Rings of Pride; Rings of Ruin by Aiwen

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Galadriel

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Celebrimbor sat at the table that night with Amdir, Galadriel and many of Amdir's counselors. Celebrimbor could not remember the names of most of them. There was a great deal of small talk but no talk of Rings. The food was good and he quickly found that he was ravenous.

At some point tonight he had to find time to speak to Galadriel. He thought of the three Rings in their little box. Across the table, Galadriel met his eyes and he knew she would find the time to speak to him.

After dinner, she came over to him and insisted that he must see the view from the top of one of the great mallorn trees. Celebrimbor readily agreed to this and they set out for the tree. He was happy to discover that there was a ladder up the lower portion of the tree. It had no branches for a good thirty feet off the ground and he'd never learned how to climb like a silvan elf.

The view from the top was indeed spectacular. He could see most of Lorinand as well as the mountains. But that was not what he had come for, nor Galadriel.

"What is it you wish to speak to about?" Galadriel asked.

"This," said Celebrimbor reaching inside his tunic for the pouch. He took out the box and opened it. Three Rings gleamed softly in the twilight.

Galadriel's eyes widened. "Why did you bring these here?" she asked. "Are these the three you've been working on recently? I can feel the power radiating off them."

"Yes. Annatar, or Sauron, or whoever else he may be, never touched them. They aren't like the other Rings. I was thinking about how the elves are doomed to fade with time... so I made them. This is Narya," he said, pointing to the Ring with the ruby set in gold. "It strengthens the courage of the wearer and those around him or her and gives strength to fight evil. This is Vilya," and he pointed to the sapphire and mithril Ring. "It increases wisdom and strengthens the memory of what is past so that knowledge and history is not lost or forgotten. This is Nenya," he said, he pointing to the Ring of mithril set with adamant. "It prevents the decay of time and heals the land. I want you to take them and hide them." He closed the box.

Galadriel looked stunned. "How well do they work? Have you tried to wield them?"

"They work. I have tested each of them on a small scale but I was still doing final adjustments to Narya when all this happened. I don't want them to be lost. They are still connected to the Master Ring and I dare not use them but I think I may be able to detach the Rings from his influence, given time. I saw part of what Annatar did, and if we can free them the wielders would be able to heal many of Middle-earth's hurts and at least postpone the fading of our people."

"I didn't think that was possible," Galadriel said. How do they do that?

"They distort the fabric of distance and time. The extent of their influence, judging from the other Rings, should depend on the wielder's power and skill as well as the exact properties of each Ring. It..."

"I don't need to know the details if I am only to hide them. I take it that they are far too dangerous to use with the master Ring in Annatar's hands."

"Yes, they are far too dangerous to use. I suspect Annatar can see the thoughts of the Ring wielders, although he may not be able to control them. I don't know precisely what he can do and I would rather not find out the hard way."

"I can see why you don't want to destroy them," Galadriel said, "but if these are so powerful they could be a truly deadly weapon in Annatar's hands, especially if he is Sauron."

"That is why I want you to hide them where he will not find them. He will know they exist and have some idea what they can do. They are by far the most powerful of any of the Rings we made."

"They should be distroyed," Galadriel said. "They are too dangerous and how do you know he will not be able to find them whatever we do? And Celebrimbor, what will the Valar and Eru think of your trying to change the fate of our people?"

"No! Morgoth has so damaged Arda it is hard to tell what Eru's original plan was but I doubt Middle-earth was supposed to be this damaged and I doubt we were supposed to be damaged like this either! Should we do nothing to heal what is injured because we fear going against Eru's plan? You yourself put forth your power to cleanse land darkened by evil and lighten hearts with healing song."

"There is a difference in kind between healing a person and changing the fate of the people and the land. I fear you are going beyond what you have wisdom to control or understand." Galadriel turned away and looked out into the gathering dusk for a long moment before turning back. "I can see why you would do it and in my heart I wish it also, if it can be done without destroying something more valuable that we cannot see. If we hold them unused for now... but the other Rings should certainly be destroyed."

"As I said earlier, destroying Rings is very difficult because the conditions must be replicated exactly. There is something else I should mention. Creating something of this power takes a great deal of power from the one who made them. Destroying the Rings would seriously harm those of us who created them."

"Who is affected?"

"Elcaran, Carantir, Aranmir, and of course me. Elcaran and I are in the most danger. The other two would probably be fine after time to adjust to the loss."

"Would it kill you?"

"If all of them were destroyed simultaneously, quite likely, but that isn't possible because not all of them were made under the same precise conditions. I would have to do it sequentially, losing a bit of myself each time. I'm not sure I could do that to myself and I could not ask anyone else to do that. Elcaran has a family and one of his children isn't even grown yet."

Galadriel looked sick for a second, but continued. "Even so, if you distroyed the Rings that Annatar played a role in making, do you think you could harm him?"

"I don't know. Probably not if we assume he is Sauron. As an extremely powerful Maia he would have a lot more power to disperse than any elf. The sole exception is the master Ring if we could ever get hold of it. It must contain nearly as much power as the rest of the Rings combined. I wouldn't be surprised if destroying that did severe damage to him. But getting it away from him would be a problem. He would never allow it to be unmade even if he were to have a change of heart and decide he didn't want to control us. It would have to be taken from him by force. "

"I will take the Rings and hide them." Galadriel said, holding out her hand for the box. Celebrimbor passed it over and she tucked it away inside the bodice of her dress.

Celebrimbor could not help but notice and he blushed slightly.

Galadriel either didn't notice or ignored this."You do realize you've gotten all of us into an unbelievable mess?" she said.

"I could hardly not notice, could I?"

"You can be awfully oblivious when you're immersed in a project. Half the times I've tried to talk to you, I might as well have been speaking to a rock."

"I suppose so, but I'm not oblivious now."

Galadriel was silent a moment before asking "What are you going to do next?"

"Go back to Ost-in-Edhil. I have to try to get my people to take all the Rings off and hand them in, and then I need to see if I can undo the linkage to the master Ring."

"You should also fortify Ost-in-Edhil," Galadriel said. "Who knows what Sauron will do when he discovers he can't control you? You should also inform the High King. He hasn't seen you in a very long time and you're going to have to work together on this."

"I know Celeborn has been reporting my activities to you and presumably to Gil-galad in great detail."

Galadriel's eyebrows rose. "Yet you never tried to stop him."

"I never had anything to hide, so why should I stop him?"

"Except precisely what you were doing with the Rings of power and Annatar. You need to speak to Gil-galad in person. Go to Lindon as soon as you have the situation in Ost-in-Edhil under control."

Celebrimbor suddenly remembered the guard's comment about needing to act like a statesman if he wanted to be treated as one. "In other words, since I seem to have stolen your leadership it's time I actually took on the responsibilities that go with it."

"Yes," she said.

Celebrimbor twitched at that but said nothing. They sat and watched Ithil rise for a few minutes before heading back down the tree.

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Chapter End Notes

A/N: With reference to the effect of destroying the Rings on their makers, I am going by what happened to Sauron when the One Ring was destroyed, along with the thought that perhaps Feanor wasn't being overly dramatic when he said that unmaking the Silmarils would kill him. Feanor may have been being overly dramatic, or he may have been referring to grief rather than direct effects of destruction, but he could have been being literal. Given the way events occurred, we'll never know, will we?