[The Silmarillion] Romimus

When Romemos opened his eyes again, it was already the dawn of the next day, and a few faint morning lights poked in from the entrance of the cave, and the bonfire lit last night was only lit by a few sparks with.Glorfindel was diagonally across from her, with his back leaning against the cave wall, one hand resting on his chin, his eyes closed, as if he was still in a deep sleep.

Romemos stared at his sleeping face, and after a few minutes, she quickly retracted her gaze and turned her head, as if mocking herself and quickly raised the corner of her mouth with more subtle meanings.Then she stood up, glanced back at Glorfindel again, and turned away without making a sound.

When Romimos' shadow completely disappeared, Glorfindel's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

He got up, went to the fire, and stamped out the last wisp of smoke that was still curling up, then picked up the dried robe, dusted it off, and smoothed it out after wearing it Every wrinkle of her hair was recombed.He did all these movements carefully and slowly, until the sun outside the cave rose a little more, and Romemus was sure that he had gone far and would never come back again, Glorfindel sighed silently, He walked out without looking back.

Glorfindel walked slowly along the river bank, while looking for the easiest place to climb on the nearby cliffs, because he felt that if Romimus let go, Elrond and others would most likely choose the original place. On the way back, the fastest route to reunite with them is to climb vertically along the cliff.There are many branches and dead vines growing wildly in the crevices of the cliff here. As long as you can overcome the fear of the dead bones hanging on the cliff and the crows with malicious intentions, it is not difficult to climb up...

However, before Glorfindel could really do anything to the stone wall, someone behind him stopped him in surprise.

"Lord Glorfindel!"

Glorfindel turned around in surprise, and it turned out to be a group of elves headed by Elrond, and even Hrudir.

"You..." Glorfindel looked suspiciously at them and walked over quickly while waving at him full of joy, "Did you take advantage of the chaos and escape?"

"No, that's what Romemos meant. After you jumped down with her, maybe half an hour later, her crow servant brought back her message from below, saying, 'We have reached her condition, and she will keep her promise', and his men let us all go," said Elrond. "Then we came down to look for you overnight."

"what?"

According to Elrond, about half an hour after he and Romemus jumped off the cliff—that should be the way he pulled Romemus out of the river, and the two of them searched for shelter in silence Well, Glorfindel didn't notice that Romimos gave the crow her message, but it's hard to say, after all, he couldn't understand the communication between Maia and the crow.But in any case, this shows that it was Romemos' plan to release Elrond and the others from the beginning.

... No wonder Romimos was so happy when he agreed to let him go.

For a moment, Glorfindel had the subtle feeling of being tricked again, but he couldn't care less about being angry about it now.

Romimos is very smart. Although one of her life creeds is that her "talent" should not be exposed, her cleverness and even cunning are still unquestionable, otherwise she would not have defected to Verin with Morgoth under the nose of Vera No, I won't become Morgoth's right-hand man from a little Maia known as the vase of Angband, and I won't do a lot of ulterior things but Sauron still can't catch her real fox tail. I won't be angry After pretending to be dumb for more than 300 years, he subverted the entire Gondolin in one fell swoop.

Just like now, Glorfindel couldn't figure out what kind of medicine was being sold in Romimus' gourd, but he was instinctively uneasy, as if all this was still not over.No matter whether Romemos has some bad ideas in his head again, it is the best policy to stay away from this right and wrong place as soon as possible.

"Since you are free, you should seize the opportunity to leave here. Romimos is unpredictable, and God knows if she will change her mind at any time." Glorfindel reprimanded Elrond and the others, but in the words It didn't mean much to blame, "If I didn't die, I would naturally try to join you as soon as possible."

But Elrond shook his head. "I did think so at first," he said, "but what if we leave the Twilight Lands safely? If Romimos doesn't release her illusion, then we'll just be back where we started Well, nothing has changed, and we still can't reach Erejan."

"But what else can you do?" Glorfindel said helplessly, "Instead of blindly fighting Romimos here, if we change the road and start again quickly, even if we take a longer detour, we just need to speed up the march. There might be hope."

"If we want to go around the Twilight Land, we have to go south all the way to Isengard, and then we may not be able to go around Holly County next year." Elrond said, lowering his head as if thinking What, said slowly, "But in fact, there is still a road to the north of the Twilight Land to get to Irejan, and you have to cross a river. It's not the best choice, but it's better than going all the way to the top of the storm and then turning again. Come back."

Glorfindel frowned slightly: "What do you mean by 'originally'?"

Elrond sighed, knelt down on one knee, and drew a simple diagram on the sand with a branch.

To put it simply, the river in the valley—it does not have an official name, but because it is now at the foot of the Claban Cliff, some people call it the Gray Crow River—like many rivers in Middle Earth, it originated from the mist. The Mountain Range, which was supposed to flow westward, became one of the many tributaries of the Graywater, but now somehow its entire course has been reversed, and it is the first to meet the Granduin.Unfortunately, the bridge that used to connect the two banks of the river was nearby, and the ground was low, and as the water level of the Granduin rose suddenly, it was now completely submerged.

"You think Romimoth is responsible for the diversion of the river?" asked Glorfindel.

"Not in my opinion," replied Elrond, looking to Hrudir.

"I heard from the elders in the clan," Hrudir continued, "The Land of Dusk was built in the Ened region, and a large part of the reason is because of the abundance of water and soil here, but it is not as good as before. Not really What other problem is that the forest in the Enid area was cut down too severely for a while, and we often suffered from drought or flood during that time, and most of the water conservancy facilities in the evening land were built at that time, including the large Dam 'Neng Yas'."

"Be more specific," Glorfindel urged him.

"Nenias is a dam built in the northeast of the Twilight Land. It was built according to the mountains of the Misty Mountains. It is said that it is just upstream of the Gray Crow River. into the Granduin."

Glorfindel slowly heard what Elrond and the others meant: "You want to..."

"That's right, if we can't pass through the barrier of the Twilight Land, then as long as we can destroy that dam—if it's too difficult for just a few of us, then even if it's just temporarily opening the gates to release the flood for a period of time, lowering the level of Grand As the water level of the river is high enough to allow the bridge over the river to come out of the water, our purpose will be achieved," said Elrond.

"It sounds feasible." Glorfindel thought about it carefully, nodded in agreement, and looked at Hrudir again, "But why do you seem to be full of doubts?"

"Because Noias was not built in my family's territory, my lord." Hrudir admitted frankly, "As you already know, there are many races in the Twilight Land, but only three races have the largest number of people, respectively. They are the Harris family from the riverside in the west, the residents of the White Mountains in the mountains in the south, and the Orientals in the forest in the east. Usually, our three tribes coexist peacefully, but we don’t have much contact with each other. I know the other two tribes very well. Limited, I can only say, adults, when you see them, you may feel that the Haresi family is quite hospitable. Especially the Dongyi people——ah, it happened that Nengiyas was built in their In the territory, they are not completely unreasonable people, but because of the past, they and the Middle-earths have deep-rooted prejudices against each other, especially for elves, they have no affection. Except for Lord Romimos, They don't listen to anyone."

"It's okay, we didn't expect to get anyone's approval when we went this time." The elves said, "You can lead the way."

The road to the Dongyi people's territory was extremely smooth, as long as they followed the river to find the upper reaches, and because they were walking in the valley under the cliff, almost no one found and obstructed them, only there were often A few crows flew around hauntingly.

Within three days, they saw Nenias from a distance, the majestic gray wall standing in front of them like a majestic city wall, blocking the river water behind, forcing them to back Follow the path.

The elves spent a little time scouting the guards around Nengiyas. Generally speaking, the defense here is quite lax. There are two Dongyi people patrolling back and forth on the river bank, and there are two pairs of soldiers standing guard outside the dam. And beyond that was a hut by the dam, where the elves saw with their best eyesight there was another person, and that was it, and there were not even as many of them as there were elves.

But this is not their fault. The residents of Twilight Land are deeply influenced by their lords. They are tired of practicing martial arts and fighting, and prefer the quiet days. Except for a very small number of passionate young people, few people are keen to join the army and fight.After all, under the protection of the Twilight Lord, the war outside seems to have nothing to do with this paradise.

"Good day." Hrudir took the lead, knocked on the door of the hut, and walked in with his head down.

"Who is it?!" The people in the hut were startled and jumped up from their chairs.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you." Hrudir said hastily, "I'm an envoy from Minasvio, delivering her news to you on behalf of the great Lord Romimos."

"According to the practice of the Twilight Land, if Lord Romemos has an order, it should be delivered by the priests of each tribe in person. How could it be you?" The man looked suspicious.

"Recently, outsiders have infiltrated the land of dusk, and they have despicably hurt Lord Romimus. The priests have stayed in the tower of twilight to look after the lord." Hrudir said, "As for me, although I am not from the East, But it is Hrudir, the son of the chief of the family of Hales."

He handed over his sword with both hands, not only to show that he was not hostile, but also to prove his identity by means of the Romimos emblem engraved on the weapon.

Seeing the familiar pattern of heather, the man breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't blame me, little brother." He said, "The news of the elves breaking into the land of dusk has already reached us. If it wasn't for this, why would I be so nervous just now? How long have you traveled to get here? Are you hungry? We have kidney pie and apple pudding here, and if you wait a minute I can cook you a fish steak with cheese toast..."

"No, don't bother." Hrudir quickly refused.

"Then let me pour you a cup of tea." The man cheerfully filled the fat teapot with tea and put it on the stove. Within a few minutes, the fragrance of tea and oranges wafted from there, "Come back to business , Is there any order for the respected Lord Romimos?"

"Oh, that's right." Herudil cleared his throat, raised his head and raised his chin, making an expression like he was talking about a very important and sacred oracle, "Lord Romimos has an order, let You immediately open the gates of Neias and drain the water."

The man's movements stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"Are you sure this is a message from Lord Romimos?" he asked.

"Of course." Herudil sensed something was wrong, but at this moment he could only pretend to be calm, "Is there any problem?"

The man didn't say anything, but suddenly pulled out the sword on the table with lightning speed, and pointed it at Hrudir.

"What does that mean?" Hrudir asked. "What are you doing?"

"You're a liar," said the guard. "You're not from the Dusklands."

"Of course I am, and my badge will prove it."

"If you are really from the Twilight Lands, then you are not only a liar, but also a traitor."

Hrudir was silent for a moment, realizing that it was impossible for him to continue pretending.

"I am indeed Hrudir, the son of Patriarch Sires, but you are right, I am not the messenger of Lord Romimos." He slowly raised his hands.

"I don't care whose son you are." The guard said, "No matter who you are, no matter what your purpose is, it is an unforgivable crime to falsely pass on the lord's order."

"I have nothing to defend myself," Hrudir said, "but can I know how I got out?"

"It's very simple," said the guard. "The gates of the floodgates at Noias are spellbound, and no one can open them except Lord Romimos himself."

Hrudir was speechless.

Seeing that the man had raised his sword, the window glass behind him suddenly cracked and shattered at the same time. The man subconsciously turned around and looked back. Herudil reacted instantly, rolled back and left In the area pointed by the sword tip, at the same time, the guard could only see a golden figure leaping through the window and jumping into the house. After a crisp sound of swords colliding, the sword in his hand was out of his control. He let go of his hand, but there was a sudden pain in the back of his head, and he passed out instantly.

"The response was good." Glorfindel praised Hrudir after easily bringing down the guard.

Hrudir was still a little shocked at this time, blinked, and calmed down after a while, and asked, "How are the other people outside?"

"They were all knocked out and tied up." Elrond said, "It seems that things are not going well?"

"It's worse than that." Hrudir frowned tightly. "Latest information: It is said that there is a spell on the gate of Neias, and only Lord Romimus himself can unravel it."

Glorfindel and Elrond looked at each other.

"Let's go and have a look first." Glorfindel said, "Although this man said it was a magic spell, humans and elves see magic differently. The so-called spell might just be an elven password."

"But even if it's in Elven language, Lord Romimos wouldn't just engrave the password next to the gate?" Hrudir muttered.

He was half right. At first glance, there was really no difference between the gate and the dusty stones beside it. Glorfindel and Elrond thought about it for several rounds of comparison The words that are often used as passwords to try their luck, of course, not surprisingly, all of them don't work.

The elves sat by the river dam in frustration, thinking about their next move, although the old and cunning Twilight Lord seemed to have counted every move they made and blocked all paths.

In this way, they sat by the river all afternoon, until night fell, and the moon poked its head out from behind the mountains in the east, filling the river bank with cold light.

Hrudir suddenly yelled, and immediately jumped up from the grass.

"There are words!" he cried, "There are words in Neias!"

The elves were startled, and turned their heads to look at the dam. As expected, with the moonlight shining on the dam, Nengiyas seemed to be covered with a layer of silver veil, and a string of silver characters shining like moonlight appeared on the dam. Near the slab of the gate.

"The Runes of the Moon," said Elrond, folding his arms.

"Do you know him?" Glorfindel asked.

"I don't know." Elrond shook his head expressionlessly.

……

"What about you?"

"do not know."

"Anyone we know here?"

No one answered.

Very well, Romemus, count on you.

So the guard here is actually right. Although Romemos engraved the password to open the gate on the stone dam quite "generously", the only person who can open the gate in the entire Twilight is really only Luo. Mimos one.

Hrudir sighed, depressed: "As a result, we just wasted several days in vain."

But Elrond was thoughtful.

"That's not necessarily the case." He said, "Since only Romimos can open it, let her open it."

"But how could she be so kind as to do what we say?" asked the Elves.

Elrond turned to Glorfindel meaningfully: "That's up to you, Lord Glorfindel."

"Me?" Glorfindel didn't know why, but still assured him, "If I can do something, then of course it's my duty. But Romimos won't listen to me either."

"Not necessarily," said Elrond. "Don't you see? She likes you."