New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2017, 04-25

The Wise and the Lost

I am on what looks like a road from a fantasy game. The road leads across green fields and rolling hills. Not too far off I can see what looks like a wall around a city. I have the idea that is where I am going so I head in that direction. The road leads past a pillar with a white hand statue on it, the hand is pointing farther along the road and the fingernails are painted a red that looks like blood. I continue past that and soon come to a place that used to be blocked off by a heavy gate, but the gates have been literally torn to pieces and cast aside. I am about to go through the destroyed gate when I hear a couple different people calling out to me. One of the voices calls me by name, “Raven!” while the other voice demands to know who I am and what my business here is. The person addressing me by name is Legolas from the Lord of the Rings books, and the person who wants to know my business is a tree… or rather an Ent. The Ent seems to consider it good enough that Legolas knows me and he returns to his guard post near the destroyed gate where he becomes virtually invisible, which is why I hadn’t seen him on approach.

Legolas comes over with Merry, Pippin, Gimli, and Aragorn. I do a double take and before I even realize I’m going to speak I ask where Boromir has gone. Aragorn says not to worry, my healing work did its job well, but Boromir went directly on to Minas Tirith, as was his original intent. He says I will never believe who came back to them when they needed him most… Gandalf! Well there he is right now, with Treebeard and King Theoden and the others. He heads off in their direction and everyone follows him. We meet up not far from the tower of Orthanc, Gandalf doesn’t look surprised to see me. He motions to the tower of Orthanc and says he was just about to go have a word with Saruman. I say I think I may yet be able to heal Saruman’s heart from the darkness that has taken up residence there. Gandalf says he would not tell me to not try, but he has a feeling Saruman won’t be likely to listen to reason. I say he merely has to listen to my song.

When we get to the tower, Gandalf calls Saruman out. After a brief pause I see Saruman standing on a small balcony up above us, about a third of the way up the tower. Saruman leans out and surveys the people here, I quickly duck out of the way closer to the tower so he doesn’t see me. Saruman is now saying how he has little hope that Gandalf is here for his council, but King Theoden has been his friend for so long… he then sets off on trying to win King Theoden over with his charismatic voice. I look back and see that Theoden seems hesitant to give any answer to Saruman’s request that he come up and they talk together and make peace between Saruman and the people of Rohan. Saruman is acting like he is the one who has been wronged rather than King Theoden and the people of Rohan, even though it was Saruman who started the attacks, not the people of Rohan. I ignore what Saruman is continuing to say and I go to the door into Orthanc. It is, of course, locked. I use the Harry Potter spell Alohamora to unlock the door and it swings open silently and I enter, taking care to be completely silent.

The interior of the tower of Orthanc is dark at first, but my eyes quickly adjust. I find stairs that head upward. I wonder how many levels up Saruman is, it only looked like a few, which is less than I’d pictured it when reading the books. I climb up a few levels, following the sound of Saruman’s voice. Suddenly he sounds angry for a bit before going back to his soft and soothing voice. Someone down there is getting him annoyed. I get to the level where he is and quietly open the door. I see across the room to where the balcony connects to the room, Saruman is outside and completely unaware of me. Now Saruman is telling Gandalf to come up, let the two of them take council together and speak reasonably as only the wise can. There is a pause, then Saruman gets pissed again. He spits out a few curses that weren’t mentioned in the Lord of the Rings books and then turns away from the balcony and comes inside. He stops short when he sees me and asks who I am to barge into his tower unannounced and uninvited. I tell him I have only done what he bid, for someone to come up and be reasonable and hear his council. I figure he might be more agreeable if he thinks I’m on his side. He says he doesn’t have any interest in taking council with the likes of me. I feign disappointment and say then I will have to settle for giving my help to him even if it is unasked for.

He starts to say there is nothing I could possibly have to say that would interest Saruman the Wise, but I ignore him and begin the song Liberate by Disturbed. Saruman needs to have his mind set free from Sauron the Dark Lord, who controls him through the Palantir. “Bold motherfucker won’t you liberate your mind?” Saruman does a double take at the music that starts playing, the sound of Disturbed… “Bold motherfucker, won’t you liberate your mind? Can't you see that the messages have fallen behind? All the hate in your heart will be leaving you blind, so bold motherfucker won’t you liberate your mind this time!” The room fills with a golden energy that flows around and through Saruman. When the song is done he looks disoriented, confused. He asks what has happened, what has he done? I say he has done only what his puppet master has commanded him to do, but now the strings have been broken and he is free to act on his own again. I look around the room and I see the source of his problems, there is the palantir sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. I go over to it and carefully pick it up without looking into it. I say to Saruman that the palantir is what the enemy has been using to control him, but no more will he be shown those twisted and backwards versions of what is happening in the world. Now he will make his own mind instead.

Saruman looks confused still as I walk from the room. I go down the stairs and past a confused looking Wormtongue, who does nothing to get in my way. I figure he can stay loyal to Saruman, because now that will not put him on the side of evil. I have a feeling Saruman is going to be very angry at the Dark Lord for being used as a pawn. I notice that he looks rather sickly, but I figure Saruman can help him if he is ill. I exit the tower of Orthanc and find Gandalf and the others still there. Gandalf asks what happened in there, he said he heard what sounded like music from another world (I get the idea he didn’t particularly like it) and then nothing. I carefully hand Gandalf the palantir and say the enemy has controlled Sauron using that, but now the strings are broken and Saruman is a puppet no more. Gandalf takes the palantir, also making sure not to look into it, and wraps it in a cloth he pulls from inside his robes. Aragorn asks what about Wormtongue. I say he’s been doing evil under Saruman’s orders, so now if he continues following Saruman, he won’t be doing evil. I say if Wormtongue needs more healing of heart, I will return, but now I can’t stay. Everything is fading even as I say that, and then I wake up.