Kizár Elená Durin · @SilmarilNaro
8th Feb 2015 from TwitLonger
Quest-verse: Talking About Other Lives.
After http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ska47c , http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skf0t8 and http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skhiq2
Kíli and Kizár talk about what happened while he was forging the shapeshifting rings.
@SonofDari @SilmarilNaro
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Kíli
Kíli sat comfortably on the anvil mooring and worked on cleaning the fine tools, he was still exhausted from forging the rings, exhausted enough that he was hardly able to use one spark of his talent, but he was very satisfied with the outcome. Lossanárë had become a regal elven Lady, an regular sister to Maitimo.
As for Kizár... she had become the cute, beautiful sister he had always imagined her as, with the dark hair and blue eyes of Durin's line. He smiled when he thought of her. The confrontation during the smithing process had made him realize how lucky he had been that he had found her. While they had not had much time to talk, he had seen it in his other self's eyes... he had not had a sister who had consoled him, who had played with him in their dreams and who had sung him to sleep. Kíli could not imagine having come to his childhood and youth alone, without his Stonesister, and now, from the perspective of a much longer journey, he was thrice glad he had long ago made that spontaneous promise - that promise that had transcended time and world, and led him to another time and place, where he had met both sisters again.
He would admit Kélan had been more than a little in love with Elenaria, though he had consigned himself to be a friend and comrade in arms. Maybe he had needed the feeling of love, of understanding that he was *able* to love someone like this, after the life as Askíl, who had spurned romantic love after watching his brother's fall, but deep down wished he had someone to hold him in his darkest hours. Thedas had healed something for them, reassured them that there was something for them somewhere beyond many other lives. Kíli shook his head, not contemplating what he had learned about that. He'd like to think that he had been a bit wiser for it in his next few lives that had followed.
Packing the tongs away, he out of the forge and outside. It was a warm afternoon, the sun ablaze brightly in the skies and the winds singing warmly in the high grass. Kíli made his way to the hidden brook that came down the dark side of the Mountain his people called Mhenak-targur - the Seat of the Lost Kings. Where the brook came down to the valley, it had already made a long journey through the mountains, but here it gathered in a wide pool, filled with sand and washed out material. Kíli took off his armor, only leaving tunic and breeches to wade into the water and sift through the sandy material on the ground of the pond.
Kizár
Kizár once again adjusted the sleeve of the tunic Dís had given her, saying she was glad to see her daughter well-clothed. It was taking a little bit for Kizár to adjust to the feel of her body and remember properly what it was like to have one. In many ways this was more intense than her body as Elenaria had been, she guessed that it was because "Elenaria" had been a body that she had not truly been inside, but controlling through a kind of soulbond.
With the stronger connection to her senses she had now, Kizár was taking as much time as she could to absorb the world. She had already laid outside just the night before, looking at the stars with clearer eyes than ever, now she was out again, seeing the plants under the Sun's light, seeing the green, smelling the scents, hearing the wind and the sound of water.
She could feel something in the direction of that water, Kíli was that way, and unless she missed her guess at the long-familiar terrain, he was likely at the Seat of the Lost Kings. There were times aplenty in the past where Kíli had panned for whatever had been washed there, while Kizár had tried to divine what was lurking in the sand. They had even managed to find a few semi-precious stones that had later been set in nice pieces of jewelery that would bring some money in once sold at markets in places like Bree and other towns of Men.
She did not really try to sneak, it would be a while before she had the level of control for that, but her steps were as quiet as she could make them, coming up to the shore, behind her brother. "Found anything yet?"
Kíli
She would have startled Kíli had he not sensed the familiar presence close in on him. He came up from his crouched position with a broad smile. "You could say that, sister dear." he replied with a smile. Back as a child his attempts at this place had never yielded much, excepting a few semi-precious stones, all long used and sold. Now, with the eye and experience of a number of dwarven lifetimes he was better able to pick his spots and which materials to sift through.
Wading to the shore he shook the three deep blue stones from the pouch at his belt. "I was thinking two of them would make wonderful earrings for you and the third for a necklace, give it a little time and I might be able to find a few more."
Kizár
"Ooooh! And practically Durin blue too!" Kizár said as she picked one of the sapphires up and held it up to the light. "Nice find, there." She added as she gave it back. "If you want to keep fishing I wouldn't mind sitting here on the shore while you do. It's a nice day and I'd be glad to just sit and enjoy it. When things get moving for the journey east, all of us are going to be rather busy, I think." She knew word was already out and Dís was making the rounds in Cardemir. Soon the whole settlement would be abuzz, packing and organising wagons for the trek.
Kíli
Kíli went back into the water, to another place he had spotted. "They will be moving soon," he observed. "they have to if they want to make it all the way to Erebor before winter comes." He had done his share of supporting Dís in organising the trek, but sometimes he had a hard time hiding his heart was not in it. "You once said you'd like to accompany them part of the way. We could take them to the passes and then turn south to the Veiled City." It was a suggestion, and more an asking what she would want - Kíli would much direct his path after what Kizár wanted to do, now that she had a real life, and not just the life as Kíli's secret sister.
Kizár
"Yes, I still think that would be the best course." Kizár agreed. "Beside, I want a bit of time with Amad before we head off on our own way, and it won't hurt for me to be seen in public for a while before I disappear again." She started to pull her boots off, poking a wad of wool that had come out with her foot back in. She remembered what new boots could to to an unsuspecting foot and had acted per-emptively to stop blisters. Once the boots were set aside she could dip her feet in the water.
Kíli
Kíli set aside his poking through the mud and waded over to her, squatting down in the water so he could easily massage her naked feet with his hands. "She is enjoying your company a lot," he agreed with Kizár. "and people are getting used to your brother's presence as well. Mahal be thanked he is such a legend."
Kizár
"I haven't had a true mother in a long time." Kizár said, a soft murmur of appreciation for the massage following her words. "I am not even sure I can ever really count Ethiliel, I wasn't with her long as a child, and as an adult I was too busy." She had done her best, back then, to rebuild a relationship with her Bearer-turned-mother, but it was more like the friendship she had before becoming her child than a true mother-daughter relationship.
Kíli
"And Dís loves you dearly," Kíli could see it every day in the way how Dís reacted to Kizár. Maybe even as Dís had not truly known, but sensed something was there, and old wound had been healing a bit better. "and you will be able to see her again after. We can visit her at Erebor, she may need your advice now and then." He continued to massage her feet, gently relaxing the muscles that were only now becoming used to exist at all. "How... how are your and your sister after what happened at the forge?" he asked a bit more tentatively.
Kizár
"That other life..." Kizár starts, a bit tentative herself. "It managed to show us that the time in Thedas was, in the long run, not bad for us. We're both stronger for it. It also showed me that my long-held suspicions on what might have happened to Lossanárë could have happened - did happen in that life. I always thought somehow she got persuaded not to return to our brothers. My sister didn't, but she could have, if had not been Andraste and Alissa." She gave a long sigh. "I hope my Other finds a way to rebuild herself though, she hasn't been out of the Deep Fire as long as I have and she's still healing, while while in the middle of Gondor's fight against Mordor."
Kíli
Stopping his ministrations for a moment, Kíli gently touches Kizár's arm. "That life... that choice to live in Thedas... it changed things for all three of us." he said softly. "And while I do worry for your Other self over there, I hope that both of her brothers will look out and protect her."
Kizár
"More than just the two of them." Kizár said, a bit impulsively. "She helped convince an Easterling officer from giving up his life after he got caught and he swore to protect her as well." She stared off at nothing for a moment, remembering. "I remember the ancestor they discussed who served in Angband. An Easterling who was friendly to us, unlike most. We ended up saving his life and he got to go home. I wonder if somewhere in the East Shakurán's father or grandfather are living their lives?"
Kíli
"If he was there, then probably his father is or grandfather is out there, in the Empire. We ought to ask Dwalin... if we had any name, or the name of a house." Kíli said thoughtfully. "It was strange to see them - not so much your Other as mine... seeing him, being so much older, with a vastly different path he went."
Kizár
"She - my Other - didn't know his full story, she has only known him personally for a bit over a month. She knew what he said after the first confrontation with Shakurán - he recognised the name 'Kíli, son of Dári'." Kizár frowned. "It makes me wonder if what happened to him could crop up an cause trouble here. He was accused of being an orc plaything." She shook her head. "i don't think it could ever turn out so bad, Thorin does not reject people for that, but there are still enough traditionalists around that there would be a bit of argument. People like Grís, for instance."
Kíli
Getting up to his feet Kíli wrapped both arms around his sister to fiercely hug her. "I cannot get as bad here," he says softly, holding her tight. "because you prevented it from getting that bad. You burned Goblin Town after they branded me, but before they could do anything else. Even if some of it got out, most dwarves would shrug they shoulders at it. A few might talk, and Grís would turn up her nose - but no one would pay her any heed."
He pulled back to look at her. "There was no one to cut it short for Him - my other - and what happened after... I got only a few fleeting pictures of it, and those were already more than I wanted to know."
Kizár
"I hope *he* does better as well." Kizár said, leaning in to bump foreheads, but grimacing as she pulled back, reaching up to rub the spot. "Maybe now he will. He's found his One and they have a chance to be happy." Pulling her hand away, a thought occurs to her. "Maybe that's why he was so tired, his child was half-Man..." she murmured.
Kíli
Kíli tipped the sleeve of his tunic into the cold water and gently tapped the spot on Kizár's head with it. "Child?" he asked confused. "What child?" He knows that his Other was exhausted from the forging, and maybe also from some *lack* of connection with the stone, or the deep Earth. Maybe he had undergone changes by living among Men almost entirely for decades.
Kizár
"It wasn't him," Kizár held up a hand, guessing at what he thought she meant. "It was the other life I saw, back at Beorn's house. The version of you who told me what to watch out for at Erebor, and not to worry about your dreams. I think I mentioned he was pregnant, didn't I?" She shrugged.
Kíli
Now Kíli realizes what she is speaking of. "I had not been thinking of that," he replies. "but if his child was Half-Man, then I'd guess he too found Boromir." For a moment he had seriously wondered if she had seen something in his other self, that he had not been able to perceive.
"Boromir is my One." he says after a while. "He... he is the one I dreamed of, that night in Thedas, the One I saw in Mirrormere so long ago..." It still feels strange, and yet absolutely good, to know that he will live one day, that one day they might meet.
Kizár
"I never doubted we would find him," she said, reaching out to take his hands in hers. "I just thought we would have to wait a while. That life, he also looked a fair bit older, so I figured we had a few more decades. It's just that now we have a better idea how many decades we have to fill in." She grinned a bit, squeezing his hands. "Sixty years at the shortest, then he'll be in early adulthood... I know I am thinking of going down there at that point, something terrible will happen to him and he will need healing afterwards." Another grimace crossed her face. "Maybe Lossanárë could come with us, she's the better healer."
Kíli
"I'd love for to come with us, especially as Maferath never lost his wicked sense for tactical problems." Kíli smiles. "you said something bad will happen - is it something your Other told you about?"
Kizár
"In our way, yes." Kizár nodded. "We traded memories and I got to see how her life with Boromir has been. When she first found him, he'd just escaped from Minas Morgul - or more likely *allowed* to escape as he had a terrible soul-wound where someone had buried a piece of Darkness in him. I think - as did she - that if she had met him any later she would not have noticed it, but the wound was still very fresh so she caught it and burned it out." She frowned. "Something like that, it could drive a person insane if it awoke. I would not want that to happen to him, at any point."
Kíli
The description of the events turns in Kíli's mind, and while his own life provides no reference points at all, his combined lives do. "Dark Seed." Kíli's voice shifts slightly when he says it. "the gift that destroys and keeps on destroying."
He looks at Kizár, his hand still around hers. "We will go together when the time comes, I... I am glad you know of it, that your other could share these things with you."
Kizár
The name alone makes Kizár shiver as well. "I hope my memories help her as well, in whatever way she finds." She agreed. She wondered which life he drew that memory from, but it did not matter greatly, they were all Kíli anyway.
"But we have quite a while before then, a city to find a trapped nephew in, and island to find a sister on, and from there... wherever things take us, I suppose."
Kíli
Kíli leaned in and feathered a kiss on her brow. "Time to go about and find the lost secrets of Middle Earth as we did dream when we were smaller." he says with a warm smile. He knows there will be many things ahead of them and he looks forward to them all. "It will be an adventure."
Kizár
"Our own adventure, no one else's, not even the Grey Wardens." Maybe that life was a big part of their mutual past, but Kizár felt this was where they got to be something different to that. "Just us, and those we find who will go with us."
Kíli
Kíli smiles. "Exactly," he says as he pulls her up to her feet and gently nudges her into a little, funny dance along the grass. "our adventure, our own path - wherever that may lead us." He lets himself stumble, so he lands on his backside, with Kizár on his lap. "I am just so happy you are here."
Kizár
Kizár let herself flop in Kíli's hold giggling a bit. "Me too." She said brightly. "My Fire-brother, my bestest best friend." She rested her head one his shoulder. "Bestest at everything." She murmured, simply happy.
Kíli
Kíli wraps his arms around her, holding her, simply happy. More than a year ago he was afraid of all that lay ahead of them, thanks to her things have changed, and whatever lies ahead they will make that journey together.