The Price of War by Elrond's Library  

The Price of War

Ominous feelings of dread deep in her fëa drew her to the mountains, back west. She travelled with her husband, swords strapped to hips, packs full of lembas and not much else. The mountains rose, and they travelled in quiet companionship, not daring to guess what the dread could mean for them, for his people, for hers. 

They saw the smoke before they crested the summit of the mountains. Galadriel could feel the bustling city of Dwarves below her feet, could see evidence of their occupation of this land in the tower that lay in ruins, the precisely hewn stones in imprecise piles, cracked and broken, growing lichen in shades of grey and green and blue. Celeborn lay his pack against a rock, unable to take his eyes off the lands he had been born to, that they had both come to know, to love. 

All was ash and dust, fire and smoke, death and destruction. Where once the land had been full of green, healthy trees and lush grasslands, only patches remained. 

Galadriel stood, a silent witness, as the land shook itself apart. Celeborn fell to his knees, a small noise of distress seeming to slip out from behind his teeth that he failed to catch in time. 

“The land will drown,” Galadriel whispered, barely aware she spoke aloud until her beloved looked up at her, shock and grief and pain etched in every line of his face, his shoulders. “This will be the price of war with a Vala. Death, to every root and tree, bird and beast, Eldar and Edain and Khazad. They will succeed without us.”

They stared, as if hoping that somehow the landscape would shift, would turn back to the lush tree-filled forests they had begun their courtship under. It did not. 

They camped under the stars, watching, waiting. For what, neither could say. Summer waned and cold winds began to chill them in earnest. 

It was Celeborn who spotted them first, a river of golden armor and horses and carts, as an entire continent of people migrated east. Survivors, beyond all hope of survival. 

“Come,” she smiled, proffering her husband his sword. “Let us go to them. I will shirk duty no more, if you will be by my side.”