nerdanel_the_wise: (Ner and Gabriel 03)
Nerdanel ([personal profile] nerdanel_the_wise) wrote2006-05-22 04:52 pm

(no subject)

[OOC: Written in Writely.com with Mahtan-mun.]


Nerdanel, holding onto Gabriel, rushed from her home to her father's, tears on her cheeks.

She wasn't used to crying. She never really cried, but now... with so much bearing down on her... she sobbed. The Elf knocked at her parents' door, hoping they were in this afternoon.

Mahtan stuck his head out of the door, and saw his daughter all dissolved and in tears, as he'd almost never seen her.

Oh dear. He didn't feel quite at home with copious weeping, but Nerdanel was something else entirely. Mahtan knew how to listen to his daughter - might it be ideas she was brooding over, or emotions.

"Come in," he said quietly, and closed the door behind them.

She sniffled, wiping at her cheeks with one hand while Gabriel whimpered in her arms. His mother's sobbing was upsetting him. "Ada," she said with a rough voice. "Is Nana home?"

Nerdanel didn't want to talk about it in front of her mouse of a mother. Her mother had this way of making her feel like an inadequate woman because she was so like her father.

"No, she went to her cousin's, you know, the one with all the horses? Do you want me to send a message asking her to come home?"

As a rule, Nerdanel wanted to talk to him; but for some women's things that were all mysterious to him, she might want her mother.

He held out his arms to his grandson, though; he could show Feahelce some simple things while the women talked.

Nerdanel shook her head. "No. I didn't want to talk with her." But she did hand over the infant. "Oh, Ada, everything has gone all wrong!" She sat down on the nearest chair, head in her hands. "Gorlim and Lord Mandos and Lee and everything."

So much at once! He sat in the next chair with the baby; he looked at his grandfather with serious bright eyes and said something that was almost but not quite completely incomprehensible.

"Oh dear," he said. "Who is Lee?"

Begin at any random place, then pull up the whole mess. Sound principle when unravelling something that was in a shambles.

"He was the Lord Mandos' lover for a short while. He betrayed him as well as Gorlim before disappearing without a word. His cruelty has left a rift of some kind between Lord Mandos and Gorlim." At least, that was what she thought. "And now there is this creature called Ruin who looks like Gorlim and I accidentally gave Feaho to Ruin thinking him to be Gorlim and then Gorlim accused me of being some kind of awful mother for doing that!"

Now she took a breath.

"Ruin?" Who would call themselves by such a unnecessarily dramatic name?

She nodded, looking at her father with red-rimmed eyes. "He is the personification of the word. He brings ruin and misery and sadness and hopelessness."

"But if he looks like Gorlim, you didn't give your son to him on purpose. What happened?" Mahtan asked.

It was nice to have a little head with reddish hair leaning against his shoulder again. All his other grandsons had grown up a second time, even.

She shook her head sadly. "I don't know. Gorlim was angry. Yelled at me. He told me that children needed to learn about violence... Gorlim beat up Ruin in front of Feaho, Ada! Both of them bloody and for him to say that was what should happen because he needed to know about violence?" Her voice was growing shrill, and she knew it.

Gabriel sniffled, fist tight in his grandfather's tunic. "Ada," he murmured against Mahtan's shoulder, blue eyes filling with tears.

Mahtan hugged the little fellow; people could be so dramatic. Was this going to be Feanaro all over? Even though he'd enjoyed his son-in-law's work, he secretly had to admit that his daughter was incredibly unlucky with men.

"It doesn't sound very sane," he said aloud.

"Sane?" She laughed bitterly. "I don't think our little piecemeal family has been close to sane since day one. Gorlim walked out on Lord Mandos and left the bar, which left Lord Mandos upset, and I was so upset that I just packed a bag and took Feaho."

"Would you rather stay here with the little fellow and get back your balance?" Mahtan asked quietly. His way of saying, Don't go back to that hellhole. Only, Mahtan didn't do dramatic. He suspected he would drably fade into the backround in that weird place, and didn't really mind, either.

Nerdanel met her father's eyes. "You wouldn't mind?" she asked hopefully.

"Since when do I mind my daughter around? And I truly enjoy the company of my grandsons, always have. It's time to give the little one things to bang together and see what he thinks," Mahtan said.

She laughed, nodding. "Yes. He should spend more time with his family here. Perhaps a week? Maybe two?"

"Oh yes, no problem," Mahtan said. "What shall we tell your mother when she returns?"

Like any elf, she was as likely to stay away for a yen as to return within the hour.

"Yes, Ada," she grinned, feeling so much better being close to her family and home again. "That sounds perfect."