Gráinne, Irimë, Ekhart and Faolan found themselves in the mountains of Ered Luin.  Looking at the world with the clarity of mind for the first time in a decade, Irimë, was overcome with grief at the loss of her son, and the revelation that her one true love, Annatar, was in fact the dark lord Sauron incarnate.  She fell to her knees and wailed in agony as her tears fell from the mountaintop into the waters of Belegaer where Beleriand had once sprawled in the days of her youth beneath the light of the Two Trees.  Her grief shook the earth and the mountain split asunder, separating Faolan from his compatriots.

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Gráinne, Irimë and Ekhart found the Blue Mountains difficult to pass, and eventually came to a Dwarven door in the mountainside.  Ekhart smashed the portal with his sledgehammer, alerting the sole occupant, Dworin Firebeard, a princely scion of a forgotten age who was heir to a Ring of Power.  He found the travelers and gave them shelter inside his deserted halls, where Gráinne chafed to be under the earth again so soon after their long immurement in Angband.  Irimë and Ekhart, however, informed Dworin of the rising of Sauron as Annatar the Lord of Gifts.  They convinced him to relight the forge fires, and the trio forged suits of armor for themselves and Gráinne symbolizing their alliance.  Dworin led his new compatriots out of the Blue Mountains, and together they crossed Eriador into Minihiriath, until they at last saw the now dark and fortified towers of Carn Dûm. 

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The kingdom of Gráinne's father had changed in the ten years of their absence.  The towers and walls were fortified with great stones and battlements as designed in Ekhart's renderings.  As they drew nearer, they could see, impaled upon abatises in the ramparts, the withered corpses of Orcs and other fell creatures that had tried to assail the fortress city.  A great portcullis opened in the city wall, and helmeted riders met them on the plains, dismounted and took a knee before "tar-Âruphel" and "King

Ekhart."  Inside the city walls, Ar-Azulzîr Narûakôr, the King of Carn Dûm, met them personally to rejoice in the return of his daughter.  He greeted Ekhart with nearly the same enthusiasm, and offered a solemn welcome to the "kingly" dwarf who accompanied them, but presented a cold greeting to Irimë, whom he called "Nimirizindu-bêth," "Elf harbinger."  Ar-Azulzîr brought Gráinne and Ekhart to his chambers where he embraced the former and informed the latter that he was to be coronated king of Tharbad.  The vizier Zigûr revealed himself from the shadows, and Ar-Azulzîr introduced him as his wizardly teacher.  The king dismissed the men and informed Gráinne he wished to wed her to Ekhart and make her Queen of Tharbad.  Gráinne countered that if she was to be queen, Azulzîr could simply declare it so, without the need to wed her to anyone.  Azulzîr admitted he could not do so, as open war was upon the kingdoms of Men, and their armies would need their kings to ride with them; Azulzîr would not risk his daughter's life again after having believed her dead again for ten years.  When Gráinne refused, Ar-Azulzîr blamed Nimirizindu-bêth for her insidious influence and cast the elf-maiden from the city.  Dworin, declaring his love for Irimë, pushed past the armored guards and followed her out.  Just before his coronation, later that evening, Ekhart smuggled the pair back into Carn Dûm through a secret postern and secreted them in a tower.  From the narrow embrasures in the turret, Dworin and Irimë watched the procession in the courtyard to the dais where the vizier Zigûr stood as tar-Âruphel took the throne beside her father.  The soldiers of Carn Dûm escorted Ekhart to a kneeling rail where he took a knee before tar-Âruphel.  The King of Carn Dûm knighted Ekhart with his longsword and then commenced the coronation by lowering a great, spiked helm of of iron onto his head.  As Ekhart raised his eyes, he could see through the slitted visor of the great helmed crown nothing but the grave visage of the Witch-king of Carn Dûm.