A Gift and a Curse: Disenchantment
Dedicated to the fond memories of the Irmo That Was Irmo
Before Me, and of the One We Knew As Gwindor, two great visionaries who have
left our Guild: They will be remembered with honor!
Gandalf walks to the Halls of Taniquetil. Varda is there to greet him at the gates.
"Hail my dear friend, sit here for a while and rest."
"Thank you Milady, that I will do."
"Tea?"
"Would be lovely, Varda."
"Manwë is still transporting the Eldar to Chi Equui.
The spectral energy on that world is of course much less than it was on this
world, but it will be enough to sustain them - and us. You are required to
go with the next shipping, if you are able."
Gandalf noddles and quietly enjoys his tea, before he resumes the conversation:
"We have won Milady, but at what price?""
"Oh Olorin, we knew there would always be a price, Sauron made sure of that."
Turning his ring in his fingers, Gandalf says: "It has turned dead now, not a spark, nothing."
"Yes my friend, I fear all Spectral Energy has now gone from this world altogether."
"Was there no way to avoid this Milady?"
"None, believe me. The path was clear and you have kept
true to it, Olorin. From the moment Sauron succeeded in grasping this world’s
incredible Spectral Energy within his Power Circle, there were but two choices
left. Either destroy Sauron's Circle, and thereby the energy of Arda, or
in the end Eru would have had to obliterate this world. Look how far the
Black Numenoreans came, when Sauron did not even have his device! No restricted
solution like with Numenor would have sufficed now. There would have been
no alternative for Eru but complete destruction. For would Sauron have been
allowed to fully master his Circle the enemy would have swarmed the Galaxy
with his foul creatures. Our calculations show that he could even have been
able to threaten the Flame Imperishable, thus tearing at the very fabrics
of Eä."
"Aye Milady, and by directly interfering with Sauron ourselves
and trying to get control of his Circle we would have certainly destroyed
this world and yet solved nothing, I know. Now at least we have saved the
peoples that live here. But the thing they know as magic will now forever
be gone from their existence on this planet. How will they cope?"
"They will cope Olorin! Let your soul be at ease about
this. Look at it this way: they will have no Gandalfs and Elronds to guide
them, but neither will there be Saurons and Sarumans to endanger them.
"Irmo told me recently about some visions he had. Always
- even eras from now - the people of this world will have a collective memory
of this thing that was once known to them as magic. Yes, even in the far
future people will be weary of science and technology and they will have
fantasies about schools where one can learn how to change into a cat, become
invisible, how to defend oneself from Dark Arts, about using mandragora root
and meeting unicorns. The people will rejoice in these memories of magic
as it could and should have been, but at the same time they will be sad their
world is utterly devoid of it. Thus we leave them with a gift and a curse,
really."
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