Kindred Spirits

Amidst the floods of joy and sorrow of my reunion with Elrond, I barely noticed the little stranger. But later we were introduced. Oh, how I recognized the pain I saw in him! Here was another who had fled a life grown unbearable. Another with pain too deep for surcease.

I knelt before him, our eyes level. “Welcome,” I told him. “You and I both know the bitterness of the Shadow. But there is healing here. I have found it.”

He returned my gaze, and saw the memory of living death, in my living soul. And he began to hope.