Grey or White

By GreatAngemon

“Why, Saruman?” Gandalf asked, looking up from where he sat. “Why do you do this? Why betray everything you once believed in? Me, Radagast, did you think about us?”

“If only you knew,” Saruman said, gazing at his old friend. “There is a power far greater than either of us in this land.”

“But there is a power still greater in us,” Gandalf murmured. “Sauron is indeed powerful, but the Elves, the Hobbits, even the Dwarves and the Men, they have more power than him.”

“What did you say?” Saruman snapped coldly.

“Sauron,” Gandalf repeated, “Isn’t the most powerful force in this Middle-earth.”

“Then tell me, Gandalf the Grey,” Saruman sneered. “If Lord Sauron isn’t the most powerful force here, then who is?”

“It is no Man, nor creature of the world,” Gandalf said. “The most powerful force in Middle-earth, Saruman the White, is friendship. Unity. Two things you once believed in.”

Saruman looked stunned, but then twisted his face in anger. “You are a fool, Gandalf.”

He started walking away, but stopped when he heard Gandalf say, “Tell me why, Saruman. If you must give me to your master, if you must betray all you once believed in, you at least owe me an explanation.”

Saruman stood still, so Gandalf said, “Why did you abandon all your wisdom for Sauron’s treachery and machines?”

“Wisdom is folly,” Saruman said in a voice that Gandalf could hardly hear, “For want of the power to use it. My wisdom was of no use, for I lacked the power to execute it. It was discarded, and now I have the power to do anything.”

“You…” Gandalf said, his voice trembling and his words faltering, “You… you fool.”

Saruman looked back for a moment, and then strode back to the trapdoor leading back into Orthanc.

Gandalf looked to the sky, his eyes glistening with tears, and he saw a small brown moth flying over the tower. As it approached him, he cautiously reached his hand out and caught it.

He started whispering to it, and it flew away towards the forest at the foot of the Misty Mountains. “Hurry to Gwaihir,” he mumbled. “I need to get to Frodo. I am his only chance. I need to save him from the Wraiths. “