Aragorn knew how the daughter of Theoden saw him, and he knew he could not be what she wanted. His heart was Miriel's, and always it would remain, but when she asked where the pendant came from, it pained him to answer her.

"A woman, one who journeyed with us from Rivendell." Eowyn frowned, not seeing a single woman in their company.

"Where is she?" Aragorn's mind played her death over again, and his eyes welled with salty tears as they walked. Eowyn's concerned voice came again. "My lord?" He snapped back to reality, and looked away from her.

"She died."

Eowyn did not dare to ask any member of the company again.

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When Aragorn fell from the cliff, he floated down the river until he hit the bank. He felt himself fading, and then heard the voice of Miriel.

Do not falter now, meleth-nin. You are not alone.

His eyes opened, and the stormy grey saw a fading pair of piercing blue before he found the motivation to get up, hauled himself onto Brego, and rode off towards Helms Deep.

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Closer to Mordor, Frodo and Sam are sat in front of a young Captain of Gondor, familiar somehow to them. He looked at them, a steely light in his eye.

"My men tell me you are orc spies."

"Spies?" Sam exclaimed. "Now wait just a minute." Faramir looked at them unwaveringly.

"Well, if you're not spies, then who are you?" The two hobbits looked at each other, but did not answer. Faramir sat down across from them. "Speak." Frodo was the one to answer.

"We are hobbits of the Shire. Frodo Baggins is my name, and this is Samwise Gamgee." Faramir raised an eyebrow at the blond hobbit.

"His bodyguard?" Sam scowled at him.

"His gardner." Faramir nodded.

"And where is your skulking friend? That gangrel creature. He had an ill-favored look."

"There was no other." Frodo said uncertainly, and Faramir looked at him in suspicion. "We set out from Rivendell with eight companions. One we lost in Moria. Two were my kin. A dwarf there was also, and an elf and three humans. Aragorn son of Arathorn, and Miriel and Boromir of Gondor." The young Captain looked at them differently now, his eyes not quite able to hide the pain and desperation in them.

"You were a friend to them then?" Frodo nodded.

"With Boromir, for my part. Miriel was more as family to my kinsman and me. A mother or elder sister." Grief clouded Faramir's eyes as he spoke again, softening towards the halfling.

"It would grieve you then, to know that they are dead." Frodo's eyes widened, his face devastated, and the blue eyes seemed to shift in shade to the young Captain, showing him the eyes of his dead sister.

"How? When?"

"As one of their companions, I hoped you would tell me."

"If something has happened to them, we would have you tell us." The grief and pain that filled the Captain's eyes made it almost unbearable to look at him.

"His horn washed up on the riverbank about six days past, along with a knife given to her before her departure. The horn was broken in two. But more than this, I know it in my heart. Boromir was my dear brother, and Miriel my beloved sister."

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Later that night, Faramir sat alone in the dark, flipping a dagger in his hand. The same blade that he had given to Miriel so long ago, and the same that had floated along the river using half of Boromir's horn as a boat.

He had looked from the Tower of Guard every day when he had the chance, and though he knew she would never ride from it, he vowed to watch the Falls of Rauros as often as he could until he died.

He missed them both dearly. The halls of Gondor would seem so very empty without his brother's unnecessarily loud voice, and his sister's raucous laughter. Supper would be quiet without their constant joking and teasing, and it would be strange sleeping in his rooms at the palace and knowing that his siblings were not sleeping in the same place. And never would again. Besides his father, he had no family left, and that was about the same thing.

He was alone.

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Aragorn made his way to Helms Deep, and Legolas returned the pendant to him. It felt as though a part of him was returned to his body, and the light of hope returned to his eyes.

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Eowyn let slip the feelings she held for the ranger, and the look in his eye was not encouraging in any way, nor was the pendant still hung around his neck.

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Faramir let the hobbits continue their quest, and he swore he saw Miriel standing where they had not moments ago, smiling proudly at him before a gust of wind broke his focus, and she was gone.