And then a thunderclap sounds from behind them.

As Elendil once said, the world is not a machine.  Sauron would have it be a machine, but in fact it is a symphony.  There are exceptions to the rules.

It is not like Arda is closed in upon itself with all roads bent.  The Walls of the World open every year, to let the Elves (and occasionally others) travel the Straight Road.  And they open more often than that for the Seeing-Stone on the Tower Hills, where even mortal Men may see along the Straight Road to the Undying Lands that have been taken away from the world.

(And what of the walls around Eä as a whole, far beyond the stars of Elbereth?  No Man or Elf has seen them, and what the Powers know, they have not shared - save merely, neither is Eä a machine.)

So, on the northern borders of Rivendell, where the wards of the Ring of Air are being pressed from outside (by Sauron) and changed from inside (by Elrond its bearer fencing against Sauron) at the same time, it would not be impossible for another crack to open through the Walls of the World...

Especially by someone who was bloody stupid enough to get distracted by thinking about the Rings of Power when attempting to devise/enchant/draft a vaguely ring-shaped portal-anchor frame and then fumble a dollop of essence of pregnant pause into it.  Or rather, undiluted possibility and λ-being, but when the universe is singing at you, you damn well take musical notes.

Alicia Thorn lets out a blistering "Motherfuck---" as she blows through a portal that shouldn't have existed, but nonetheless λ-did.

They turn back at the sound of a thunderclap out of what had been - well, not a clear sky; it's rarely a clear sky in late October - a sky that definitely didn't look like a thunderstorm.

There's no rain or lightning.  Instead, for a moment the air looks glistening... and then it's just normal air again, but it looks like a person is sprawled on the pebbly beach next to the Bruinen.

Adrahil and Halbarad exchange one nod, and then ride toward the person.

It's a girl.  A young human girl... maybe a little younger than Halbarad's youngest, thirteen or so?  In a strange but obviously well-made dress.

She doesn't look like she's Dunedain, or Beorning.

Adrahil raises an eyebrow as they approach, and touches his sword.  "Strange," he murmurs in Sindarin (a language evesdroppers are less likely to know).  "Maybe a trap?"

Halbarad shrugs.  "Can't leave her here," he replies also in Sindarin.

Adrahil nods.

Halbarad slips off his horse as they approach.  "Hello?" he says in the Common Speech.  "Who are you, and what brings you here?"

If she doesn't seem to understand, he'll try again in Sindarin, and then haltingly in his few words of a few Orcish and Rhovanian dialects.

She's picked herself up, and is looking around herself with all evidence of - fear-worry, incomprehension, and self-disgust, muttering in a way that is just evidently full of imprecations despite being unintelligible once she's gotten past "Oww", but it seems that neither Villarosan Common nor English have cognates here.  And if this is where she thinks it could be, why would they, Tolkien said the text was translated from - Westron?  The Shire's native language - and then there were like several dozen conlangs - (well, no, that's a lie, she only knows of, like, three, but still -)

She turns around, looking at where the portal probably should have been.

It isn't.  She doesn't know what she was expecting, and ends up kicking the beach in a frustrated mini-sulk.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you," she says, shaking her head.

Right.  Time to try - magical pantomime, most probably.

She takes several steps back, and - well, tries to call up a simple magelight as her first step before she starts trying to make more complex illusions to explain things, hoping they won't get spooked.  She's pretty sure she saw that guy's hand go to his sword.  She does not like that.

(It is probably worth noting that she is wearing a sufficiently bejeweled tiara to indicate that she's Important even while she's wearing her toolbelt and lab safety equipment.)

Of course she's afraid, in the wild away from home.

... some ways away from home, given that Halbarad doesn't understand her language at all.  Though there's obviously something strange, given how she's wearing on her head more jewels than he's ever seen outside Rivendell...

He shakes his head too.  "I don't understand your language," he says in the Common Speech.

And then she makes a light right above her hand!

Halbarad gasps in shock, his eyes wide.  He can't do that.  Aragorn can't do that.

He hears Adrahil gasp behind him, "Barrows -"

... yes, that could almost be it.  He's heard Barrow-wights sometimes dress their captives in strange clothes and jewels.  It's not impossible there could be one near here; maybe the Nine Riders stirred it up...

"Did you escape a Barrow-wight?" he asks, trying to not let his pounding heart into his voice.

...No. She headshakes.  She's pretty sure that was an is-there-danger sort of question.

Pantomime it is.  Especially with - she's not really sure that she's waving around the same magic, but the magelight is working fine.

"Bloody language barrier...  I don't know what you're saying but you clearly think I'm impressive -"

Alright.

Introductions first, or - no, explanation first.

She stares frustratedly at where the portal was first, for a second, before cueing up the illusion of what should have happened - stylized Alicia-working-on-portal-frame, Alicia-puts-[arcane-purple]-magic-in-frame, frame opens somewhere else with another frame (zoom out, show the connection on a not-map -) - and then she shakes her head, shoving it away, and shows what did happen.

Alicia-working-on-frame, Alicia-gets-distracted-by-thinking-of-magical-rings (no specific details like the fucking Black Speech inscription, she doesn't even remember it precisely, they just glow colors in the thoughtbubble), Alicia-thinking-causes-different-magic (shadowy, absence-of-light unlight), different-magic-splashes-on-portal, surprised-Alicia-experiences-stylized-air-currents, beach.  And faceplant.

Alicia then shows the same zoom on the map, but - much further.  Wrapping the map around a planet and adding a starfield, zooming the starfield out to show a galaxy, zooming the galaxy out to show multiple universes, all of that overlaid with a zigzaggy broken line of travel.  She does stick a little picture of the beach in the 'corner' to show her destination, though.

... All right, apparently she's somehow an Elf?  Able to sing illusions without the actual singing?

Halbarad has heard of magical rings, but most everything else here is lost on him.  Surely, after all, she couldn't be talking of actually traveling past the stars?

"Elda?  Elleth?" he ventures, pointing at her questioningly even though she if she was an Elf she would surely have recognized his Sindarin greeting before.

Adrahil has also heard the stories of magical rings, and he's again thinking of more concerning possibilities.  Given she's pretty clearly not an Elf, and she's probably too young to be a witch calling on Sauron's dark power herself, her magic needs to come from somewhere... and the strange jewels on her head are an obvious possibility.

He makes a show of taking off his hood, and then lifts an imaginary wreath off his head, and then gestures to her expectingly.

"No.  No Elda, no Elleth," she says, pretty sure what that's about even if she has to guess from the Warhammer Eldar to get started.  "Human."  Not that they'd recognize the word, probably.

...Sure, she can take the tiara off.  She gives him a quizzical look as she does.

...And then she remembers just what setting she might be in and just.  Puts it on the ground and facepalms.  "Should have guessed that might be a concern..."  ...Now how does she communicate 'no, the tiara is not an evil magic artifact'.

...How did she get this one, anyway...?

Her thinking face isn't exactly intentional but it's probably nonetheless indicative; she steps away from the tiara and does another bit of illusion.  This time she shows her immediate family tree - Queen-Consort Jethelia, King Ambrose, both with their own crowns, producing a baby - and then the baby turns into her, time passing with an hourglass with - fourteen tally marks, communicating her age more important than strict accuracy, and Queen Jethelia talks to a smith-caricature, speech-bubbling the tiara at him, and then the smith hammers it into existence.  From raw materials.  Well, if 'silver bar' and 'gems sticking out of a rock' are 'raw materials'.  (And then it gets put on the Alicia-picture on the family tree, of course.  After passing through Jethelia.)

...Actually, she should probably explain...

Well, the magic comes from inside herself, sort of?  Even if it doesn't really?  And that's not even taking into account her own reality distortion field.

Still, she can -

-- but should she.

Better, probably, to keep opsec on that a bit more stringently.  But she can show the same Alicia-activating-portal without the tiara, and - perhaps pulling up an image of a shadowy figure puppeting her (through the tiara?) and then shoving it away forcefully, with a "No.".  That should probably help...?

Adrahil relaxes visibly when she takes off the tiara.

What she shows then seems to be clearly a tableaux of her life... until the part where she seems to be traveling through a suddenly-appearing door that opens somewhere else?  And when she shows a shadowy figure, he's not clear whether she's saying it didn't happen or it happened but she very much hates that it happened.

Well, whichever one it is, it still calls for the same response.  He turns to Halbarad.  "We need to bring her to Rivendell.  With this many mysteries about her, Aragorn needs to see her... and Gandalf, if he's still there."

(The names "Rivendell" and "Gandalf" are translation-convention for original names in Westron (aka Common Speech), so Alicia won't recognize them.  However, the name "Aragorn" is in Sindarin, so it's literally the same and Alicia will (probably?) recognize it.)

Halbarad doesn't make any more sense of the tableaux of Alicia's life.

He nods to Adrahil.  "Yes; we can't leave a girl out in this wilderness.  And even aside from mysteries - better to take her to Rivendell where someone might speak her language, than to our villages where no one will."

Now how to convey that to Alicia...

...Yes, she does recognize Aragorn.  Unfortunately she doesn't recognize anything else and frankly, racking her brain for Sindarin produces "mellon" and literally nothing else.  Except the horrible xkcd frenemy portmanteau.  Unless 'Morgoth' literally means enemy and you have to just guess if it's in capital letters in spoken Sindarin.  Which might be the case for all she knows.  It's not like Morgoth isn't that blunt of an instrument.

...She'll put her tiara back on now?  It...  Settles her.

She can kind of guess that they're talking about 'take her to our leader' sorts of things from that particular namedrop, so...

How to do this.

...First, establish an 'in charge' sort of symbol?

...Well, and introduce herself - or...That can probably wait.

First, show the King and Queen again, and herself, and some Generic Humans.  Then show the King and Queen saying things, with the crowns, tiaras, whatever, on the speech bubble.  Then show the people moving about when that happens, connected to the speech bubble.  ...Also show Alicia ordering some of them about even if she doesn't like that she can do that.

Now show them and a "Generic" (read: Movie Aragorn, with the beard -) Boss Dude, With Fancy Crown Tacked On, ordering them about until they run into Alicia, and...  Ask "Yes, or No?"  Because she shouldn't know Aragorn, son of Arathorn, or his hierarchical position, really. ( ...That is his dad, right?)

(If "No", then repeat but with someone with Alicia's tiara giving them orders that the Boss Dude gives them, but she doesn't think it will be necessary.)

Then show them, and Alicia, going to the appropriate tier of Generic Boss Dude, "Yes, please," and them leaving Alicia to go say Alicia is on the beach "No, please."  With a sad Alicia, you don't want her to be sad, do you?

She seems to recognize one of the names he mentioned?  He's not surprised; Gandalf and Aragorn have both traveled to some far-flung places...

It takes a moment for him to guess what she means by the crowns.  Even when Aragorn's ancestors were kings of Arnor, they didn't wear a crown... but after a moment, he remembers that the kings of other realms do wear crowns.

... wait a minute, is that what the jewels on her head are?  "Is she saying she's a princess?"

"Then all the more reason to bring her safely to Rivendell."

He turns to Alicia.

First to introduce themselves.  He points to him and his friend in turn:  "Halbarad; Adrahil."  Then to both of them together:  "Dunedain.  Rangers."  He points at her, questioningly, and waits a moment for her to give her name.

Then sweeping around them, indicating the whole land:  "Eriador."  Then to the southwest, toward the mountains that can be seen on the horizon:  "Rivendell, or Imladris."

Then he points to all three of them and their horses, and makes walking motions with his fingers in the direction he pointed toward Rivendell.  Hopefully she'll look happy at that?

Since she seemed to recognize one of the names, he points again and repeats, "Aragorn and Gandalf are at Rivendell." 

(All the proper names here are literal Sindarin... except "Rangers", "Gandalf," and "Rivendell," which are translation-convention.)

"Alicia," she says, then pointing at Halbarad and Adrahil she repeats their names, then pointing at an image of what's-through-the-portal and making the sweepy gesture she says "Villarosa; Halbarad and Adrahil Dunedain, Alicia Villarosan".

"Alicia," walky-fingers "go to," then "Rivendell, Imladris?  Yes."

He nods.  "Alicia, Halbarad, Adrahil" (finger-walk) "go to Rivendell.  Alicia on horse?"

He gestures as if lifting someone onto the back of his horse.  It wouldn't be the first time he's carried a girl in front of himself on his horse... though it's usually been his children or other Dunedain's.

Alicia appears to be thinking about that.

...She really wishes she had a better spell for travel.  Sure, she knows the train enchantments, but they're kind of useless without an actual train.

"Alicia on horse yes-no; Alicia on horse maybe.  Alicia on horse maybe ow.  Alicia want no ow."

...If she's in LotR, perhaps she'd best not spook anybody with a void horse - but she probably could whistle up something if she did want to risk it...

...But the anti-Song and the anti-Light is the Enemy's, or at least the Enemy's allies - what with the big fuckoff spider that ate the Trees, she thinks - and she doesn't know if that correspondence would hold true for Void magic.

Damn it.

"...Alicia on horse yes, please."

(Elrond would be sighing a sigh of relief if he had known about her decision not to summon a horse from something that sounds like the Uttermost Darkness.)

Halbarad hears the "ow" and smiles reassuringly.  "Don't worry."

He brings his horse a few steps closer and holds out his arms to lift Alicia up onto the horse.

Alicia permits this to happen!  ...She is clearly not used to traveling by animal.

...Should've made a flying carpet, probably.

Halbarad is very used to it, and his horse Peartree (named by his neighbor's son) is also used to it and stands steadily as Halbarad sets Alicia up astride.  (He's seen some sidesaddles at Rivendell, but Peartree's never worn one.)

And then he gets up behind her, reaches around her for the reins, and clucks for Peartree to start back toward Rivendell at a walk.  Once they've forded the Bruinen again, unless Alicia's having trouble, he and Adrahil will speed up to a trot.

(And if Alicia does have trouble - the other reason to put her in front of him is for him to be ready to keep her from falling off.)

(If he'd tried to sit her sidesaddle she would have rioted, to be honest.  She's wearing pants for a reason.)

...She can probably manage this.  It's like riding a bike!  Something she's never done properly!

...Okay actually it's slightly easier than biking because the horse moves itself.