The Fall. [LOTR]

In the deep halls of Khazad-dûm, where the air was red with the breath of the earth, fire met starlight. Gandalf the Grey, servant of the Secret Fire, stood before a terror out of forgotten ages — the Balrog of Morgoth, crowned in flame and shadow.

When the bridge broke, the abyss took them both. Down they fell through choking dark, past pillars older than moonlight, past the sleeping bones of mountains. Stone turned to water; the lake swallowed fire, and still they fought.

The Balrog rose again in smoke and wrath, and Gandalf pursued through the endless black, through tunnels of ash and halls no dwarf ever delved.

At last they climbed the spiral of the world to the peak of Zirakzigil, where storm and lightning tore the sky. There the fire-demon perished, and the grey pilgrim was spent.

Yet from death’s deep silence, a greater light was kindled.