Fayn (A LOTR novella)

Chapter 18: As it Should Be

Fayn's Point of View:

It's over now. Frodo has destroyed the one ring, and everything is how it should be. The relief of the danger passing has been a long time coming, and I'm glad I'm here to see it.

It has been several weeks now since everything I played a part in happened, and Aragorn is about to be crowned King. I had spent the morning debating with myself as to whether or not I should actually go to his coronation, and eventually decided there was no harm in it.

I know it will be painful to see all of them and know they do not remember us ever meeting, especially Frodo.  I had to though, for it would be far more painful to never see them again.  It is strange to think that knowing someone for such a short amount of time could have affected me this much, especially with the length of time I have lived for.  They managed it somehow.

A part of me knows, though I do not wish to admit it. I know it was the unwavering loyalty to one another that they showed. They have a bond as close as family, and that is something I have always wished for vainly.  I will never have something like that, for Valar's sake my own brother betrayed me!

Now is not the time for dark thoughts though.  This should be a happy time, a time for celebrating.  I force myself to keep a smile plastered to my face, and watch as Aragorn is crowned.  The smile eventually becomes a genuine one.

I keep myself to the very back of the crowd, but luckily my superior eyesight makes up for it; I don't miss a thing.  I had the foresight to wear a billowing cloak, one that covers most of me.  The last thing I want to do is alarm anyone just after the danger has passed.

Aragorn seems like he will make a just king.  I just hope this new era of peace will last longer than the last one did.

The first thing I did after wiping both Frodo and Sam's memories was go after Ahi, seeing as the most immediate threat that would be facing Middle Earth next would come from him, but he has fled to a land where I can no longer see him. I know that one day soon I will have to begin the task of hunting him down, but for now I do nothing.  I need to know that everything is alright in Middle Earth before I leave again.

***

Even from my secluded spot, my eyes gravitate to the four little hobbits in the crowd. I see the pain in their eyes, but also the triumph.  For them, this war is over.  They have won.

Maybe there will come a day when we all wear that expression of weary happiness; a day when the fighting is all over, and will never begin again.  Maybe there will be a day when I am no longer needed to help balance out the evils. 

My thoughts have occupied me so completely that the wizard approaching behind me takes me completely by suprise.

"Ah, hello Fayn.  It has been to long." Gandalf says softly, his presence made known.  I turn to look at him, wondering how he knew it was me when every inch is hidden underneath the midnight cloak.  I suppose that was the givaway though; no one else around me is covering every bit of skin.

When I pull my hood back slowly to see Gandalf's face, I catch a knowing look in his eye, one that pulls me up short.  He knows what I did, somehow he knows about what I've done.

And that alone fills me with the greatest sense of relief.  Someone else knows.

My lips twitch slightly into a smile as I respond. "Indeed it has, old friend."