“Two paces back, face to the stone but with a foot forward and one behind,” Anarion stood as he thus explained, focused, gesturing along invisible lines of sight in his mind’s eye as he slowly dancer-stepped around the circumference of the Palantir situated before him. At first it was dormant, a mildly iridescent sphere of stone that sat upon a haphazardly constructed pedestal of boxes and a small cushion.
However, Anarion paused in his walk, standing up straighter from his usual sloping posture, and he seemed to catch the sight he had been looking for. “You must simply bend your mind’s eye to the stone and it will recognise your intent.” In a moment, the stone transformed. The layers of translucent but coloured mineral seemed to illuminate until the whole thing appeared like glass, the sky clear and visible through it like a window. Anarion did not appear to do anything, and yet the vision through the stone changed, travelling forward along Anarion’s line of sight, at times tilting side to side or up and down. Distant images of trees, water, plains and buildings flew by for a moment until Anarion spoke again.
“Whatever might be in the path of your gaze, the Palantiri can show you. It’s sight will pass through any barrier, even stone, but darkness will blind it as surely as it does a man.” He shifted on his feet minutely to the left and the vision swung with him, coming to rest suddenly upon the small image of a sprawling yet triangular city set upon the shores of a river so wide one bank could not be seen when standing upon the other.
“One might travel along their path of sight until they reach the edge of the world, the Palantir can show you this much with ease, it is it’s natural use. True skill comes into play when trying to narrow your view and close in upon something small.” The concentration it took was visible, but with a gradual magnifying, the belltower in Pelargir’s drydock slowly sharpened in detail and grew closer and closer until eventually the runes carved into the detailed patterns in it’s brass became readable ‘Erukyermë, Erulaitalë, Eruhantalë’.
Anarion released a soft breath of exertion through his nose, but nodded to himself as if to accept the outcome.
