Of The Sun (The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings/LOTR)

Pt 1. - Chapter 24 - War Is Coming

Dwalin, Bilbo, Balin and Thorin were all gathered around the King's throne in the great hall of Erabor. Before the stone throne was a bridge overlooking the caverns bellow. Giant statues carved from stone acted as the pillars for the roof over their heads, each carving meeting with a wall or ceiling or roof, keeping the kingdom of Erabor as one giant crafted piece, nothing seperate. Nothing standing alone. The statues were of Thorin's forefathers. Some with sword, some with axe, some with hammer.

Anariel stood in an archway between two of those statues. She looked down, observing the conversation between the four of them. Their voices carried to her easily in the echoing stone caverns. Easier so with her heightened hearing. Thorin's voice rang more true than any of the others.

Thorin stood facing his father's stone chair that now belonged to him. A gold endowment was embedded above it. The resting place of the Arkenstone. It had been damaged in Smaug's attack. It had fallen loose, fallen below the bridges and into the caverns beneath.

"It is still not found!" Thorin was shouting angrily.

"Do you doubt the loyalty of anyone here?" Balin asked. "The Arkenstone... is the birthright jewel of our people."

"It is the king's jewel. Am I not the king?!" He yelled. "Know this: If anyone should find it and withhold it from me... I will be avenged." He said gravely, beginning to walk away, down a side bridge and right in Anariel's directions. "Perhaps an elf can do what you have failed." He muttered, looking over to the she elf no one could have missed standing there. She stood out a mile in the dark halls of Erebor. "Anariel!" He shouted, almost as if summoning her. Her jaw clenched, but she moved to obey all the same. She did not have to follow any order of Thorin's, but if she did not she knew she must leave.

She met him on the bridge where he turned on her sharply. "I cannot." She spoke before he could. "The Arkenstone... although unlike any other and precious beyond compare... is just an object. I cannot just summon it, Thorin. That is not how my-"

"You caused a rock fall, you polished an opal with mere thought." He growled. "The Arkenstone comes from the earth and it would stand out like any other and more so... you can see the future. Find it."

"I cannot bend what I see to my will." She shot back firmly, nearly growing angry. This wasn't him. He wasn't himself. "I see what I'm shown." She continued more softly. "I do not control it. I sensed an opal inside a rock... I cannot find one specific jewel within a golden hall filled with them. There is a mound of gold down there, Thorin... the stone could be hidden at the very bottom. Tucked away by Smaug for the safest of keepings. We can search, but with naught but our bare hands we can barely scratch the surface. You would have to move coin after coin, gem after gem. With just us here it would take quite possibly years to sort thorugh it all."

"Find a way." He growled finally, cotinuing on as she clenched her jaw tighter, throwing a look over her shoulder to where the others still stood, watching. Dwalin turned and left. He had had enough. Thorin was more than his King, he was his friend, another brother. He would die for him before all others and believed in him like nothing else. It was not Erabor he came all this way for and to see what he believed, what he put his faith so deeply in, crumble like this. Dwalin could not take it for much longer. Balin and Bilbo walked up to her after he was gone.

"Dragon-sickness." Balin stated. "I've seen it before. That look. The terrible need. It is a fierce and jealous love. It sent his grandfather mad."

"It will send us all mad at this rate." Anariel answered.

She retired back to her quarters. Her bags were packed, ready to go, but she was yet to find it within herself to grab them and leave. She would not look for the stone. She knew where it was. Looking would be a waste and she intended not to play along to Thorin's madness.