Going Home (To a place we've never been before...) Chapter Six.
I haven't quite managed a chapter a month - but it is a long chapter!
Chapter Six; 'Conversation with Tindómë, part two'.
This chapter is 3,250 words long. Beta'd as always by speakr2customrs. Usual disclaimers apply.
Chapter Six; 'Conversation with Tindómë, part two'
By the time food and more wine arrived (Tindómë was glad that, by now, she had developed an elf-like tolerance to the effects of wine) the conversation had covered most of the time spent in the Máhanaxar.
“They were very polite about asking to rummage around in our heads to find out all each of us knew about Spike but, honestly, there was no way we could have stopped them,” Tindómë said, when asked about the Valar. “Like your grandmother, only magnified immeasurably.
“Then Manwë said if I wanted to bring Spike here I would have to go on a journey to ask Lord Námo in person… and that Haldir was to accompany me. I mean, guys, all that the assorted Valar who were there must have heard from our thoughts at that point would have been a chorus of ‘Huitho! What the… Haldir?’ ” **
“Apart from Haldir…” came Elrohir’s silent voice. “It sounds, from the tale so far, as if he was probably thinking either ‘why me?’ or ‘perhaps I could lose her on the way…’”
Elladan smiled, and encouraged their guest to go on.
“So, anyway, he agreed. Although he told me afterwards that it was mainly because he was finding life a bit boring after being in charge of warriors. And probably, although he didn’t mention it, with not having his brothers to share ellyth and sexy times with. I mean, honestly, his whole attitude thing didn’t exactly give us the urge to ask him to come starlight bathing with us.”
For a fleeting instant she must have had such a strong image in her mind that Elladan picked it up without intending to. Tindómë, Rumil, Lithôniel, and Orophin starlight bathing together as a foursome, in the pool the Ithilrim had fashioned in the grounds of Adar and Naneth’s home here. He had wondered if their soul-binding had meant Orophin had no longer joined his brother and Tindómë occasionally. Clearly not. And Lithôniel had just expanded the occasional threesome to a foursome.
No wonder, Elladan thought, Haldir had felt the two ellyth had spoiled his fun if he realised that whilst being bound might mean his brothers joined only with their wives it did not seem to preclude other forms of being swayed by the desires of the body… He wondered if Elrohir had picked up that fleeting image. If not he would share it with him later. Whilst he mused on the implications, the conversation had continued.
“To be honest,” Tindómë was saying, “throwing us together like that was good for both of us, even if we were both annoyed by it, and each other, to start with.”
She spoke a little of the preparations and the first part of the journey, through land settled by the Noldor, but with an unexpected Sindar village en-route, to the point where to all intents and purposes Noldor civilisation seemed to have reached its Western boundary.
“By the time we headed into the first range of mountains,” she said, “we were developing at least more of an understanding. Haldir could see I was more capable than he had expected, and I could see glimpses of the ellon who had brought up two elflings whilst also mourning the loss of his parents.”
Elladan did find himself wondering if she had also seen glimpses of the ellon who had rarely been without female company in his time away from the fences and who had found, as had he and Elrohir, that many ellyth preferred more than just one of the brothers. After all there had been just the two of them on what must have been quite a long journey, from the amount of land they had been told the pair had found. Not a question for now, he thought.
Whilst he had been musing Tindómë was still talking.
“I don’t think it was until I got knocked off my horse by a falling rock, in a thunderstorm, that he really got the whole not-from-around-here, gift of the Valar, Key between dimensions, thing.”
Elrohir asked “Were you injured, little one?”
Elladan realised that neither of them had thought of her as ‘little one’ since their arrival here in Aman, until now that there was thought of her being injured. Not that she had grown any taller; she was still under average height for an elleth, but she had clearly ‘grown-up’ during those intervening years.
“Yeah, but not fatally as you can see… oh wait… that would have been one way to meet Námo pretty quickly… But, anyway, head injury, unconscious, blood - so there we are right beside a small river and Haldir decided to take me to the water to wash the blood off and, probably, hoping the icy water would rouse me. It didn’t, but he told me later that as my blood went into the water it didn’t disperse but flowed as a distinct element… upstream.
“And within minutes he realised that, where it had come over a waterfall in that direction, he could now see the river flowing though a cleft in the rock with enough space beside it for a horse to pass along. And we had found your valley!”
“Huitho!” said Elrohir. “That must have shaken even the implacable March Warden of Lothlorien!”
“I don’t know,” said Tindómë. “I guess so, but I didn’t wake up until the next day. Thereby adding a third son of Thorontor to the list of people who have bandaged me and dealt with the whole unconscious bladder thing.”
“Elladan found himself smiling - and realising, yet again, that neither he nor Elrohir had thought of the description ‘your valley’ as anything but right.
“Talking of bladders…” said Tindómë, getting up and leaving the room.
“I think,” said Elrohir, “that whilst I want very much to know what happened when they did find Lord Námo, I also want to know more about how our valley fits into the puzzle that appears to be more land than anyone had ever realised existed.”
“So do I,” said Elladan, “although Lithôniel told us that Haldir considered it to be not so close to Tirion that we would get a lot of unwanted visitors… But close enough to make it possible to go the Noldorin court. And only one more range of mountains to get to the lands already declared to be for Grandmother and Grandfather.”
He put this conundrum, of not knowing what to ask her about first, to Tindómë when she returned.
“M’kay,” she said. “I can draw you a quick sketch of the distances, at least in how many days travel each bit is, in a few minutes. And I know how it was that no-one ever seemed to realise that there was so much land. When I rode with Tulkas…”
“Wait!” Elrohir said before Elladan got the chance, “When you rode with Tulkas? You are on first name terms with one of the Valar and you have ridden with him?”
“Actually, I’m on first name terms with two of them,” came the answer. “But, yeah… So, Tulkas - I’ll explain how and when in a minute, but he said there’s enough land to keep elves exploring for many yéni. It’s the land that were always intended for the Sindar and Silvan, and it was hidden until we needed it. He said when the ellon your Grandmother knew travelled that way they ensured that his journey was like this…”
She made a fold in the side of her skirt, and another one at the other side, then brought the two folds together so that all the fabric between was now hidden, then ‘walked’ her fingers across the short distance.
“Until they ‘rearranged things’ for Haldir and I to find!”
“Oh, and,” she continued, “Tulkas reminded me a bit of you two, and he says he is looking forward to meeting you.”
Elladan could feel his brother also trying to formulate a suitable reply or, really, which question to ask first. But before either of them had got past a couple of mental expletives Tindómë continued.
“The new lands are where Lord Oromë hunts and we got to ride with him - well I got to ride with Tulkas on his horse, and he showed me how much land, and how it was hidden, and we got to bathe with some of the hunters, and Nessa came and kept me company and discussed how buff Haldir was, and…”she stopped to draw breath.
“We have missed SO much!” Elrohir said silently, as he said out loud “You did not tell Haldir that, did you?”
Tindómë’s description of all three Valar she met on that occasion led on to her describing her other encounters with Nessa since.
Finishing with, “And I hope you two are going to stay in Alqualonde until after the solstice, before you feel you must go and meet other relatives, because Nessa told me that, although she did not usually venture as far as the sea herself, Ossë and Uinen have been known to occasionally join in Telerin celebrations on the beach and, quite possibly, ours too.”
“Had we planned to start our tour of our family tree before then, that would surely have changed our minds,” Elrohir said.
“But,” said Elladan taking over the conversation, “we already intended to wait until after that.”
He paused and, to anyone other than another elf, it might have seemed that he completely changed the subject.
“We are almost certain that we met most of the unbound ellyth in Middle Earth over the years.”
“Apart from some of those in Eryn Lasgalen, or at The Havens,” Elrohir added.
“And those who passed to Mandos before we had the chance to meet them…”
(At this point Tindómë realised this was going to be a game of ‘twin tennis’.)
Elrohir took the shot from Elladan and continued, “And at no time did we think ‘this elleth is important; our fëa might begin to sing with hers’.”
“And so we have decided that the elleth, or ellyth, in question must be here in Aman.”
“Unless it is one of those left behind that we did not meet, and we know that they, also, will reach here in time. For we do not think Eru would be cruel and have the person, or people, we should bind to be amongst those who choose to remain in Eryn Lasgalen until they fade.”
“And those in Mandos will return, also.” Elladan concluded.
“So many ellyth to choose from…” Tindómë said, smiling.
“Perhaps,” Elladan answered her seriously, “it is not really a choice. Do you feel that you ‘chose’ Rumil from the five of us who were there and all those others you went on to meet?”
She was still, clearly considering before answering.
“I guess it wasn’t so much a choosing as a knowing,” she answered.
“And that is what we would like to find,” Elladan continued, “The person, or people, who we will know are intended for us. “
“And us for them,” added Elrohir. “After all they might have been waiting for a very long time for us to turn up, too.”
Elladan could see that their guest was clearly thinking about what they had said. He explained further.
“So we feel that your celebrations, although we have never been part of them before, will be an excellent way of meeting...”
“And kissing,” Elrohir cut in, “which may well help.”
“…quite a few new ellyth,” Elladan continued, as if his twin had not interjected at all.
“The plan, after that,” Elrohir said, “is to travel with Grandmother and Grandfather to her current home and spend time with our Noldorin relatives in Tirion.”
“Where you will almost certainly,” Tindómë said, “be introduced to a lot of eligible ellyth. Especially as you are going to be seen as Princes of the Noldor.”
“We are beginning to see that that might be a two edged sword,” Elladan said.
He remembered Éomer once explaining that realising he was drawn to Lothíriel was almost a relief as it would stop all the arguments about whether he should look for a bride in the Westfold, the Eastfold, The Wold….
“Not,” he went on, “that we see ourselves on nothing but a bride-quest. But we realise that the possibility is there whereas, in those last years in Imladris, we no longer thought being soul-bound to anyone else was a possibility.”
“And,” said Elrohir, “building our own home in the valley Rumil showed us would genuinely give us the perfect place from which to travel to visit so many friends and relations from Grandmother Gull and Captain Grandfather, to Grandmother and Grandfather; from our parents who are so settled here in Alqualonde, to yourselves and Legolas. Whether it be to constantly expand the chances of meeting an intended wife, or for any elleth who does bind to one of us to be able to visit her own family and friends .”
Tindómë nodded slowly. “A sort of added bonus to being in charge of your own domain,” she said, “a bolt-hole when the pressures of so much expectation becomes too much, not exactly within the realm of any particular set of relations, and a place for your own family to expand in time.”
“There is something, though,” she said. “And it is just me being curious, you don’t really have to answer. But through that conversation the words ‘I’ and ‘we’, and ‘elleth’ and ‘ellyth’ seemed sort of interchangeable. I remember you once told Pippin that you were still looking for an elleth who would put up with the two of you, and I was not sure if you were serious or not. Do you genuinely believe that you will both bind to the same elleth?”
“Time for an honest answer, I think, came Elrohir’s silent voice, and Elladan agreed.
“We do not know,” he said. “Clearly it was not the case for Adar and Elros, but they took such different paths from quite an early age and, Grandmother Gull says, they never seemed quite as if they were one person who had been split in two. “
“Fraternal twins,” said Tindómë.
Which occasioned another short discussion on the difference between fraternal and identical twins, and how this fitted with the elven concept of the fëa being conceived before the hröa. Which led to the conclusion that, with a higher proportion of mortal blood than Elladan and Elrohir had, their father and his brother may not have started as a single fëa.
“But Grandmother Gull says that Eluréd and Elurín, although quite a lot younger than us, have also said to her that they do not know if they would be likely to find their song in harmony with the same elleth,” Elladan went back to answering the original question. “She also says that, in the domain of our many times Grandfather Thingol, that this might happen does not seem to shock anyone.”
“We do not think,” Elrohir said, “that this is going to be a matter of choice on our part. We are made as we are and what will happen is already written in the great song - and woven in Vairë’s tapestry. But we do wonder. Would each wife feel as if she was in some way married to both of us rather than just her own husband? And there is the fact that, unless we are quite far apart, the desires of the body of one of us are clearly felt by the other. Any elleth would have to see that as a good thing not a bad thing or we might have problems - especially if one of us found the right elleth for himself but the other one did not do so for many years…”
“And, if we find we are destined to be bound to the same elleth,” Elladan said, “we do not know enough about all the other societies here to know whether this would be seen as normal, or we would, all three, be shunned.”
”I have something to add to this discussion, between ourselves, I think,” he added silently to his brother.
Tindómë nodded then said, “Well the future is definitely not going to be boring as we all watch for any signs of courtship from the two of you! And, no matter what happens, and whether there is approval needed or not in some areas, you will always be welcomed here by your parents, and amongst the Ithilrim.”
It was clear, Elladan thought, as she then proceeded to draw the sketch map with the number of days travel between each place, that Tindómë needed less sleep now than she had even when she left Middle Earth. Especially as she then demanded cake before she would tell them about Mandos and meeting Lord Námo.
Suitably fortified she told them of being led by small lights to the entrance to The Halls, and the realisation that the entrance was probably wherever it suited the Vala for it to be; The Halls were probably some sort of pocket dimension.
“There can’t be many people who have walked in wearing their hröar!” Elrohir joked.
“We did worry that we might have to leave them outside the door,” Tindómë said, “seriously!”
She told about Lord Námo using her blood to open a door into the world where she had once lived, and “getting to know all of Spike” by rummaging around in his head in the same way the other Valar had done to her in the Máhanaxar. And his decision that Spike’s own fëa was not intrinsically evil… but the evil spirit that inhabited his body and kept it alive was.
Elladan thought the decision would then have to be refusal to allow the vampire across the portal. And was surprised to find that he was literally correct.
“So he told Spike that his own fëa could pass, but not the demon. So the two needed to be separated. And the hröa would have to die and Spike’s own fëa would then stay with His Lordship in The Halls until Lord Námo decided it was time for him to be rehoused. And he left the decision as to accept or not to Spike.”
“Huitho!”Came Elrohir’s silent voice. “It is totally logical - but what a decision to have to make!"
Elladan could only agree. But it seemed the vampire, or at least the part that was the true fëa, agreed to it. It would need courage to agree to die, and then to find yourself in Mandos where everyone else would be elves.
“And as you know, vampires can only be killed by a wooden weapon piercing their heart,” Tindómë continued, “And Lord Námo asked Haldir to use his bow…”
“I remember Legolas suggesting such a thing when we first heard of the creatures from Tinu back in Minas Tirith," said Elrohir.
“And Spike’s body turned to dust, and his fëa came through, and His Lordship stopped the demon doing so. So Spike is in Mandos, but he is safe and he will join us sometime,” concluded Tindómë.
“What a tale!” Elladan said silently, “No wonder she flinched that first night when I mentioned the vampire slayer’s stake!”
“And that,” Tindómë said in the voice she must have used to her elflings at bedtime, “is enough of the tale for this evening because I really will need to get some sleep.”
………………………………
**What the Valar present actually did hear, from the thoughts of the four elves and a Key, can be found at the beginning of chapter 9 of The Valinor Trail.
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Chapter Six; 'Conversation with Tindómë, part two'.
This chapter is 3,250 words long. Beta'd as always by speakr2customrs. Usual disclaimers apply.
Chapter Six; 'Conversation with Tindómë, part two'
By the time food and more wine arrived (Tindómë was glad that, by now, she had developed an elf-like tolerance to the effects of wine) the conversation had covered most of the time spent in the Máhanaxar.
“They were very polite about asking to rummage around in our heads to find out all each of us knew about Spike but, honestly, there was no way we could have stopped them,” Tindómë said, when asked about the Valar. “Like your grandmother, only magnified immeasurably.
“Then Manwë said if I wanted to bring Spike here I would have to go on a journey to ask Lord Námo in person… and that Haldir was to accompany me. I mean, guys, all that the assorted Valar who were there must have heard from our thoughts at that point would have been a chorus of ‘Huitho! What the… Haldir?’ ” **
“Apart from Haldir…” came Elrohir’s silent voice. “It sounds, from the tale so far, as if he was probably thinking either ‘why me?’ or ‘perhaps I could lose her on the way…’”
Elladan smiled, and encouraged their guest to go on.
“So, anyway, he agreed. Although he told me afterwards that it was mainly because he was finding life a bit boring after being in charge of warriors. And probably, although he didn’t mention it, with not having his brothers to share ellyth and sexy times with. I mean, honestly, his whole attitude thing didn’t exactly give us the urge to ask him to come starlight bathing with us.”
For a fleeting instant she must have had such a strong image in her mind that Elladan picked it up without intending to. Tindómë, Rumil, Lithôniel, and Orophin starlight bathing together as a foursome, in the pool the Ithilrim had fashioned in the grounds of Adar and Naneth’s home here. He had wondered if their soul-binding had meant Orophin had no longer joined his brother and Tindómë occasionally. Clearly not. And Lithôniel had just expanded the occasional threesome to a foursome.
No wonder, Elladan thought, Haldir had felt the two ellyth had spoiled his fun if he realised that whilst being bound might mean his brothers joined only with their wives it did not seem to preclude other forms of being swayed by the desires of the body… He wondered if Elrohir had picked up that fleeting image. If not he would share it with him later. Whilst he mused on the implications, the conversation had continued.
“To be honest,” Tindómë was saying, “throwing us together like that was good for both of us, even if we were both annoyed by it, and each other, to start with.”
She spoke a little of the preparations and the first part of the journey, through land settled by the Noldor, but with an unexpected Sindar village en-route, to the point where to all intents and purposes Noldor civilisation seemed to have reached its Western boundary.
“By the time we headed into the first range of mountains,” she said, “we were developing at least more of an understanding. Haldir could see I was more capable than he had expected, and I could see glimpses of the ellon who had brought up two elflings whilst also mourning the loss of his parents.”
Elladan did find himself wondering if she had also seen glimpses of the ellon who had rarely been without female company in his time away from the fences and who had found, as had he and Elrohir, that many ellyth preferred more than just one of the brothers. After all there had been just the two of them on what must have been quite a long journey, from the amount of land they had been told the pair had found. Not a question for now, he thought.
Whilst he had been musing Tindómë was still talking.
“I don’t think it was until I got knocked off my horse by a falling rock, in a thunderstorm, that he really got the whole not-from-around-here, gift of the Valar, Key between dimensions, thing.”
Elrohir asked “Were you injured, little one?”
Elladan realised that neither of them had thought of her as ‘little one’ since their arrival here in Aman, until now that there was thought of her being injured. Not that she had grown any taller; she was still under average height for an elleth, but she had clearly ‘grown-up’ during those intervening years.
“Yeah, but not fatally as you can see… oh wait… that would have been one way to meet Námo pretty quickly… But, anyway, head injury, unconscious, blood - so there we are right beside a small river and Haldir decided to take me to the water to wash the blood off and, probably, hoping the icy water would rouse me. It didn’t, but he told me later that as my blood went into the water it didn’t disperse but flowed as a distinct element… upstream.
“And within minutes he realised that, where it had come over a waterfall in that direction, he could now see the river flowing though a cleft in the rock with enough space beside it for a horse to pass along. And we had found your valley!”
“Huitho!” said Elrohir. “That must have shaken even the implacable March Warden of Lothlorien!”
“I don’t know,” said Tindómë. “I guess so, but I didn’t wake up until the next day. Thereby adding a third son of Thorontor to the list of people who have bandaged me and dealt with the whole unconscious bladder thing.”
“Elladan found himself smiling - and realising, yet again, that neither he nor Elrohir had thought of the description ‘your valley’ as anything but right.
“Talking of bladders…” said Tindómë, getting up and leaving the room.
“I think,” said Elrohir, “that whilst I want very much to know what happened when they did find Lord Námo, I also want to know more about how our valley fits into the puzzle that appears to be more land than anyone had ever realised existed.”
“So do I,” said Elladan, “although Lithôniel told us that Haldir considered it to be not so close to Tirion that we would get a lot of unwanted visitors… But close enough to make it possible to go the Noldorin court. And only one more range of mountains to get to the lands already declared to be for Grandmother and Grandfather.”
He put this conundrum, of not knowing what to ask her about first, to Tindómë when she returned.
“M’kay,” she said. “I can draw you a quick sketch of the distances, at least in how many days travel each bit is, in a few minutes. And I know how it was that no-one ever seemed to realise that there was so much land. When I rode with Tulkas…”
“Wait!” Elrohir said before Elladan got the chance, “When you rode with Tulkas? You are on first name terms with one of the Valar and you have ridden with him?”
“Actually, I’m on first name terms with two of them,” came the answer. “But, yeah… So, Tulkas - I’ll explain how and when in a minute, but he said there’s enough land to keep elves exploring for many yéni. It’s the land that were always intended for the Sindar and Silvan, and it was hidden until we needed it. He said when the ellon your Grandmother knew travelled that way they ensured that his journey was like this…”
She made a fold in the side of her skirt, and another one at the other side, then brought the two folds together so that all the fabric between was now hidden, then ‘walked’ her fingers across the short distance.
“Until they ‘rearranged things’ for Haldir and I to find!”
“Oh, and,” she continued, “Tulkas reminded me a bit of you two, and he says he is looking forward to meeting you.”
Elladan could feel his brother also trying to formulate a suitable reply or, really, which question to ask first. But before either of them had got past a couple of mental expletives Tindómë continued.
“The new lands are where Lord Oromë hunts and we got to ride with him - well I got to ride with Tulkas on his horse, and he showed me how much land, and how it was hidden, and we got to bathe with some of the hunters, and Nessa came and kept me company and discussed how buff Haldir was, and…”she stopped to draw breath.
“We have missed SO much!” Elrohir said silently, as he said out loud “You did not tell Haldir that, did you?”
Tindómë’s description of all three Valar she met on that occasion led on to her describing her other encounters with Nessa since.
Finishing with, “And I hope you two are going to stay in Alqualonde until after the solstice, before you feel you must go and meet other relatives, because Nessa told me that, although she did not usually venture as far as the sea herself, Ossë and Uinen have been known to occasionally join in Telerin celebrations on the beach and, quite possibly, ours too.”
“Had we planned to start our tour of our family tree before then, that would surely have changed our minds,” Elrohir said.
“But,” said Elladan taking over the conversation, “we already intended to wait until after that.”
He paused and, to anyone other than another elf, it might have seemed that he completely changed the subject.
“We are almost certain that we met most of the unbound ellyth in Middle Earth over the years.”
“Apart from some of those in Eryn Lasgalen, or at The Havens,” Elrohir added.
“And those who passed to Mandos before we had the chance to meet them…”
(At this point Tindómë realised this was going to be a game of ‘twin tennis’.)
Elrohir took the shot from Elladan and continued, “And at no time did we think ‘this elleth is important; our fëa might begin to sing with hers’.”
“And so we have decided that the elleth, or ellyth, in question must be here in Aman.”
“Unless it is one of those left behind that we did not meet, and we know that they, also, will reach here in time. For we do not think Eru would be cruel and have the person, or people, we should bind to be amongst those who choose to remain in Eryn Lasgalen until they fade.”
“And those in Mandos will return, also.” Elladan concluded.
“So many ellyth to choose from…” Tindómë said, smiling.
“Perhaps,” Elladan answered her seriously, “it is not really a choice. Do you feel that you ‘chose’ Rumil from the five of us who were there and all those others you went on to meet?”
She was still, clearly considering before answering.
“I guess it wasn’t so much a choosing as a knowing,” she answered.
“And that is what we would like to find,” Elladan continued, “The person, or people, who we will know are intended for us. “
“And us for them,” added Elrohir. “After all they might have been waiting for a very long time for us to turn up, too.”
Elladan could see that their guest was clearly thinking about what they had said. He explained further.
“So we feel that your celebrations, although we have never been part of them before, will be an excellent way of meeting...”
“And kissing,” Elrohir cut in, “which may well help.”
“…quite a few new ellyth,” Elladan continued, as if his twin had not interjected at all.
“The plan, after that,” Elrohir said, “is to travel with Grandmother and Grandfather to her current home and spend time with our Noldorin relatives in Tirion.”
“Where you will almost certainly,” Tindómë said, “be introduced to a lot of eligible ellyth. Especially as you are going to be seen as Princes of the Noldor.”
“We are beginning to see that that might be a two edged sword,” Elladan said.
He remembered Éomer once explaining that realising he was drawn to Lothíriel was almost a relief as it would stop all the arguments about whether he should look for a bride in the Westfold, the Eastfold, The Wold….
“Not,” he went on, “that we see ourselves on nothing but a bride-quest. But we realise that the possibility is there whereas, in those last years in Imladris, we no longer thought being soul-bound to anyone else was a possibility.”
“And,” said Elrohir, “building our own home in the valley Rumil showed us would genuinely give us the perfect place from which to travel to visit so many friends and relations from Grandmother Gull and Captain Grandfather, to Grandmother and Grandfather; from our parents who are so settled here in Alqualonde, to yourselves and Legolas. Whether it be to constantly expand the chances of meeting an intended wife, or for any elleth who does bind to one of us to be able to visit her own family and friends .”
Tindómë nodded slowly. “A sort of added bonus to being in charge of your own domain,” she said, “a bolt-hole when the pressures of so much expectation becomes too much, not exactly within the realm of any particular set of relations, and a place for your own family to expand in time.”
“There is something, though,” she said. “And it is just me being curious, you don’t really have to answer. But through that conversation the words ‘I’ and ‘we’, and ‘elleth’ and ‘ellyth’ seemed sort of interchangeable. I remember you once told Pippin that you were still looking for an elleth who would put up with the two of you, and I was not sure if you were serious or not. Do you genuinely believe that you will both bind to the same elleth?”
“Time for an honest answer, I think, came Elrohir’s silent voice, and Elladan agreed.
“We do not know,” he said. “Clearly it was not the case for Adar and Elros, but they took such different paths from quite an early age and, Grandmother Gull says, they never seemed quite as if they were one person who had been split in two. “
“Fraternal twins,” said Tindómë.
Which occasioned another short discussion on the difference between fraternal and identical twins, and how this fitted with the elven concept of the fëa being conceived before the hröa. Which led to the conclusion that, with a higher proportion of mortal blood than Elladan and Elrohir had, their father and his brother may not have started as a single fëa.
“But Grandmother Gull says that Eluréd and Elurín, although quite a lot younger than us, have also said to her that they do not know if they would be likely to find their song in harmony with the same elleth,” Elladan went back to answering the original question. “She also says that, in the domain of our many times Grandfather Thingol, that this might happen does not seem to shock anyone.”
“We do not think,” Elrohir said, “that this is going to be a matter of choice on our part. We are made as we are and what will happen is already written in the great song - and woven in Vairë’s tapestry. But we do wonder. Would each wife feel as if she was in some way married to both of us rather than just her own husband? And there is the fact that, unless we are quite far apart, the desires of the body of one of us are clearly felt by the other. Any elleth would have to see that as a good thing not a bad thing or we might have problems - especially if one of us found the right elleth for himself but the other one did not do so for many years…”
“And, if we find we are destined to be bound to the same elleth,” Elladan said, “we do not know enough about all the other societies here to know whether this would be seen as normal, or we would, all three, be shunned.”
”I have something to add to this discussion, between ourselves, I think,” he added silently to his brother.
Tindómë nodded then said, “Well the future is definitely not going to be boring as we all watch for any signs of courtship from the two of you! And, no matter what happens, and whether there is approval needed or not in some areas, you will always be welcomed here by your parents, and amongst the Ithilrim.”
It was clear, Elladan thought, as she then proceeded to draw the sketch map with the number of days travel between each place, that Tindómë needed less sleep now than she had even when she left Middle Earth. Especially as she then demanded cake before she would tell them about Mandos and meeting Lord Námo.
Suitably fortified she told them of being led by small lights to the entrance to The Halls, and the realisation that the entrance was probably wherever it suited the Vala for it to be; The Halls were probably some sort of pocket dimension.
“There can’t be many people who have walked in wearing their hröar!” Elrohir joked.
“We did worry that we might have to leave them outside the door,” Tindómë said, “seriously!”
She told about Lord Námo using her blood to open a door into the world where she had once lived, and “getting to know all of Spike” by rummaging around in his head in the same way the other Valar had done to her in the Máhanaxar. And his decision that Spike’s own fëa was not intrinsically evil… but the evil spirit that inhabited his body and kept it alive was.
Elladan thought the decision would then have to be refusal to allow the vampire across the portal. And was surprised to find that he was literally correct.
“So he told Spike that his own fëa could pass, but not the demon. So the two needed to be separated. And the hröa would have to die and Spike’s own fëa would then stay with His Lordship in The Halls until Lord Námo decided it was time for him to be rehoused. And he left the decision as to accept or not to Spike.”
“Huitho!”Came Elrohir’s silent voice. “It is totally logical - but what a decision to have to make!"
Elladan could only agree. But it seemed the vampire, or at least the part that was the true fëa, agreed to it. It would need courage to agree to die, and then to find yourself in Mandos where everyone else would be elves.
“And as you know, vampires can only be killed by a wooden weapon piercing their heart,” Tindómë continued, “And Lord Námo asked Haldir to use his bow…”
“I remember Legolas suggesting such a thing when we first heard of the creatures from Tinu back in Minas Tirith," said Elrohir.
“And Spike’s body turned to dust, and his fëa came through, and His Lordship stopped the demon doing so. So Spike is in Mandos, but he is safe and he will join us sometime,” concluded Tindómë.
“What a tale!” Elladan said silently, “No wonder she flinched that first night when I mentioned the vampire slayer’s stake!”
“And that,” Tindómë said in the voice she must have used to her elflings at bedtime, “is enough of the tale for this evening because I really will need to get some sleep.”
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**What the Valar present actually did hear, from the thoughts of the four elves and a Key, can be found at the beginning of chapter 9 of The Valinor Trail.
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