Lost Wanderers (Halbrand / Rings of Powers)

11 - Only Fire Can Bind

Spring was back and life filled her beloved fields.
Luthien followed the merry children and girls who were running amongst flowers, letting the gentle breeze caress their beautiful clothes.
Laughs and nice sounds filled the air and Luthien felt simply happy. In peace.
What more she could ask from life?
Her eyes spotted a handsome young man staring at her with a beautiful smile and lingered on him.
She left the group and walked to him, letting the birds from the tress around them sing the song her heart was singing.
Halbrand picked a fruit and took a bite of it. Then he handed it to her.
She looked at it, then tasted it carefully. An explosion of sweetness filled her mouth.
"Luthien, look at me".
His fingers tapped her chin, making her look up.
He was so beautiful and she was mesmerised.
The fruit was so ripe that some juice escaped the corner of her mouth.
Halbrand's eyes followed the drops. He leaned closer and kissed her jawline, sucking the juice from her skin.

Luthien woke up with a startle.
She looked around in confusion and shuddered.
Why was she back there? When she wanted to stay in heaven?
She was lying in a dark, filthy cell.
And beyond the rusty bars a tall shadow was staring at her.
"Eyes like the cleanest sky. Like the rarest gems" a voice whispered, sounding like the last breath of a dying man.
But he wasn't a man. He wasn't elf anymore.
He was the enemy.
She narrowed her eyes to see him better and pulled herself up to sit.
"Luthien. Is that your name?".
"Adar isn't your name. What is yours?" she replied with hostility.
"You should call me an ally" his long fingers wrapped around the bars as his eyes were fixed on her "You know, a woman like you managed to defeat the Dark Lord, that you know as Sauron. He came to me, using my children for his dreams to become powerful again, sacrificing them all. I got my chance to finish him before he could find what he was looking for. I could have never done that without her help".
She couldn't bear to hear the same old story even from her enemy.
"That Luthien was a powerful elf. I'm just mortal" she hissed.
"There's power in names too" he said calmly "I'm Adar. I'm father to all these lost creatures. You are the hope. Hope that if another dark tyrant shall rise, you can cause his doom".
She scoffed "Are you referring to yourself? You claimed lands that are not yours".
"And who would claim them now? Under this burned sky my children can walk in daytime. Dwarves can dwell under the mountains. Elves and Men have their own lands. This burned land is for broken creatures like us. There's now balance in this world".
His speech seemed nonsense. But everything around her was sick. She couldn't expect him to be someone to talk properly to.
"Why? What your evil masters did was wrong? Do you admit it?" she teased.
"Sauron was obsessed with bringing his order to this world. It sounded good. But when I saw that the price was the sacrifice of my children for something that we weren't even sure it existed. I couldn't stand it".
Balance. Order.
Those words sounded blasphem from his black lips.
"Bringing order after Morgoth destroyed everything?" she chuckled mockingly.
"Did you know that Morgoth asked us to hunt that Luthien? He wanted her for himself. But he was defeated before he could have her. And now you're here. Call it a whim. When I heard your name, it felt like being back to a long time ago".
She froze. It wasn't something new to her ears. If she was strong enough, she would grab anything and stab him in his eyes. So maybe he would be less blind.
"I'm not her" she reminded him, exasperated.
"No. She died as a mortal. But she had descendants. I can sense her presence in your blood. Blood binds us".
She retreated with disgust. She wasn't related to the famous Luthien. Bearing her name didn't make her a descendant.
Adar kneeled and offered her a carafe of water.
"Take it. You must be very thirsty".
She looked at the water, but couldn't surrender to the temptation.
"Do you want to poison me? Or trick me?" she wished to throw the carafe away, pouring the liquid. Instead her eyes couldn't stop staring at it. She was starving and impossibly dehydrated. Her body would fail her when her mind struggled to make impossible choices.
"I want us to be friends" he said but she didn't believe him. She couldn't believe to anything that came from those poisoned lips.
"I let you rest" he stood up with a grace that didn't fit his role "I'll come back to visit you. And maybe you'll see me more as a disgusting creature. You have nothing to fear from me".