Aisha and Jihad first met on June 14th, 2024, during a remote internship. After meeting in person, a connection grew. From there, things developed quickly and not long after, Jihad travelled back to Scotland to ask her and her dad an important question.

In the Fourth Age of Zoom and Google Docs, on the 14th day of June in the year 2024, two travelers—Aisha of the Highlands and Jihad of the East—were summoned to join a fellowship: an internship with the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture and Collections. At first, their paths only crossed in the digital realm, through glowing palantíri (or as the modern folk call them, video calls).

But destiny had other plans. Jihad was called to journey across the seas to the ancient city of Edinburgh for an in-person gathering of the fellowship. And there, in the stone halls of the National Museum of Scotland, beneath the flickering lights of the Game On exhibition, he and Aisha met at last.

By the grace of Elbereth (or maybe just scheduling luck), they were the only two whose interests aligned for the quest. What began as a simple alliance soon grew into something deeper—work calls turned into extended councils, then to game nights, and then to a fateful movie night, where Jihad asked a question—not one to bind all in darkness, but one that changed the shape of their journey.

From that moment on, their tale picked up speed like Shadowfax on open fields. Before long, Jihad once again crossed land and sea to return to Scotland—not to seek a sword, crown, or ring, but to ask Aisha and her father the most noble question of all.

And so their fellowship became a bond, forged not in the fires of Mount Doom, but through shared stories, laughs, and a few perfectly timed calls.