IC Story Thread: Ch.1,Ad.1 - A Sensitive Matter

Eadric nods knowingly to Seonaid's question, and let's out a heavy sigh, "That's an excellent question, m'lady. One that I've asked myself again and again, and re-examined my answers to again and again and again and... many ... many times over, these past weeks.

Going to the park was our routine. Every week, we would go there on that day, at that time.

And many many times I have cross examined myself over this... what did I miss? WHO did I miss?

For I think clearly I missed something, because it seems far too much to have occurred by happenstance that those raiders knew to come to that park on that day...

But...", he shakes his head.

"While Lyra is a figurehead, I am just a tradesman!", he laughs wryly to himself. "A very lucky man who managed to convince a great woman that he was worthy of her...

Eh, my point being, I have never conceived of myself as a target. Never thought of myself... or my children... as folk who needed to watch over their shoulder, every day. Particularly within the walls of Minas Tirith, aye? I never felt in danger.

I never felt they were in danger.", he shakes his head.

"No, I noticed nothing, because I looked for nothing.", his voice trembles with the weight of his self perceived failure.

He takes a drink and takes a moment to compose himself.

"As for the abductors...", he shakes his head, "They were wearing clothing of a Southron style. And they spoke a Southron tongue, but while I speak enough to make introductions and brief pleasantries - Lyra has cultured me some!", he jokes to try to keep things from getting too heavy, "... their words were few and fast, and while I did see a few of their faces, it was in the chaos of a fight, and I don't know what good it would ever do me.", he stares off a bit and takes another drink as good knuckles whiten on the cup as of it was an abductor's throat.

...

Following Duinhir's question, the Constable steps in and places a hand on Eadric's arm, and leans in gently to the conversation, "M'lady and good sir, eh, we have what information could be gleaned from the abductors whom the Guard killed or captured. If you have some need of further information, I'm sure we could arrange for you to be given what you need? Particularly if you have specific questions.

But it is frankly not all that common for victims such as Lord Blackridge to recall much good information from before or during traumas like this.

However, we did also collected an accounting from him, in the days when it was all still fresh. And again if you have some reason for these inquiries, the Guard I think would share with you what we can.

Particularly if there is some way in which your knowledge and ours could be combined to firm a more coherent picture.

But can we not let him enjoy this night?"

...

Some time later, Lyra Blackridge comes over to Duinhir, and smiling loudly but speaking quietly she says, "I fear I may have some answers to your questions... please, you and your friends, come with me?"

And then she announces to the room, "Dearest, I'm going to take them all to the overlook! Some of them have never spent much time in Minas Tirith!"

And then she moves to sweep you all outside.

Lady Blackridge leads you all outside, and gestures down the street, "There is a public garden not far down the way here... I'm told that before the ruin of Osgiliath, you could see the Dome of Stars from there."

Turning to Eothain's question she looks up at the moon as if to tell the time and says, "Well, what day is it today?", she chuckles to herself, but then she continues in a more serious tone, yet her thoughts are clearly meandering, "9 years now, I suppose. Not all that long, really, in the scope of things. But the first of my kind in centuries, and it has been a significant period of my life, by now.

The relationship between Gondor and the Harad is seldom one that tolerates the position.

I am a historian by training and education. Originally an archivist by trade. Began as a simple student of the Harad... A clerk for the Great Hall of Records... Never saw myself doing something like this. Being... who i have become..."

She trails off until you all reach a small park, just a patch of grass no bigger than the footprint of a house, with some nicely kept flowering shrubs, and statute of a playful water spirit in the center.

She sighs heavily, walking up to a belly-high wall that separates the park from a precipitous drop of some 10 meters or more down to the next tier of Minas Tiriths streets and buildings.

The rest of the city below and most of Pelennor Fields stretches out before you.

She visibly steels herself, preparing for something, and then begins, "You must understand...", her voice pitched like she's giving a lecture, "... I love Gondor, and I. Love. My. Family...

And I would never do anything to purposefully put either of them in danger."

She sniffs as if to punctuate the point, and thinks on her words for just a moment before continuing, "But there is a war going on in this world... That is not fought on a field of battle, nor at sea, nor even in observance of any borders, and it's not fought over gold, nor resources, nor land, nor blood! ..."

And then she casts her eyes to the side and sighs heavily again, "And it's soldiers... are not infantry, nor navy, and often... not even warriors."

Her tone begins to soften, as it is slowly taken over by regret, "Sometimes, in this war, they are historians, or archivists..."

She looks to you all, prepared to go on, but also she's gauging each of you, and it gives you a moment to say something if you wish.

"I speak of the war between the children of Iluvatar and Aulë - and our ability to live with free minds and hearts, allowed to fulfill our own destinies - and a world completely subjugated by the Shadow.

Most think of Morgoth, the Great Enemy, as banished and gone from this world. But it is not so...

His dark power still taints Arda, and still vies for control of it. There are peoples and events which you may think of as little more than poetic myth and legend - the Ainu and the Valar and War of Wrath and Dagorlad? And much of it may be that, but I have seen enough of it myself to know that the most critical parts are true.

There is a darkness that lurks this world, wrestling for control of men's minds and hearts, working in the shadows to build a network of influence and power, for it's Dark Lord, and if... someone... doesn't fight it, it will succeed.

And all of Arda will be lost to enslavement and despair..."

She sighs, knowing that she perhaps sounds crazy. But she goes on.

"Now certainly men fight and die on the field of battle, for both sides. But these are indirect battles, and important, certainly, but often it's warriors do not know their real masters nor the real cause they are fighting for.

But because this war is fought over 1,000s and 1,000s of years and it's true goal is each and every person's heart and mind and spirit... that is what I refer to, about soldiers and historians.

It is only through the lens of history that this war can truly be understood - and truly be fought and won.

Because it was in aeons past that it's most potent weapons were forged.

And it is my task, my duty, to all of Arda, to regain one such weapon... And it is that duty that has placed my family in danger. And it is that duty that I fear I may no longer be able to fulfill on my own."

She looks across each of your faces to see how her words are received.

"The weapon... is no weapon at all really.

It is an instrument of knowledge. Possibly the greatest artefact of knowledge that has ever been possessed of Men. But you see, in a battle for the hearts and minds of men, knowledge is possibly the greatest weapon of all.

Have you ever heard of the Palantiri? The 'far-seeing' stones crafted Ages ago, by the First Peoples? The most powerful of all the Seeing Stones used to be housed in none other than Osgiliath, when it was the capital of Gondor.", she gestures out into the blackness, beyond the pinpoints of light that dot Pelennor Fields and it's distance ramparts. Where the Dome of Stars might have been visible more than 1,000 years ago.

"1,500 years ago this "Master Stone" of Osgiliath was lost in the Anduin River, when the Dome of Stars collapsed, destroyed in first battle of the Kin-Strife War ...

It has been the work of my life, more than 20 years now, to locate this seeing stone. And it was the life's work of many of my predecessors before me to do the same. But now... we are close.

And the Enemy knows this, and they would do anything to stop me from finding it."