<i>The worst thing about this job, is the climb!</i> Gilaglar thought to himself.<BR><BR>Summoned to Círdan at four in the morning, he had been given instructions, and had set off on his journey within half an hour. Luckily, the trip wasn't far. Just over 20 miles from Mithlond, the Towers of Gilgalad were just an hour's hard ride away. The problem was climbing the hundreds of steps to the room he needed. <BR><BR>He was the only one allowed in the room. Feldor - the elderly caretaker of the towers - kept the key to the door, but it would take more than just the key to open it.<BR><BR>After Feldor unlocked the door, Gilaglar pressed his palm flat on the wooden surface and spoke a spell. The words seemed to have no effect on the door, until a series of Mithril moon-letters appeared on the arch above the door. The elegantly traced tengwar described to Gilaglar the rest of the process of unlocking the door. He already knew what to do though, and spoke today's password.<BR><BR>"Lúmequentalë!" He cried, and the door drifted back silently. Gilaglar passed inside into the dark room at the top of the tower. Feldor pulled the door closed behind the seer, and the lock clicked, sealing the chamber once again. <BR><BR>Gilaglar waited until his eyes grew acustomed to the darkness, then found the ladder which led up to the viewing platform above. He climbed up slowly, still reflecting that he should be asleep 20 miles away and several hundred feet lower down. The viewing platform was an eight-sided room with a domed ceiling supported by eight narrow pillars - effectively meaning the room had no walls. In the centre of the room was a large object hidden under a velvet shroud. The wind whistled through the chamber, much faster and cooler than it had been on the ground, and the chill removed the last traces of sleep from the elf's mind. <BR><BR>Working quickly, he loosened the fastenings on the shroud, and pulled it off. He quickly wrapped the heavy velvet cloth around himself to help keep out the wind. He looked at the dark crystal sitting on it's dias, and wondered at the powers which had crafted the palantíri ages ago. This one had been presumed lost, until it had been found by King Elessar deep in a vault in Minas Arnor. It had apparently been taken there by Gilgalad as the Last Alliance marched on Mordor so long ago. The King had returned it to the White Towers as a means of communicating with the people of his Northern Kingdom, and Círdan had chosen Gilaglar to be the Warden of the Stone. <BR><BR>As he bent his mind on the crystal, he slowly paced around the room. He started on the east side, looking just south of west, until he could see the Havens below, then walked clockwise around the crystal, looking north and finally east to the Shire.<BR><BR>He always started in this manner, focusing his mind by viewing the familiar, before moving on to the task at hand. <BR><BR>Slowly, he <i>pushed</i> with his mind, and the vision moved farther east, passing Bree, until he could see the valley of Rivendell. Although Vilya, the ring of saphire, no longer preserved the valley, it was still a place of beauty in the wild lands. He caught a glimpse of an elf standing on the terrace, deep in thought, before the vision moved on, creeping ever closer to the Misty Mountains. <BR><BR>Gilaglar took a large sidestep to his left, moving the image to the south, where he had been instructed to look. The Misty Mountains scrolled past, and he caught the first glimpse of dawn reflecting off Caradhras. His mind passed over the mountains, and he saw the Golden Wood, abandoned after Galadriel and Nenya had left Middle Earth. <BR><BR>Following Anduin down it's course, he skirted past the Emyn Muil, and Rohan, along the White Mountains, until the dark shapes of the mountains of shadow crept into his vision, their tips highlighted by the blood-red dawn behind them. <BR><BR>He seemed to soar over the black peaks, and looked down on Mordor, seeing the desolate land stretching out for leagues. Although the Men of Gondor had relaxed their watch, Círdan was not so eager to be caught out again. This was the third time he had sent Gilaglar off to the tower at a seemingly random time, looking for anything unusual in Mordor. <BR><BR>Gilaglar was about to move on, and look for more general tidings, when a shape seemed to move in the corner of his vision. Finely tuning his alignment with the stone, Gilaglar focused on the area around the ruined Dark Tower. The speck which had moved filled out to almost take the form of a man, wrapped in a black cloak, kneeling before the chasm. Gilaglar watched intently, as the shape raised it's arms, and it took him a few seconds to notice the obvious -- the creature had no hands. The full significance did not strike him however, until the creature stood, and pulled back the hood of its cape. The sight of the two red eyes, peering out of empty space sent a chill up Gilaglar's spine, but he knew what he had to do. He opened his senses to the <i>other</i> world - the world where elves exist as beings of radiance and flame - for the first time in hundreds of years. There he could see the grey features of the Witch King, and even as Gilaglar recognised him, he saw the ring on his hand, and he knew that the One must still exist somehow.<BR><BR>The vision faded so suddenly that Gilaglar stepped back, and was only stopped from falling to his death below by the thin metal bar which reached around the room at chest height. He realised that he had closed his eyes, and was nearly blinded by the sunlight streaming into the exposed chamber as he opened them. <BR><BR>Shaking off the odd feeling that he had dreamed all that he had seen, he climbed down the ladder and opened the door to the staircase. He stepped outside, paused to seal the door again, and quickly started to descend the many stairs of the Tower, a freshly awoken Feldor - looking bemused by the sudden urgence - in tow.<BR><BR>"Feldor, send one of the boys to Círdan as soon as possible, to deliver this note!" Gilaglar explained as he finished writing and sealing the scroll. "And make sure that Roninscot is there when the contents of the scroll are discussed! I myself must ride east and south now. I do not know if the things I have seen this morning have occurred, or have yet to happen, but I must race to Gondor to find out!"<BR><BR>As he mounted his horse, he handed his friend the scroll, and without pausing to say farewell, he spurred the horse into action, and set off towards the Shire...