Substitute Me For Him
I. Exchange
Aragorn kissed Boromir's lifeless forehead. Suddenly, a blinding white light overcame him, and he felt nothing but pain, then endless darkness.
Boromir stared, shocked, at his own dead face. He reached out to touch it and saw the Ring of Barahir on his finger.
"Aragorn." Legolas spoke to him.
Boromir dazedly helped the others prepare his own body. He took his vambraces, unable to part with this token of his city. He decided to follow the little ones, for his repentance was real.
As they ran through the downs, the thought repeated, "A Steward can be King after all."
I wear his face and his clothes. I have his sword and his ring and his friends. The honor paid to me belongs to him. Through some strange chance, he has paid the price for my fall from grace.
But I will take these things that are his. I will marry the Elf-wench and claim the throne of Gondor that has been paid for by the blood of my family all these years. The Ring has passed, but I will save my city another way.
"I Melain berio le," Legolas says as the battle starts.1
Fuck, I don't speak Elvish.
Sauron is gone; Gondor is saved. Faramir is happy and Denethor got what he deserved. I am the King and Elrond has handed over his beautiful daughter.
But I'd rather be bedding down with the man whose body I wear. My regrets come when I look in a mirror and see myself with his blue eyes. I miss him.
I wait for Arwen in the royal bedchamber. She comes in wearing some Elven cloth that looks to be made of mist and does nothing to cover her loveliness.
This won't be so difficult. It's good to be King.
She dropped her dress and said something in Elvish. Naturally, I didn't understand her, but I defy any man to be coherent at that moment.
I took her hand and pulled her to me, her softness crushed against my, his, chest. I bent my head to hers, plundering her lips, thinking I had never had such a woman in my arms.
After a time, she pulled back, looking puzzled. "Estel?"
I stood there like an idiot, blinded by her beauty.
"Iston le?" Fuck, more Elvish.2
She finally took pity on me and switched to Westron. "Who are you?"
Masquerade over.
I pulled away from her and bowed. "Boromir of Gondor, at your service."
She sat on the bed, unconscious of her nudity, looking stunned. "How?"
I related what happened, then, "What gave me away?"
"Your touch. His always burned me, but his fire is silver. You burn also, but you are gold."
"Can it be fixed? He should be here, not me."
Grief convulsed her face, "I don't know. I will contact Galadriel tomorrow."
Her expression turned speculative and I started to worry.
"This marriage must be consummated, for Gondor's sake," she purred.
I think I just died again.
As she stripped me, I tried to banish the feeling that I was betraying my friend. But she is lovely and soon I wasn't thinking at all.
We climaxed together, and then she was in my mind and I was in hers. I felt all of her pleasure as well as my own.
When I could speak again, I panted, "What was that?"
"I tried to see if he was buried in your mind, but I couldn't find him. I had to do it when you were completely unguarded."
I'm starting to agree with Gimli. Never trust an Elf.
Galadriel's sparkling eyes bared my soul and I couldn't hide from her.
Luckily for my sanity, she didn't need to resort to Arwen's methods of reading me.
"Elessar wanders in the Outer Darkness, but he should not be there, and thus he is trapped," she pronounced.
"He bestowed a kiss of grace on Boromir in the instant that Boromir's spirit fled his body. The bonds of love between them are strong enough to pass the boundaries of death and time, and his sorrow and longing pulled Boromir in and cast himself out."
Arwen glared at me. Oops.
I pretended that I wasn't in trouble. "Can you get him back?"
"Do you have anything of Boromir's that was on his body at the moment of death?"
The vambraces! I had kept them, though they had been replaced by the more formal ones of the King of Gondor. I found them and showed them to Galadriel.
"Some of his spirit may remain in them. Take your clothes off, don the vambraces and lay down."
I stared at her, wondering if this was some strange female revenge fantasy. Naked, except for the vambraces? What kind of spell is that?
I lay on the bed. Arwen and Galadriel each placed a hand on my vambraces and clasped their other hands. Galadriel was wearing a ring I had never noticed before. They laid their linked hands on my forehead.
My mind opened and I felt them call him. Darkness welled across my thoughts and I wandered under strange skies. I added my voice to theirs, begging him to return to me.
The vambraces grew warm and I felt peaceful. I saw endless blue eyes gazing at me with love, as they had the moment I died.
"Hello, lover." He's back.
I lost all sense of where I was, drowning in his eyes. He engulfed my mouth with his and everything I had been missing flowed back to me.
He was a force unleashed and I surrendered to him without thought. Freed of the constraints of our bodies, our passion rose unchecked.
He was a silver fire, he was the Moon and I was the golden fire of the Sun. The fires met and entwined, giving off unbearable brilliance. I felt a completion like never before and the light poured out of us.
"Eew!" Arwen broke our engrossment in each other.
We opened our shared eyes and saw Arwen with come dripping off her face.
"Im gelir ceni ad lín," Aragorn said to her.3
She laughed and kissed us, "Oh, Estel, le melon!"4
Both of us inhabited his body, but Galadriel was unable to send my spirit on it's journey, so we agreed to cast my essence into the vambraces.
"I swear to you, beloved Boromir, that I will keep them with me always, and when I die, they shall adorn my body. Where I go, you shall follow."
Whenever Aragorn wore them, we shared his mind.
I was content.
1. May the Valar keep you
by Raederle
II. Substitute
III. Being King
IV. Masquerade
V. Revelation
VI. Unguarded
VII. No Boundaries
VIII. Vambraces
IX. Return to Me
X. Fires
XI. Finis
Translations courtesy of www.arwen-undomiel.com:
2. Do I know you?
3. I am happy to see you
4. I love you
