The Last Ringbearer

Immortals have to get their own hands dirty – there will be plenty of human volunteers… there already are… By the way, this future Elvish world will be pretty good in its own way – a stagnant pond is certainly less aesthetically pleasing than a stream, but it grows such wonderful water poppies…”

“I see. So how can we prevent them from turning Middle Earth into this… swamp with beautiful water poppies?”

“I’ll explain, but I have to start at the very beginning. It’s a pity that you’re not a mathematician, the explanation would’ve been easier… just ask me right away if something is unclear, all right? Now: every inhabited World has two components; really, they are two different worlds, which have their own laws but co-exist in a single ‘wrapper’. They are customarily called ‘physical’ and ‘magical’, although those designations are somewhat arbitrary, in that the magical world is quite real and, in that sense, physical, while the physical one has certain properties which are not reducible to physics and can be considered magical. In the case of Arda these are the Middle Earth and Aman, inhabited by their sentient populations of Men and Elves. These worlds are parallel, but their inhabitants perceive the boundary between them as a temporal rather than a spatial one: every human knows that there are no wizards, dragons, or goblins now, but his grandparents have for sure seen some – and this persists in every generation. Nor is this a figment of imagination; rather, it’s a natural consequence of the two-part structure of inhabited Worlds. I could show you the appropriate mathematical models, but you won’t be able to make heads or tails out of them. Are you with me so far?”

“Yes, quite.”

“Very well. For some unknown reason (think of it as the One’s strange whim), in our Arda, and only in our Arda, it is possible to have direct contact between the physical and magical worlds, allowing its inhabitants to interact in real space-time – or, to put it simply, to shoot at each other. The existence of this interspatial ‘corridor’ is provided by the so-called Mirror. Some time ago it had arisen in the magical world – arisen, rather than was made – together with the seven Seeing Stones, the palantiri, and can’t exist without them, since both the Mirror and the palantiri are the product of separation of the same substance, namely the Eternal Fire…”

“Wait, isn’t a palantir a device for long-distance communication?”

“Yes, it can be used for that. You can also drive nails with one… actually, no, that’d be inconvenient, they’re round and slippery. But they’d make great fishing weights! You see, each of those magical objects has innumerable properties and uses, but in this world we don’t even have names for most of them. Which is why they’re used for all sorts of nonsense: palantiri for communication, the Mirror for primitive future-telling…”

“Some primitive nonsense!”

“I assure you, this is total nonsense compared to some of its capabilities. Besides, the Mirror portrays not the objective future of Arda, but various alternatives – yes, alternatives – of the individual fate of the gazer. You, being an experimental scientist, should know that any measuring device affects the state of whatever is being measured, and here the ‘device’ is a person, with free will and everything.”

“Well, whatever you say, predicting the future is impressive.”

“You’re so fixated on this prediction business,” Sharya-Rana said in annoyance. “What about violating the law of causality – does that impress you?”

“The law of what?!”

“Causality – yes, the very one. All right, we’ll get to the law of causality yet. So far, what you need to remember is that in general the palantiri control space and the Mirror controls time. Next: the two worlds of Arda are asymmetric in all parameters, so this ‘channel’ between them works very selectively. For example, many magical creatures are quite at home here, but only a few mortals have ever managed to visit Aman, and for a very short time at that. These people are called wizards in Middle Earth.”

“Are the Nazgul wizards, too?”

“Of course. To continue, this asymmetry has been balanced by a very important fact. As severely limited as the wizards’ capabilities are in that neighboring world, it so happened that they nevertheless managed to obtain the Mirror and the palantiri and drag the whole lot over here, to Middle Earth. As a result, the Elves can settle in Middle Earth while Men can’t settle in Aman, but control over the ‘channel’ between the worlds remains in the hands of wizards, who are of this world. This enables contact, but disables any colonization. As you can see, the One had set up a well thought-out system.”

“Right – the twin-key principle.”

“Precisely. The only thing He had not anticipated was that some of the wizards were so taken with Aman that they decided to mold Middle Earth in its form and image at any cost; they constitute the White Council. The others, who later formed the Order of the Nazgul, were emphatically opposed: what sane person would destroy his own world to build a bad copy of another one on its ruins? Both sides had their reasons, both sincerely wanted to make the people of Middle Earth happier…”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Right. When the White Council and the Nazgul clashed over the future of Middle Earth, both sides quickly found natural allies. We began helping out the dynamic civilizations of Central Middle Earth – Mordor first and foremost, and Umbar and Khand to some extent – while the White Council relied on the traditional societies of the North and West, and the Enchanted Forests, of course. At first the Whites were completely sure of a quick victory, since they happened to possess both the Mirror and most of the palantiri when the war broke out. They have, for all intents and purposes, opened Middle Earth to Elvish expansion in order to mobilize all forces of magic against Mordor, both local and foreign. The only thing the white wizards hadn’t foreseen was that our way, the way of Freedom and Knowledge, was so attractive that lots of people – the best in Middle Earth – came to serve as the magical shield of the Mordorian civilization. One after another they dematerialized under the blows of Western magic, but others took their place. In other words, Haladdin, your peace has been dearly bought. There is no higher price.”

“Why didn’t we know any of that?” “Because it didn’t really concern you. The only reason I mention it now is to ask you to remember that when you join the struggle, you will be fighting for them, too… But this is just sentimental icing on the cake. To make a long story short: the situation was highly unfavorable, but we have managed, at the cost of all those sacrifices, to shield the Mordorian civilization, and it had made it out of the crib. Another fifty, maybe seventy years, and you would have completed the industrial revolution, and then no one would’ve been able to touch you. From that point on the Elves would’ve dwelled quietly in their Enchanted Forests, not getting in anyone’s way, while the rest of Middle Earth would’ve by and large gotten onto your path. And so, realizing that they were about to lose the contest, the wizards of the White Council decided on a monstrous move: to unleash a war of total destruction against Mordor, to involve the Elves directly, and to pay them with the Mirror.”

“They paid the Elves with the Mirror?!”