A Candle for the Hollow City by Lordnelson100

Chapter 9 Lore

As the great hearth warmed up again with a newly-built fire, and bright lanterns and torches were placed, people of Thranduil’s court brought silver cups to the Chorus, with words of thanks and interest..

Conversations quickly began, Dwarf and Elven voices mingling.  “That was marvelous , can you show me the bowing on that . . . “ “Aye, but I’d give good gold for a proper description of the Necklace, not to mention the metallurgy involved . . .” “Is there external evidence that the Khazâd learned Cirth runes at Doriath? Because I’ve always speculated that . . .”

But the Woodland King and the Lords of Rivendell and Lorien sat in quiet thought for a while. It seemed to Elrond  that his two friends had each been deeply moved, as he had been himself.

As the crowd swirled, the Speaker of Erebor came forward, and to Elrond’s surprise, she came and squatted before him, looking up into his face with a searching look. The firelight gleamed on her trailing earrings of ebony feathers and shadowed her solemn face. It came as a shock to hear her speak in Common Tongue.

“Lord Elrond. It is —difficult for us Dwarves to grasp the differences in time and age between our folk, even for those of us who are loremasters, and make history our study. Impossible as it may seem to my mind-—from our studies, I find that you yourself are one of the children in this ancient story, whose mother stood on the cliff-top by the sea in another age, and made such a perilous choice. And so her choice was rewarded, after all!  Is it so?”

“It is true,” said Elrond gently.  “And I lived, not only by my mother’s choice, but also, unlikely as it seems, by the mercy of those very enemies. So did my brother.”

“Then this is a strange meeting. For I myself as a mother owe you a debt, for you sheltered my sons once, in a time of peril long ago. For that I owe you service, I and all my family.” And she knelt to him.

Elrond looked carefully, and began to find something he knew in her withered face. “Lady, if it permitted to ask now, who are you?”

“Ask rather who I was.  Many years  have I stood as a loremaster and teacher to my people. But once I was a mother to sons. A loved spouse. The daughter of a King.  And sister of another King. But for countless years, I have been none of these: they whom I loved were lost to me. For I was born Dís, daughter of Thráin. My sons were Fíli and Kíli, and Thorin Oakenshield, my noble brother.”

Elrond bowed his head to her, and took her hands in his.

“And the Companions of Thorin who lived remember how you treated them with gentleness in their need, and aided the Quest for Erebor with your wisdom, discovering the secret of the map that guided them.”

Old grief stood in her eyes, but her voice was steady. “In that Quest, I lost even all the treasures of my heart. But our people regained the Mountain. And I will not repine. For see the mercy that the Powers have shown. We hear in this Teaching how some of our ancient kin, your folk and mine, came to a worse ruin: they lost not only their lives, but all their honor, and sacrificed their people’s lives and homes. Because they could not put love over treasures which, in the end, are but made of the hand.”

Her eyes were wet, now. “But Thorin, my brother and King, though he was sore tested by the seduction of the dragon, overcame desire at the last in his love for his people,  and died to gain them their home, though he was King Under the Mountain but a day. As your Lady Mother was freed by the love in her mother’s heart, at the last, from that dread Jewel’s power.”

Elrond smiled sadly, and sighed; but if he had some different thoughts about the story of his own childhood loss, he did not say. Instead, with his hands on her shoulders, he raised Dís to her feet, and kissed her forehead. And then he smiled.  “There is no talk of debt between us, Daughter of Durin. I honor the memory of Thorin, and I remember clearly your merry, brave sons, who were then my guests in Rivendell.”

Nodding to the other side of the hall, where the guests still mingled, he added: “And now your young kinsman Gimli here has fought with great courage at the side of another King you have heard of, who reigns with my daughter Arwen in the South in great joy. And so let our peoples go on, in renewed friendship, doing good for good, without stopping to keep count!”

She returned his smile.  “If it is likewise true that you will soon cross the great sea to that Green Land in the stories, where you will meet again all those whom you lost, my blessings to your mother.”

And now it was her turn to be surprised, because Thranduil, who had been shamelessly eavesdropping, stood up to his full appalling height, and was offering her his arm out of the hall.  She took it, looking up at him with something of sternness coming back into her brow, and drawing herself up straight and full of dignity. As well as she could, with two full feet difference in their heights. But the Woodland King braved her dark look, and they walked out arm in arm, speaking in low tones. Whatever they said to one another went unheard by others.