Finduilas is not your mother
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Twenty Years Past[edit]
-Bell Witch 10 April 2006 18:31 (GMT)
"This is going to be very difficult for you to believe, but Finduilas is not your mother," Imrahil said.
Faramir stood back and nodded coldly. "You are right, and you had better to be able to prove it. How can you know this and how could such a thing happen?"
Imrahil waited stoically under the young man's gaze.
"It happened because she wanted it to happen, because she wanted so desperately to give Denethor another child."
"But she could not have…" Faramir began, breaking off when Imrahil shook his head.
"She did. He wanted another child as did she but it was several years since Boromir's birth and she was beginning to suspect that something was wrong. She was correct in that. I do not know who she saw for she took that information with her when she died. But there was a healer who was able to confirm that she was indeed barren. Something had happened when you brother was born."
Imrahil began to pace slowly.
"You must understand how stubborn was my sister. Denethor wanted more children and she did also but could not bear them. But she found her answer one day in not-so-idle gossip. A young noblewoman from Dol Amroth was known to have got with child, and she unwed. Again, I do not know how she did it, but Finduilas found the young lady. I believe that her intention was to take the child already conceived as her own--to play as though she were with child and so deceive your father."
Faramir shook his head. "So I am this bastard child, then?"
It would explain many things. Somehow Denethor must have found out and treated his second 'son' accordingly.
"No you are not. Denethor is your father."
Faramir rose swiftly and walked to Imrahil, eyes dangerous.
"Do you mean to tell me that Lord Denethor… this unknown woman… That is a lie!"
Imrahil remained surprisingly calm.
"That is a lie, for he knew the woman only as your mother's maid. And the child she carried was lost. Still, Finduilas was now determined and she had an idea. I do not know how she managed it. I believe only the two women themselves were aware. Finduilas took the seed of Denethor from her own body and gave it to your mother. The pregnant maid remained pregnant, and gave company to Finduilas during her own confinement. A maid is a maid is a maid, and Lord Denethor was busy and distracted, concerned with the health of his own wife, who was having a difficult time. Indeed, a healer told him that it was likely this would be her last child. How many healers she had working with her… no one knows. I heard later in letters about all the chaos that surrounded the day of your birth, although they did not fully describe things for you had truly been born the night before. This I have only just learned myself from the lady Ansara. She is your true mother."
Faramir stood mute, shocked for a few moments until Imrahil took his arm and helped him to sit.
"My mother is alive," he said blankly.
"She is. After all this time she has returned to Dol Amroth. Finduilas saw to her care at first and made certain that she was well and later had her moved to a safe and comfortable home away from Minas Tirith."
"But she's come back now," Faramir said. "Is she ill or is there some other reason?"
His eyes were not quite so wild and he was thinking. To learn the truth and then lose his mother anyway, for all that she was a complete stranger to him, would be unbearable.
"Reason yes, but not illness. Lady Ansara is well. She returns not for her own sake but for yours. For so many years she remained safe, hidden from the man who had caused her original dishonour. She says that she was not completely guiltless but that he gave false promises that they would be wed. It happens still, for there will always be men who use lies to earn their will. Donagen of Lebennin was away for a soldier these twenty years but returned. He had heard of the lady's disgrace and disappearance, of course, but did naught about it until his return."
Imrahil looked disgusted.
"Of a sudden, and I am sure this has to do with the fact that his family wishes not to see him, but he has decided that the time has come to bring his lady to honour and be a father to their son."
Bewildered, Faramir asked, "Did you not say that child was never born?"
A nod from Imrahil. "I did, and it wasn't. Donagen refuses to believe it though, and he managed to gain information from Ansara before she was able to flee from him. Despite the timing and logic, he believes that the man known as Faramir Denethorion is really his own son."
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