[For Lydia]
Celebrimbor hasn't been working in his forge. He's been pacing the mansion and the woods, at one point coming back and saddling a horse from the stables to ride far out into the woods. He's been keeping to himself mostly, needing to be alone with his thoughts. He hurt. His last conversation with Lydia had... not gone well. The idea that she had revealed his thoughts to his father still stung, he'd trusted her entirely and the thought that perhaps he couldn't hurt a lot, especially after he'd defended her so fiercely to his family.
He'd needed space, time to grapple with it, time to calm down and control his own sometimes explosive temper. And he was angry with her, furious that she'd reveal something so private. So he'd gone off on his own, napping on the cot in his forge and avoiding company aside from one unfortunate encounter with his father. Which had gone about as well as could be expected.
As the afternoon waned he found himself sitting outside his forge, a hand moving into his pocket to run his fingers over a bit of finely worked metal hidden there. He'd been intending to give it to her the previous night, not expecting what had actually occured. Slowly he rose and started back toward the mansion, he and Lydia needed to talk and now that he was calmer he felt that they could actually do so.
When he returns to their rooms, however, her door stands open, and all he can think for a moment is panic. He runs inside, hesitating for a few moments away from from the empty bed for approaching it, finding the note. He stands there for minutes, staring at it, reading it over and over again as if thinking that if he reads it one more time it will tell him where she's gone. The faint mark of a teardrop joins the droplet of blood on the page before the letter disappears in his pocket. A search of the room reveals nothing missing, and still no sign of where she's gone. He absently runs his hands over one of her bright shawls as he tries to think of where she could have gone, where would be safe for her during the day, and all he can think of is the room in the basement. He waits for the sun to start setting before taking a piece of paper from his room, scrawling one word across it, "Stay," and leaving it on her bed where her letter had been sitting before hurrying toward the basement. He barely realizes that he's still carrying her scarf.
The basement room when he checks it though is empty, and shows no sign that she's even visited it recently. At a loss for where else to look he begins prowling the mansion, afraid that she may have been hurt or hurt someone else in her dayly sleep, not knowing where she might have gone, and afraid to go to far in case she returns. For her things if nothing else. Yes she hurt him with what she showed Curufin, but he hasn't stopped loving her, and right now he's just hoping that she'll let him know somehow that she's all right, whether or not she returns. ...He hopes she'll return. They can work things out, he hopes...but only if he can find her.
[closed to Lydia]