[Susan Delgado]

Anna looked up when Maladil and Celumëomaryu entered the room and paused outside the cell. They stood and stared at Anna and Calimiel for several moments before Maladil glided through the bars and stopped before the cube. After a moment, Maladil took up his trusty sword, Orc-Bane, and thrust it into the side of the cube. The walls shimmered and, with a faint pop, vanished. Nobody moved until Maladil turned and nodded to Celumëomaryu where she waited outside. She nodded in return and unlocked the cell. She indicated the two bodies near the far wall.

“Pick them up and follow us.”

Anna and Calimiel glanced at each other. What was going on? Calimiel shrugged and started toward the bodies, but Anna paused long enough to as, “What are we doing with them?”

Celumëomaryu started to say, “That is not your concern,” but partway through, Maladil gestured her silent and said, “As penance for allowing them to die and taking over the bodies of their companions, you are going to bury them.”

Anna considered this, then nodded and joined Calimiel where she stood over the two ex-Men. She didn’t think it would do any good to argue that she had, in fact, tried to save the ones that were still alive when she discovered them, so she didn’t.

The bodies were very heavy, heavier than their new bodies would be able to handle even if they hadn’t been weak from starvation. It was simply a matter of the bodies belonging to men, and Anna and Calimiel being women and smaller. In the end, they had to drag them out of the cell and down the two flights of stairs to the first floor. Very often they had to stop and rest. Servants appeared occasionally and watched, awed at the sudden appearance of living folk when they’d seen naught but fellow ghosts in so many centuries. Along the way, Maladil summoned Tiroedrath, the downstairs door-warden. He’d always struck Anna as a man well versed in keeping secrets.

Eventually, they made it down to the Great Hall and through the door into the corridor. Gratefully, they dropped the bodies and wen into the storage room to pick out shovels. Of course, after they did, they had the added problem of hauling the men while trying to juggle the tools, but fortunately the corridor wasn’t very long and soon they were able to put the Men down to dig the graves.

They approached the door leading outside with trepidation. What would happen now? Would they be allowed to roam free, or would their movements be more restricted?

They dropped the bodies just inside the door and stepped through with their shovels. Immediately both stopped and turned their faces up to the sun. They hadn’t felt its light in so long! For several minutes, they ignored the urging the others were giving them and simply enjoyed the rays. Finally, Celumëomaryu convinced Tiroedrath to start poking them with his sword, and that was annoying, so they stepped out onto the sward and looked for the first time in a long time with living eyes on the orchards and gardens. Calimiel seemed especially moved. She hadn’t seen anything for so long...Anna could only imagine what it must be like to see again after being blind.

“Come on, come on,” Celumëomaryu said impatiently. “Let’s go, bury them so you can get back into your cell.

Anna glanced over at Calimiel, but she was still entranced by the vision and wasn’t paying any attention. Anna shook her head.

“It was hard work carrying those bodies, Celumëomaryu. We have to rest before we can do anything like digging holes.” She threw her shovel down and stretched out full length on the grass to emphasize her point.

Celumëomaryu glanced at Maladil where he waited just inside the Castle but he wasn’t paying attention either and Tiroedrath only shrugged when Celumëomaryu looked at him. With an aggrieved sigh, she said, “Fine. I’ll give you five minutes, then you have to get up and work.”

Anna nodded, remembering how hard it had been to keep track of time when she’d been a ghost, and, indeed, her new living senses told her it must have been nearly an hour later when Celumëomaryu said, “All right, your five minutes is up. Start digging.” Anna nodded and rose to her feet. She and Calimiel started digging in the soft ground near the Castle wall. It was fortunate the ground was soft, for the work would have been hard otherwise. As it was, with the sun shining on their backs and fresh air in their lungs, the digging went swiftly and easily. When they had two graves, shallow but deep enough, they dragged the two bodies in from outside and dropped them in, then packed the dirt around them again. They dropped their shovels and brushed their hands off for a job well done.

They glanced at each other and a thought passed between them, unvoiced and too soft for Celumëomaryu to hear. Quickly, before the Elf could react, they took off running. Anna ran toward the door in the garden wall, just past the Roses, but when she heard Celumëomaryu’s screams and glanced back, she saw that Calimiel was not following but was heading toward the Orchard instead. Well, that was her choice. It was better to be split up, anyway, that way Celumëomaryu would have to choose whom to follow. She’d forgotten about Tiroedrath and was startled when she sensed Calimiel being followed by the guard and the Elf behind herself, and gaining. This wouldn’t do! She tried to put on more speed but found herself slowing instead. She must be more tired than she thought.

She felt Celumëomaryu’s mental blow a moment before it struck her and so was able to erect a shield in time to deflect most of it and rather than kill her as it had intended, it only knocked her off her feet. In an instant, Celumëomaryu was on top of her, trying to strike her with cold ghostly hands, but she was able to twist away at the last moment and regain her feet. She was about to run again when a cry echoed from the direction Calimiel had fled. Anna and Celumëomaryu both looked up and Anna was disgusted to see Calimiel meekly following the door-warden back toward the Castle. How could she?! Well, she wouldn’t be captured so easily! With a cry, she ran toward the wall again, ignoring Celumëomaryu’s screams of rage. She reached the door in the wall a moment before the Elf and pulled it open. Freedom! She ran through the door, toward the distant trees of the forest. Halfway through, she hit a barrier like a wall and bounced inside again. Instantly Celumëomaryu was on her and as the world descended into darkness, she knew no more.

[ January 21, 2003: Message edited by: Susan Delgado ]