Day 2 - A New Light
Aug. 2nd, 2024 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingTitle: A New Light
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Disclaimer: All belongs to Whedon & Tolkien. No money is being made here, it's all in good fun.
Summary: Anariel isn't the only one trying to adjust.
Word Count: 1075
Note: Was hoping for something slightly longer, but it has been a long (hot, sweaty, gross) day and I'm wiped. Also, timeline-wise, this is before yesterday's entry.
Anairë wondered where her husband was. She’d not seen him all day.
She hadn’t thought it odd at first – he had breakfasted with Ara, and from what she’d heard, Celeborn and Anariel. Spending time with Anariel was still a novelty to all of them, so she had been unsurprised that Nolo had been occupied all morning.
But it was close to evening now, and he was keeping very much to himself, wherever he was.
She felt the first stirrings of concern.
Fortunately, after so many years together, she had a good idea where to look.
She found him in the contemplation garden. In their youth, it had been a favorite retreat for both of them. When the children were young, they’d watched them play there. Later it had turned into Nolo’s preferred thinking spot. Screened by Indis’ rose garden, it was an effective refuge – Naro wouldn’t set foot among those roses.
Her mate was so deep in thought that she startled him when she settled in next to him.
“What did she say this time?”
Nolo hesitated before answering, which was as good as confirmation.
“Who?”
“Anariel, of course,” Anairë sighed. “I doubt Celeborn can have said or done anything that would have you out here on your own for hours.”
“She shared some of her adventures,” Nolo said carefully.
His mind, usually so open, was firmly closed. Whatever it was, he feared it would upset her.
Anairë wondered if this might be the time to come clean about knowing that Elrond’s older children all had Sindarin attitudes to more than just bathing. She’d had several conversations with Elwing while waiting for their ship to arrive in Alqualondë. Unlike nearly everyone else, Elwing didn’t dance around ‘sensitive subjects’. As former Queen of the Sindar, Elwing also had no need to bow to Noldorin notions of propriety.
“Which ones in particular? She seems to have had quite a few.”
Some more peaceful than others – if only they could all have been as sedate as living in that mannish city for several years!
“The one where she and the mortal girl Anya scouted Sauron’s lands.”
Anairë paused.
There could well be any number of facets to that particular exploit that would upset her husband. Artanis had already told her mother and aunts about the scandalous haircut. Artë might not have seen the worst of it herself, but she had said Anariel’s magnificent hair had been shorn so close to her head she could have been mistaken for a thrall.
“They had an orc escort to gain admittance, they pretended to be captives,” Nolo explained slowly.
“I suppose that seemed sensible at the time,” Anairë sighed. She wondered if that had been when the hair cutting had happened.
“She revealed just how it was she persuaded the orcs to go along with her scheme without violence.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say the rest aloud, leaving her to take it directly from his mind. That had been his worst fear for Irissë for so long…
“Ah,” she said quietly, as an overheard conversation between Miryo and Gildor abruptly slotted into place – and a few things Tindomiel hadn’t quite let slip over the years began to make more sense. “Yes, I suppose she would.”
Nolo’s jaw dropped.
It’s not as if they compelled her. I’m starting to think compelling that child to do anything may be beyond anyone, including Morgoth himself.
He had given it a good try, and they had all learned a rather interesting vulgarity of California as a result.
“But… with yrch?”
Anairë sighed. To her, the Sindarin attitude toward what they called joining was far enough outside her experience that she couldn’t see where it mattered one bit who it was with. Besides, she might not understand much about Anariel, but this much at least she grasped…
“You told me once, my love, that the hardest part of life in Beleriand was having to see everything in terms of the fight against the Enemy, even your own children,” she said quietly. “From what I gather, that was a lesson Anariel did not need to be taught by anyone in Ennor. In a fight, she will use any weapon at hand.”
“Even herself?”
Nolo’s voice cracked in horror.
“Especially herself,” Anairë responded sharply. How had he not seen it? “If she is the weapon, it means no one else needs to be.”
From what Miryo has said on the subject, those who had trained her in California had been harsh masters. Anariel had returned with the lesson that she was her people’s sword and shield burned deeper into her fëa than any scar on her hroä – of which there were surprisingly few.
With that in mind, Anairë could easily imagine Anariel using any means at her disposal to gain entrance to Mordor if she believed it necessary. If yrch lusted after nissi even half as much as the tales from Beleriand claimed…
She offered that thought to Nolo, with the wry addendum that while she might not have the stomach for such an act, it must be an expeditious way to go about matters if one did.
Nolo nearly choked on his surprise.
“My heart, I do hope you didn’t let your reaction show,” Anairë said softly. “She’s already far too inclined to not tell us things.”
Anariel held her hurts close for the noblest and most misguided of reasons – she was still young enough to believe that by not telling her family, she was protecting them. Healing the damage of both California and Ennor would be the work of many years.
“I tried,” Nolo replied uncertainly.
She sighed. He had most likely failed.
“Was she bothered by this anecdote?” Anairë prodded.
“No,” Nolo sighed. “She treated it almost as a joke – albeit one we did not understand, since she told it in California terms.”
“Well, my love, as the only one bothered was you,” she began, only for Nolo to shake his head sharply.
“I don’t think Ara was any happier than I was, and I can’t be sure, but I think it discomfits Celeborn, though he doesn’t bother reproving her over it.”
Celeborn might be bothered by the who, but Anairë doubted very much the what had disturbed him. But if Ara knew… It might be time for another talk with Eärwen – and possibly Nerdanel as well.
She just hoped this would not be the thing that pushed Anariel into slipping away from Tirion.
Author: Grundy
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR/Silmarillion
Disclaimer: All belongs to Whedon & Tolkien. No money is being made here, it's all in good fun.
Summary: Anariel isn't the only one trying to adjust.
Word Count: 1075
Note: Was hoping for something slightly longer, but it has been a long (hot, sweaty, gross) day and I'm wiped. Also, timeline-wise, this is before yesterday's entry.
Anairë wondered where her husband was. She’d not seen him all day.
She hadn’t thought it odd at first – he had breakfasted with Ara, and from what she’d heard, Celeborn and Anariel. Spending time with Anariel was still a novelty to all of them, so she had been unsurprised that Nolo had been occupied all morning.
But it was close to evening now, and he was keeping very much to himself, wherever he was.
She felt the first stirrings of concern.
Fortunately, after so many years together, she had a good idea where to look.
She found him in the contemplation garden. In their youth, it had been a favorite retreat for both of them. When the children were young, they’d watched them play there. Later it had turned into Nolo’s preferred thinking spot. Screened by Indis’ rose garden, it was an effective refuge – Naro wouldn’t set foot among those roses.
Her mate was so deep in thought that she startled him when she settled in next to him.
“What did she say this time?”
Nolo hesitated before answering, which was as good as confirmation.
“Who?”
“Anariel, of course,” Anairë sighed. “I doubt Celeborn can have said or done anything that would have you out here on your own for hours.”
“She shared some of her adventures,” Nolo said carefully.
His mind, usually so open, was firmly closed. Whatever it was, he feared it would upset her.
Anairë wondered if this might be the time to come clean about knowing that Elrond’s older children all had Sindarin attitudes to more than just bathing. She’d had several conversations with Elwing while waiting for their ship to arrive in Alqualondë. Unlike nearly everyone else, Elwing didn’t dance around ‘sensitive subjects’. As former Queen of the Sindar, Elwing also had no need to bow to Noldorin notions of propriety.
“Which ones in particular? She seems to have had quite a few.”
Some more peaceful than others – if only they could all have been as sedate as living in that mannish city for several years!
“The one where she and the mortal girl Anya scouted Sauron’s lands.”
Anairë paused.
There could well be any number of facets to that particular exploit that would upset her husband. Artanis had already told her mother and aunts about the scandalous haircut. Artë might not have seen the worst of it herself, but she had said Anariel’s magnificent hair had been shorn so close to her head she could have been mistaken for a thrall.
“They had an orc escort to gain admittance, they pretended to be captives,” Nolo explained slowly.
“I suppose that seemed sensible at the time,” Anairë sighed. She wondered if that had been when the hair cutting had happened.
“She revealed just how it was she persuaded the orcs to go along with her scheme without violence.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say the rest aloud, leaving her to take it directly from his mind. That had been his worst fear for Irissë for so long…
“Ah,” she said quietly, as an overheard conversation between Miryo and Gildor abruptly slotted into place – and a few things Tindomiel hadn’t quite let slip over the years began to make more sense. “Yes, I suppose she would.”
Nolo’s jaw dropped.
It’s not as if they compelled her. I’m starting to think compelling that child to do anything may be beyond anyone, including Morgoth himself.
He had given it a good try, and they had all learned a rather interesting vulgarity of California as a result.
“But… with yrch?”
Anairë sighed. To her, the Sindarin attitude toward what they called joining was far enough outside her experience that she couldn’t see where it mattered one bit who it was with. Besides, she might not understand much about Anariel, but this much at least she grasped…
“You told me once, my love, that the hardest part of life in Beleriand was having to see everything in terms of the fight against the Enemy, even your own children,” she said quietly. “From what I gather, that was a lesson Anariel did not need to be taught by anyone in Ennor. In a fight, she will use any weapon at hand.”
“Even herself?”
Nolo’s voice cracked in horror.
“Especially herself,” Anairë responded sharply. How had he not seen it? “If she is the weapon, it means no one else needs to be.”
From what Miryo has said on the subject, those who had trained her in California had been harsh masters. Anariel had returned with the lesson that she was her people’s sword and shield burned deeper into her fëa than any scar on her hroä – of which there were surprisingly few.
With that in mind, Anairë could easily imagine Anariel using any means at her disposal to gain entrance to Mordor if she believed it necessary. If yrch lusted after nissi even half as much as the tales from Beleriand claimed…
She offered that thought to Nolo, with the wry addendum that while she might not have the stomach for such an act, it must be an expeditious way to go about matters if one did.
Nolo nearly choked on his surprise.
“My heart, I do hope you didn’t let your reaction show,” Anairë said softly. “She’s already far too inclined to not tell us things.”
Anariel held her hurts close for the noblest and most misguided of reasons – she was still young enough to believe that by not telling her family, she was protecting them. Healing the damage of both California and Ennor would be the work of many years.
“I tried,” Nolo replied uncertainly.
She sighed. He had most likely failed.
“Was she bothered by this anecdote?” Anairë prodded.
“No,” Nolo sighed. “She treated it almost as a joke – albeit one we did not understand, since she told it in California terms.”
“Well, my love, as the only one bothered was you,” she began, only for Nolo to shake his head sharply.
“I don’t think Ara was any happier than I was, and I can’t be sure, but I think it discomfits Celeborn, though he doesn’t bother reproving her over it.”
Celeborn might be bothered by the who, but Anairë doubted very much the what had disturbed him. But if Ara knew… It might be time for another talk with Eärwen – and possibly Nerdanel as well.
She just hoped this would not be the thing that pushed Anariel into slipping away from Tirion.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-03 07:39 pm (UTC)Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-03 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-04 12:19 am (UTC)Fair point! It’s easy to forget that, as stodgy as Anairë is.