Anneth has long clung to her dreams, though sorrow has threatened to murder them again and again. There was a time when sorrow made her hopes only sweeter, but as Sauron grows yet stronger in the East, she feels everything she has ever held dear fal...
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
- C.S. Lewis
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
- Ecclesiastes 4:12
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"Did you happen to find that tale fascinating, my lady?" asked a young girl, her question directed to the much older elleth beside her.
The older elleth looked down and the small girl and smiled.
"Yes, I did! 'Twas quite wonderful. Have you perused it?"
The young girl smiled widely. A grown elf treating her as an equal! It was a new thing to her, and she was sure she enjoyed it.
"Yes, I have. I liked it," said the young girl.
"I too enjoyed it. And what would your name be, young one?"
"My name is Nellethiel," came the proud response, a happy grin plastered on her face.
"I was named Anneth at birth, but no longer answer to that name, instead using the name my father gave me later. Authiel."
"I am please to make your acquaintance, my Lady Authiel," responding Nellethiel respectfully.
Authiel smiled. "There is no need to address me as 'lady', dear girl."
"As you wish, my lad–Authiel." Nellethiel smiled.
Never had any grown elleth treated her so, as if she too was of age and mature. It was refreshing, a change accepted gladly by the young girl.
"What thoughts or questions did that tale bring to you, Nellethiel?"
"I wondered of why the heroine chose to abandon her betrothed, merely because of his marriage to an insane woman. He loved her and not his wife, what drove her to leave?"
"I too pondered that, but men are strange. It was clear that Apsenniel loved Beriog. I do believe he was asking of her something morally wrong; he begged of her to be his mistress, and that was faulty. The man was married, a grave offense it would be if she should consent to be only a mistress and not a wife."
Nellethiel scrunched her nose in thought, a reacting she was apt to have. "But, my la–Authiel, he loved her! She loved him! It was all so terribly romantic I could not understand or comprehend the will she had within her to leave!"
"It was romantic," Authiel agreed, "yet passion mars the senses of one's mind. If one places logic and straight thinking above longings and passions, it would become far better in the end."
"You speak as though you have experience such, my–Authiel," Nellethiel observed quietly.
"Nay, I have not, though I confess this to you, Nellethiel. I dream often of it. I have thought of it much and deduced that heartbreak can be avoided through reason."
