Dance Of Darkness And Light

Chapter 22: Trials Of A Broken Heart

At times she felt hands on her, restraining her, other times she would feel a gentle energy permeating her, slowly taking away physical pain. Her mind though remained a dark, blank slate for an amount of time she could not account for. She could feel presences around her yet Linshara could not, or perhaps would not open her eyes, her mind to the world around her.

"Miss Lin, please don't leave...." a small voice whispered to her often. It was a sweet, soothing presence, young Tilda.

Other times she heard soft, deep unintelligible murmurs, followed by a boney hand on hers. Gandalf. She surmised he must have been performing healing on her.

"Lin, ye've got ter wake ohp!" Sweet, funny Bofur, she could recognize that accent anywhere. He was overwhelmed with sorrow and fear. Often she would hear and feel the presence of Bofur, though she could not understand a word of his mutterings.

A tiny hand grabbed hers, a broken voice speaking, "Lin, they say you can hear me. They say you cannot return to us. Please find a way, I know so much is gone for you, but so much is still here for you, so many people want you returned to them."

Yet something would not let her return to them. Balin came to visit as did Dwalin, both brothers reeling with devastated feelings. Bombur would sit quietly with her. Sigrid and Bain visited several times also, both praying to the deities she'd come to know as Valar for her recovery.

At one point she saw an image of the white elk again, whispering to her trying to coax her to follow it again, yet she could not move, she could not follow.

Then, she felt a familiar soothing presence in the Force. One she had not felt for a year almost, a presence she had called Jedi back then.

"Gandalf it is no injury or disease that is keeping Lady Linshara in this state," Elrond's soothing, calm voice said.

The wizard joined Elrond next to her, "what do you believe it is then, Lord Elrond?"

Gentle hands framed her face, "I have known this condition myself. A broken heart, my friend. I understand she was betrothed to King Thorin's heir, Prince Fili?"

"She was, yes." The grumbling voice of the wizard replied. "How do you propose we help her?"

The hands left her face, now clasping her hands instead. "We give her time, to see if her life essence desires to stay in this realm or if it is time to travel to where Jedi go when they part of our existence."

"How does one decide when their mind is wrapped in darkness?" Gandalf asked again, his worry obvious, permeating the atmosphere.

"Come with me..." Elrond called.

Once again she felt alone, empty. So it was for a time. Images run through her head, of time now long past, her homeworld Chandrila, her second home, Coruscant and its Jedi Temple. She remembered her time on Rakata Prime, its strange and unique ruins. Her arrival to Arda brought her many joys and sorrows, she remembered. The tumultuous king, the cheeky young archer, the golden lion heir.

She missed them, achingly so. The one person she had been as close to as them, before, her old mentor, Master Zhushan Wu, the loss of whose presence she'd so keenly felt when he was struck down on Cato Nemoidia. Still the pain of that loss could not compare to the pain she felt now, her loss tripled. How did one endure? How did one lose love and survive it without descending into utter darkness?

Then an unexpected presence, a voice ever so broken and gentle, it's twang unmistakable. "Lady Linshara, these are not the peaceful circumstances I had in mind." A hand grasped hers. "They tell me you are in there, that your body lives, yet your mind is undecided. My Lord Elrond says that your heart is broken, after Prince Fili and his kin were destroyed."