B2MEM Day 1 - Those We Hold Dear
Mar. 1st, 2019 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingBingo Number: G48
Prompts (Cards): Reunion in Valinor (Lord & Lady of Imladris), Edain (First Age)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1065
Notes: 1. This one is a Daughters of Celebrían 'verse, so if crossovers, however subtle, aren't your thing, you may wish to skip.
Celebrían watched her husband, observing him with equal parts love and concern.
Valinor would be an adjustment for them both, but where for her this was a day of first meetings, for Elrond it was one of reunions. Reunions, she had realized with a pang, he had perhaps never truly accepted would happen.
He was sitting with his parents on the edge of the fountain in the courtyard, the three of them talking in low, earnest voices to each other. Elwing had not let go of her son since they were safely within the walls of Olwë’s house, and Eärendil was only slightly less reluctant to be parted from him.
To the casual observer, it might look like a far more restrained reaction than her mother’s family was showing – and an order of magnitude lower energy than Tindomiel’s excitement level, which the last she had seen was being absorbed by Idril and Elenwë. But then, there had been no question of the welcome for Celebrían, her mother, or her daughter, much less that they would not wish to see their family. Elrond’s parents had not known what to expect.
Arwen and Tindomiel wrote to Elwing regularly, and while Anariel wrote on occasion, she was more likely to ‘speak’ to her grandfather – and, maddeningly, to claim he was taking her side on any question she addressed to the night sky. (Now that Celebrían had actually met Eärendil, she had to admit that had probably been the case.) Even the twins had occasionally humored one sister or another by writing or waving to their grandparents. With their grandchildren, Elwing and Eärendil might have been on surer ground.
But Elrond himself had rarely spoken of either of his parents, much less directly to Eärendil that Celebrían had ever seen. He also had not sent any letters so far as she knew, nor had Arwen ever been bold enough to ask her father if he wished to add to one of hers.
It was one thing for Glorfindel to tell him his parents missed him and waited for him, or to assure them all that the dead they had loved and lost in Ennor would and did walk from the Halls on the far side of the Sea. It was another for Elrond to let himself believe it, much less allow himself to look forward to it.
Even this reunion was bittersweet for Elrond, when his twin was not there to share it. Elros had spent so much of his time in the War of Wrath among and around the Edain that he had elected to share their fate, to lead them to their new land. Elrond had chosen the elves, so he watched as first his brother and then his descendants – children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and on through the years right down to Estel’s father – departed the circles of the world.
Celebrían had never met her husband’s brother. He had died not long after her birth, yeni before she had first visited Numenor. But she had pieced together over the years how much that loss – on top of all the others – had affected her beloved. The wound would never fully heal, not even here.
And yet… Elrond was sitting between his parents – both of them – for the first time since he was five years old. Celebrían had missed the moment of reunion, facilitated by their daughter’s uncanny ability to find her way unerringly to her grandparents through such a crowd as had gathered to welcome their ship. But she could read this easily enough. The last time she had seen anything like it was in the early days in Imladris, when Anariel had settled next to him in the library to read for the first time.
Elrond was not simply happy – at this moment, there was nowhere in the world he would rather be. His heart was full. There was something in his smile that she had never seen before, something that warmed her to see – and made her ache for how very long that indefinable something had been missing and she had never known it.
A voice broke into her thoughts, gentle and warm as a summer breeze.
“Telpenia, come, your daughter is telling the most fantastical tales of California. We need you to reveal to us whether this strange platypus she speaks of is real or if she is exaggerating. Opinions are evenly split.”
Celebrían looked up to find her grandmother holding out a hopeful hand.
“She is most certainly telling you truly,” Celebrían sighed, wondering how on earth that had come up. “It is one of the oddest animals in the world.”
“Yes, but you will need to tell Itarillë and Anairë that, darling,” Eärwen replied with a musical laugh. “They are convinced it is a children’s tale Tindomiel is telling, and that Eärsuro and his brothers should not believe such a creature existed, even in California. Poor Anairon is not sure what to think.”
Valinor, Celebrían decided, was going to be good for all of them. If only her older children were there as well!
Her mind shied away from the reminder that Elrond was not the only one who faced a loss with no prospect of joyous reunion here. More than that, she did not wish to disturb him with such unhappiness today of all days.
Oh, my sweet silver-child…
Her grandmother gathered her close, wrapping her in all the love and warmth she could, reminding her without even meaning to that here it was not just her husband and her mother and Gildor who are there for her.
Here she had grandparents and great-grandparents, an uncle, great-uncles, cousins…and those were just the ones who were here in Alqualondë. More relatives awaited them inland, in Tirion, Valimar, and Thingol’s kingdom. And she had reunions to look forward to as well – Elrond was not the only one who had not wanted to think too much on those who they have been told lingered yet in Mandos. Celebrimbor and Gil-galad were as much her kin as his, and as dearly loved and missed.
With that to anchor her, she put the thought of her four children still on the other side of the Sea and the one who would never sail firmly aside and took Eärwen’s hand, as curious as her grandmother to find out what else her youngest daughter might be telling their new-met kin.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2019-03-01 07:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-01 04:22 pm (UTC)I've written before about Elrond's arrival, with Elwing and Eärendil standing at the back of the crowd, ready to not make a scene if he doesn't want to know but determined to at least see him with their own eyes, so this is really a continuation of that, but from Celebrian's perspective instead of Elwing's.
Would you believe in the platypus if you didn't already know about it? It's such an unlikely little oddball. :)
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Date: 2019-03-01 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-01 05:07 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2019-03-01 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-03-12 02:27 am (UTC)