Goheno nin...

[elfstonestrider]

Characters: Aragorn & Open
Setting: Floor 48 (Graveyard)
Format: I'll match
Summary: He was bound to find it eventually.
Warnings: Sads.


Up and down, down and up.  Aragorn spent his days more or less alone in the Tower.  When Frodo wished him close, of course he visited with the little hobbit.  But other than that, he kept to himself.  Perhaps there ought to have been an addage about rangers and their inability to give up keeping solely to themselves.

It was only a matter of time before Aragorn happened upon the graveyard and rather than leave it be to explore the strange feeling he'd gotten from the floor below with the myriad of curtains, the ranger decided to stay here awhile and attempt to discover why a normally peaceful place could give him, of all people, such a terrible shiver.

Walking was not difficult on this floor, despite the somewhat spongey ground and the open graves he had to dart around, but breathing certainly became nearly impossible when he came across names on tombstones of those he had cared for greatly.  Boromir's death had not happened so long ago that time had served to heal the wound it left.  It was at Boromir's grave, then, that the ranger decided to sit for entirely too long, one hand on a tombstone that ought to have never been.  They'd sent the prince of Gondor off by different means, had they not?

The Tower was only confusing him now.

Comments

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

The graveyard. As often as Haldir heeded him not go there, he found himself there to tend the graves of his companions. Today was no different, worry for their care drawing him to check. He knew that they were empty graves, a boy having informed the tower that he'd dug them up. It had saved him the ache of digging up Gimli's grave, though he had tried before the message had been sent.

Here, now, he passed by Gimli's, Faramir's, Legolas', and one bearing Aragorn's name, content to see them tidy. The sight of Aragorn near the grave of Boromir gave him pause. The elf moved silently, as his kin were wont to do, and lay a hand upon the rangers shoulder.

"I once spoke with Dax. He said 'I believe the thinking behind that was that it would be good to have a memorial to those who have accidentally been sent back.'" He could recall Dax's words exactly as he had spoken them in November.

"Boromir would not wish us mourn him in this way."

[elfstonestrider]

Aragorn's eyes dropped from the tombstone for a moment before focusing instead on the elf the hand touching him belonged to. His smile was but a whisp, a small brush of nothing that certainly could be seen right through. Since Legolas had seen him last, Aragorn had showered and cleaned up his beard as best he could. His clothing no longer smelled like he had been battling in them.

It did not help his disposition, however.

"You misunderstand," he said delicately, moving to his feet with very little effort. "It is not Boromir I mourn, but those that could not be saved."

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

It was definitely an improvement in smell but Legolas hadn't paid it much heed, truthfully. They'd chased after, hunted and killed more than they'd have thought they had in their journey from Imladris to the Black Gates. If they'd smelled like a field of flowers when they got there, it might have been concerning.

"There is no need. Not for a moment do I believe that they speak true. I have seen the end of the war, the end of Sauron. I have seen you become king and seen your son. These things could not have happened if the world had been destroyed. We cannot be from similar yet disconnected worlds, it is ridiculous. They lie."

He just spent a period of time thinking he'd spent a thousand years here, had believed that the worlds were gone and there was no hope. Now, more than ever, he was determined to see home again and ensure his friends went home safely.

[red_tea]

Sakuya, too, had lost someone in the tower recently: her very own Mistress, the one to whom she had sworn to protect. Then again, perhaps she had arrived at the tower too late to help her to begin with, for the last time they spoke her Mistress hadn't been in the best of mind. Still, she found herself climbing back to this level to look at the same recently constructed grave. No, seeing it again doesn't help.

A few minutes of silence pass, but eventually she moves to go back down to the lower levels. It's at this point she spots a figure sitting by a grave, and all too readily does she enter a more defensive stance. The tower's put her on edge, it seems, and a concealed knife just below her palm is more than ready to be used. "...Who's there?"

[elfstonestrider]

Son.

"My son." Perhaps this wasn't the best conversation to be having, not here, not when the person he loved was likely dead, not when the Ringbearer was a shell and there was a Legolas standing here with him and laying in the cold ground at the same time in a Tower of impossible heights!

Aragorn was remarkably resilient to most things but this was getting squarely out of hand.

Both hands resting on the elf's narrow shoulders, Aragorn stares into too blue eyes waiting for the rest. "What form of sadistic magic would cause this then, Legolas? There is much I do not understand and much I realize I never will. If I had a son--"

Arwen shed her grace. One more death on his head.

[warriorscribe]

This floor hurt worse and worse; every time he saw it he was painfully aware of all these people, not dead and gone, but all alone. Completely and utterly isolated in the ruins of their worlds. He normally only passed it by. And in fact, the urge to do so was strong.

But he has never been one to put his own pain above someone else's. Seeing someone standing before one of the stones, and one of the people who had come to his side in his panic, at that, Enoch stepped off the stairs and approached him.

"They aren't dead." It wasn't comfort anymore. Though he spoke the words softly, there was a pained tone to his own voice. Slowly, he was losing the use he had for this floor, but he still had to try.

[bow_of_the_galadhrim]

Where Aragorn's hands held him, the reached to light place his on Aragorn's upper arms, ensuring that the man didn't topple over from shock or surprise. He realized too late that he shouldn't have mentioned Eldarion but it was true, he'd seen these things and seen Eldarion take up his fathers throne.

"I do not know. It is beyond even what Gandalf understands but we will fight it. We will go home. We will see everyone again."

He paused, giving his arms a gentle squeeze. Legolas refused to fall to despair. He'd done so once and angered his friends with his second death.

"If you had a son, Frodo succeeded. You became king and were wed and you would wed no one but she who you love and returns it."

[elfstonestrider]

Aragorn chances a glance upward, long hair cleaner than usual but left loose all the same. He'd been in his thoughts, thoughts that so often take the shape of someone else, and the sound of an external voice is strange enough to at least get his attention.

He isn't annoyed to be disturbed, however. If anything, it's better that he is. "It is Aragorn, son of Arathorn," he replies easily enough. He can read her well, the cut of her voice, her stance. But he's in no mood for a fight. Who comes to a graveyard for such a thing?

[elfstonestrider]

"I watched him die before coming to this place," he answered without looking up. He knew Boromir was dead and he knew that the Tower brought him back and, somehow, killed him again. And that, perhaps, he'd even be brought back once more.

Some things were a lot to handle and this, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was one of those things. Aragorn was good with loss, but not so much with a loss he could not fully understand.

"And there is a grave for another friend here who I know is still alive."

Aragorn is use to loneliness, but being trapped in this tower makes it worse.

[red_tea]

She relaxes somewhat, her hand unclenching as a result. Curse this tower for always putting her on edge. It's wearing on her. But still, she knows when she is in the wrong, so the maid gives a curt bow. "Ah, my apologies for... disturbing you, then." She then straightens. "I am Sakuya."

[warriorscribe]

"These are memorials for those who have been in the tower before, but were lost, returned to their worlds."

A pause as he looks down at the graves. "The architect has a morbid sense of humor, I suppose."

[the_white_rider]

The White Wizard rarely spent time in the graveyard- Nothing but a desolate floor empty of any meaning. Indeed, none of the names that could be read on the graves displayed here were that of companions who had actually met with death. No, those people were simply back to their destroyed and ruined homeworld. They were for all intent and purpose, alive.

When Gandalf spotted Aragorn before Boromir's grave though, he smiled, quite a sad smile to be true. He had heard Aragorn had joined them in this tower and had meant to meet him soon-- But he had hoped for this to happen in better circumstances. Boromir's case was a special one. He was indeed dead back in their homeworld, yet he had been alive in this tower, even if his stay was only short. And he most certainly was roaming the remains of Middle-Earth.

"Worry and mourn not, for there is no body buried below this." the white wizard spoke slowly and calmly as he approached Aragorn from behind, clothed in white and staff in hand "Dead his body may be may be, but his soul is well alive and awaiting to be saved."