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grundyscribblingBut have a snippet from Mandos, set directly following The Visitor.
Tyelkormo looked from the door that had just shut behind Elerondo’s smallest daughter to his older brothers.
There were times he wondered how Lúthien’s line had survived given that his brothers seemed to excel at missing the obvious. Maybe Melian had been watching out for her descendants. Someone had to have been.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked bluntly. “And why were her eyes covered?”
Kano glared at him, but Maitimo intervened.
“As usual, Tyelko has all the finesse of charging troll, but he does cover the salient points.”
If it had been a less important matter, Tyelkormo might have taken issue. As it was, he crossed his arms and glared while he waited for Kano to answer.
“There’s nothing wrong with her!” Kano snapped, sounding more than a little defensive. “She’s just what happens if you combine a young Artanis, a truly terrifying proficiency with weapons, and Elros’ complete disregard for what most people consider survivable when making plans. I’m sure whatever she’s up to made complete sense to her.”
The part about Elerossë meant little to Tyelkormo – from what he’d gathered over the years the boy was unorthodox, but it wasn’t as if his fatal plan had involved battle tactics. (Maitimo had not been happy when he heard about the boy’s motivation.) But the ‘nothing wrong with her’ part was utterly and completely wrong.
He opened his mouth to point that out, but his oldest brother got there first.
“Kano, I think you may be overstating the case when you say there’s nothing wrong with her,” Maitimo said slowly. “She didn’t look well.”
“She just buried her older sister,” Kano said quietly. “I suspect it’s fair to say none of Elrond’s children are well at the moment. If Tindomiel hadn’t been avoiding us lately…”
He trailed off, as if he’d just come up with a sum he didn’t like.
Tyelkormo would have laughed at his oldest brother’s exasperated expression any other time.
“The eyes?” he pressed.
Unfortunately, Kano was plainly as confused by that as anyone else.
“She said something about the underworld,” Curvo pointed out. “This is Mandos, not Angband.”
“I think ‘underworld’ is how mortals in California thought of their afterlife, where their fëar go after they die – or some of them did, at least,” Kano shrugged.
“You think?” Tyelko demanded.
This was not the time for guesswork!
“It would take years to learn all the lore of California,” his brother informed him, sounding slightly tetchy. “You’re lucky I know that much. I have no idea what consequences she meant, though. Whatever it is, she wasn’t particularly worried.”
“We could ask Namo,” Maitimo said thoughtfully.
“You really think he’d answer?” Curvo snorted.
“There must be some reason he didn’t want us to see her eyes,” Maitimo mused. “Or did she mean the consequences would affect her?”
“How is seeing a bunch of her kinsmen going to be a consequence?” Finno said, in that tone that was trying for reasonable but meant he was bothered. It wasn’t that far off the one their uncle got right before he lost his temper.
“Her eyes are unusual, but hardly going to do anything to elves that are already dead, not to mention her elder kinsmen,” Kano sighed.
“What’s unusual about them?” Ambarussa wanted to know.
“They’re a shade I’ve never seen before among elves,” Kano explained. “Green. The Sindar adore it, of course. I imagine Thingol will take it as proof that she belongs among them.”
“The Sindar don’t have green eyes any more than we do!” Curvo protested.
“Green?” Tyelkormo said quietly.
---
Curufinwë knew perfectly well what all four of his older brothers looked like when they were worried or upset. Granted, he might have blown it off at times in Beleriand – after the first few decades, when were any of them not worried or upset? – but he did still recognize it.
Which made it slightly concerning to see Tyelko slipping off with that look on his face. After a sideways glance at Maitimo, Kano, and Finno proved that no one else would be dealing with it, or possibly had even noticed, he sighed and followed.
It wasn’t entirely surprising that Maitimo was more focused on picking Kano’s brain about what under the stars that had been about. Finno, of course, wasn’t about to miss anything about Elerondo’s children. Particularly not anything that might be a threat to them. The pair of them seemed to have missed that young Anariel sounded quite capable of handling most threats herself.
He found Tyelko in one of those areas that were quiet and usually empty, looking like he really wanted to hit something.
“Tindomiel is fond of telling us all to talk about our feelings,” he said conversationally. “Presumably that includes you.”
The girl still didn’t talk to him, or to Tyelko, but she did talk to all the others. It had started out minorly aggravating, but was getting extremely annoying. He was also quite sure he was not included in the talking about feelings.
“I don’t think Tindomiel would want to hear about these feelings,” Tyelko snorted, turning away.
“Perfect, seeing as she’s not here and I am.”
Curufinwë paused.
“What bothered you about the eyes?” he asked when Tyelko showed no sign of saying anything.
Tyelko froze.
Now Curufinwë knew something was important about them.
“As far as I know, green eyes aren’t a Sindarin trait either,” he observed.
Tyelko mumbled something.
Curufinwë pointedly waited. If they’d had physical bodies, he’d have tapped a foot for emphasis. As it was, he had to settle for just radiating that he knew there was more to it.
“Beren,” Tyelko finally said. “She has Beren’s eyes.”
Curufinwë dearly hoped this wasn’t going to set Tyelko off. To say he’d been unhinged after word had reached them that Lúthien had died with the mortal was an understatement. He’d been more lucid in the Halls than he had been the last few years of his life.
“Is that why Namo wanted them covered?” he asked cautiously.
Tyelko’s laugh was the mirthless one he used whenever things weren’t funny in the least.
“You’d have to ask him. I suppose it’s possible he meant it as a kindness, but there isn’t much point, is there? Unless he plans on keeping me in here forever, I’d see them sooner or later.”
“I hope you’re not contemplating another round of kinslaying,” Curufinwë said quietly. “From all I’ve heard about that girl, I don’t think Artanis would be the one you’d have to worry about. But she’d probably join in.”
There was that mirthless laugh again – but this time, Curufinwë realized it was covering tears.
“What a joke,” Tyelko gasped. “All this time and not one of them has ever had them until her. Lúthien would adore her.”
Curufinwë spun his brother around and looked him in the eyes – properly looked – as he hadn’t for some years before Menegroth.
“Tyelko,” he whispered. “What did you do?”
“In my own defense, I didn’t think it would go this badly,” Tyelko began, as close to awkward as he ever got.
“You never do,” Curufinwë sighed. “Which is why you convince yourself it’s all right to do the stupid thing in the first place.”
“Yeah,” Tyelko sighed. “But it’s not exactly as if you can talk. It runs in the family.”
no subject
Date: 2023-01-11 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-13 02:05 am (UTC)Yes, that would be quite the conversation. At least he'd get plenty of sympathy, seeing as she has some idea what it's like!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-13 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 08:23 pm (UTC)Edited to add: all of my trepidation is based on Sil canon. The AU you have of the Lúthien/Beren/Celegorm triad made Celegorm seem far less monstrous. The possibility of Celegorm fixating on Anariel was made even more squicksome, but I am VERY glad to hear that will not be a thing!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 08:37 pm (UTC)