,” his brother replied. “I think he was fascinated with the idea that I accompanied her.”

“Ah,” Haldir said, nothing more.

Legolas and Orophin helped her to sit up against the pillows. She winced a bit at the soreness in her belly, but managed to find a reasonably comfortable position. Taking the bowl, Legolas held it to her lips as she drank. It was warm and soothing and she soon finished it, washing it down with a goblet of cold juice.

“You should rest,” Saelbeth said as he and Erestor came over to the bed and each kissed her cheek. “There will be plenty of time to go over what happened on the way home.”

She nodded tiredly, her eyes closing, this time in true sleep.

***

Once the Khandun army had thrown itself into the fray, the outcome was certain. All that remained was to deal with Lastharos.

While Alexandra was being tended by healers, the former ruler of Khand was bound in chains. Haldir reluctantly withdrew his sword and within moments the gaping wound had healed.

Crasthion, Vetoran and Peferio looked at the man who had controlled their lives since birth.

“I knew you were a traitor,” Lastharos told Crasthion in an almost smug tone.

“I never betrayed Khand,” the man told him. “You, however, have slaughtered your own people for thousands of years. You have raped, killed and tortured us and our kind since you took the throne. Death is too easy a punishment for you.”

“You cannot kill me,” the leader boasted. “You saw what happened.”

“I am certain we can find a way to do away with you. Perhaps your body may be able to repair itself from damage, but what about damage inflicted by itself?” Naveradir smiled and the sight was not comforting or beatific. “What we have in mind for you should prove quite a satisfying end.”

*

Once Legolas was certain Alexandra would recover, he, Crasthion, Rumil, Orophin, Elladan, Erestor and Naveradir rode out from Fwaban with the former leader of Rhun chained and bound to a horse, his body and head covered so none would recognize him. It had fallen to them to deal with Lastharos’ punishment as they saw fit since they had been egregiously wronged by the Butcher of Khand. They rode for over a month to the northeast where the wastelands were vast and harsh and no living thing could be found for many days’ ride.

There, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, they stopped, dismounting. There were stones nearby and all agreed they were sufficient for their purpose. Lastharos was dragged from his mount and thrown to the ground, the shackles around his ankles and wrists attacked to stakes so he could not escape.

The Khandun, though naked and in chains, was still breathtakingly beautiful and he showed no sign of apprehension as he watched the Elves begin to dig. His gaze was almost bored as he sat in the blistering sun, then the freezing night as the Elves and his usurper worked tirelessly digging a pit at least forty feet deep and ten feet wide.

They paused only to take a bite of lembas and a drink of water, though they did not share it with the prisoner and Lastharos did not ask for any sustenance. It was as if his hatred of these creatures was food enough for him.

Finally, after several days and nights of digging, the pit was complete. Crasthion and Elladan pulled the man to his feet and took him to the edge of the pit.

“You are going to throw me in? How pedestrian. I could think of many more unpleasant ways to take revenge; and surely, you do not think the fall will kill me.” Lastharos looked at his captors with amusement.

“Yes, we are going to throw you in,” Elladan said.

“But that is just the beginning,” Crasthion added as he and the Elf simultaneously pushed the man into the black hole.

Lastharos landed hard on his side and he heard bones snap though they mended just as quickly as they broke. Still, it hurt. There was another, smaller hole in the pit, right in the center, about two feet in diameter. He looked up and laughed. “I still live.”

“That is the plan,” Naveradir replied as he, Erestor, Rumil and Legolas slid down the Elven ropes they had attached to the sides.

Erestor took the man and picked him up easily, dropping him into the smaller hole. It came up to the top of Lastharos’ shoulders and the Khandun narrowed his eyes.

“What do you think you will accomplish now?”

“Giving you a taste of your own torments,” Rumil answered as he and the others began to shovel dirt into the hole from the piles around the bottom of the pit.

“You buried your prisoners alive; it seems to have been one of your favorite means of execution and torture,” Naveradir said, almost cheerfully as the dirt had already reached Lastharos’ waist.

“It is only fair you should know what you dealt,” Erestor added, deliberately ignoring the times the blade of his shovel cut the Khandun’s flesh as he piled dirt around the madman.

“You would not dare!” Lastharos snapped. “What of your vaunted piety? Did not the Valar counsel mercy?”

“But you said yourself you do not owe any allegiance to any Vala,” Legolas reminded him.

“And we are showing mercy,” Rumil interjected. “We are not killing you. Your fate is in the hands of the Valar.”

They tamped the dirt around him, Lastharos now buried up to his neck. Naveradir and Erestor climbed back up the ropes with no effort at all while Legolas and Rumil remained with the Khandun. Rumil squatted beside the man and looked in his eyes.

“You raped my beloved and tried to drive her mad. The pain you caused her can never be recalled and no matter how you suffer it will never make up for it. I hope you rot here and the worms eat your flesh while you still live.” He stood and, catching hold of his rope, climbed swiftly to the top.

Legolas nodded as he met Lastharos’ gaze. “I agree with my friend. No matter how much you suffer, it can never atone for what you have done. What you did to me matters not; what you did to your prisoners, your slaves, your people, Charika, Erestor, Orophin, my wife—those are the sins that matter. An eternity of punishment cannot mitigate what you have taken from them … or from me. Use this time to think on your life, Lastharos, and perhaps Eru will have mercy on you and let you die.”

Lastharos watched him climb the rope to the top where the others were stacking stones around the rim, leaving only a small slit for sunlight.

“I took nothing from you, Elf,” Lastharos called to Legolas. “I took nothing. It was your friend who took your wife. Ask him how he enjoyed her body. He will deny it, but they are lovers and he took her as one would a slave. I took nothing from you—nothing!”

Legolas met Orophin’s gaze as they moved another of the heavy rocks over to block part of the opening. The Lorien ellon had told him about Lastharos’ demands that he rape Alexandra and that he had pretended to do so, but had not the will to do it in actuality. Legolas understood and was grateful it had been his friend who had been with her during her ordeal.

Lastharos’ voice was muffled by the rocks and dirt as the Elves gathered their things and made certain the area looked undisturbed.

“What did I ever take from you, Elf?” His voice echoed faintly as they rode away.

“He did not know?” Orophin asked Legolas quietly.

The prince shook his head. “Apparently not.”

They rode in silence for a bit longer before Orophin spoke again.

“Will you ever tell Alexandra?”

Again, Legolas shook his head. “It would seem she never knew. She had been told by healers it was not possible and to know Lastharos had taken our …” His breath caught as he realized he could not say the words. “To know Lastharos caused the miracle to fade away would do no good and would only bring her pain and sorrow.”

Orophin understood. “Then it will remain forever unspoken among us. I am certain Allase will say nothing. She seemed to understand.”

Legolas smiled sadly. “Thank you my friend.”

The Elves and Crasthion rode back to Fwaban with little conversation and absolutely none about what they had just done, their enemy buried behind them. When they arrived back at the palace, the others greeted them. No one asked what had happened to Lastharos. It was as if the Light of the East had never been.