Elrond tells Aragorn something else, your choice.
Regretful Reproach[edit]
"I want you to apologise to him." Elrond held up his hand before Aragorn could protest or state he already had. "I mean sincerely, no excuses or reasons for your actions. Apologise, and be honest about your feelings on the matter, including all that has occurred with Arwen."
Aragorn narrowed his eyes at the last part of Elrond's request. "I'm not sure, and in fact highly doubt, if he'd want to hear about my now broken relationship with Arwen," he pointed out.
"Broken through no fault of your own," the elven lord reminded Aragorn. "And above all else, make sure he understands that he is not merely a replacement. From what I've gathered about his relationship with the steward of Gondor, Faramir has lived the majority of his life feeling as little more than an alternative, and an unwelcomed one at that." Elrond frowned as he turned to look over the whole of Lórien. "His treatment since arriving here has likely not changed that perception; I dare say it probably made such feelings much worse." He ignored the not-so-faint snort from his foster-son. "However, the threat of death from his own father may at the very least make him more open to anything you have to say, so long as you are sincere in your regret."
"Perhaps, but perhaps not," Aragorn grumbled, his annoyance shifting towards himself as he remembered the ride with Faramir to Lórien. "I too made mention of his being a second choice, though it was only out of annoyance as he kept asking so many questions--"
Elrond turned back around, eyebrows nearing his hairline as he cut into Aragorn's complaint. "Considering the initial deception you employed, can you really fault him for questioning you?"
"I know, I know." Aragorn deflated. "It still doesn't change what has been said and done to him from all parties involved. Do you honestly believe he'd be willing to listen to me, no matter how heartfelt an apology I could offer?"
"Would your rather do nothing at all, and let the only hope for you and Middle Earth leave to face the likelihood of death at his father's hands?" Elrond asked instead.
"If he leaves, surely Denethor--"
Elrond frowned. "Before today I would never have imagined any parent deciding to kill their own child simply to maintain their own base of power, yet Faramir did not speak in jest when he said Denethor was capable of doing just that. And he'd know we would still try and convince Faramir to join with you. Do you want to take that risk?"
Aragorn opened his mouth, and quickly shut it, seeing the truth in Elrond's words. Without another sound, he turned and walked into the talan Faramir had escaped into minutes before. He found Faramir sitting on the edge of the bed while gazing out the window and noticed the lost and hopeless expression on the young man's face. It cut Isildur's heir to know he himself had played a significant role in the creation of that sorrowful look. Yet before he could do as Elrond suggested, Faramir was already speaking.
"I wish to leave. That is, if I'm not being held as a prisoner now that I have no desire to agree to whatever plans you and the others have tried to coerce me into."
"It was not coercion--" Aragorn began, but was promptly cut off.
"The deception, the attack, the utter disdain and disregard I've suffered since arriving..." Faramir trailed off for a moment. "Perhaps it isn't coercion, because at least then an attempt to curry my favour would have been made. Instead I have been treated as the lowest of creatures for--for what I cannot even claim to know anymore. Happenstance? Fate? The whim of the Valar? Or just terrible incidents on my part?"
"Tis not that--" Aragorn tried to explain, but Faramir stopped him with a small shake of his head.
"And I cannot understand how I would have been a second choice if you knew from the beginning that Boromir was not a virgin, yet you said as much as we rode here."
Aragorn bit down on a groan as he mentally chastised himself once more for letting his anger control his words during the ride to Lórien.
"Add to that the 'hospitality' of the elves, and finish with the knowledge that I will likely be going to my own execution if I were to return home--"
"Which is exactly why you should remain--" Aragorn reasoned, but again found his words stopped as Faramir's eyes snapped towards him.
"I'm sure you and everyone involved in this sordid affair would benefit greatly from that, but I assure you that I have no intention of returning to Minas Tirith, nor will I move carelessly in Gondor." Faramir returned his gaze to the window. The following silence soon had Aragorn fighting against the duel urges of falling to his knees to beg Faramir's forgiveness and to please reconsider, or to simply shake the young captain until his teeth rattled.
"Where will you go if not back home?" he asked instead.
The slight tilt of his head changed Faramir's look, which now seemed more contemplative. "Perhaps I will simply travel. I can have my men send news of my early demise back to my father. Only Boromir may feel any sadness at the thought of my passing, but I doubt if I were to be missed by anyone else of consequence. I would be free to visit places I had once only read about. I could even write a chronicle of my journeys."
"How long do you think you could go traipsing around the countryside before the dark forces destroy it all?" Aragorn argued. "And even if you did write about your travels, who would be left to read them?"
"Are the words more or less important if no eyes were to ever behold them?" whispered Faramir. He turned back to Aragorn, and the King of Arnor grew fearful of the emptiness he could see growing within those grey eyes. "And it would seem I'm fated to die, whether by the orders of my father, the end of an orc's blade, the poison of a jealous and unstable elven lover, or the darkness of Isildur's Bane. I would at the very least prefer to die while doing something I enjoyed for once in my life. It would be a much more pleasant and fulfilling existence than being needed as a second choice, or else neither needed nor wanted at all."
The emptiness started to make sense, and Aragorn had to wonder about what Faramir had suffered even before the turmoil he'd brought into the Gondorion's life with this admittedly incredulous plan. Not knowing what to do or say, but acknowledging an action was needed, Aragorn walked over until he stood facing Faramir, then lowered himself to one knee as he took both of the young captain's hands in his own.
"I am sorry," he said after a moment. Aragorn realised that he and the others had helped to complicate Faramir's life beyond what any sane person could be expected to cope with. The fact that Faramir himself was still able to plot a course in the mire that was now surrounding him spoke well of his inner strength, and his sense of admiration for the young man grew. "I know that does nothing to resolve things as they are, but I am truly sorry for it all, Faramir."
Faramir allowed his eyes to meet Aragorn's for a moment before they dropped to where his hands had been captured. "As am I, for you little resemble the one I would see in my dreams..."
"Dreams?" Aragorn's head jolted up, having not been privy to this little piece of information before. "What dreams?"
--LN
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