Mirdania fulfills a request.
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It is no small thing Elrond asks of her, but that is why Mirdania agrees to do it. Why she has kept the forge fires burning even after the last smith followed the sea’s call to go West. Why she has remained in Middle-earth all these years, long after her children have followed the same sea’s call, why the ship that Arondir made for the two of them still waits at the Grey Havens. After all, a good smith never leaves a job undone.
It is Mirdania and Mirdania alone who reforges Elendil’s blade, melting its broken pieces back together and beating them, beating them back into one blade.
She thinks of rough hands and red hair while she hammers, of her cousin who always had a kind word and a warm smile, of the kingfishers who used to fly over the city that is no more. She thinks of Annatar calling her good while he dripped poison in her ear, of the crack of her ribs hitting the ground beneath the city walls, of all the people waiting for her on white shores she has never seen but misses all the same. She thinks of all these things as she hammers Elendil’s broken blade into something new, sweat laving her back because she has not worked this hard since forging the Rings.
“Andúril,” she says when she presents it to Elrond, still burning from the forge fires. “A new sword must have a new name.”
Elrond’s gaze follows the seven stars along the blade. Slowly, he nods. “Andúril,” he echoes, taking the sword.
“It will not shatter so easily a second time, but it is not infallible,” she warns.
Elrond’s fingers curl around the hilt. “Perhaps not. But neither is Sauron.”
There is one last thing, before she departs West with Arondir; a sheath with a tracery of gold and silver flowers and the sword’s lineage written in gems. This, Elrond did not ask of her, but she wanted to make it. People oft forget that Aragorn is not only Isildur’s heir; he is Theo’s and Bronwyn’s too. He is Arondir’s family, and Mirdania’s, and they will not let him face Sauron alone.
