-- Sayvara's vision at Celondim --
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It is not the vision of her death that rattles her. For the last ten years she has gotten used to - sometimes even welcomed - the thought of ending her time in a battle, be it for Gondor, for Middle Earth, or just an inane bar brawl gone out of hand. The Song doesn't show her anything new in that respect... the vision is like she could have imagined it: dark skies with blackish clouds rolling with thunder; hills once green and lush, now torn apart and turned to mud by the blood of countless victims of war; herself surrounded by scores of enemies and putting a lifetime of passion and hatred into her last stand until her blade almost seems to be glowing with her rage. No... it is not
that which shakes her world as she knows it.
He is there, standing beside her in the battle. Their movements are in harmony with eachother, as if sharing the same mind. They are fighting as one, laying down one attacker after another as they lunge at the couple. Lirandel and Sayvara, each one by themselves superior in battle, but together they seem to form a sphere around them through which noone can pass without meeting their end at the edge of her sword or the tips of his arrows. She is baffled by what she sees. Sayvara looks at herself as she seems to have grown. Her armor is like that of a knight, letting her withstand almost every attack... her sword a great gondroian blade which cuts through her foes with a power and precision that amazes even her. Without words, the Song shows her the greatest battle she ever fought, and she is not fighting alone.
But it is indeed a losing battle. Like the visions of the others she has just seen, the enemy eventually prevails. As the hordes close in on the couple they start taking wounds. Glancing blows at first; soon the edge of foul weapons mark their faces with cuts; the sphere inevitably collapses on them. Sayvara sees herself being shoved backwards by two gigantic brutes. Not even she with her strength can dig her feet deep enough in the slippery blood soaked ground to hold herself firm in place. Behind her someone thrusts a spear forward...
Everything seems to stop. The enemy knows she is defeated. She looks down at her chest, seeing the tip of the spear. The haft has broken from the violent impact and the tip is shivering slightly as her heart tries in vain to keep feeding her body. It is all over. It is as she would have imagined it. But the Song is about to get just as horrifying for her as is was for the others.
Before her is Lirandel, laying on his side on the ground with his eyes closed, mortally wounded. Sayvara doesn't know why, but the sight makes her hand fly to her mouth to keep her from crying out at the vision. Her eyes begin to tear in dispair as she watches what happens next. She sees herself sinking to her knees before the dying elf. In a gesture she can only see as tenderness her hand reaches out and touches his cheek before she leans down over him and kisses his temple. The last thing she does in her life is to lay down next to him, her back against his chest. She takes his arm and drapes it around herself, her fingers entwine with his. Though almost dead, she feels how he grips her hand. She squeezes his tight in return as she closes her eyes... almost as if to sleep next to him. The lingering sight of them there is like a boot to her stomach as she realizes she
will get something precious to live for... only to have it taken away.
But the vision is not done with her. A slight shift, and she sees a young woman clinging to the dead lovers, screaming out her sorrow and loss. It is Adjanah. Sayvara feels terror take hold and she wants to call out to her, shout at her to run. She feels she must do something to make Adjanah get to safety. But safety doesn't exist any more. The darkened evil hand of an orc grabs her by her hair and tears her away from Lirandel and Sayvara, throwing her into the mud. As the vision fades Adjanah is being led away in shackles by triumphant enemies... her spirit broken... reduced to a slave.
In Celondim, Sayvara finds herself crying...
/S