Luminosity

The Tower of the Moon stands defiant, light welling through white-marble walls against the darkening hills. I glance back, vowing to return to my proud city, built to honor fair Ithil... now only a diminishing thumbnail.

Again, I have rescued a scion of Nimloth, and the palantír; these I guard closely as I gallop with my wife and sons on the road to Osgiliath. There we will take ship north, to seek my father's aid, now that the lengthening shadow of Mordor threatens fledgling Gondor.

I swear by my patron, the Moon, that I will stand unwavering against the Dark.

***

When therefore Sauron saw his time he came with great force against the new realm of Gondor, and he took Minas Ithil, and he destroyed the White Tree of Isildur that grew there. But Isildur escaped, and taking with him a seedling of the Tree he went with his wife and his sons by ship down the River, and they sailed from the mouths of Anduin seeking Elendil. Meanwhile Anárion held Osgiliath against the Enemy, and for that time drove him back to the mountains; but Sauron gathered his strength again, and Anárion knew that unless help should come his kingdom would not long stand.

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare