Chapter 376: The Mirror of Erised
Gandalf gazed around at the scene before him, a faraway look in his eyes, as if he had stepped back into Valinor itself.
Frodo was even more overwhelmed, staring at everything in open amazement.
There was no visible light source, yet the entire room shone with a gentle radiance. It was bright but never harsh, and time itself seemed to have lost all meaning here.
"Where is this?" Frodo asked, eyes wide.
"This is the Room of Requirement, my secret chamber," Kael replied with a smile, then led them further in.
"Room of Requirement?" Frodo turned the name over in his mind, already guessing at its meaning.
"It is just what you are thinking," Kael said. "This room can become anything you need. A space that looks exactly like Bag End, a hidden garden full of flowers and trees, a vault piled high with gold – anything you can imagine, it can become.
"Of course, nothing created in this room can leave it. The moment it passes beyond the door, it vanishes."
Hearing this, Frodo was even more stunned. A room like this was nothing short of miraculous, a wishing room that could grant almost any desire.
Even Gandalf, who had long known of the Room's existence, could not keep a note of wonder from his face as he listened.
He called himself a wizard, but beside Kael, with his depth of study and craft, he felt sorely outmatched.
Kael had not brought them here merely to admire the space. He guided them onward through the seemingly endless white expanse.
After several minutes of walking, objects began to appear ahead, arranged in neat order.
Frodo glanced around in curiosity.
On crystal plinths floating in the air, he saw a golden cup, a jewelled crown, a sword, a hat, a cloak, a gleaming red gemstone.
Elsewhere stood cabinets, mirrors, and basins set upon the floor.
One ornate golden mirror drew Frodo's eye at once. It seemed to possess its own strange pull, and before he knew it, he was walking towards it, peering into its depths.
At first, the glass showed only his own reflection. Then, in the space of a heartbeat, it changed. The Frodo in the mirror was standing in a vast volcanic crater surrounded by rivers of molten rock.
The other Frodo looked as if he had come through great trials. His face was pale and worn, yet he smiled with a bright, unshadowed joy as he drew a ring from his hand.
Frodo's breath caught. His eyes widened.
In the mirror, he watched himself wink at him, then cast the Ring into the fiery lava below. The Ring was swallowed by the molten rock and destroyed.
"What did you see?" Kael's voice sounded just behind him, making Frodo jump.
He spun around to find Kael and Gandalf standing there. He had not heard them approach.
Gandalf was studying the mirror with keen interest, his expression thoughtful.
Kael, for his part, simply looked curious as he waited for Frodo's answer.
Frodo hesitated, unsure how to put it into words. He glanced back at the glass. "I saw myself in the mirror," he said slowly, "but… not quite as I am now. I was standing on a great volcano, with lava everywhere, and the sky was black and heavy, hot and close. Then I threw the Ring into the lava and watched it be destroyed."
Excitement crept into his voice. He turned to Kael, eyes shining. "Is this a mirror of prophecy? Does it mean I will truly succeed in destroying the Ring?"
Before Kael could answer, Gandalf shook his head. "I fear not, Frodo. This is no mirror of prophecy. It is a mirror of desire. What you saw is likely the reflection of your own heart. Is that not so, Kael?"
Kael nodded with a smile. "Gandalf is correct. This is the Mirror of Erised. It shows the deepest, strongest longing in a person's heart. The stronger the desire, the more powerful the mirror's pull. Some become so lost in what they see that they forget everything else and waste away before it, unable to break free.
"You are wholly set on destroying the Ring, so the mirror shows you the moment you yearn for most.
"But that does not mean what you saw is meaningless. If your will remains firm and you refuse to yield to the Ring, then the scene within the mirror need not remain a dream."
Frodo stared long and hard at the image, as if trying to carve it into his memory. His face hardened with resolve. "I will make it real," he said quietly. "I must."
Kael and Gandalf exchanged a glance and smiled, both of them satisfied by what they saw in him.
Frodo tore his gaze away from the mirror and turned to the other objects.
A seven-sided basin caught his eye. Liquid shimmered within, thin threads of lightning running through its surface. He leaned over for a closer look.
"Lord Kael, what is this?" he asked.
"This is a wizard transformation pool," Kael replied. "The liquid is Thunderbird blood I have gathered, enough to let a single person be remade as a wizard.
"If you wish to wield magic, to study spells like the students here in the castle, you need only jump in. You would become a magic-using Hobbit."
His tone turned teasing. "Of course, the process is not pleasant. It feels rather like having every bone pulled out and put back again. Are you willing to endure that?"
Frodo hesitated. Over his days at Hogwarts, he had seen much magic, and more than once he had envied the students as they worked with their wands.
The offer stirred that longing to life.
Yet, to Kael's surprise, Frodo finally shook his head.
"No. Thank you, Lord Kael," he said. "Magic is marvellous, but I would rather remain an ordinary Hobbit. When all this is over, I want to go back to the Shire and live quietly again.
"And if I cannot resist the temptation standing in front of me now, how could I hope to withstand the Ring's?"
Kael's astonishment slowly softened into respect.
Gandalf's smile broadened, his eyes warm with pride.
Truly, this was a Ring-bearer chosen by fate. To refuse the chance to become a wizard – that was a strength of character few possessed, Kael included.
Kael even wondered, not for the first time, whether, without the Ring in the balance, Frodo's reflection in the Mirror of Erised might have shown only himself, unchanged.
Since Frodo had refused, Kael did not press him.
In truth, this bloodline-fusion elixir made from thunderbird blood had been prepared for Bilbo, but the older Hobbit had declined. Only then had Kael considered offering it to Frodo.
He had thought that magic might make Frodo's task a little easier, giving him more ways to carry the Ring unseen into Mordor and cast it into Mount Doom.
Now that Frodo had turned it down, Kael could only leave the pool for another day and another candidate.
With magic to preserve it, the elixir would not spoil.
He led Frodo and Gandalf on to another place in the room, where a black Palantír rested upon a crystal plinth.
Beside it stood a crystal phial shimmering with starlight.
Kael picked up the phial and placed it in Frodo's hand. Then he drew a square of black cloth from his robes and draped it over the Palantír.
"This is the Light of Eärendil, the Phial of Galadriel, given long ago in Lothlórien," he said. "It holds a power that pushes back the dark. Keep it with the Ring, and it will help to weaken the Ring's hold on you."