Author's Notes: OK, unlike my story, I will strive to keep this short. First off, thanks for reading! I'm so stoked you've taken the time to do so. It means a lot. Second, I'm new to sharing my work, so any thoughts or constructive comments are appreciated. Thirdly, please be warned this is an epic and may take me a while to finish, but I will do my best to not keep you waiting. Finally, the disclaimer: the characters and places that you know from Tolkien and the movies is their respective intellectual property. The rest is mine. Happy reading.

Chapter 1 - Beyond the Void

It was dark, even to her keen elven eyes. Not the dark of the deepest night, where the stars' faint light illuminates the land in a silver beauty. Nor the dark of a starless night, with rain pattering gently through the high canopy of the Mallorn trees. The soft sounds giving life and light to the darkness beneath. No, Galadwen thought. This dark was the absolute, complete, darkness of nothing. A void. Where all senses felt blind in this place of nothing. Nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to touch, and nothing to feel. The end of everything.

Every vision into the future ended at this void. But Galadwen could not and would not accept that this was the only possibility. She had to believe there was more to the future than the death and horrors that always lead to the void. What was the point of her gift if there was no other way? What was the point of life if it was to end in so much pain and fear? Galadwen knew the answers to her questions were as intangible as the void. But she had refused to accept it. Not yet. She still had hope.

In a place where you did not breath, Galadwen took a deep breath and turned around. It was not so much a physical turning, as direction was as non-existent in the void as everything else. It was a turn in her mind, as she focused back towards the present. She felt time slip back like a gentle breeze across her conscious. The breeze grew stronger as she picked up speed, flying back in time. It was a long journey back. She had gone further into the void than she'd ever dared before.

The nothingness of the void scared her. Every previous time she reached it, she'd stopped. But after years of searching the endless possibilities of the future, only to find they had all lead to the same void, Galadwen had hoped that perhaps there would be something on the other side of the void. As her mother kept telling her, "all things must come to an end". That same theory should have applied to the void. Even if there was no Middle Earth, there should be something. Before the beginning of time, when Ilúvatar created life he filled the void. She did not know what that void had been like, but surely Ilúvatar had not abandoned them. She did not expect to meet Ilúvatar, for to meet the creator was beyond the privileges of any but the Valar. Although there was some hope or distant thought that she hardly admitted to herself, that perhaps she may find the Valar, and they will again create what had once been.

So instead of stopping at the void like she usually did. Galadwen had fought back the terror of the nothingness and kept travelling forward. It was hard to tell time in the void, with the only marker being how far she felt from the present. At first, she'd travelled about a century, but the void was still the only thing that existed. Then she travelled another century. Then another, and still there was no change to the complete nothingness. She travelled forward more centuries than she could keep count of, and still, there was nothing. At first, she had kept going out of determination. As her mind became used to the terror of the void, it was almost hypnotic. Then when the void continued in its nothingness, the panic started to take over. It started with an idle thought of doubt, like a single drop of water that bursts open the floodgates. Maybe there would be none of the Valar left. The void was the permanent end of everything. As the panic poured into her mind, Galadwen picked up speed, trying to leave it behind. But it chased her further into the void. Until, in her mental exhaustion, it caught her, filling her soul with despair. The darkness in her mind rivalled that of the void as she struggled to think rationally.

Too absorbed in her mental battle Galadwen continued moving forward in time. If this was all there was, then would it not be better to escape the pain and fear that was to come and let her conscious mind be lost in the void forever? She slowed her rush forward. The link to her body in the present was so faint now that another rush forward would be the end of it. She didn't know what would happen. Would it snap and be broken forever? Or perhaps it would fade out so she'd lose it. Either way, she would no longer have any sense of direction and no way to pull herself through time. She would be effectively paralyzed in the void for eternity. The fear of that possibility was enough to make her stop short.

Pain and fear may be a worse end than this, but it wasn't a void in the present yet. So until it was, there was hope. No matter how small. But even if there was no hope, there were still others she could save and help, even for a little while. As her mother was fond of saying, "we must do what we can with the gifts we are given." She had a gift, and although she was yet to find a way to save Middle Earth, there were many she could still help, even a little. And there was still time. She had anywhere between 2 to about 100 years before all the light was gone. As she travelled the long journey back to the present, Galadwen felt her determination set in. She would find a way.

When she finally arrived back to within a month of the present, Galadwen noticed another path that was brighter than she'd seen it before. The brighter the path, the more likely it was to happen. This change had taken place while she'd been in the void. Galadwen idly wondered how much time had passed in the present while she'd been in the void. But time wasn't as constant as most believed. Particularly in her mother's realm. The great Lady of Light had her reasons to adjust the passage of time within her realm. But she rarely shared them, particularly with her bastard daughter.

Galadwen knew that her mother Galadriel loved her dearly, like a mother should love her child. She just couldn't acknowledge her as her daughter or show any affection in public. Galadriel had broken the unbreakable rules of high elven society. It wasn't the first time she'd broken unbreakable rules. The first time had resulted in her ban from ever returning to the undying lands of Valinor. But this time had resulted in her being forbidden to acknowledge her daughter. It caused a pain that Galadwen could see in her mother's eyes every time they spoke. Although she knew her view was biased, Galadwen believed this to be an unfair punishment. It punished the daughter as well as the mother. But Galadwen already knew life was unfair. Even in the fairest of elven realms in Middle Earth.

The rules and ways of elven society, as adopted from their homeland Valinor, were so important to the elves, that they would rather punish Galadwen for existing than forgo the rules. Galadwen felt anger rising at the thought and pushed it down. She could not feel anger or hatred, for her mother's sake. Her mother was the only one in Lothlorien who could read the minds of others, but there were those who could read emotions. One such was her mother's husband Celeborn, co-leader and Lord of Lothlorien. He was a great leader, a very forgiving and understanding husband, and he had been kind to Galadwen, as much as society allowed. But if he sensed any hatred from her, he would be forced to exile her from Lothlorien, even knowing the extreme pain it would cause his wife. So with a calming breath, Galadwen banished the anger and took the new path.

The new path was made by the now likely choice of a wizard to help a dwarf in a quest to claim back his ancestral homeland. Galadwen recognised this wizard as Mithrandir, known to many as Gandalf the Grey. She had made a point to follow the possible decisions of the leaders of men, elves, and dwarves and also the wizards who advised these leaders. She believed these people would be the ones that could bring change and build a resistance strong enough to fight back the darkness. The wizards she followed even closer than the others. That was for a personal reason rather than a desire to fight the darkness.

Her mother would never talk of her father, but over the years, Galadwen had gathered the tiniest of hints and suggestions. Like a dragon collecting small coins of gold over a millennium to build up her greatest treasure. She stored them away deep down, to muse over in the quiet. But like a dragon, she would never be satisfied with her treasure, she always needed more. From the round shape of her own ears, Galadwen knew her father to not be elven. And from the hints Nestor had unknowingly dropped, she had deduced that he had spent time in Valinor. Thus he must be one of the wizards, who had all spent time studying under different masters there. She knew Gandalf had studied in Lorine, the homeland of Galadriel, but her mother knew all the wizards. Although Galadriel had met with the wizards on many different occasions, she had never allowed Galadwen to meet them. But from her travels through the future, Galadwen had learnt a lot about each one by the decisions they made. Each decision was part of a pattern around that person. She had learnt to see and read the patterns to understand what type of people they were. She found that Gandalf had the purest heart of any she had followed. So deep down Galadwen hoped that one day she would meet Gandalf and know for sure.

She spent a long time searching this new branch of Gandalf's. It was going to be a large group on this quest. When more people are involved, there are more choices and thus more possible paths. So many of the paths ended in disaster and ended in the death of most of the group. There was a very faint path that was hardly visible to Galadwen. It was an unusual person, shorter than a dwarf, and slighter of frame. Like a child, but with large feet. This halfling seemed unlikely to join the group, but if he did, the survival of the group and success of the quest significantly increased.

Galadwen was curious about this halfling and his power to affect the outcome of the group so drastically. His presence seemed to have the same effect as Gandalf's. So she searched his possible paths to find the reason for unlikely power. In the endless possibilities, Galadwen eventually found the hinge on which so much rested. It was all in a magical ring and a riddle contest with a strange underground creature with a twisted heart. But there was something about this ring that tugged at Galadwen. It had the power to make the halfling invisible, but she could sense there was a lot more to it than that. It had a great and terrible power. It wasn't easy but she followed the path of the ring. It almost seemed to sense her and hide from her as she followed the choices of others. She'd never experienced anything like that. Her conscious mind wanted to flee, but she resisted and kept searching.

She spent a long time following the many different possibilities to understand the patterns around the ring. It seemed to influence those around it, bring out the worst in them. Except, she saw very little of that influence on the halfling. The ring still seemed to hide its future from her. The path of the ring, whenever it came into the hands of orcs or men were often dark. Like a shadow was cast over them. She could make out very little along these paths. When she reached the void the shadow turned to absolute dark. Except now in this dark, Galadwen felt like she was being watched. In the dark, it felt as if the ring stopped hiding from her and started watching her. It was as if the void was the rings domain, where the hunted became the hunter. She shied away from entering the void, fearing to enter.

Then in one trip to the edge of the void, Galadwen saw a flash of red in the corner of her vision. But when she turned, there was only the absolute dark of nothing. She would have thought her mind was playing tricks on her if it wasn't for the lingering strong sense of death. For lack of a better description, it was like a bad smell. Putrid, festering, death that clawed at her senses. It terrified her. She fled back to the present to steady her nerves before continuing her mission to study the ring.

With the halfling, the ring would try to betray him, often leading to his death. If it succeeded, the ring would then find its way into the hands of the orcs or men. Galadwen followed the many possible paths of this ring. It brought the death and destruction on quicker than she'd ever seen. Except when it stayed in the hands of the halfling. The world would be safer if the ring stayed with him. For a time at least, and time was what she needed. She understood that if the halfling went on this quest and discovered the ring, he could not be allowed to die. She needed to keep searching, to understand as much as she could. But at that moment, she noticed the link to her body was very faint, like that when she was deep in the void, on the brink of being lost for eternity.

A fear gripped her as she abandoned her searching and raced back in time to her body. She reached and pulled herself towards her body. The faintness of her connection made her frantic with fear, giving more speed to her flight. Although her connection was faint, it was close. Closer than she'd expected. More time must have slipped by in the present than she'd realised. Her conscious mind slammed into her body with a gasp as a pain so intense drove every thought from her mind. She would have screamed if she could, but every muscle was locked in place as if her body was in rigor mortis. Panic started to overtake the pain as Galadwen's eye's shot open. They tried to focus on the blurry image of a woman leaning over her. Although her eyes failed her, Galadwen instantly recognised the woman by her smell. That fresh earthy smell of damp moss after a morning rain.

"Nestor," she tried to say, but it only came out as a groan.

"Shhh, quiet child," Nestor replied. "Don't speak. Lie still and save your strength."

Confused, Galadwen forced down the panic and fear and did as she was told. She focused on her body, finding it malnourished, dehydrated and in incredible pain. Galadwen wanted to shrink back from the pain and flee to the future, but with determination, she faced down the pain. It was coming from her left shoulder. Her body was injured, but not just physically. She could feel death spreading from her shoulder as poison reached for her heart. But it was being pushed back by another force. She could feel Nestor's fingers on her forehead as she stroked her long dark hair while quietly singing under her breath. Galadwen listened to the words of healing, strength, and life, as she felt Nestor's healing halt the poison a mere fraction from her heart. A mere fraction from death. Then as the night wore on, Nestor started to push the poison back.

Galadwen's vision returned with the dawning of the new day, but she still lay motionless as Nestor continued her healing. Nestor, with her long golden hair streaked with grey, held off her face by the thin band of mithril crowning her brow. She leaned over Galadwen, her grey eyes were closed in a face that projected grace and strength. It was a fair face, like all elves, but unlike any other's Galadwen had seen, Nestor's face showed lines of age. She was one of the oldest elves in Middle Earth. She had been almost 9000 years old before she left Valinor for Middle Earth. Although elves are immortal, most eventually grow weary of living this life and choose to pass on to the next. But not Nestor. She was the oldest elf to ever leave the homeland. She had come at the making of the rings of power but had refused a ring herself. Instead, she was content to serve and advise those with the rings. Only the other elves would heed her advice, and of those, Galadriel had been the most willing to listen. That was until Galadwen's conception. Something had happened between them, because as long as Galadwen could remember, Galadriel had always looked upon Nestor with icy eyes. She treated her with polite respect, but there was no friendliness there. Galadwen found it hard to believe the stories of when they had been the closest of friends and confidants.

In regards to herself, Galadwen had found the only elf in all of Lothlorien who would openly show her affection. Since birth, Nestor had been the one to care for her, guide her and love her. She was like a grandmother to Galadwen. It wasn't until Galadwen had reached womanhood and her visions started did Galadriel even talk with her. And then it was only secret meetings in the hours before dawn, in a private glade far from the centre of Lothlorien. She still remembered the terrified feeling of waiting in the cool starless night in the deep shadows of the largest mallorn tree on the edge of the glade for the Lady of Light, her mother. She had not slept for days beforehand, too nervous but also too terrified of the visions. She had spent most of the night huddled in her cloak, getting strength from the huge trunk at her back. She'd been so scared of being late that she'd arrived just after midnight.

Then when Galadriel had arrived, a silver light in the dark night, she had not expected the warm embrace nor the love and pain she'd seen in her mother's eyes. They had sat together under the tree, holding hands and talking telepathically. Her mother's gift of seeing into the minds of others and speaking to them that way was something Galadwen had only heard about until that night. Experiencing it for herself under that tree was like someone ripping the lid off her mind and leaving her soul exposed for interrogation. But Galadriel's words in her mind had only been of kindness, regret and sorrow. Galadwen had discovered another side to the fair Lady of Light. She had discovered a soft kindness and tender love for the daughter she could never acknowledge.

As Galadwen lay still, she listened to the world around her. Her elven hearing allowed her to hear the others nearby, warriors by the sound of their lithe movement. Five of them, in the trees surrounding her and Nestor. The mist of the dawn cleared, and sunlight streamed through breaks in the canopy of the mallorn trees far above them. Galadwen listened to the insects rustling in the undergrowth and the flutter of a bird's wings as it flew by. As the sun neared its zenith Nestor finally stopped her singing. She leaned back with a weary sigh, but a hand remained protectively on Galadwen's forehead. The dull ache of the wound was still throbbing insistently in her shoulder, but the intense pain of the poison was now completely gone. Although with the crippling pain now gone her body felt completely drained of all its energy. Just to breathe was a struggle as she forced her chest to expand for every breath.

"What happened Nestor?" she asked with a raspy voice.

"Shhh child, you must let your body rest," she said. "Here take a sip." Nestor held a water skin to her lips and tipped it slowly. Galadwen felt the warm sweet liquid go down her throat. The elvish sweet wine tasted like a warm summer evening bursting full of golden light. It warmed her soul and restored some life to her body. "We'll talk soon child," Nestor said as she pulled the wineskin away. "But for now we must get you to safety."

Galadwen could hear the warriors moving closer. "Safety?"

"Yes child, I promise I'll answer your questions later," Nestor said with a kind smile.

As the five warriors came into view, Galadwen saw they weren't just warriors. Under their blue cloaks, they wore the silver armour of her mother's Royal Guard. They all held spears, had long curved swords at their waists and strung bows over their backs. Even after half a day of standing guard, their tense posture and continuously moving eyes showed they were alert and ready for action. An ant would not have moved without them knowing about it. Two of the guards tied a cloak between their staves and laid it down beside Galadwen. Then ever so gently, the taller of the guards, lifted her onto the makeshift litter. Galadwen was too exhausted to notice anything more than his copper hair that glowed like bronze in the morning sun.

The two guards lifted the litter and Galadwen watched the canopy pass overhead as they set off at a steady but gentle pace. She could hear the other guards walking quietly through the undergrowth some distance to her left and right and behind them. Nestor walked beside the litter, holding her hand as if to reassure herself that Galadwen was still alive.

By late afternoon they reached the centre of Lothlorien, and the elven city of Caras Galadhon, with the mallorn trees as tall as mountains. Although she'd just been lying on the litter, Galadwen's body felt so fatigued after the travel, she thought it was on the brink of failure.

"They dare not take you up into our tree child so one of the mirror glade guest rooms has been prepared for you," Nestor said.

Galadwen didn't have the energy to reply so blinked in acknowledgement. But once closed, her eyelids refused to open again. Her body barely had enough energy left to keep her heart beating. Each slow laboured breath was a test in her determination to live. She couldn't die without doing something useful with her gift, otherwise, a childhood of loneliness and an adulthood of searching the future would have been for nothing. She wouldn't let the pains of a child be for nothing.

Suddenly the world stopped moving as Galadwen's almost lifeless body was laid on soft moss. The moss felt warm to her skin, but Galadwen suspected it was only warm relative to her cool body temperature as she clung to life.

"Stay strong Galadwen," came a voice in her mind. Her mother's voice, so tender and gentle and full of love. "It will be over soon." She felt her head being lifted and something was trickled down her throat. It was less than a mouthful, but it felt like life itself. It was the comfort of lying in the sun, absorbing its energy, while simultaneously the shock of being suddenly submerged in freezing water. She gasped as the elixir of life flowed through her body, tensing every muscle. Her heart started beating faster and faster until it was moving to the beat of a bumblebee's wing. Then radiating out from her heart, every muscle started to twitch and every nerve started to burn. Only slightly at first, but the twitches quickly grew until her whole body was shaking in an uncontrollable fit and she felt as if she was being shaken apart. The intensity of the fit came in waves. Each peak was worse than the last. The intense pain from her burning nerves rivalled that of the poison.

Finally, the shaking started to ease, and each wave of pain was less than the last. Her mind and body were numb with shock.

"Rest now daughter," came her mother's voice in her empty mind. "It's over." With those last two words, Galadwen felt the oblivion of true sleep overtaking her, something she hadn't felt in years.

Galadwen woke to find herself on a sleeping mat in a guest room. The mallorn tree's smooth silver bark on the curved walls and ceiling, reflected the dim light coming through the open arch. Galadwen sat up, resting against the wall as her head spun and her vision reduced to two small dots. Her body felt weak. Alive and healthy, but weak. There was only the slightest ache from her shoulder. As her vision cleared, Galadwen inspected the wound to find a fresh pink scar. She noticed her clothes had been changed. Dressed now in only a full length plain white slip of a thick but soft floating material. Galadwen was not a seamstress or a craftswoman of any kind, but she knew from the weave of this material that it was the rare cloth used for the injured and dying. It regulated body temperature and encouraged healing. To be wearing something that was only used on the most dire or urgent of occasions, Galadwen realised she had been closer to death than she feared.

At the sound of approaching footsteps, she looked towards the open arch. Galadwen recognised the footsteps as those of Nestor a moment before she walked through the arch.

Upon seeing Galadwen leaning against the wall, Nestor's face broke into a beautiful smile.

"Oh child, to see you awake brings me the happiness of a thousand Yestares," Nestor beamed. She took Galadwen's hands in her own and kissed them.

"Mam," Galadwen said, her affectionate name for Nestor, and gave her hands a squeeze. "I think I owe you a life debt."

"Nonsense sweet child, there is no such debt among family." Galadwen smiled at her kindness. Nestor was no blood relation, but she'd been the only parent, in the practical sense, that Galadwen had ever known.

"Tell me, what happened?" Galadwen asked.

"I will tell all I know, but while I do so, you must eat and drink," Nestor said. She stood back up and collected a jug, mug, and a plate piled high with food from a table near the entrance. She passed the plate and mug to Galadwen. Then filled the mug with sweet wine before setting the jug down next to her. Galadwen shuffled over to give Nestor room on the bedroll beside her.

Nestor settled down, her long, early dawn blue robe spread out around her. Galadwen took a sip of the sweet wine and Nestor started her story. Although she was starving, she was even hungrier for information.

"I'm used to you disappearing for a few days at a time to go do your dreaming in one obscure spot or another. But when you didn't return after five days I began to worry. On the 7th day without any sight of you, I told Galadriel. Anyone would have been forgiven for thinking Sauron himself had entered Lothlorien with the way she reacted. We were afraid that you'd become lost in your dreams or worse yet, something had happened to your body while you slept. Galadriel slowed the time here to preserve your body while she sent all the available army to comb through the forest looking for you.

"The sun came and went three times in Lothlorien and still there was no sign of you. I believe outside these lands three weeks passed. Then on the third night, a horde of orcs entered the southern boundary of Lothlorien forest." Nestor must have seen the shock on her face. "Yes child, orcs entered the lands of Lothlorien, for the first time since Sauron's defeat. It put more fear into our hearts for your safety. Galadriel was speaking with the forest to discover your location. Unfortunately, the army was scattered throughout the forest looking for you, so we couldn't mount an attack and drive them off immediately. Instead, those who had been scouting nearby kept watch on the orcs while a company was mobilised.

"The orcs were reported to be travelling at a crazed pace, but strangely, they didn't seem to be aiming for Caras Galadhon. Instead, they were travelling further north. With speed, a company was mobilised and set off to encircle the orcs. Then our Lady discovered your location from scout reports, which was directly in line with the orcs' path. Fearing for your safety, she sent me out with her own guards to bring you back safely. I suspect she may have known that you were to be injured, or why else ask me to go. The orcs got to you just before the army got to them. They got one shot in before the army drove them off and picked them off one by one.

"Fate must have been on your side child, as the orcs had missed your heart by a finger width. I arrived just in time to stop the poison from entering your heart and at which time you came back to your body. It was a very close call for a while there. Especially since your body was so malnourished, it was already in a state of weakness before you were injured. Then you slept for days. I was starting to worry you would never wake up. But here you are."

Nestor squeezed her hand again. "So tell me, child, what kept you away for so long? What did you find?"

"I tried to find the end of the void," she said with a sigh. "I travelled so far forward that I nearly lost the connection to the present. But still, there was nothing but void. If it comes to pass, it will never end. It will be the end of everything, forever." Nestor looked sad like she always did when Galadwen talked about the future. "But during the journey through the void, I discovered my inner strength Mam. I believe there is a reason for my gift. I have a purpose that I must fulfil and I know it has to do with preventing the void. I just haven't found out how yet."

"I don't doubt that you have this gift for a purpose child, but have you considered that perhaps the reason you haven't found a way to stop the void, is because you've only viewed the future, but have not used that knowledge to change anything. Until you act on the knowledge, your gift is as useful as a bow without arrows. Now I'm not saying you should go out and face down a horde of orcs or build your own army to fight off this void. Start small. If you see something bad is going to happen, like someone trips, falls, and breaks a leg. Be there to catch them. Start with a small change, or saving a single life and watch how that changes the future. Perhaps then you will see the way."

"But nothing like that happens in Lothlorien, elves don't trip."

"Exactly child. Your mother has tried to protect you from the outside world by keeping you here. But you must go live your life child and let your gift take you where it will. The last fortnight has shown Galadriel that she cannot protect you forever, and after the incident with the army and the orcs, she has lost much favour with the elves. Many see her actions as acknowledging you which would have been forgivable if in doing so, she hadn't put them all at risk. Unfortunately, child, since they cannot take their anger out on the Lady of Light, they may take it out on you. It may be best for you to leave and find those who do trip and fall."

"Leave? And go where?" The thought of leaving Lothlorien terrified and excited Galadwen. She had often thought of it, particularly as a child. She would dream of exploring the world, seeing the other elven lands and the lands of the different peoples and everything in between. But since she'd discovered her gift, she had thought of nothing other than learning to control it, and then discovering how to prevent the void.

"Wherever your gift tells you that you're needed the most child."

Galadwen thought back to her most recent searching. "I think I know where Mam, but it isn't exactly stopping a fall. On the way back from the void I found a decision to pursue a quest had been made by Mithrandir. He wants to help the dwarven ancestor of Thror, the King Under the Mountain, reclaim the Lonely Mountain. If a halfling doesn't join the quest, the company will all die, but if the halfling does join the quest, he will discover a magic ring. This ring was very strange. It seemed to know I was there, I felt like it could sense me and it didn't like my presence. The patterns around it were terrible but familiar somehow." She paused, remembering the future. "Now I think on it, the patterns reminded me of the destruction before the void, but on a smaller scale.

"This ring seems to have a huge effect on the future. If it stays in the hands of this halfling, its influence is nearly non-existent. But in the hands of others, it has the power to do great destruction, bringing the void on faster. It seems to betray the people who possess it.

"At first I was drawn to this quest because of Mithrandir," Galadwen admitted. Nestor knew of her suspicions of Mithrandir and her mother and she did nothing to sway them, although neither did she confirm them. "But now I feel like this ring could be a key to understanding and defeating the darkness."

"Child, as you know there are a limited number of rings of power in this world and even less which can influence the hearts of those around it. I fear this is a ring of darkness, perhaps one of the nine. Be careful my child. Galadriel believes that the orcs came into Lothlorien specifically in search of you. All we had were suspicions that somehow the dark forces still active in Middle Earth found out about your gift and tried to destroy you because of it. This ring may be how. You must be exceptionally careful when viewing the future around this ring. I strongly advise against it in all but the safest and secure of places. But fear not, it is now secure here. The borders are well guarded and will stay that way as long as you are here."

"How long do I have before I must leave?" Galadwen asked. Another twinge of fear and excitement flowed through her body, not unlike the elixir of life.

"As long as you announce your intention to leave, you will have as long as you need child. Your mother holds court tomorrow, so I suggest you ask her blessing to leave then. Her mother's love will mean she will want to refuse you, but she will not be able to under the eyes of the court. I know it is a lot to ask so soon after you've awoken, but it would do a lot of good to ease the tensions." Nestor paused. She seemed to be thinking of something. "I'm not telling you to go because of your mother, or because of the other elves. I'm not even telling you to go because of your gift and your purpose. I'm telling you to go, child, because it was what you dreamed about before all of this. I want you to start living your life as you always wanted, with adventure beyond this forest. But know that I will miss you dearly my child."

Galadwen thought she could see a tear sparkling in Nestor's eye. "Why don't you come with me?"

"Thank you sweet child, but no. My time is passed. As I start to feel my years, there is a longing to cross back over the sea to Valinor. I think my only journey left in Middle Earth will be to the Grey Havens. But fear not child, that journey is still some time off yet."

"Then it will be I who will miss you dearly."

"Oh sweet child, how much light you have brought to my later life." Nestor reached over and kissed her gently on the forehead. "But now that you've finished eating, you must rest. I will bring you some fresh clothes in the morning."

Galadwen could feel her body tiring already, so she lay back down on the bedroll. Sleep came to her and her mind entered the strange tangle of possible futures. Close to the present and her body, her mind had an amazing ability to travel like lightning through the possibilities. She could see so much in mere minutes, or even seconds. But the further away from the present, the slower her mind worked. So it hadn't surprised her too much when her trip through the void had lasted over a week, when in her mind it had felt like hours. She had discovered that about a week in the future from her body, time for her passed at the same speed as the present.

She took a moment to readjust her memory of the possible paths, quickly flicking through all the choices that were about to be made. Once her memory map was updated, taking only a few seconds in present time, she honed in on Gandalf. She used great effort to follow his past decisions. He had made his decision to help the descendant of the King Under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield as he had just met the halfling Bilbo Baggins and left a dwarven mark on his door. She followed his path to see he would return soon with the company of dwarves. From there, the future of the company would lie in the decision of the halfling. She followed the many different possibilities as they branched off. Trying to see the patterns around each of the company so she could predict their decisions. The more she studied them, the more she came to understand and even like the dwarves. She started to feel invested in their quest, wishing and hoping for them to succeed.

Once she found the patterns around the company, their most likely paths were easy to determine. So many of the paths that lead to the death of the company no longer seemed likely. She focused on those possibilities if the halfling chose to join the quest, as her desire to prevent the void still drove her decisions. Even if she set out tomorrow, the soonest she could join the company to offer her support would be in Rivendell. But her body needed time to heal and she needed to prepare for this journey. It would be her first time outside the borders and she would be going alone. There was much to learn, but less than two weeks to learn it all if she was to intersect the company. She would need the haste of a mortal to achieve it.