Faded Light: Book II

(For additional notes and disclaimers, please see top of Chapter 1.)

- Here's the next one, and I finally managed to get Saelbeth and his daughter back into the story; this and the next one were originally one long chapter, but I decided to divide it up, so this one became "Ar Yende" (Royal Daughters) and the next one "Ar Yar" (Royal Blood.) The next one will have both Mel and Benain in it.

Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last one. (About Tadion, for now you just need to know that he is a friend of Legolas, and that about four centuries ago he had a falling out with his family, (who are a very old (and arrogant) silvan noble family); partly the falling out was because his older brother found out Tadion likes other Ellons. But something else also happened back then which will come out in the next few chapters.)

That's all for now, enjoy...and I'll try to post again by Thursday or Friday; oh and Merry Christmas... -

Chapter 22

Ar Yende

It had been one thing to hear the gossip through what well meaning, if tactless talebearing friends he still had in Mirkwood, of Leralonde’s new lover. It was another, Saelbeth now found, to be face to face with Healer Vaurna’s young assistant, Tadion, and to have his child’s well being in his rival’s hands.

He knew what a foolish thing this jealousy was; he was not some lovesick adolescent, but he could not help the intense dislike of the other Elf that had been eating away at him since coming home. At least while he remained in Rivendell he could pretend it didn’t matter...

He heard Leralonde’s voice speaking with the young Healer in the next room, as the Prince entered the infirmary.

“What happened?”

“She had seizure. But she’s all right now...she’s had the medicine Lord Elrond prescribed, and she should rest for the next day or two...”

Saelbeth tried to block out whatever else Tadion was saying...he knew all of the Healers’ words too well by now, without having to listen...the treatments, the advice, the things that might ease her condition or cause one of the painful seizures she’d suffered since infancy...

It was so cruel that one so young should have to suffer with such an affliction; the persistent effects of the Orcs’ poison she had suffered before birth...they had almost lost her without ever having seen her.

Watching his sleeping Elfling, most of the time, she seemed so full of life; he could almost forget all the long days and nights when she was not. He would have gladly have sacrificed what strength he had recovered in these past years, if she could have been free of this affliction...

For some reason it was his visit with Princess Mereniel a few days ago that came to his mind now...

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“...are you well, Saelbeth?” asked the Princess when he received her in the sitting room in the same apartments that had been his during all the years he served as one of the King’s advisors. The curtains had been half-drawn since too much light still bothered him occasionally, and though all his visible wounds had healed long ago, a few of the bones broken by the Orcs still refused to let him forget the ordeal; and this had been a particularly bad day...

“I am healing, my lady, but it is a slow process...I fear my spirit is not as strong as it once was...”

“I was glad to know you and Gwirithniel were finally coming home,” she said. “I do hope you are planning on making this a long visit...”

She had been making a great effort to be pleasant, but Saelbeth had been in no mood for nice manners...

“Your words surprise me, Hiril Nin,” he said coldly.

“Last time you were in Rivendell you believed me to be the cause of the estrangement between Lord Ruthlagor and Haryon Leralonde...you wished me find an amicable end to our relationship, so he and his father might heal their rift...

“As I recall you likened me to one of King Oropher’s paramours...Orel and Palanel, I think it was, whose love affairs ended so disastrously...and for the sake of Mirkwood I agreed...

“I have kept my distance as much as I could...and I’ve never let His Highness learn the real reason...”

What he had not expected was the earnest apology from the proud daughter of Oropher, which followed...

“...I was wrong, Saelbeth,” she began, and he could see how much those words cost her.

“I have always thought myself above reckless actions, but what I did then was probably the most foolish thing I have done in my life...I behaved disgracefully toward you and my son...you do not know how often I have reproached myself over these past years, but I cannot change it...

“I wanted to believe somehow that if you were no longer in his life...”

“...that everything could go back to the way it had been, and he and Lord Rughlagor could pretend I was no more than a youthful lapse, a passing Royal indulgence...

“You should think better of your son, Hiril. He is Oropher’s grandson, but he inherited few of his worse traits...he has never been one to indulge in petty whims...”

“...I know that; and saes, believe, Saelbeth, that it was never about you...”

“Of course not,” he said coolly. “Except that if it had been an ill-advised relationship with an unsuitable Elleth, it would not have been an issue...”

“Perhaps not...

“But what I could not tolerate was that a Crown-prince of Mirkwood should choose his lover and child above his duty...but as I have been reminded of late, my behavior has been appalling. However, I would like to think not all mistakes are beyond repairing...”

“Not all Hiril,” he said, “but for His Highness and I, I fear, it is too late.”

“I have yet to speak with Leralonde of it, but I am thinking seriously of going West...it is one reason I have come. The next ship Sails in the Spring, and I have all but made up my mind to be on it...

“I can only hope he will be happy with Tadion...”

“What of Gwirithniel?”

“Would you have me leave my child behind?” He had not really been angry until she asked something he had never seriously considered.

“To grow up the illegitimate daughter of a future Elvenking and a fertile Ellon among unaccepting Elves...?”

“Should it not be her choice when she Sails?” objected the Princess. “And should she be denied the chance to grow up knowing her other parent...”

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“In there,” he heard the young healer say softly after a minute or two, "Saelbeth is with her.”

He could hear Tadion moving around, trying to busy himself with something, and Leralonde’s footsteps and schooled his features to hide his emotions as the Prince entered the room.

"Sael..."

“I knew the journey would be exhausting for her,” he said, as he felt the hand on his shoulder, “...but she had not had an episode in months...she has been well. I would not have let her come all this way otherwise. So when she asked to go riding with Arwen and Elladan, I did not give it much thought.”

“It is nothing you did, Sael, or failed to do. She is getting stronger, and Elrond has said she’ll probably outgrow this affliction...”

“Iston...but sometimes it is harder to become used to her being as hale as any other Elfling, and then this...”

The Prince rubbed his former lover’s shoulders soothingly and smiled as he watched their daughter sleeping soundly now, Hiril Mellonar, her favorite doll beside her, who true to her name was rarely to be found away from the Princess.

“You should rest too, Meleth.”

“I don’t like to leave her when she’s unwell,” Saelbeth objected but closed his eyes, forgetting himself for a moment and unconsciously leaning into the once so familiar touch and didn’t see the smile, which crossed the Prince’s face at the reaction he could still elicit in the one with whom he had shared his life; though it felt sometimes as if it was only their child who still kept them somewhat together.

“Come,” he said, “there’s an extra bed in this room and you’re tired.”

Without much resistance he led the weary elf to the other bed and got him to lie down. “Worry not,” he said removing the former advisor’s shoes before drawing a blanket over him. “I’ll sit with Gwirithniel. She is my daughter too.”

“...I know that I might have considered your feelings more fully...in keeping her away...” said Saelbeth, looking back toward the sleeping Princess and thinking of Mereniel’s words. “It is not fair to either of you...”

“I understand your reasons for remaining in Rivendell...I always have...

“And Imladris is not a bad place to grow up.”

Leralonde was surprised to hear the other actually laugh. “Aye, with Elladan and Elrohir as role-models...I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing...

“I know that the time you spend with her is seldom enough,” he said serious again.

“She is not the only one I have missed,” the Prince lightly grazed his former lover’s fingers with his own.

Saelbeth looked away, taking his hand back, “I heard about the recent Orc attack,” he said instead. “You went with the hunting parties...”

“...aye, it was terrible, but it looks like we got all the ones responsible.” He said nothing of the perverse satisfaction he had found in slaying those Orcs...if it had not been for creatures like those, Saelbeth and their child would have been here all these years and Gwirithniel would be like any other active, healthy Elfling her age...so, once in a while, though he knew it was wrong, he let a dark stray thought inhabit his mind of how much pleasure he found in an Orc’s death on his blade...

“We’re now trying to find a place for the survivors,” he went on, “and the King is talking about adding another garrison to protect the other villages in the area...there was a heated argument in Council about how one mile at time continue to let the Orcs take over our forest..."

“What are you thinking?”

“What...?”

“Just then, you were saying one thing, but then your mind went somewhere else...”

He smiled; Saelbeth had always known him too well. “I was thinking that you should have been there; your eloquence is sorely missed at Court...”

“...how are things with your Hir Ruthlagor these days?” asked Saelbeth, accepting the Prince’s answer though he knew it wasn’t entirely truthful.

Leralonde shrugged, “...he yelled himself hoarse and ran out of criticisms in the first year...these days he mostly pretends he doesn’t see me. If he knows I’m likely to be somewhere, he stays away...”

“I’m sorry...”

“Don’t be...he would have found out in time; though perhaps there could have been a gentler way for him to know...

“Have you seen him?”

“I ran into him just after we arrived. He was polite enough.

“There was a time you could say we were even friends, but Valar, if looks could kill, I’d be with Mandos now...”

The Prince took the other’s hand in his again and couldn’t help smiling when this time he did not immediately pull it away, “...I am glad you came,” he said.

“Erestor can be very persuasive.” He glanced up at the Prince and tried to smile again, but it was barely a hint of the one Leralonde remembered.

“I think I’m more tired than I had thought,” he turned aside, taking his hand back again and avoiding as always the awkward subject of their relationship and its uncertain conclusion.

“You will wake me if anything happens...”

“She’ll be all right...just sleep awhile...”

The prince turned around after several moments to find a pair of sharp blue eyes, an exact reflection of his own, watching them.

“How long have you been awake, Gwilwileth?”

He moved to the other bed and sat beside the small Elfling, smoothing the child’s unbraided hair. When she much younger he had always thought she had looked most like a smaller Elleth version of Saelbeth, but except for Saelbeth’s dark gold hair, as she grew it seemed she had began to take more closely after Princess Mereniel.

And he wished again that he might see more of her than the yearly visits he and Saelbeth had agreed to...though it was usually Leralonde who did the visiting in Rivendell; this was really only the third time Saelbeth had let their daughter travel all the way to Mirkwood. He had let Erestor bring her once and had made only one brief visit home himself in all these years.

“Is Ada, asleep now?” she asked.

“Yes, he’s asleep and you should be too, Aranel...”

“I’m not sleepy anymore,” she tried to reason, but a loud noise from the other room just then made her shut her eyes and wince...

“Does your head hurt?” he asked, tucking the blanket more closely around her small frame again. She was much too slight for an Elfing her age; then again, he thought there had been a time they had feared they would never get to see the bright, happy Elfling she had become...

“A little bit...”

“So what shall we do until you can go back to sleep?” he asked.

“Just remember we have to be quiet so we don’t bother Ada; he needs his rest too.

“I think there’s a set of cards here somewhere,” he said, remembering his brother’s not very successful attempts some time ago to ease his boredom during the week he had been stuck here with a broken leg. “Or we could borrow Vaurna’s old Chess set...”

“Those are boring,” she complained wrinkling her tiny nose.

“You could read to me though,” she suggested instead. “Lord Glorfindel gave me a book about Gondolin. I haven’t started it yet, but I brought it with me.”

“It’s in your rooms?”

The Princess nodded eagerly.

“Alright, and you’ll sit here quietly while I go find it...”

“Aye, Taro...

"Could we at least sit by the window?" she asked perking up.

"I think that would be all right, as soon as I get back...until then you’ll stay right here and rest...”

“Aye...”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes...” placing a soft kiss on her brow, he went in search of her book, knowing she’d probably be fast asleep again by the time he returned.


TBC...


Elvish Translations:

Ar Yende / Royal daughters (I couldn’t find the plural for ‘daughter’ so I used ‘yende’ as an alternative to the more common ‘Ield.’)

Gwirithniel / April Rose: (From: Gwir / Rose, Gwirith / April, and Ield / Daughter)

Saes / Please

Hiril Nin / My Lady

Haryon / Prince and heir; Crown-prince

Iston / I know

Aranel / Princess

Hir / Lord

Adar, ada / father, dad, daddy

Gwilwileth / Butterfly

Mellonar / Royal friend

Taro / (Quenya) shortened form of Ontaro meaning sire
(Other forms in Quenya would be: tata, atto / daddy or atar / father