Oath Renewed by Inglor

Chapter 4: Epilogue

Epilogue

Gil-Galad heard his friend enter and without looking up from his papers, asked, “How fares my aunt, Lord Elendil?” Elendil, still a bit distracted, replied, “She spoke of ancient oaths, Ereinion.” Hearing his friend’s unusual tone, Gil-Galad glanced up with a quizzical expression. He noted a sword now at Elendil’s side. Looking harder, recognition struck him. He had not seen it in three thousand years but he knew it, just from the hilt. Gil-Galad spoke, deep reverence in his voice, “Finrod’s sword… Narsil. I thought it lost in Tol-Gaurhoth” Elendil was pulled from his reverie. He returned the quizzical expression and said, “You speak as though you were there.” He shook his head and waved off the explanation his friend started to give. “The longevity of your race is always a surprise to us. The things we can only read about from a tome of history, you witnessed." Shaking his head, his voice quiet with awe, he said, " I am old by the measure of my kind but your aunt is my senior by an AGE!” Gil-Galad softly chuckled, “She is of me as well, my friend.” Gil-Galad's attention turned to the sword again, his expression solemn. Gesturing to it, he respectfully asked, “May I?” “Of course.” Elendil drew the sword from its scabbard and offered it hilt first to the King. Gil-Galad grasped the hilt and felt the need for vengeance emanate from the weapon. He held it up and as he studied it a long moment. He quietly spoke, “I was there when he threw down his crown and cursed us. My father forbade me to go. And I have lived with the shame since.” He held Narsil up and let it reflect the light flowing in from the window. The sword seemed to exult in the rays of the setting sun and they both felt the anticipation radiate from the ancient weapon. His heart lightened, his breathing deepend as the blade emanated a determined righteous anger, a shared feeling that its hour of destiny had come. Gil-Galad spoke as one who knew and hated his enemy, as one who looked at the instrument of that enemy’s doom. “It wants vengeance. Revenge for taking Felagund, its master. Revenge for taking what was brightest in the world…as do I,” Elendil added with finality, “It wants a reckoning.”