It required such trust, passing an object of this much power along, and her treacherous mind clawed at her as she unhanded it. She was without Nenya, but she ignored the thoughts prodding her, demanding she withdraw all power and hide it away.

Once the brooch passed from Galadriel's hand and into Ellana's, the effects of the Elessar were removed from Galadriel. She dimmed like a candle being snuffed out, the light bled from her and was gone away, as though it had never been. Without that light, her skin was flushed and pale in places, her hair fell lank with the drizzle of rain, and she curled forward, diminished, as the pain in her wounds returned.

In Ellana's hand, the Elessar did a most curious thing: it waited. For a moment, there was no change in Ellana and, all at once, the emerald glimmer seemed to decide how to proceed. The light that poured from Galadriel, issued from Ellana's skin, her scars and markings were evaporated in the shine of it, and her stature drew noble and tall. The effect shifted, even as she stood still, as if it were undecided on how far it could or should draw her to the end it had chosen, but it maintained.

"Holding it is enough," Galadriel said in a pinched tone. "It will use you for its work, pay it little heed but resist the song of it, the voice that whispers, for its will is not your own."