The Forbidden Child

The Secret Wedding

The next week, the wedding was about to take place.

The skies were clear, though tonight the moon hid her luminous face. There was enough light to see without using lanterns but not enough to expose Arwen and Estel on their wedding night.

It was as if the Valar was pleased with the match. The night was a bit chilly, though, an effect of the early winter season. Estel fussed over Arwen, not wanting her to catch a cold on his account. Arwen insisted he should not be so self-centered. She would not catch a cold on his account but instead on their account. So the wedding went on.

Arwen, despite being so insistent on marrying him tonight, was trying not to overthink her decision to marry Estel. She had read elven lore, in which elves would marry in uneasy times, and the marriage would later fall into shambles. She did not want that for her and Estel. She contemplated this and decided to wed him still.

Estel was convinced their love would keep them together, no matter what. Arwen hoped with every bone in her body that he was right. So now here she sat, waiting for Estel to come and meet her.

He climbed in through the window like he always did. Estel dawned a well-tailored tunic that fell down to his knees and wore leather breeches underneath, as was the fashion in such cold weather. He had combed his hair and looked handsome and well-mannered, for a Ranger anyway.

Upon entering, Estel sat beside Arwen, leaving a few inches between them, barely looking at her, with his large hand resting on hers. Both were incredibly nervous and the silence was ominous to each. The two looked nothing like a couple.

Estel's rough figure, handsome face, unkempt hair, dark clothing and worn boots were a great contrast to Arwen. She looked neat, angelic, elegant, and breathtakingly beautiful. Their hearts were the only things that matched. Thoughts of doubt came to both but neither faltered.

Out of love, they stayed true to their promises.

"My mother is far away, in the Undying Lands," Arwen whispered dryly. "I always hoped she might have been able to attend my wedding." The stress in her voice was taught like a rope.

"My father is dead and my mother," Estel began, but stopped. He decided that sharing Gilraen's disconcerting reaction to Arwen and his engagement was not the best thing to share that night.

Arwen took a deep breath. This meant that the tradition of the bridegroom's father and the bride's mother blessing the marriage publicly would never occur. Of course she already knew this, it was just the reminder of it that  was a bitter thing to endure.

"There will be no celebration for us," she added wistfully.

Estel looked at Arwen, searching for an explanation, though her smooth expression gave nothing away.

"I apologize, I am being fanciful and needlessly romantic." The sentence was so full of defeat it seemed that Arwen was adjusting to the idea of marrying a pig and not her true love.

"Arwen, please!" Estel pled. "Do not do this to yourself. One day we will have a post-marriage celebration so big that even your mother will have to come back from the Undying Lands to see it!"

Arwen laughed a little. "I will take you up on that, be sure of it," she informed Estel, looking him in the eyes for the first time that nervous night.

"That, Arwen Undomiel, is one of the reasons I am going to marry you."

"For the wedding celebration?" Arwen jabbed lightly.

"Precisely," Estel replied with his clipped, neat accent.

Both now thoroughly convinced that the thing they were about to do was right, the process of maneuvering Arwen down into Rivendell's royal garden while wearing her finest gown and avoiding being seen by the guards, began.

The gazebo they were to say their vows at was picked specifically.

Not only was it the most elegant landmark in Lord Elrond's expansive gardens, it was also where Estel and Arwen had first been acquainted with one another as small children. Estel recalled excessive tittering and whispering from her and Arwen remembered explosive blushing and awkwardly-given flowers from him. This place was also the most popular location for the finales of Arwen and Estel's infamous races from their shared childhood. The gazebo was a place for beginnings, romantic and platonic alike. Both Arwen and Estel recognized it as the more than appropriate place for them to start their marriage.

Underneath the gazebo, the gleam of starlight fell like shattered glass through the roof onto the lonely floor. They felt intimately safe.

The small building was called Celebri, after Arwen's mother.

The stress the couple had felt dissipated around Celebri. It seemed better than any temple.

Now Arwen stood, motionless, gazing at Estel. The shattered light under the gazebo highlighted the graceful plains of Arwen's face.

Though she looked absolutely stunning in her dress, Estel could not help imagining what was under it.

Not able to wait for her another second, so ready to love the woman before him for the rest of his life, he began to recite the elven wedding vows no mortal knew, having learnt them from Arwen a week earlier. Estel delicately took her hand and removed the Ring of Barahir, the promise he had made, from her index finger and replaced it with a more permanent one. He exchanged it for a simple golden band, a marriage ring, as was custom amongst the elves in those days.

Arwen, worries having dissipated upon entering Celebri, her mother's final foundation, answered with her own memorized vows. The two were lost in each other's gaze as they were bound by love and covenant. Arwen's mind no longer turned over with a thousand thoughts and Estel did not worry of the patrolling guards. Both were entranced by the other, sealed as husband and wife.

Marriage was such a perpetual concept, such an everlasting promise that the couple now had access to and now they were as close as they would ever get. Lover could now be changed to husband or wife.  Them together was legitimized in the eyes of the world and, more importantly, in the eyes of the Valar.

The vows having been said, the couple sealed the private ceremony with a kiss. Tears of relief and joy were in Arwen's eyes. Estel never imagined he would ever be any closer to his one true love in this world.

And so it was that on the Eighth of December in the year 2951 of the Third Age, Arwen Undomiel, daughter of Lord Elrond Halfelven and Lady Celebrian, and Aragorn II, son of Arathorn II and Gilraen, were wed, secretly and dangerously.