Slow footsteps, careful and measured lined the empty streets, like the the slow beat of my heart. Quiet was the air, and yet the simple sound of my breath felt like cannon fire to my ears. This…What was this? Where were the people? The Valinor? The song? The mercy? The peace? A pained, bitter feeling rose in my throat. Like I were being suffocated by hopelessness alone. This land was empty. They were beautiful, lush green hills and sparkling streets, but what use was beauty in a time like this? Our Salvation was empty. My homeland lie crumbled into dust, a land once so beautiful gone to hell, and salvation was empty. A near distance back, my wife, my friends lay waiting, and salvation was empty. What was I to tell them when I returned? My own two sons gone, to what fate? Imprisonment? Enslavement? Torture? Or most mercifully, death? And Salvation, was empty. Was it a lie? Hopeless delusion by the Noldor? My voice was growing tired, calling out in language after language, tongue after tongue, waiting for a response. Anything. A single sound to let me know that at the very least I wasn’t totally alone and all the efforts, the hope of my people I carried on my back, wasn’t for nothing. The silmar glowed a few times, unspoken encouragement. Keep going. Keep trying. But I was growing tired, and more than anything I knew this search was fruitless. So I turned my back, walked down gleaming white stairs. A cry pierced my ears, high pitched yet gruff, like a crow coke to life. It called my name, it welcomed me! I turned my back with widened eyes and followed its call until at last I was met with a great council, tall and beautiful were its buildings, great and mighty were its kings. I took a moment to reflect in awe, and then, slowly I began my speech. An earnest plea. The valar atop his thrown—the ruler of this place I presume, for what other being could excuse such a level of nobility?—thought deeply while scratching his chin. At last, his verdict was delivered, my mission accomplished. Noldor was not saved, middle earth forsaken, but at least for my wife and family’s sake, peace was found.
Earendril Perspective
I thought I was hallucinating. Right, I must be out of my mind, gone absolutely and helplessly insane. To me, the sea was more than a simple longing, it was life itself. The water that sloshed against Vingilot like the very blood in my veins, the scent of salt clinging to my clothes. When everything was confusing, a turmoil of emotion and grief so deep in my chest, I would look down into the murky depths. It would be like I was a young boy again, with the ash of my home burned into my lungs and my heart trembling from the near miss of the reaper’s scythe, looking into the depths for answers that would always be there. But it had been more days at the waters than I could count now, a fruitless search for friends long gone, of gods who seemed blind to the plights and cries of mortals. The blonde of my hair was starting to turn as dark as the sea under the night sky, the once vibrant blues of my eyes growing weary with exhaustion. Was it merely because of the darkness? Or hope escap...
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