Laer o Faen

Harlindon nu Lindon

Second Age of Middle Earth - 50

Nal thand le sui i gam o Iluvatar insë

The cry of wheeling gulls from the nearby Havens drifted in through the open windows. Celyndailiel sighed and set aside her book. She smoothed the folds of her skirts as she rose to her feet, and waved away the maid who had looked up from her needlework, ready to rise in attendance on her.

"Go on with your diversions," she told not only her, but others of her companions who had also begun to set aside their own works.

She was restless. The feeling had been growing with increasing insistence since the building and planting, and the establishment of the court at Lindon was now all but completed, and life settled to kind of rhythm in the half century since the ending of the War of Wrath.

"The king will be displeased," the maid reminded her. "He does not like to see you about unattended."

Celyndailiel sighed again.

"I will deal with the king," she said, shaking her head. She knew the maid was right. Only the day before, Ereinion had found her at liberty in the court and alone, unattended...

"It is not fitting, Celyn," Gil-Galad said as he moved to her side and offered her his arm in courtly fashion, waving the other to dismiss his own escort, "for you to wander through the halls and gardens of court unaccompanied by either companion, maid or escort."

"Escort?" she questioned, laying her hand over his and walking at his side. "Jailor you mean."

"Guard, I'll grant you," he said with concern in his tone, "but 'jailor,' Celyn?"

"Ereinion, I had greater independence when I was hidden away from all the world with our Nandorin allies in the east!"

"You were safer then," he said.

"Safer, hanaren?" she argued softly, "How could I be safer than now? Morgoth is long since defeated and cast from Middle Earth, his minions scattered and many of our Kin, that might have posed a threat to you, to us, have returned to the West answering Manwë's summons. Here we are fully established in our new havens among friends. What could be safer?"

"There are still those abroad in Middle Earth who would like nothing more than to see the line of Finarfin broken and at its end."

"Any among our Kin have either answered Manwë's call or else are too busy establishing their own place in this New Age to bother after ours," she contradicted, repeating herself, though she knew there was a grain of truth in what her brother said.

"Celyn—" He sighed as she interrupted him again.

"Ereinion, enjoy this moment of peace." She came to a halt and turned so that she could lay her hand against his chest. "I know you seek only to protect me. I understand that you feel the loss of our mother greatly, and feel you must be both mother and father to me now, but... beloved, you cannot be all this to me and king to our people. You must trust me, and trust our counsellors to uphold the decision mother made. If you continue as you are, people will wonder, people will question – and then where will we be?"

He sighed a second time, looking down at her and she could tell that her words had reached him. Her expression softened and for a moment she closed her eyes at the soft brush of his lips as they whispered across her brow.

"You need a husband," he said a moment later, almost teasing.

"And you a wife," she countered, though as she suspected her would, he ignored her diversion.