Kizár Elená Durin · @SilmarilNaro
11th Feb 2015 from TwitLonger
Quest-verse: Memories of the Lving and the Dead.
After http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skir1i
Kizár goes with Kíli as he searches for something in Hollin.
@SonofDari @SilmarilNaro
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Kíli
Kíli stood on the grassy height that rose right above the outskirts of the ruins, a soft wind whispered in Hollin's grass and brushed through the trees. His dream-pictures of this place were always moved by wind too, by the same endless whisper.
He knew the others safely camped a bit further West, Maitimo wanting to study the effects on the city before blindly entering it. Kíli had used the afternoon to excuse himself from camp to be alone for a while. Something was calling to him, had been calling for days, ever since they had come closer and closer to the city. His dreams had been restless, and more than once sad or painful. Finally he had decided to go and look, to see what it was that had either his dreams restless or his soul ache.
At first he had been not sure what to look for but slowly, step by step he found himself drawn towards the outer ring of the ruins.
Kizár
Kizár had not noticed immediately when Kíli had slipped away but it quickly became apparent to her after Maitimo started his own scouting and Lossanárë was taking care of the horses, in quiet conversation with her unseen husband. Sometimes Kizár felt a bit left out when it came to the sort of connection she could see her sister and Maferath had. She knew there was someone destined for her, but her patient wait was tiring at times.
She walked along the grass, putting into use the tracking skills she had learned at Kíli's side, to spot his footprints in the grass. She spotted him on a shallow hill, looking towards the ruined city and moved over to his side. She did not immediately speak, but set a hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there.
Kíli
Kíli could feel a familiar hand on his shoulder, and put an arm around Kizár. In a way he was glad she was here, of all people in his life she understood him in ways, that none of the others could. "Are you alright, little sister?" he asked her softly, grateful for the momentary distraction.
Kizár
"I am doing alright." Kizár said, easily slipping into Kíli's hold. "I sometimes see my sister when I know she's talking with her husband and can't help but wish..." Her words trail off into a sigh. "But it's like Boromir. I have to wait as well."
Kíli
"Sometimes it is hard to watch such closeness, knowing oneself cannot have it yet." Kíli said warmly, hugging her a bit closer. "And no patience in the world can help the longing sometimes." He turned fully towards her, to stroke her dark hair. He did not know what he could do to help, except being there for her.
Kizár
Looking up at him Kizár gave Kíli a melancholy smile. "I will be alright, especially when I have you here." She took a moment to take in the view around them. "Did something in particular draw you here?"
Kíli
Kíli leaned close so their foreheads touched. "My dreams," he said softly. "ever since we began to cross Hollin I have been dreaming again. Sometimes it is only flashes... a forge, short pictures of discussions... and then I am walking... it is night and I walk across Hollin, towards the city. The moon is deep red in the skies and the wind howls..." He hesitated for a moment. "When I wake I am in pain and I know I must find what makes me dream."
Kizár
"Thoraine's memories?" Kizár asked, more rhetorically, as she knew it had to be Thoraine whose like was currently calling Kíli. "Red moon, take warning... Tilion has seen blood spilt." She murmured in two languages, recalling the meaning of the omen to both Elves and the Men Durin's folk had dealt with over the years.
Kíli
"Now you sound like Kiaran." Kíli gently tucked at one of her dark locks. "Would you... would you come with me? I think... I think deep down I know what I will find. What I do not know why I need to find it."
Kizár
"Kiaran?" Kizár looked at Kíli in curiosity at the name. It was a moderately common name but not one worn by anyone in the loose circle of friends Fíli and Kíli had in Cardemir. "I will go with you, your memories are calling and if there is any restless spirits out here... well that side of the world is something I know well."
Kíli
"Kiaran was... he was Thoraine's bonded protector. May his spirit sleep in the ice." Kíli replies as they slowly walk downhill and towards the ruins. Several times Kíli stopped, looking for the right way, for clues that would connect his dreams to this place today. "As for restless spirits," he said, carefully circumventing parts of a fallen wall. "I believe if any place in this world could be haunted by them, it might be this very city."
Kizár
Kizár was not sure what she wanted to think about the information about Kiaran so she kept silent on it as they walked and Kíli searched for whatever had drawn him. "I know the legends talk about people falling in despair and terror when they knew Telpë was lost. I know Elven fëar can lose their way or be blocked from reaching Mandos, I saw a few examples in Angband..." In fact some of the examples she recalled, Melkor had done deliberately, trying to find a permanent way to block Námo's call.
Kíli
Kíli rubs his forehead, a slow headache spreading through his skull, before reaching anew for Kizár's hand. He knows that her memories of Angband are painful, and he hates that his own search for the traces of his past lives, bring those back to her. Wordlessly he hugs her close. "I wish I would not bring such dark memories back to you, Stonesister."
Kizár
"Like calls to like." Kizár mumbled into Kíli's shoulder. "What happened here, how the city fell, how you fell, it was dark and I can feel the traces of it still clinging to the land." She stayed there, leaning against him for a few moments. "I need to relearn my shields, think of this place as like somewhere with a Veil Tear nearby, and we still have to find what calls you."
Kíli
Kíli knew she was right, still he did not let go of her hand, while they went on, his path slowly leading deeper into the ruins. For a while he was not sure where they were going, until he spotted the remains of a fallen statue under and archway that led right into the city. In the shadow of the broken figurine, easily mistaken for parts of the broken artwork, lay the remains of armor. Remarkably well preserved for the long time it must lie here, the body was not stretched on the ground, but curled up, like the dying man... or dwarf, had curled up against the foot of the statue in the moment of his death.
Kíli slowly approached, a strange, icy feeling settling inside him, he knew this - he knew it from both sides, from the side of the one lying here, dead and from the side of the one finding the remains. He knelt down beside the remains - the armor was well preserved, the Mithril-steel had resisted time and the elements with the strength only few materials had. The dead one had no weapon drawn, his blades were still on his back. What drew Kíli's attention were the hands - the way he lay on the ground. He had known he was dying, no matter what had killed him in the end. But the way he lay, the way his arms stretched towards the pedestal of the statue, contained a message... if Kíli could read it.
Kizár
Kizár followed only half a step behind as Kíli found the amour, and kneeling beside him reached out towards the metal, but pulling back just before touching it. Everything she knew about Thoraine was either the family stories, the legends, or what Kíli had said so far. She did not believe this was anyone else, Kíli had said he tried to reach the city and had fallen, so it had to be.
She looked up as Kíli traced fingers over runes in the stone and something in them looked... "Those are Daeron's Cirth... but the language itself is Khuzdul... Telpë's letters and Thoraine's words?"
Kíli
"If I don't return, I will leave a message for you, carved in stone...." Kíli whispered, understanding what they were seeing. "And those are Telpë's letters... they always made fun that those were the only elven letters which could write ancient Moria Khuzdul without losing meaning..." Carefully he examined the letters, at first it seemed impossible to decipher their meaning, then it leaped at him. "Over the stone and under the ash I sleep..."
Kíli frowned it was not exactly a profound message, more like the scribbles of a dying man, yet he knew with utter clarity that those words had a meaning. That they were important, that he had poured his dying strength into scratching them into the stone.
"Over the stone and under the ash..." he repeated the line, wishing he could remember what it meant. "There would have been ashes here... from the fires and snow too, it was winter and it had been snowing for days. Under the ash but above the stone..." His eyes again fell to the statue, the hand of the statue formed an almost protective grasp over the earth. "Not ashes... rubble." he corrected himself. "Under the rubble above the stone."
Carefully he removed the stone hand from the ground, finding dirt and earth underneath. Very carefully he dug deeper, until his hand met something metallic, pulling a small Mithril key from the earth. It was smaller than Kíli's hand, but strangely formed, and the bit was strangely formed, like it had been made from one piece of metal, creating an almost impossible form. From whatever angle one looked at the key, it seemed like the band of the bit was running in different directions.
Kíli's eyes widened when he realized what it was, what he had found and his hands shook. "He knew what he was up against... and he had a plan...."
Kizár
"If there is a key, there must be a door..." Kizár consciously recalled Fíli making that comment back in Bilbo's house, before they truly set out for Erebor. At the time it seemed a little bit of a statement of the obvious and Kizár had quietly snickered at it back then. Repeating it here evoked a fond amusement now.
Kíli
Kíli smiled fondly at the words, back then Fíli's words had felt encouraging to him, even as Kizár had laughed a little... and now he could grin fondly at the memory. How had they been so naïve? "Not a door... but a chain." he said softly. "This is a puzzle key, the impossible key... he... Thoraine kept it a secret. He let Annatar believe that the theory had been way over his head, let him be superior, but he understood and made one, against the day he might need to get closer to Annatar's secrets than he might like."
Kizár
"So it releases the chain? Or whatever anchors it in place?" A grin stole over Kizár's face. "Pride was always one of Sauron's problems, it got him into trouble a few times, the I recall best was when he thought he could touch his lord's crown. He suffered first my fire, then also punishment from Melkor for such presumption." There are a few memories like that, ones where one or other resident of Angband got too close to her and her sisters and was punished for it, one way or another.
Kíli
Kíli smiled at her recollection of punishing Sauron for his presumptions, she was a fiery star and incurring her wrath was never wise. "They key will release the chain." he said, suddenly understanding why the memory had pushed so hard at him. He had sworn to himself to see this done, and it seemed his soul disliked unfinished tasks. He took Kizár's hands and stood up. "not that I would have minded watching your fire deal with the chain..."
Kizár
"Maybe I can take the remains and use my own fire to melt it down." Kizár considered aloud. "It is bound to be made of some good metal and I can have some fun unraveling any remaining magics on it, before putting the metal to a better use." A thought came to her mind as she spoke, but best to see if the chain before she let her mind go too far.
Kíli
"I see an idea grow there," Kíli said, gently tapping her nose with his finger. "and I agree, to make an unbreakable chain, the materials must be very select... so what are you planning to do with them?" He was always curious what ideas Kizár had, because she had seen so much, and often came at things from an angle, that Kíli would not have even seen, if not for her.
Kizár
"I was thinking if it was something like mithril, it could be alloyed with steel for a new sword." Kizár's had touched the sword she had been given by Dwalin, before the caravan of Exiles set out from Cardemir. "This one is a good blade but only on an average level. I was wondering if it was possible to make a version of Eru Náro in this world, something with my own power running through it that would carry my flame like Andraste's blade did."
Kíli
The very suggestion made Kíli's eyes sparkle. He well recalled the sword she had wielded in Thedas. "It will be a challenge to make something like it here, especially with your flame inside it... but with the right materials, time and especially you, to work your flame into the forging process... I need to discuss it with Rú, but I am sure it can be done." He tilted his head. "If we do it right... it might even be possible for you to vanish the blade, when you return to your stone form... so you would never lose it." He smiled all excited now, taking her hands. "Let us go back and see what Maitimo found out about the ruins?"
Kizár
Kizár nodded, hopeful now she had Kíli interested in trying to make such a blade. It did depend on getting materials for it, but if they could... "Yes, I imagine he's had time to look it over well and decide what looks like a wise approach." Her eye was caught by the armour as she moved. "I would like to take what's left and bury Thoraine properly. His message is found, his trick found and we will use it properly."
Kíli
"What is left is only a broken shell, a clayform no longer needed..." Kíli could not stop the words from coming out, maybe he had to have a detached feeling for the body here on the ground, because it had once been his own, maybe being reborn so often had changed that for him, he did not know. Still, he gently grasped Kizár's shoulders. "You are the best of sisters, Kizár," he said suddenly, wanting her to know what it meant for him that she was here, with him. "I cannot imagine doing this without you."
Kizár
"Even a broken shell can be honoured for what i once held." Kizár said softly, pulling Kíli into another hug. "You did the best you could in that life. I know you made mistakes, but you were trying. We can honour that by seeing the last of that life put to rest."
Kíli
Kíli leaned his head into her shoulder, holding onto Kizár tightly. "I made many mistakes in that life... some I still pay for. Some others paid the price for. I was vain... and arrogant, and I believed I had it all under control. I hurt others." His voice had gone low. "I do not feel very praiseworthy..."
Kizár
"Well even in spite of it all, I want to do something anyway. Maybe for perspective, maybe just because no matter what, Thoraine is still a part of you and I would do it no matter what. For Thoraine, for Askíl, for Kélan..." There was a hint of sadness in her voice, an old pain.
Kíli
Gently Kíli cupped her face between his hands, he could hear the sadness in her voice, it was an old one, he had heard before. "Why does Kélan make you so sad, Stonesister?" he asked, only guessing, as it had been the last name she mentioned. "it is one life I certainly will never regret. Because it was there I met you first."
Kizár
"When you left... It hurt. It hurt more than anyone else I lost there." She said softly, trying to hold back tears that threatened. "I felt like I lost my last sure thing and just wanted to go hide in Alissa's guest room until it was all over and we could come home..." It had only really been that Lossanárë had argued she had a duty to the whole of Ferelden, and to Elenlossë that finally got her out of Gwaren and back to Denerim.
Kíli
Kíli drew her close, cradling her in his arms. "I am so sorry, Elenaria," he said softly. "I tried to wall off the Calling as long as I could..." Almost too long, though death had corrected that eventually. "I wish I could have stayed with you longer." Kélan had not feared death, he had known how Grey Wardens died since before becoming one himself, having seen those who would not return enter the deep roads in Orzammar. But that his death should have hurt his Elenaria so much, it was one thing that he found hard to accept.
Kizár
"You're here now... you're here now..." Kizár repeated softly, burrowing into his arms as she tried to find her calm.
A few minutes passed before she felt stable again. "If nothing else, I still have a wish to at least find a way to cover what is left, so no one can stumble across his remains and raid what is left of his armour. It just feels... crass and rude."
Kíli
Kíli still gently stroked her hair, just trying to comfort her. "Alright," he agreed. "we will bury the remains, then we go and find Cel." He would have this done, before Celebrimbor was freed. He was not sure what the elf might think of feel about Thoraine after those long years, but confronting him with the bodily remains would simply be cruel.
Kizár
"Thank you, Fire-brother." Kizár murmured, feeling a bit better for finally expressing some her long-held pain. She did not know Thoraine in great detail, but he was one of Kíli's past lives and represented more than just his own lifetime to her because of it.
Kíli
Kíli led Kizár a little away from the corpse, to where they could sit in the shadow of the ruins. They may have made plans for what was to do, but right now, he want to hug and hold his sister, give her time to speak of her sadness, or just cuddle her for a while. He knew he'd have to confront aspects of Thoraine's life, when they encountered Cel... but that too could wait. Right now, he wanted to take care of his little sister.