eachdraidh | Accidental Video | Seelie & Unseelie | sometime during a break in worm fighting

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Accidental Video | Seelie & Unseelie | sometime during a break in worm fighting

[ The locket comes alive with a voice - deep and wild as the sea, it sings a lament in a language that seems made for music. The songs starts partway, and it is obvious perhaps that the singer is not aware that he is being recorded. There is the flash of one of the Unseelie imps, before it vanishes offscreen to reveal the singer - a man, or something like one, dark haired and grey eyed, with his face turned up to the stars.

To any who listen, the words of the song will paint themselves in the mind - white ships and blood on the sand, a tall and proud people with bright banners beneath a new-born sun, fire and blood and tears unimaginable, and three brilliant jewels that rival the stars ]

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Celegorm swoops forward, knocking the sword from his brother's lap in an elegantly sweeping gesture; it clangs musically to the stone when it falls, but he cares not, instead gripping Maglor's shoulders.

As he'd promised, he begins to pull Maglor up, his eyes burning bright.

"This is not Middle Earth, Maglor, where the lines were easily drawn! There are children who have come in the same manner as we-- would you accuse them of great evil, as you would the both of us!? We know not how we were chosen to serve our court, we know not the manner of this war, and we know not by what means beyond battle our freedom can be won!"

"But I know that you are with me, and that I need you, and I will not stand for the reflection of this grief in your eyes! Yes grief has touched us and all our people with heavy hand, yes we shed blood to serve our oath-- and what matters if we go forever remembered as a cautionary tale to fathers and sons alike? For none living have loved their fathers as much as we loved ours; and as I live and breathe I feel that this love may go unmatched until the end of Arda itself, for even Eru in his Timeless Halls loved not his children enough to spare them the evils of Melkor! But we fought against him, for our father; we fought against all the world for him, and to heal his hurts of spirit, and to fulfill the wishes of his heart. Why are you so ashamed of bearing the burden of such a love, brother!?"

Maglor lets his brother man-handle him without protest, and it is only the last that finally gets a reaction. His eyes blaze, his own fire finally kindled in answer.

"Because it has cost me everything!" he cries in response, and moves to pull away. "I love Father, and I will always love him, but I love you as well, and Father's damned Oath has taken all of you from me! I am the last, Celegorm, and I am utterly destitute, without hope of succor or rest. And now they tell us we are to fight in a war, and our own kin stand on the opposite side! I cannot do this again!"

The words rattle Celegorm visibly, and all the prior fire vanishes from him, leaving him sickly-pale and trembling, his fine hands clutching at his brother's shoulders as if for support.

Slowly, he curls in, forehead touching the taller shoulder, tucking himself against the slightly broader body like a child who desires an embrace.

"You are the last no longer. Embrace me, Maglor, and remind yourself of it again."

Maglor's arms come up automatically, gripping hard enough to bruise, and he shakes.

"I know. I know you are here. But I cannot yet believe you are no dream which will vanish in the morning."

Celegorm likewise snakes his arms about his brother.

"Then I will stay with you! Night and day, until this worry abates and pulls its teeth out of your mind."

"My dreams are all full of fire." He murmurs quietly. "Perhaps with you here I will be able to finally rest."

please stay

"I am sorry for worrying you."

"It's the province of family to worry for their own; I am happy for the opportunity," informs Celegorm, who then kicks the sword away, motioning for his brother to sit atop the bed.

"Let me undo your hair. We should..." He exhaled slowly. "You should tell me all that you know, all that happened. I feel half blind."

Maglor obeys docilely enough now, spent and wrung out by his earlier outburst, but he flinches at Celegorm's words.

"It is a hard tale to tell as well as hear, but I suppose I would rather it come from me. How much do you wish to know?"

Celegorm folds his legs to sit beside his brother, neatly tugging away his soft doeskin boots. "As much as you think I should know, in as brief or long a fashion as you care to tell it," he decides, the words spoken carefully. "I trust you not to guide me wrong."

He rakes his fingertips lightly through Maglor's hair, soothing, focusing on the motion and willing himself to a semblance of outward calm.

Maglor shuts his eyes and tries desperately for a moment to pretend this is Tirion, and they are settling in for the evening (tell us a story, Makalaure!), and his brothers are all here and well, but not even Celegorm's deft hands can hold that illusion for him.

"So." he breathes and slowly, reluctantly begins to talk.

He talks long into the night, skimming what he can, but Celegorm has the right to know. He touches briefly on Beren and Luthien, saying only that Thingol's daughter for love of a mortal man dared and succeeded where they had not, but he does not hide from his brother that Finrod dies because they turn his house against him when their cousin chooses to honor his oath to the house of Beor. He talks of the Nirnaeth, when all of Maedhros' careful planning is thrown into disarray by treachery. He talks of the Fall of Nargothrond and the terror of Glaurung in all his might. He talks of the death of Thingol at the hands of the dwarves, and the crowning of Dior with the passing of Beren and Luthien. Quietly, he talks of the demand for the Silmaril and Dior's refusal and what follows.

When we reached you you were already dead - Dior at your hands, and you at his. We lost also Curufin and Caranthir there, and bitter was our mourning for the Silmaril escaped us and we had lost family to no avail.

He spares the actions of Celegorm's soldiers and mentions only that Dior's daughter escaped. He touches on Turgon and his hidden fortress, and how news came to them on the waves of refugees when it was sacked (betrayed).

We heard news then that Elwing was in Sirion with the refugees and she had the Silmaril, and Maedhros tried to forswear the Oath...but it tormented us so, and in the end he could not let us suffer.

He talks haltingly of how they sent to her, and she refused them and what followed. He breathes the despair and the terror as they watched her fall from the window, and the wonder at the white bird with a star at its throat that rose from the waves where she fell.

We lost Amrod there, and I could not reach him fast enough.

He talks lovingly of the twin boys they found (captured) and raised, and sadly of knowing that they had to let them go.

One is here - Elrond. I do not know what became of his brother.

He speaks of the wonder of the star that rose in the West and the pain of knowing that one Silmaril was forever out of reach. And at last, he talks of the War of Wrath. Painfully he retraces the last argument he had with Maedhros, and how Eonwe let them go. (He does not mention how Elrond was there, watching in horror from Gil Galad's side). He half sings, half weeps, of the beauty of the jewels and the agonising pain of their touch. And then he talks of the madness in Maedhros eyes, and the way he turned and ran from him.

"I begged and pleaded but he did not heed me. We reached one of the cracks in the ground that the war had opened and he turned back to me - all lit in the light of the flames, he was beautiful and terrible and he mouthed 'Forgive me' and stepped back over the edge. I could not reach him in time! I reached the edge only in time to see him fall, one bright flame amongst many, before the ground shook and the crack sealed and I stumbled away weeping."

It is hours-long in the speaking. Celegorm spends much of it simply stroking and petting his brother's hair. But by the end, he has arranged both their bodies, tugged Maglor into his lap, lightly touching and smoothing his brother's face while he speaks, soft-voiced.

By the end Celegorm's face is graven with lines of grief, pale, and at last his hands fall still. And he moves their bodies again, letting himself sink back on the bed, made breathless by the vision his brother painted.

"No wonder you have been so fey, brother, so strange and full of unfamiliar grief," the words are mournful, quiet. "Embrace me. Embrace me. I'm here. And I will carry you, now, as you so often carried me. I will be steadiness for you, and support, solid and real as stone. Through griefs unnumbered and torment beyond all imagining, you strove, and freed us of our oath."

Maglor talks until his voice is hoarse with tears and grief. Once he starts he dares not stop, for if he does he will not be able to continue. (He talks the way he sings, with all his barriers down and his memories and pain whispering in the air between them)

He curls into his brother's solidity as if it were he that was the younger, and the tears that fall from his eyes are silent.

"That, I can only hope is true, else I must believe that everything we did was for naught."

and he is so very tired

"Every time I try to rest, all I can see is Maedhros burning, and my hands ache"

Edited 2014-04-14 07:29 (UTC)

Celegorm's lightly calloused fingertips are cool where they smooth over his brother's brow, as if his touch can bid the lines of grief and pain there to flee; and they drag over the planes of his brother's face, smoothing away the salt of his tears and their tracks, even ere they fall.

"Brother mine, we did what was necessary. None of it was for naught, not a moment; for even if we had failed in our aim, at least we made such war upon the Enemy that the story of it will live in the firmament of the Earth until Eru himself bid it be remade. And even if we failed, we struck out at darkness while we lived!" His voice is soft and fervent with conviction in the spare space between their fine-featured faces, and his eyes are bright with the fire of his belief.

"You told me that you saw me perish, brother; and yet here I stand, as real and solid as ever. Perhaps Maedhros, who was the best of us, has found his way here likewise; and all the rest of our brothers, or even our father himself. Let me give you comfort, and memory of the people that are our home, and restore the spirit that time, agony, and trials have worn thin. Whatever you believe ha happened, I feel certain that you have freed us of the Oath; surely, after all our agonies, our father's spirit has been satisfied? And so unshackled, surely we can turn our faces to a brighter dawn, a new path, and lives re-made as they should have been!"

"And if I wake and you are only a fever dream?"

Maglor shakes his head a little but does not move from his spot. "You have said such things to me before, and always you were gone in morning's light."

"I dare not hope" a whisper of despair. "For I cannot bear to see it crushed again."

Edited 2014-04-15 02:38 (UTC)

"Then I will stay with you, even unto the pale fingers of dawn lend rosy color to the horizon, and long after that selfsame color is bled into the blue of noontide," assures Celegorm, gathering his brother into a fierce hug.

"I will stay, and cultivate your hope so that it flowers anew."

Maglor doesn't answer, only wrapping his brother in his arms and weeping silently until he finally falls to exhausted sleep. He doesn't let go. ~~have fun trying to extricate yourself Celegorm~~

Celegorm winds himself about his brother like a vine about a trellis, holds him until even he, too, is taken by a fitful sleep.

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Accidental Video | Seelie & Unseelie | sometime during a break in worm fighting

Hisssss

/also passes over the alcohol because cel is about to learn that maedhros is dead too oops

/dead eyes the world

/fills up glass and pushes it into Celegorm's hands

/stares at it hollowly

/makes encouraging 'drink' motions

/whinesssss

/pets and cuddles

:c /lays on

/holds close and tldrs at you

... /sobs into your lap

/cries with

:c Magloorrrrr

whaaaaaaat at least he's not (actively) suicidal any more?

Re: whaaaaaaat at least he's not (actively) suicidal any more?

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Got you, big bro!