Prologue

The Fellowship of the Ring consisting of the four hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamshee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took; the elven-prince Legolas; the dwarf Gimli; the wizard Gandalf; and the two men Aragorn and Boromir set out from Rivendell, the Last Homely House. Their path would lead them trough ice and fire, through war and death, to friends unlooked for and enemies unexpected. Their task was simple; destroy the One Ring of Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor. None of the nine companions knew what lay ahead of them; none knew what friends, old and new, they would meet, what people they would love and whom they would loose eventually. All they knew was that in one or the other way they were bound to the fate of the Ring, and its small bearer.

They did not know that one of them would not return to his home again; that one would change his whole being; that one would finally fulfil his destiny. They did not know, but did no one else?

Lord Elrond had given the Nine the blessings not only of the elves but of all free people of Middle-Earth. If they should fail in their task, the world they knew would be utterly destroyed, undone. Now the Lord of Imladris stood high above the river, seeing Isildur's Bane leave his realm. By his side stood a fair elf-maiden, his daughter Arwen, the Evenstar as she was called among her people.

She looked down upon the group that now slowly made its way up out of the valley. One of the two humans slowly turned again and, catching her eyes, waved to her. Would this be the last time she ever saw him? 'Aragorn', screamed her heart, 'don't go to your death, I beg thee.'

Elrond took the hand of his daughter and felt the pain that she bore. "You know, he had to go. You saw it as well as I." Arwen nodded and slowly turned around to face her father, tears in her eyes. "Yes, and in my heart I know that it was time, but it still hurts to see him leave. I've known him for so long and now I might have seen him for the last time..." her voice trailed off as she began to weep quietly.

"You know what I saw, for you have seen it, too. His path is laid before him, yet he does not see it. He refuses to and will continue to do so for some time still. And, my beloved child, the thing that you fear most, it too, might come to pass." Yes, it was true, she had seen him leave, but still she could not tell if this was forever. If her father had seen it, he had not told her. Maybe he had not the heart to tell her.

She had given him a pendant … her Evenstar. He had refused to take it, but she had been insistent. 'It is mine to give, like my heart', she had said. But now she did not know anymore if it had been fair to give it to him. Had she not thus bound him to her; to her and to the dream that they both shared? Would this bond survive the harsh reality of the world?