However good-intentioned the Valar may have been, the devices they used concerning the transport of one�s soul needed adjustment. Perhaps it would have sufficed just to instruct them in the ways of successful planning and plotting. Regardless, they had managed to send Mallor and I back into the world of the living by way of the resting places of the diseased. I was not sure if I was entirely grateful to be alive again, but I knew I was not pleased about having returned in such a fashion. It appeared that my counterpart had very similar sentiments concerning the issue at hand.
The sudden re-embodiment of sorts that Mallor and I had just gone through earned us a much needed meeting with Elrond son of E�rendil. I had asked Erestor several questions, among them being why he had been plodding about the little cemetery of Imladris. He refused to answer my questions, telling me that everything I required to know would be explained to me in due time. This naturally did nothing for my temper, which was sour enough at having started off my day by being entombed alive.
�Follow me,� was all he said as he led us down the somber halls of Rivendell to the room in which we were to speak with Elrond.
The morning was misty and covered everything with an ominous haze. I thought it a bit odd that it would do that in such a lovely place as Rivendell, but I reasoned that even a home of the Elves was not free from the workings of nature. I think that somewhere along our way I recognized things, but I could not have been certain; my memories were still a bit muddled.
Erestor led us to what may have been called Elrond�s office. Somehow I also did not think of Elves as having offices, but I could not think of a more suited word for it. I realized that the proper name of it was rather insignificant when compared to the events that were about to unfold before me. Clearing my mind of these silly thoughts, I turned to look at Mallor. He still looked around Imladris and saw the beauty in all of it; I could tell by the way he looked about us with that gleam in his eye.
I had to smile to myself for a moment, because beneath that twinkle of merriment and wonder I saw his nervousness. He was always nervous when we were in the presence of someone that he thought to be higher than him. Essentially that meant that he was nervous around nearly everyone; he was ever so humble. Somewhere within of me I wished I could be more like him, but I knew I could never amount to everything I knew Mallor was inside.
He smiled back at me when he noticed I was looking at him, but by that time it seemed that Erestor had already led us to wherever it was we were going to meet Elrond. He knocked gingerly on the door and opened it. After looking inside, he waved to us that we should enter with him. Inside the room was Elrond sitting in a chair, book in hand. However, he was no longer reading his book of lore; he was staring at Mallor and me.
�By the Valar!� he exclaimed, rising from his chair and dropping the tome he had been reading. �How have you returned to the land of the living?�
�It�s a rather long story, I think,� I said. Elrond grasped my hand; I think perhaps to make it clear in his mind that I truly was there. �We were sent back here. I really do not know why the Valar decided to do it. Yavanna put in such efforts to see me safely into this world. I do not think she liked it much when I got myself killed.�
�It is a wonder that you return to us now,� he said mysteriously, seemingly over the shock of Mallor and me not being dead. �To what purpose did the Valar wait so long to send you back to us?�
�What do you mean, Lord Elrond?� Mallor asked. �We have only been dead for a manner of a few days.�
�What is the year?� I asked, turning to Erestor, looking at him somewhat accusingly. I greatly disliked having to wait for answers �in due time�. I hated having things hidden from me even more.
�It is the year 2510 of the Third Age. The two of you have been dead and buried for 460 years,� answered Erestor. I stared at him in disbelief. It could not have actually been possible that we had been dead for so long. It seemed like only days that we spent in Valinor, but perhaps there was some sort of discrepancy between the land of the living and the dead.
�Have we truly been gone for so long?� asked Mallor in disbelief. �It seemed like we were only there for a few days, Manda; hardly did it feel like years. What has come to pass in all that time, lord?�
�Very much,� answered Elrond in saddened voice.
That voice spoke volumes, and it was only then that it truly hit me, all that had happened. I had been killed in a world different from the one I had been born into, seen the other side, been sent back, and all in what had seemed days. Yet, while Mallor and I were sorting out happenings in the afterlife, life was still on course throughout the rest of the world. 460 years had passed and whole civilizations had continued on, living and dying the whole while.
Now I needed to catch up on all I had missed.
The Lord of Imladris would have a lot of explaining to do.
