First of all, I would like to thank all the kind people who have reviewed my story.  This is, after all, the very first Lord of the Rings fan fiction I have written, and the support that I have gotten throughout the project has been fantastic.  Thank you all.

          This story is slightly amazing to me because it was originally a much smaller idea than it turned out to be.  I thought it would top out around 20 pages, at the most – and it eventually hit 130.  Not only is it the longest single piece of work that I have ever written, it is also the most polished and researched – which surprises me, because I'm a rarity in the LOTR fan fiction community.  I didn't read the books until after I saw the movie for the first 2 times (don't ask how many times I've seen it now, because I lost count quite some time ago).  However, I gobbled up all 3 books, plus Unfinished Tales within a week over Christmas vacation, and haven't looked back since.

          Where the Shadows Lie has been a heck of a lot of fun to write, although it's seemed a curse once or twice.  In the end, it's encouraged me to move into a universe of my own making, so for those of you into original fantasy, if you ever see a book entitled Night Rider on the shelves in a bookstore, please pick it up.  That one is my baby, and I'd be eternally grateful.

      Anyways, I figured that I'd chronicle the quotes that I used at chapter beginnings for those who are interested, because I got them from rather interesting places and worked very hard to find ones that reflected the feelings of my chapters, if not the content. 

Chapter One: "Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell."  --- Gandalf to Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn in The Two Towers.

Chapter Two: "And behold! in our need chance brings to light the Ring of Power. It is a gift, I say; a gift to the foes of Mordor. It is mad not to use it, to use the power of the enemy against him. The fearless, the ruthless, these alone with achieve victory. What could not a warrior do in this hour, a great leader? What could not Aragorn do? Or if he refuses, why not Boromir? The Ring would give me power of Command. How I would drive the hosts of Mordor, and all men would flock to my banner!"  --- Boromir

Chapter Three: "But all that has been wrought by those who wield the Three will turn to their undoing, and their minds and hearts will become revealed to Sauron, if he regains the One. It would be better if the Three had never been. That is his purpose."  --- Elrond

Chapter Four:  "The wise speak only of what they know, Gríma son of Galmod. A witless worm have you become. Therefore be silent, and keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls."  --- Gandalf, TTT, page 503

Chapter Five:  "And it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world."  --- Gandalf, at the Council of Elrond

Chapter Six: "It would destroy you.  Did not Gandalf tell you that the rings give power according to the measure of each possessor?" --- Galadriel

Chapter Seven: "Dangerous!  And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord."  --- Gandalf, TTT, page 488

Chapter Eight: "Sauron took the Nine Rings and other lesser works of the Mírdain; but the Seven and the Three he could not find. Then Celebrimbor was put to torment, and Sauron learned from him where the Seven were bestowed. This Celebrimbor revealed, because neither the Seven nor the Nine did he value as he valued the Three: the Seven and the Nine were made with Sauron's aid, whereas the Three were made by Celebrimbor alone, with a different power and purpose."  --- From Unfinished Tales

Chapter Nine: "That is not the road that you must take. I have spoken words of hope. But only of hope. Hope is not victory. War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring could give us surety of victory. It fills me with great sorrow and great fear: for much may be destroyed and all may be lost. I am Gandalf, Gandalf the White, but Black is mightier still."  --- Gandalf, TTT, page 489

Chapter Ten: "There are many powers in this world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming." --- Gandalf, FOTR, page 214

Chapter Eleven: "And now he shall endure the slow torment of years, as long and slow as our arts in the Great Tower can contrive, and never be released, unless maybe when he is changed and broken, so that he may come to you, and you shall see what you have done." --- The Mouth of Sauron, ROTK

Chapter Twelve: "Before him stood the old figure, white, shining now as if with some light kindled within, bent, laden with years, but holding a power beyond the strength of Kings." --- page 489

Chapter Thirteen: "It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves." --- Denethor, page 835

Chapter Fourteen: "I cannot use it.  I dread the pain of touching it.  And I have not yet found the strength to bend it to my will.  My pride has fallen.  It should go to the Keepers of the Three."  --- Isildur, page 286

Chapter Fifteen: "With that power I should have power too great and terrible.  And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.  Do not tempt me!  For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself.  Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good.  Do not tempt me!  I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused.  The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength.  I shall have such need of it.  Great perils lie before me."  --- Gandalf to Frodo, page 60

Chapter Sixteen: "One Ring to Rule them all…One Ring to find them…One Ring to bring them all…And in the Darkness bind them."  --- duh

Chapter Seventeen: "And that is another reason why the Ring should be destroyed: as long as it is in the world it will be a danger even to the Wise.  For nothing is evil in the beginning.  Even Sauron was not so I fear to take the Ring to hide it.  I will not take the Ring to wield it."  --- Elrond, page 261

Chapter Eighteen: "I do not trust myself in this, and I refused this thing, even as a freely given gift.  You are strong and in some matters govern yourself, Denethor; yet if you had received this thing, it would have overthrown you.  Were it buried beneath the roots of Mindolluin, still it would burn your mind away, as the darkness grows, and the yet worse things follow that soon shall come upon us."  --- Gandalf, page 796

Chapter Nineteen: "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."  --- Gandalf

Chapter Twenty: "The Road goes ever on and on. Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say."  ---  one of Bilbo's poems

Chapter Twenty-One: "In that hour I looked upon Aragorn and thought how great and terrible Lord he might have become in the strength of his will, had he taken the Ring to himself.  Not for naught does Mordor fear him."  --- Legolas, page 858

Chapter Twenty-Two: "…the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth.  It was afterwards said that they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear."  --- Appendix B, page 1059

Chapter Twenty-Three: "It's wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope."  --- Gandalf, page 262

Chapter Twenty-Four: "Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin.  He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience." --- from the Simillarion, page 25

Chapter Twenty-Five: "…He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."  --- Gandalf, page 252

Epilogue: "The Dark Lord has Nine.  But we have One, mightier than they: the White Rider.  He has passed though the fire and the abyss, and they shall fear him.  We will go where he leads." –-- Aragorn, page 490

"Who would go?  For they must be mighty, peers of Sauron, but must forgo might, and clothe themselves in flesh so as to treat on equity and win the trust of Elves and Men.  But this would imperil them, dimming their wisdom and their knowledge, and confusing them with fears, cares and weariness coming from the flesh."  --- from Unfinished Tales, page 293

Again, my thanks.  Email me at [email protected] if you ever have any questions or want to archive.

Finis.