- A tower? - I need it completed by spring.
Have you considered seeking partners outside
- the confines of our own race?
Tell me about your King's proposal
so I can present it to my father.
I'd sense it if he were hiding something.
Perhaps he sensed that it was you who was hiding something.
What is this place?
The Island Kingdom of Númenor.
I was thinking I might defer.
When the Sea Trial begins and that ship launches,
you will be on it.
I don't want any trouble.
It is a map of the Southlands.
It speaks not only of a place, but a plan.
To create a realm of their own.
Then the Southlands are in grave danger.
If Sauron has indeed returned,
the Southlands are but the beginning.
If there are any of you here who want to live...
...we make for the Elven tower at first light.
Bring him to Adar.
Adar!
Sauron was said to have many names in days of old.
Perhaps this is one of them.
Your people have no king, for you are him.
Come with me to Middle-earth.
You're still short an army.
That is all about to change.
In this court,
we gather daily to hammer out our island's future.
But at the Blessing of the Children,
we gather to welcome those who will live that future.
One as boundless as a sunrise over the rolling sea.
What name have you chosen for her?
Alinel.
May Númenor's strength arise in thee.
Her wisdom guide thy steps...
Sometimes our island just needs a stretch.
Just like you.
- It is a perfect day, Queen Regent.
What business would you begin with?
She summoned the Elf to court.
Just this morning.
Elf's mate attacks four guildsmen, and Míriel has her up for tea?
Probably she called the Elf in to punish her.
And while the Elf whispers poison in our Queen's ear,
- who's speaking for us?
Chancellor! Chancellor!
Send her my regards, will you? Keep your voice down.
Would you like one, sir? Come on, sir.
I didn't realize you were in the middle of something important.
Chancellor!
Statecraft is the art of attending to small matters
as diligently as grand ones.
I should like to think you'd learned that by now.
I was only trying to be clever.
Cleverness is for men of small ambition.
I'd much rather it if you were wise, my son.
Now, what seems to be the trouble, hmm?
We may have a bit of a squall on our hands.
Elf ships on our shore?
Elf workers taking your trades?
Workers who don't sleep,
don't tire, don't age.
No!
I say, the Queen's either blind
or an Elf lover.
- Just like her father.
- Elf lover! - Elf lover!
Elf lover! Elf lover!
And if the Elf were here now, what would she see?
Men of Númenor,
or a gaggle of mewling children?
We are sons and daughters of the Edain.
Of Elros Tar-Minyatur, whose host conquered Morgoth himself.
But now one Elf, a castaway, could threaten us?
Look down, each of you, at the guild crests you bear.
The heritage of mighty hands.
Of men who laid the Sea Wall.
Who raised Armenelos,
- triumph of our civilization.
But now, one Elf could threaten us?
My friends...
Trust in me.
For by the calluses on my hands,
I swear that Elven hands will never take Númenor's helm.
She will remain, as always, a kingdom of Men.
Drinks all around!
Pharazôn! Pharazôn!
Isn't a name in this city he doesn't know,
a crowd he can't turn, a favor he isn't owed...
It's impressive.
I was going to say "infuriating."
From vineyards near the Meneltarma.
Supposed to make you forget your troubles.
- Or so they say.
My troubles have been too hard-won.
You must be the new apprentice.
I'm Kemen. And your name is...
Hey, Eärien. Plans, now.
Oh.
You vex me, Elf.
I welcome you as a guest,
and you gallop off to our countryside to steal ancient scrolls
whilst your Southlander companion assaults our citizenry.
He is understandably quick to temper. His people are dying.
"His people"?
I believe the man you hold in your dungeons is no common brawler,
but the lost heir in exile to the throne of the Southlands.
And I suppose Elendil here is a Rhûnic emperor.
Just a petty lord, actually.
His people are scattered. Leaderless.
But with your backing they might unite behind his banner. And fight.
What do you mean "backing"?
Sauron was once your people's enemy, as much as mine.
I call on you to finish the task left undone.
To reforge the alliance between Númenor and Elves...
And fight with me, to save the men of the Southlands
before Sauron claims their lands for his own.
In this court we hear many proposals.
I dare say yours is the most surprising and ambitious I've heard in weeks.
Nevertheless, Númenor has chosen another path.
Not all Númenor.
King or carpenter, the Southlander will face judgment.
This audience is ended.
Then I have little choice, but to ask for another.
One with Númenor's true ruler.
Your father, the King.
You should not speak of matters you do not understand,
Galadriel, daughter of Finarfin.
And you should stand aside,
that I might present my proposal to one who holds the authority to answer it.
Lady Galadriel, that is quite enough.
And with what authority do you speak, Elf?
That of your people?
Or are you a castaway, grasping for a handhold in a tempest?
There is a tempest in me.
It swept me to this island for a reason.
And it will not be quelled by you, Regent.
Don't tell me.
Tavern brawl?
Sedition.
You've nearly made it!
In a few more days,
I'll have the pleasure of calling all of you shipmates.
Pull now, cadets! [echoing] Pull!
Isildur...
Pull now, cadets!
Pull!
Line!
Sir, no, there must be some sort of mistake.
It was my fault, Sea-master.
I let it slip.
I've seen you ease that halyard proper a hundred times.
That was deliberate.
You're off the Sea Guard!
All three of you!
"The West"? "The real Númenor"?
That garbage your brother used to spew, again!
I thought the sail-master would only dismiss me.
I'm sorry.
You're sorry?
You just set our whole lives on fire!
Where's that chamber pot? I think I'm gonna be sick.
I will speak to my father.
Convince him to see that you're both reinstated.
No. Leave it to you to get kicked out of something
you never earned in the first place.
- Valandil... - No.
Since I was big enough to hold an oar, I wanted on that boat.
I did everything I was supposed to do to earn it. And what did you do?
What have you ever done but brood and blabber about your dead mother.
- Stop it! Stop it! Enough!
Yeah, same old Isil walking away.
Isil! Where are you going?
Going, staying, what does it matter?
The real problem is him. And that's not going anywhere.
Magrot!
Adar...
Nampak uglursha.
Where were you born,
soldier?
Beleriand.
By the mouth of the river?
Who are you?
I went down that river once...
When I was young.
I remember...
The banks were covered in sage blossoms.
Miles of them.
Why do the Orcs call you Father?
You have been told many lies.
Some run so deep,
even the rocks and roots now believe them.
To untangle it all...
would all but require the creation of a new world.
But that is something only the gods can do.
And I am no god. At least...
Not yet.
What are you?
Go to the Men who have taken refuge in the old watchtower.
Deliver to them a message.
What message?
The barracks are already full. Try and make camp where you can.
- Where's this lot from? - Iorbad.
That makes it every village from here to Orodruin.
Where's the rest?
That is the rest.
We'll have to cut rations again.
You're not cutting my rations.
Who gave you the right to decide?
Everyone who decided to come to this tower, Waldreg. Including you.
What will we eat?
- We'll find a way. - How?
- I don't know. - Huh. Plain enough to see that.
What about Waldreg's root cellar?
We send a small party into town.
By day, when the Orcs are fewer, grab what we can, quick and quiet.
They'll never even know we were there.
What poor sod will you rope into that?
I'll do it, if nobody else will.
You're not going down there.
We'll forage the hills again first. Gather the hunters.
And what will they hunt? A few rabbits?
That'll feed us a day.
Then it's another day. And let us be grateful for it.
I'm sick and tired
of watching everything go to tatters and not doing anything about it.
- We are doing everything we can. - Well, I'm not!
Theo. Theo!
You can either help me or you can make it harder.
I should never have let you talk me into this.
I'm heading back.
Don't be such a soft-belly.
Come on.
Rowan, the tavern.
I'm not going in there.
- There might be more food.
Come on, this place is deserted.
All right. I'll go.
Rowan?
Young blood.
Where'd you get that?
Give it here.
Oi! I found it!
I found it! It's a boy! He has the hilt!
A boy? Where is he?
You! Send word to Lord-father.
Rest of you, fan out.
Nobody sleeps till he's found.
Got ya!
Elves and Dwarves working together. Remarkable.
It is everything you said it would be.
What?
Nothing. Just...
For a moment, standing there, you were the very image of your father.
I wasn't aware you'd ever met him.
Of course, many times.
He had that way of seeing far off.
Do you know, I remember once, he said to me,
one day, my future would be in his son's hands.
He said it quite casually, as if one might speak of tomorrow's rain.
And I've... I've...
I'd forgotten that until... Till this moment.
Isn't that odd?
You seem unsettled today, my lord.
- What troubles you?
No, I promised myself I wouldn't mention it. He's your friend.
Durin.
Either he's avoiding me or he's... he's hiding something.
Did you try asking his work teams?
All nineteen of them. They keep putting me off.
One would almost think it suspicious.
Are you suggesting Durin's got himself a wee girlfriend?
- There is none other than you, milady. - I know.
- Who'd have him?
Rich crone, kiss the stone Polish your gems and gold
- Ow! Stop it!
Gerda, stop hitting your brother!
We're playing the knocking game.
- Well, knock it off.
Have you tried the Golden Stairs?
Or the Three-door Guard?
I'd forgotten.
These wee'ns are turning my mind to mush.
He was off to mine Quartz Chasm today.
You know, Disa, there is no secret worth concealing with deception.
Calling a Dwarf dishonest in her own home?
That's a recipe for strong gravy.
If Durin is mining quartz,
why would he leave without taking his chiseling axe?
And why would you prepare his favorite meal
if he's gone to a chasm that takes two full days to descend to?
Rich crone, kiss the stone Polish your gems and gold
Gerda, I'm warning you!
Durin didn't bring his axe
because the quartz he's mining isn't chiseled. It is pried.
I am making mole-tail stew
because it needs a wee while to set before he's home.
And while it may take several days for an outsider, such as you,
Dwarven climbers like my husband
can make the descent to Quartz Chasm in just a few hours.
Was there anything else you wanted to ask about, dearie?
No.
Thank you.
Quartz Chasm. [sighs] Not bad. Not bad.
I just hope he believed me. He's not easily taken in, that Elf.
Certainly not.
Lucky my future queen could convince a water rat to wear a mink coat.
One more reason to count my blessings I married you, not Margid Rustborin.
And what are the other reasons?
I'll tell you later.
Hush now. We better keep our pipes down.
Mm-hmm.
We're making good progress in the old mine.
I made sure he was escorted out...
The old mine below the Mirrormere.
You lost, Elf?
Hmm?
No. I know exactly where I'm going.
- Good day.
- Rich crone, kiss the stone.
Polish your gems and gold.
I knew it!
Durin?
- Came to spy on me, Elf? - Hardly.
- What is this place?
You really expect me to believe you do not know?
That this was not the true reason he sent you here to begin with?
You want it for yourselves.
Durin, want what?
I care nothing for whatever is in that chamber.
I do care for you, for this friendship.
And secrets do not become it.
What is the meaning of all this? Mm?
I need your oath.
Hand to mountain,
you'll never breathe so much as a whisper
of what I'm about to tell you to another living soul.
Dwarven anger outlives even Elven memory.
Break your promise,
and the power of this stone will doom you and your kin to sorrow,
to your last day on this Middle-earth.
Do you swear it, Elrond?
I swear on the memory of my father, Eärendil the Mariner.
Anything you tell me here will end in my ears alone.
Disa detected it during a routine gold-seaming.
A new ore.
Lighter than silk, harder than iron,
as weaponry, it would best our proudest blades.
As specie, it might be dearer than gold.
It is strange how it catches the light.
Almost seems lit from within.
I tell you, this could be the beginning of a new era for our people.
Strength, prosperity...
Then why all the secrecy?
Why not celebrate this?
It's perilous to mine.
My father has restricted our every efforts
in the name of caution.
May I?
What do you call this miracle ore?
In our tongue, "gray glitter."
In yours, something like mith-raud.
No, no. It would be...
mithril.
So you really did come all this way just for Eregion?
I came because 20 years is far too long to stay away.
Even for an Elf.
Oh.
Keep it.
Token of our friendship.
Very well.
No!
Durin! Durin! Durin, no!
There's four Dwarves down there!
Durin!
Eärien, floors and goblets.
- Ooh! - Oh!
I'm so sorry.
It's all right. It's all right. It's... It's... It's all right, honestly.
And here I thought your talents ended at draftsmanship.
Scrubbing is good for dexterity.
Or so the guild master says.
So, how about this? I'll do the floors, you do the goblets.
And the last one to finish pays for dinner.
I'm not in the habit of going off with strange young men.
Very wise. If I see any, you'll be the first to know.
As much as I admire your habit of charging at every obstacle in your path,
like a colt in full gallop...
Has it ever occurred to you that you're not battling trolls or Orcs,
but Men?
Are you really about to advise me in the art of war?
No. No, I...
I wouldn't dare. But then...
The queen's court isn't exactly your usual battlefield, is it?
Go on.
In an instance like this, it seems to me
that you'd do well to identify what it is that your opponent most fears.
- And exploit it? - No.
Give them a means of mastering it.
So that you can master them.
So by your standards, I'm in this cell,
because I've yet to identify what the queen most fears?
My very low standards. Yes.
And I suppose you did, having met her for all of a few moments?
During which you managed to demand a ship, insult her people, defy her orders,
none of which quickened her pulse.
Now, all of a sudden, she throws you in a cell.
Why?
I asked her to fight for your people.
But that wasn't what provoked her anger, was it?
I demanded to speak with her father.
The king in the tower, whom no one has seen in years.
See what happens when you stop galloping and you give yourself a moment to think?
Cease comparing me to a horse.
Cease trying to convince me to leave this island an you have a deal.
Salutations, Elf.
The Queen Regent has rendered her decision.
You are to be shipped back to the Elves under armed escort. Tonight.
Step forward.
- I wouldn't advise that. - I can't very well let her leave.
- You could.
If you knew exactly where she was going.
What are you doing up here?
I had a dinner.
Who is he?
Where's your uniform?
Resigned from the cadets, did you?
No, worse.
You got dismissed?
Got us all dismissed.
Isil...
Well, you've won. Now you can go west.
I just ruined my friends' lives,
shamed our family name.
I don't deserve to go west.
- Plus, Father won't let me take Berek.
It's the Elf! She's escaped.
Search every alley.
Apologies, Your Majesty, for the intrusion. But I...
He no longer answers to that.
How did you know I would come here?
A garrison of troops awaits outside to escort you to your ship.
You would be wise to go willingly.
Míriel.
I... I...
- It's all right, Father. I'm here.
Forgive me.
I did not know.
Few know the full extent of his decline.
I should like to keep it that way.
Then it is time for truth between us.
Your father was loyal to the Elvish ways.
Why are you not?
Tell me.
Please.
My father was always restrained in his beliefs.
But after his coronation, something changed.
He became strident,
proclaiming that we'd provoked the anger of the Valar,
and must repent, and return to the old ways.
There was unease.
And when he announced plans to renew relations with the Elves...
The people rebelled.
Much was lost.
I was chosen to rule in his stead,
with a promise to quell the storm.
But that first night, as all Númenor slept,
he brought me here.
Palantír.
Seven Seeing Stones there once were.
The other six either lost or hidden.
This one was passed to my father.
And with it, a secret.
Place your hand upon it.
- I must warn you... - I have touched palantíri before.
But you have not touched this one.
It is Númenor's future you saw.
Palantíri show many visions.
Some that will never come to pass.
It has already come to pass.
The vision begins with your arrival.
And you believe I will bring about Númenor's downfall?
Only Númenor can bring about her downfall.
The Valar gifted us this isle in a day of virtue.
They can take it away should we turn to the paths of darkness.
The virtue you speak of was your ancestors' loyalty to the Elves.
My father believed that.
His path nearly destroyed us.
That is why, tomorrow, I will announce that you are gone.
And this crisis ended.
If the evil rising in Middle-earth is left unchecked,
it will spread and take us all.
Avoiding this war may be the very thing that brings about your downfall.
I will not second-guess the gods. My decision is final.
A decision based in fear.
I know what it is to be the only one,
the only one who sees,
the only one who knows.
Perhaps neither of us have to bear that burden alone any longer.
I beg of you, Míriel, choose not the path of fear,
but that of faith.
Stand with me.
Let Númenor fight alongside the Elves once more.
Faith may bind one heart, Galadriel.
But it is too fine a thread from which to hang a kingdom.
I'm sorry.
Woods are all bare. Animals are all fled.
Seems your boy had more sense than we allowed.
Stand back.
- Move out of the way. Stand back! - Let the lad through!
There's plenty. Slow down!
Rowan! Where's Theo?
He said he'd be right behind me.
- Stop pushing!
She pushed me!
We've turned over every stone.
He ain't back here.
Where is he?
He's not here!
Let's go.
Leave no stone unturned.
Boss will skin us alive if we don't find him.
Boss is the one who lost him in the first place.
Izmûmbogh...
Come on!
Kishdibatoth! Kishdibatoth.
Kishdibatoth.
Find him!
Nothin' here.
Going somewhere, young blood, are we?
Where is it?
No!
Where have you got it?
Maybe losing your arm will loosen your lips.
- Swiftly, lad. - Over there! Get him!
They are coming.
Keep going.
Run!
Mother?
Bronwyn.
Run! Get to the clearing!
What was that?
It was a plea to the rocks
to release the bodies of the miners with breath still inside them.
I cannot stop thinking that if you'd not gone down there,
Durin might have been in that shaft when it...
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I lied to you.
You were faithful to my friend.
- That is all we need remember.
They just pulled out the last one.
- Alive. All of them alive.
Your father must be so relieved.
He shut it down.
The whole vein is to be sealed off.
- The whole vein? - All of it.
Give him time.
Even the hottest coals eventually cool.
Yeah, but sometimes I wish they wouldn't.
Sometimes I wish I could tell him exactly what I think of him,
and never trade words with the old goat again!
My father single-handedly sailed to Valinor,
and convinced the Valar to join the war and vanquish Morgoth.
So great were his deeds
that the Valar lifted him beyond the bounds of this world...
To forever carry the Evening Star across the sky.
For many years, at day's end, I would look up at it...
Wondering what might he think if he were watching me.
Would he be proud of what I've accomplished with his legacy?
Or disappointed by the countless ways I'd failed to live up to it?
But then, one night, it struck me
that I would be only too happy to hear any judgment,
so long as it granted me the opportunity
to have but one more conversation with my father.
Do not waste what time you have left with yours.
Elrond, I was hopeful you might be able to settle something.
How is it that you and my husband met?
I told you, I saved him from a hill-troll.
- Two of 'em. - Two of 'em. Yes, I know.
Mmm-hmm.
I was asking Elrond.
Then I fear I have no choice
- but to amend your husband's account.
There were three trolls. And it was I who saved him.
You wouldn't remember your face if you were gazing in a mirror.
When I came upon him in the forest,
he was in the midst of dodging their mallet blows.
- Wailing and screaming and such. - It was a battle cry.
The screams were so high-pitched, I thought it was a child.
So I took up my bow...
- Uh, it was a sword. - It was a bow.
- Nah! It was a sword! - Regardless...
Forgive me, Father.
I was proud and stubborn and I was wrong.
Can you not even look at me?
Our people believe...
That when a new Dwarf-king is crowned,
the voices of all his forebearers flow into him,
sharing with him their counsel
and wisdom.
- Even their mistakes.
But you...
You need not wait for that day to hear my voice.
For, ever am I with you, my son.
Even in anger.
Sometimes, in anger most of all.
There is nothing to forgive.
Elrond has invited me to go with him to Lindon tomorrow.
Shall I accept?
Elrond has been very convincing in his assurances
that Gil-galad bore no ill intent when he sent him here.
Aye. He has.
But intuition's a powerful tonic.
What does yours tell you?
There is something more at work.
Good, my son.
Good.
Go to Lindon.
Find out what.
Thank you.
What is it? What's wrong?
I have a message. From the one who commands our enemy.
That your people may live if you forsake all claim to these lands...
And swear fealty to him.
And if we refuse?
He's coming for Ostirith.
If you ask me, you deserve a nip of mash after what you done.
Go on, take it.
Just like you took that hilt from me barn.
Uh... I don't know what...
Come off it, lad.
You know of what I speak.
Do you know what it is? It is no sword.
It is a power.
Fashioned for our ancestors by his master's own hand.
A beautiful servant.
He who was lost, but shall return.
Have you heard of him, lad?
Have you heard of Sauron?
You must have seen it in the skies.
A few weeks back now.
The starfall.
It means his time is near.
And it is to you and me, lad, to be ready.
Ready for what?
Hush now, lad.
You save your strength.
You'll need it.
For what's coming.
Lord-father...
We found it.
It's in the tower.
Go in peace.
Your people will be relieved.
They will be gathering soon in the court,
and in the plaza, to hear your announcement.
Then we ought not to keep them.
The faithful believe that when the petals of the White Tree fall
it is no idle thing,
but the very tears of the Valar themselves,
a living reminder that their eyes and their judgment are ever upon us.
There is a fateful hour in the destinies of men.
An hour of judgment
in which each of us, every one,
must decide who we shall be.
Are our hearts become as the statues that surround our isle?
Or do they yet beat with the blood of the heroes that carved them?
Is our valor confined to the graves of our slumbering fathers?
Or is it here,
amongst us even now...
Waiting to burst forth as the rising Sun?
I would neither command, nor invite you to any danger I myself would not face.
And so, I've decided to personally escort the Elf back to Middle-earth.
To aid our mortal brethren who are now besieged in the Southlands.
Your queen has laid bare her intent.
Our ships will depart in ten days.
The expeditionary force will be made up of brave sons and daughters
from across fair Númenor.
Who is willing to commit themselves to our Queen Regent's protection?
Step forward and make yourself known.
I will serve.
I will serve!