82 Chapter 82: Meeting the White Council

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Narya on his right hand, Edward felt strong as he opened a portal to Anduin. Radagast first entered, with his chariot and his hares, and was followed by Gandalf. Before entering though, he turned to Edward and said, "When you reach the White Council, tell Lady Galadriel not to teleport right away, wait for my signal."

Edward wanted to ask what he meant, but Gandalf stepped through the portal. Understanding he wasn't going to explain, Edward closed it behind him.

He did not immediately go to Rivendell, not because he had something to do, but because his reserves of Chi were very thin, and so he waited for his Chi to recover. Thankfully, after the opening of his Sacral Chakra, the Chi in his Lower Dantian had turned into a whirlpool, and although he didn't have access to it, the rotation still helped him recover his Chi quickly.

He had seen a map of Middle Earth and memorized it with Gandalf, and Middle Earth was not so big, nowhere near as big as Earth, it was only a single continent after all. It was about the size of Australia, so even with only a single drop of liquid Chi he could travel across the Misty Mountains.

After he recovered enough of his Chi, Edward opened a portal to Rivendell's entrance.

As he stepped onto the other side, he saw two guards with their swords unsheathed, looking at him in trepidation. They seemed to recognize him though and lowered their swords as they asked, "What are you doing here?"

Edward smiled, "Would you be so kind to call Lord Elrond or Glorfindel here? Tell them Edward is here for important matters."

The two guards looked at each other, and after a nod walked away. Soon, he came back with Glorfindel, who looked at Edward in pleasant surprise. The two walked into Rivendell.

"Shouldn't you be on your way to Erebor? Saruman was quite disgruntled when he learned the dwarves left by themselves. Nothing happened to them right?"

Edward shook his head, "Gandalf and I had to separate from them as other, more important matters came up. I need to talk to the White Council."

Glorfindel stopped smiling and said, "Well, shouldn't be too hard, with your previous gifts. Follow me."

Edward nodded, the gift of the Spatial Bracelets proved to be a good gesture. They arrived at the Eastern Hall, and just outside of it, on a small stone platform was where the White Council gathered.

There, was already Lady Galadriel, whom Edward saw for the first time now. She was a beauty, her hair especially, were of a golden shine with strands of beautiful silver. She incarnated the ethereal beauty of the elves, untouched by time.

She looked a little surprised by the arrival of Edward and Glorfindel, the later who announced, "Galadriel, this is Edward, the one who gifted us the bracelets. He has summoned the White Council for something important."

Edward noted Glorfindel did not show much respect to the elven woman, and treated her as an equal. Galadriel smiled at Edward and said, "The other members are on their way. Thank you for the gift too, it is most convenient. May I ask why you summoned the White Council?"

Edward smiled and replied, "Let's wait for everyone to be here, it concerns everyone." Galadriel nodded, obviously curious about his goal.

It seemed Saruman had not left Rivendell after last time as he was the next one to arrive, and unlike the others did not feel any goodwill toward Edward.

"Was this man the one who summoned us? Since when do humans have such rights?"

His arrogant words almost made Edward chuckle as he could see him for what he truly was. Maybe he had not fallen to the Dark Lord yet, but he could see how it happened.

"For Lady Galadriel to call us, he must have a valid reason. Let's listen to him, Saruman." Elrond, the last to arrive, reasoned with Saruman.

Elrond and Saruman were visibly more respectful to Galadriel than Glorfindel, making Edward wonder what happened between the two. He knew Galadriel was Elrond's mother in law, so the respect was understandable, but Gandalf and Saruman both respected her.

Now wasn't the time to ware about this though as he had more important matters to talk about.

"Gandalf and I travelled to the Tomb of Angmar, and there we found the Nine to have escaped their cells, fleeing to Dol Guldur." Edward didn't beat around the brush and directly explained the problem.

The faces of several of the members turned grave, and Saruman huffed, "Where is Gandalf then, if you travelled with him? Weren't you supposed to accompany the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain?"

Edward shook his head, "Gandalf and Radagast both headed to Dol Guldur, for we fear the Dark Lord has returned. The Nine only answer to one master."

The elves were now serious, but Saruman still doubted, "Were those words to come from Gandalf, I would readily believe him after what he showed us, but why should we believe you?"

Edward sighed and made Narya visible. The eyes of everyone in the Council widened, and Edward asked, "Would Gandalf give this to me if it weren't important?"

Galadriel sent a glare at Saruman, shutting him up, and said, "Gandalf and Radagast won't be enough to handle the Dark Lord and his Nazguls, even if only present in spirit. We need to go."

Elrond frowned and remarked, "Dol Guldur is very far from us, I fear by the time we arrive…"

Edward shook his head and explained, "No need to worry about time, I can teleport us there."

Saruman looked ready to chide him, but Galadriel asked, "Directly to Dol Guldur?"

"No, I need to have a mental image of the place I travel to, and I never went to Dol Guldur."

As he said that, Edward felt something probe his mind, coming from Galadriel. He allowed for the connection, and the image of a dark, abandoned fortress appeared in his mind.

'Will this be enough?'

Galadriel's voice appeared in his mind, and after taking a few seconds to digest the image, he nodded, "Yes, but we cannot go now."

Before any of them could ask anything, Edward turned to Galadriel and explained, "Gandalf wants to draw the Dark Lord before we arrive. He said to come only when he gives the signal."

Galadriel nodded, "Mithrandir will be able to protect himself for a time, let's wait for his signal. When did he leave?"

Edward replied, "About fifteen minutes ago, he left from slightly north of the Old Ford of Anduin, on Radagast's chariot pulled by his hares."

Glorfindel estimated, "Those hares are fast, they should arrive in a few days, if they don't stop then they should arrive by… Durin's Day."

All of them had heard of the quest of the Dwarves, and knew the dwarves had to arrive at Erebor for Durin's Day. Meaning neither Edward nor Gandalf would be able to accompany the dwarves into the mountain.

Seeing the gazes of the others, Edward shook his head and said, "Stopping the Dark Lord is more important than Erebor."

Elrond and Galadriel nodded, and Saruman grunted, "If that's all, then we shall regather on Durin's Day."

With that said, he got up from his chair and left promptly. Edward and Glorfindel left together, leaving Elrond and Galadriel together.

After a moment, Glorfindel asked, "So, what do you want to do during those few days? Sparring again?"

Edward smiled, "No thank you, I would rather learn something."

Glorfindel was a bit disappointed as he could feel Edward had unlocked another part of his power, which would have made their spar more exciting, but hearing he wanted to learn something, he asked, "What is it you want to learn?"

Edward scratched his head and revealed, "I don't know if it's restricted knowledge, but I would like to learn about Elven Forging."

Glorfindel looked understandably surprised at this, and asked, "You want to learn our forging techniques?"

Edward nodded, so Glorfindel shrugged, "We don't usually teach it to outsiders, but it's not really a big matter to let you learn it, especially with the gifts you gave to us. I didn't know you were a blacksmith too."

"I'm not."

"Then what do you expect to learn in a few short days? Do you really want me to bother our smiths for that?"

"Oh no, no need to bother them, if I can get access to a few books it should suffice."

"They're all in Elvish though."

"No worries, why don't you help me gather as many books on forging as you can, and I will learn Elvish while you do? Don't worry, it won't take long."

Glorfindel looked at Edward like the alien he was, and eventually laughed, "You really a strange man. Fine, I'll find your books. Why don't you go wash yourself first, you obviously are weary of your travels, you can bath in the Bruinen."

Edward nodded in thanks and walked there. The water was cold, but it was fine for him. Edward dived to the bottom of the river, dropping like a rock, before he sat cross legged on the bottom of the river.

Ever since he arrived in this world, Edward had been working on recreating Allspeak for this world. He couldn't use the same spell as he did in his home universe as the languages selected were specific, and so he had to start nearly from scratch.

But after months of hard work, Edward was about to finish what he started. It was a bit easier this time as all he had to do was to pack all the languages spoken in Arda, which was much, much lesser than all the languages in his universe.

He didn't need to bother about sorting some of them out and only learning those, he was learning every language.

Strands of red energy entered the river and flowed toward Edward as he activated the spell. The magic infiltrated his body and flowed into his blood stream. His golden blood absorbed a major part of the impact, refining itself even further as what remained of the cost for this magic was easily cancelled by his Chi.

Now that the cost had been cancelled, the magic sipped into Edward's spirit, and just like that he learned of all the languages of Middle-Earth. He did not even suffer from a headache as he learned only a couple hundred languages.

After casting the Arda Allspeak, Edward did not immediately leave the bed of the river as he felt his blood was very close to reaching completion.

He decided to help his heart as Edward used the only available drop of liquid Chi he had and fused it into his bloodstream, before using magic.

Since he was in a river, he decided to use water magic as he created various water spells. For every spell he used, their cost was paid by only his blood as he made sure not to go over it's limit.

His blood quickly refined itself as it absorbed the cost of those spells, and underwent the last changes.

Meanwhile, above in Rivendell, some of the elves had noticed the Bruinen was getting restless and looked on with curiosity.

A small whirlpool formed above Edward's head as he carefully controlled his magic, reaching the exact intensity so his blood was bearing for the cost of the magic, but to be at it's limit.

And as his blood was quickly being purified, this limit got a little bigger everytime.

When Edward started, the whirlpool could barely be seen on the surface, but now it was already half a meter in diameter, and still growing.

Finally, after a whole hour, Edward felt something change. His blood reached satiation as he felt a big boost in the potency of his blood, and the whirlpool above him reached a meter in radius.