An Irrevocable Condition

Chapter 7

Elrond never thought he’d ever see an elf as ancient as Glorfindel mope, yet that was the only word he could give to Glorfindel’s behaviour of late.

Glorfindel was draped across the futon in the corner of Elrond’s living room in a way that reminded Elrond of his sons when they were growing up and reached that age where they were convinced the whole world was out to get them because someone had asked them for help with a menial task.

Elladan and Elrohir both had an interesting theory for Glorfindel’s recent peculiar behaviour.

“Ada,” Elladan said after they returned from their trip to track down a small party of orcs and brought home an additional hobbit and human. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see his face when he first saw the wizard.”

“The wizard is his match,” Elrohir said, his face a picture of sincerity. “We’re sure of it.”

Elrond had thought for a moment that his boys were making a tasteless joke on Glorfindel’s behalf, but when Glorfindel had started acting in many odd ways even Elrond had to admit something was going on with his friend. Though perhaps not having found his match in a second born. That seemed farfetched, even to Elrond, who himself was descendent of two unions between elf and human. Yet Elrond also knew how rare such unions were. They hardly ever occurred and the number of unions between elf and man that were public knowledge could be counted on one hand.

It simply seemed impossible that an ancient elf like Glorfindel would finally find his match in a human who wasn’t even originally from their world.

And then Elrond heard whispers that Glorfindel had spent quite a few hours in the library, reading up on Aegnor, of all elves. Aegnor was one of three older brothers of Galadriel, and a distant cousin of Elrond, who lived and ruled in the first age. Aegnor found his match in a mortal woman named Andreth, and he famously rejected her and was killed in battle not that long after.

Aegnor’s oldest brother Finrod had spoken about this with Andreth at length, about how difficult relationships between the first and second born were, for all manner of reasons. He’d penned down this conversation and it survived all those millennia as a book in Elrond’s library.

And Glorfindel, who had already read every single book in the library more than once, had been seen reading it from front to back, twice, after Harry came to Rivendell.

Yes, now even Elrond was getting a bit suspicious and more than a little worried for his friend. Glorfindel had been very quiet since his return while he usually enjoyed partaking in whatever conversation that was going on around him. Glorfindel, for all the horrors he’d witnessed in his very long life, was one of those people who was great at compartmentalizing his mind and he always found joy in life whenever there was any of it to find.

But now he was moping. On Elrond’s futon, while sipping his third cup of wine.

Mithrandir was the only other guest in Elrond’s quarters and he stood puffing on his pipe near an opened window. Mithrandir glanced at Elrond and they shared a knowing look. Yes, the old wizard had noticed Glorfindel and his peculiar behaviour as well, that much was obvious.

Elrond usually tried to be subtle in his approach to others, but Glorfindel looked so faraway in his thoughts that Elrond feared any vague remarks would fly right over his head.