Standing up now, the young watchman started for the back room with the bed, but he found himself leaning against the left wall as he nearly collapsed to the floor. He breathed slowly and heavily until he eventually managed to make it to the bed at last. He lay there, yet still could not find rest and winced as a strange pain suddenly surged through him. This uncanny, dark sickness just continued to linger. “Get out of my head!” he exclaimed at last in a tired and shaky voice while rubbing his forehead. A few minutes later he faintly heard the door opening slowly with a sharp creak. After a bit, Agromnir sat up and steadily made it on his feet again. He was about to start to the front room while leaning against the wall for support when the cause of the opened door walked in. Agromnir stood silent as he looked at the somewhat familiar figure who had appeared. An elf… though not the one who gave him the stone, or the one who helped him in the barrows. This was a different one.
Edhelfaron took a pause before speaking as he glared at the standing watchman leaning on the wall. He noticed his struggle and the weariness in his eyes almost immediately. Though it was not a normal kind of weariness… he soon saw. He bowed slightly in an elvish manner before speaking at last. “Greetings again, watchman of Bree,” he said evenly. “I’ve been searching for your captain, Calagand,” he paused again. “Do you know where he might be found? For I am in great haste.”
“…He left… not long ago,” Agromnir said, trying to make his voice more steady. “To the… Barrow-downs if you want to know.” He did not know why Edhelfaron was here so unexpectedly… the elf he had met only once about two months ago. But he did not want to think about it. His mind was too clouded to be surprised.
Edhelfaron frowned at his words. “The Barrow-downs…” he repeated with a deeper voice, “do you know the reason why he would be going to such a…?” he stopped in his words.
Agromnir’s knees gave way and he fell half way to the floor while leaning on the wooden front of the bed now instead of the wall. He made his way to the side of the bed and climbed partially onto it while blinking many times as if something was in his eyes. His breath quickened and he winced several times while rubbing his head before glancing up at the elf.
Edhelfaron cocked a brow for a moment before stepping closer. “Are you all right friend? You don’t look well…” he stared into the watchman’s brown eyes, and after a moment, it was confirmed to him.
“…No I’m n-not,” he managed, “I’ve b-been very weak…l-lately.” The watchman winced again.
The tall elf closed his eyes for a moment with a thoughtful expression. When he opened them he seemed to look past Agromnir at the wall. Then he regained his focus and looked straight at the young man with sharp, gleaming blue eyes that seemed to peer straight into his mind. “There is an evil shadow that surrounds you, young watchman.” He said in a stern, yet smooth voice, “…I can heal you, if my light is bright enough. You must tell me, how and when did this darkness enter you?” He stepped closer, “Do you know?”
Agromnir grimaced, “In the…Barrow-downs,” he said after a pause. “It was t-there…where it started.”
“…That would explain it,” the elf said, “And what led you there?”
Agromnir said nothing and closed his eyes with a deepening frown.
Edhelfaron stood silent as he waited for an answer.
The watchman then sat up more on the bed and opened his eyes, staring at the wall in front of him. “I went with my captain and another elf. We were taking a stone t-there… to the spire,” he said, “A stone o-of great importance.”
Edhelfaron’s eyes narrowed, “A stone? The spire?” He raised a brow, “And you say Calagand has gone back there?”
The watchman nodded slowly and closed his eyes again, “With two others I believe.”
“You must tell me more of this…” Edhelfaron said.
Agromnir closed his eyes as he winced again and returned both hands to his head when another sharp and strange pain rushed through him like lightning in the sky.
“It shall wait though,” the elf said, looking down at Agromnir. He walked nearer to where the watchman sat, “I will help you friend,” he said as he placed a hand on Agromnir’s shoulder and slowly closed his eyes. “Are you ready?”
Agromnir let his hands fall down from his head as he opened his eyes and looked at the elf standing above him. “Yes...” he said… but could he really heal him and take this sickness away? How would he do it? No matter. Just as long as it was taken away from him… that’s all that mattered to him at that terrible hour. Agromnir closed his eyes once more and for half a minute it almost seemed to actually flee from his body, but then it would just come back. On and off. Gone and then back. He was starting to enter a daze while this happened and he found himself now lying down on the bed instead of sitting up. A deep sleep starting to fall upon his eyes as he closed them. And finally… after one last surge of that dark pain, it was finally gone. For good.
