Audio | Early Egret 24

[wisdominshadows]

If there's anyone else newly awake after an unpleasantly vivid dream, I'd like to speak with you.

[Zelda's voice holds fairly steady over the network, but her voice is slightly horse- as though she'd woken up screaming. Which she probably did, considering.

She lets out one slow breath as she thinks, then continues.]

More specifically... falling. The world dissolving around you. Cries of pain and despair... are any of those familiar? And if not, what else did you See?

[A quiet sigh, and then anyone listening closely can hear a muffled I am sorry about the disturbance, truly- before the connection cuts out.]

Comments

[laurefindil]

[Glorfindel answers almost immediately as Elves don't sleep, exactly. Though they do dream, and his has left him shaking, and his heart pounding at the memory of his first death.]

[He has tied his hair back and gently taps on the door to her cabin, once he locates it.]

[He intends to invite her to the kitchen for a nice cup of tea.]

"Hello?" he says quietly. "It is Glorfindel."

[wisdominshadows]

[A muffled voice from the other side of the door]

One moment, please-

[Shortly afterward the door swings open; the girl on the other side has managed to throw clothes on, but the hair that frames her face is still drenched with sweat.]

Zelda, [She replies with a weary nod.] Forgive me, I don't believe we've met.

[laurefindil]

"I am new to this place," Glorfindel said. The woman on the other side of the door resembled an elf, but he suspected she was not one from his world, or Nerdanel or Curufin would have mentioned her. "I just woke from a dream very similar to the one you described. I thought it a flashback of my first death, but if you had it also..." He recalls they are in one of the Sleeper cars. "Perhaps we can discuss this in the dining car over a cup of tea? I would hate to wake anyone unnecessarily."

[wisdominshadows]

"I see."

She nods.

"Then I would be very glad to share a cup of tea with you, Glorfindel."

[laurefindil]

He led the way to the dining car and filled a teapot with tea leaves and water. He didn't bother with the kettle, but heated it himself, his hands glowing briefly.

He stopped himself as he found himself fussing with the milk and sugar and cups. "My dream. It reminded me of how I died, when I fought the Balrog and it pulled me to my death. But now that I am awake, I can see..." he paused a moment and forced himself to consider it again. "Certain inconsistencies."

"Was your dream also something familiar to you?" he asked.

[wisdominshadows]

Zelda watches her new acquaintance perform that remarkable little trick- was it magic? A side-effect of the glowing? Did he always glow?

On the other hand, they have more immediate concerns- and who knows, perhaps it's rude to ask.

"A Balrog?" she asks for clarification. "Forgive me, I don't think I'm familiar with the term.... And yes. I was in a garden I used to frequent when I was young. But I don't know if that's the connection- everyone seems to see something different."

A slight pause. "And besides, the garden was destroyed years ago. The only way I can imagine it mattering is that it mattered once to me."

[laurefindil]

He nodded, and poured out the steaming tea into their cups and cradled his. "Mine was similar. It reminded me of Gondolin before the Fall, when the skies were crystal clear and beautiful. Then came the Darkness, and the Balrogs came and laid waste to the city."

"I died fighting one, you see," he said. "I was protecting those fleeing the city. I killed it, and it fell into a deep ravine. But, as it fell, it grabbed me and dragged me after it." He took a deep breath and stared at his tea.