The Forgotten One -II- Book Five -Tales Of The Fourth Age

Chapter Eleven: We Meet Again

Fo.A 19, Nov 25th

Faramir untied Tachion's mouth as soon as Èowyn left the room. "Hold still a moment."

Tachion waited until Faramir had undone the knot and removed it before speaking, his voice urgent. "Faramir, you must listen, I need to get out of here!"

Faramir looked at him, confused. "What are you talking about? Why are you in Rohan?"

Tachion shook his head. "You don't understand, I need to get out of here before they kill me."

"I don't know what you're talking about, and you didn't answer my question as to why you are in Rohan?"

Tachion breathed hard, arms straining against his bonds. "Please, Lord, I must leave!"

Faramir's face became hard as stone, and he pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down. "I will do no such thing until you give me answers, Tachion. Tell me, why are you in Rohan?"

Tachion's shoulders slumped, and he stopped fighting the restraints. "Very well," he said. He laid back on his pillow, closing his eyes. "I had headed north upon my sentence of exile, thinking I might find a place that no one would know my name or my face. I was in Bree when word came of King Elessar's murder." He sighed. "I thought to head back in spite of the winter, but they found me first."

"Who did?" Faramir asked, leaning forward.

"The Black Tree," Tachion replied. "They took me on the southern road mid-January and drug me back to Carn Dûm in Angmar. She was there."

"Who?"

Tachion opened his eyes and looked at Faramir. "My mother, the one I knew as Nalwen. To you, she is known as Thuringwethil."

Faramir leaned back hard in his chair, unsure what to make of this revelation. Suddenly, things that had happened between him and Ninel made so much more sense, and he kicked himself for not seeing it sooner.

"You are not surprised by this?"

Faramir glanced at Tachion, giving a quick shake of his head. "No, I am afraid I'm not. Your sister..."

Tachion leaned up, eyes intent. "What about my sister?"

Faramir stood, pacing the small room, unsure of how to explain so much to him. "She's married now," he started, "and with child. She is due in just a few weeks in fact."

"Is she here?" Tachion asked, panicked.

Faramir paused and looked at him. "No, she's in the north in Annúminas with her husband and King Boromir, my brother."

"What?" Tachion gasped. "Lord Boromir is alive? And he is the king?"

Faramir nodded gravely. "Yes on both counts," he replied. "It was not something he wished to do, but the people demanded he take the crown."

A scream interrupted their conversation from across the hall, followed by the sounds of scuffling feet and the door closing with a soft whumph. Faramir pitied the poor soul but put them out of his mind for the present. "There is...something else you should know."

Tachion looked at him worriedly but said nothing. Faramir returned to his slow pacing as he spoke. "When Ninel came of age...she...killed someone."

Tachion balked. "You lie!" he said in disbelief. "Ninel wouldn't hurt anyone!"

"It was not done out of madness, rather, out of hunger." He stopped, looking Tachion in the eye. "She...she is a Dimidium."

The word was like a physical force that struck Tachion, and he struggled to hold his grip. "No," he growled. "No!"