Undue Influence (tolkien100 challenge)
“For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and FIght! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory.” -The Pyre of Denethor
Denethor knew only despair. He had seen the future and he had heard from Faramir himself on how he sent two halfings to their doom. Did he not know how risky it could be? He ran his strategies in his head more than once and he knew that time was running out.
Gondor was doomed.
Now his only son burned with fever that would not abate. He was dying and his turn was soon to come. It was only a matter of time that they all perished.
The Palantir showed the reality. Gondor was awash in rubble. The Enemy had won.
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I'll crosspost later. I had a positive spin to this challenge, but the angst won through. I googled "undue influence" which had legal and financial definitions but this is the one that i'm going with which i think this drabble is appropriate.
"influence by which a person is induced to act otherwise than by their own free will or without adequate attention to the consequences."
And i am rereading Rotk (again in pieces) and that quote from Denethor always caught me and i love it so very much. Tolkien wrote it well.