Bilbo and Boromir smiled as they watched Frodo sleep peacefully with a smile of his own. His maimed hand reached out and closed with a murmur of “Sam.”

“The Lord Irmo and Lady Este keep him well this night,” Bilbo said. “I daresay his healing is almost complete. I am glad. I did not want to leave him until I saw peace come to him.”

“I am glad as well, but he will miss you sorely. Must you leave so soon after he heals?”

“I would stay with him forever if I could, but as long as I have lived among the Elves, I am yet mortal. I am ready. He will grieve but he will accept that. He will stay and wait for Sam and he will be ready himself after that. We have been given a great gift, that I understand the Men of Numenor were also blessed with: the time to choose when to surrender ourselves trustfully to the One who made us.”

“Such is so. I will not take such a Road while Frodo is in need.”

Bilbo smiled as he looked up at his adopted son. “I thought so. I am glad that my two sons will have the company of each other. It would be lonely for Frodo to not someone akin to himself here.” He looked back down at Frodo, as the Ring-bearer murmured Pippin’s name. “But then again he is not alone in any case.”

“I am glad he dreams of peace and friends instead of the rage and enmity of the Ring. Why do I feel it is more than just a dream?”

“You could well be right. Never doubt the power of the Master of Dreams. The one he gifted your brother and you with was a mighty one. In some ways, you can say it led you here. Frodo received many visions from childhood that he did not understand then. He dreamed of this land far before he saw it. And I have dreamed myself recently of what lays beyond this life.”

Boromir looked at Bilbo. “What does?”

Bilbo smiled. “The greatest adventure of them all. I do not envy the Elves their immortality. Death is called a gift given to us mortals. And I think that is so. We have a blessing that not even the Powers have in being able to escape beyond this life. We will hear one day more fully the Music as it was meant to be sung.” He looked back down at Frodo. “I have listened to this particularly beloved melody for many years now. It is at last coming back to how it sounded from the moment it captured me from before his birth. As I held him for the first time and looked into those eyes that held the Sea and Shire and so much more, I realized where that beautiful sound came from. Hearing it change into pain while he was gone on his Quest broke my heart, but the fact that I could still hear it sustained me. I fancy I will even hear it after I leave here. It is almost time.”