Fic A Day - Day 2 - Bells Will Be Ringing

[grundyscribbling]

Title:  Bells Will Be Ringing
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Summary:  Anariel gets an up close look at the city of the Vanyar.
Word Count:  1110
 

 

By the time she reached the city, Anariel was wondering if her little sister had learned enough poetry in their Sunnydale schooldays to know “anyone lived in a pretty how town”. She herself couldn’t remember anything beyond the first couple lines – she hadn’t failed English, but she couldn’t honestly say she’d given the class her full attention either. But she did know many bells down and it seemed appropriate for Valimar.  

Oddly enough, the bells got quieter and the chimes more melodious the closer she got to ground level. She would have expected the opposite - that they would get louder. By the time she was taking the graceful ramp into the tree-studded square, it had almost turned into soft background music.

She had concluded on her final turn around the mountain path that the quicker she could get beyond Valimar, the better. She’d thought at first that it would be the safest elven city for her – until she’d remembered that plenty of Vanyar had showed up for the War of Wrath. Presumably once they were there, they’d also seen plenty of torture, battle, and death.

Worse, she didn’t really know how much she had to interact with people to trigger Morgoth’s little booby trap. Looking at someone? Talking to them? Was just saying hello or asking directions enough, or did it take an actual introduction – her knowing who someone was? And given how did the whole osanwë and sensing with one’s feä play into it?
To be on the safe side, and hopefully sleep quietly tonight, she’d resolved to keep her cloak on, use mental discipline to close her mind, and move swiftly. (Not that she wasn’t planning on telling her brothers, but she was happy to save the demonstration for some other night.)

She hadn’t counted on the city being so pretty.

The children of Elrond had learned about the Vanyar and their city, of course. Their father was adamant his sons and daughters should know their heritage – all of it. But possibly the Vanyar had gotten the short end of the stick. Neither their parents nor their tutors had ever seen it with their own eyes. Grandmother had been keener to talk about Alqualondë. Glorfindel didn’t talk much about Aman, nor had they liked to push him, lest it trigger homesickness. And Uncle Gildor, though he could tell them about their great-grandparents, had no more seen Aman than any of them.

No one had mentioned that unlike Gondolin or Minas Tirith, Valimar was not white. Instead, the eye with every color under the sun. Though the buildings were mostly stone, with markedly fewer wood accents than Anariel was used to in Sindarin architecture, the Vanyar had used a panopoly of different types and colors. In a few cases, they had used different stone to form mural-like scenes.

Added on top of that was a riot of color from flowers, trees, and shrubs, enough plant life deployed with gleeful abandon to set even the most ambitious landscape designer of California to overwhelmed tears.

It wasn’t until she reached the third square along the street that led from the holy mountain to the city gates that she realized the music subtly matched the plants and buildings. If she wasn’t in such a hurry to get home, she’d have been tempted to stay a while just to take it all in.

Unfortunately, it was also in the third square that she spotted a familiar face.

Finduilas and her grandfather were with several other blondes and a dark-haired woman. (Three cheers for still not knowing what anyone looked like.) Anariel was slightly worried to see Finduilas glance around, as if looking for someone. She tightened up her mental ‘shields’ in the hopes that it wasn’t her Findë was trying to catch sight of, even though she had a sinking feeling it was.

Even though she knew there was no way even elven eyes could spot her, she maneuvered several full grown elves in between her and her cousin and great-uncle before she hurried onward.  She did not break into a run, no matter how much she wanted to. Colliding with someone who couldn’t see her could give her away as easily as anything else.

---

Aikanaro was enjoying the afternoon out. The return of his brother and grandniece from the Halls had been unexpected to say the least. Lotë was thrilled to have her husband back, and her granddaughter to spoil. They had come to Valimar first, to see Grandmother. She was soothing company for anyone newly returned.

It had been Grandmother’s idea to visit the Poets’ Square, where the floral display had just been redone at Great-Uncle Ingwë’s behest. The king of the Vanyar was as excited as anyone else about the last of his kin arriving from Ennor, and the direction to the devotees of Yavanna had been to honor Elrond’s house. The new plants had been all been chosen with that in mind. Various climbers that could be twined together as well as twinflowers for the boys, evening primrose and loving heart as well as Lúthien’s niphredil for Arwen, sunflowers and wolfsbane for Anariel, a proliferation of morning glories and shooting star for Tindomiel, various types of starflower for Elrond and his children alike, and silver queen for Celebrían.

It was all magnificent, though he doubted the intended honorees would visit anytime soon to see it. Finduilas had been very enthusiastic, though.

He was about to suggest they find a café so that Findë could sit in the shade for a bit – she was still adapting to Aman – when he suddenly had the oddest notion that Artë was nearby. No, not Artë, he realized as he tried to focus on the sensation. Slightly different notes to this song.

At the same time, Findë was looking hopefully around.

“Is all well, little one?” Lotë asked in concern.

“I thought I heard Anariel,” the girl replied, peering intently toward the King’s Promenade.

Grandmother frowned, and focused her attention in a slightly different direction, more in the direction of the South Gate. She said nothing, but that she did not assure Findë Anariel was not around spoke volumes.

Aikanaro caught his brother’s eye. Grandmother’s silence was practically a declaration that the girl was slipping around nearby – and as she’d touched Anariel’s mind before, there would be no fooling her.

“What under the stars would she be doing here?” Ango asked in bemusement as Lotë looked hopefully in the same direction as Findë, no doubt curious to see their littlest – and most adventuresome – grandniece.

“I don’t think you should expect to understand how she thinks, Grandfather,” Findë giggled.

 

Comments

[lferion]

The bells harmonize with the flowers — what fun! How interesting that there is some kind of sound-funnel or inversion layer or something for the bells and chimes.

[grundyscribbling]

Thank you!

I thought the elves would be into coordinating the sound and the visuals.

[sulien]

Your description of the buildings and flowers of Valimar remind me very much of Southern Germany. I never realize how much I miss that place until I see pictures/film, or someone describes it. I do love the idea of all of the bells and wind chimes harmonizing and being subtle, though it sounds like they're a bit on the cacophonous side from further up the mountain.

Hmmm...it sounds like one of the things Anariel has yet to pick up on is that most elves can hear the music of another's fëa and she'll need to learn to cloak that as well as her mind if her new stealth mode is to be effective.

An interesting chapter, thank you for sharing it. :)

[grundyscribbling]

Thank you!

Yes, Anariel still has some things to learn.

[ysilme]

Eep, a whole new dimension to that dream thing - to possibly happen even for fleeting encounters like asking for the way! I really hope it won't be as bad for Anariel.
Valimar sounds indeed very pretty, and your take on it feels very fitting and real. I like the "is not white" idea very much, and to use differently-toned stones to create murals and patterns. I've never given it a thought before (since I haven't much of a mental image of most of Valinor yet in the first place), but for people living indefinitely, living in all-white surroundings sounds rather drab to me. (But then, I have a particular dislike for white/very pale walls/large surfaces myself.) And all the flowers and plants! ♥ I wish I could see all this for real.

[grundyscribbling]

Thank you!

"Everything white" seemed terribly boring...