Tears of the Eldar

Chapter One

He was speaking again, Glorfindel noted, and all were listening. He had not stopped, this bright figure upon the hill. All around him the others watched, enraptured by the figure's words. Glorfindel looked instead at his father who stared unblinking at the elf on the hill. His uncle stood there too, closer as was his right.

Fëanor kept speaking, although Glorfindel wished he would stop. The words made him uneasy, this talk of betrayal. Of leaving. Yet it was how true they sounded that worried him the most. He did not want to accept that Fëanor's words were right, he did not want to accept that they were prisoners.

"There they lie still and await us who in our folly forsook them." Fëanor shouted. Glorfindel could not remember a time before Aman, when his people still dwelt beyond the sea. He had been born in Valinor, as had his parents and his aunt and uncle. He knew nothing else, the lands of which Fëanor spoke were alien to him. "Come away! Let the cowards keep this city!" Glorfindel turned to look around him again, spying another golden head among the dark Noldor.

"Artanis," he whispered as he ran to her. They were of an age, both too young to know of this Middle Earth Fëanor spoke of. She however was watching her half-uncle with avid interest. "He means to make us leave," Glorfindel murmured.

"Hush, he is right, we are kept here. Be silent, Glor." She took his arm and held a finger up to silence him. Glorfindel turned from her, more worried than before. He did not think they would be held against their will, not by the Valar who were good to them, surely? "Think of it, Glor. Lands, realms when there is no space here. Why should you be of no consequence when your uncle is a Prince? We used to play of ruling, when we were children. Do you not wish to carve out your own name in a new land?"

"No," he said sourly, looking up at Fëanor. "This is wrong, this has to be wrong." Again she bade him be silent so that she could listen.

"Aye, wrong it is," said her brother Finrod who stood beside them. "And foul are his words. Do not heed him, Glor, nor my sister." Galadriel sent him a withering glare but was silent and they listened, Glorfindel drawing closer to Finrod as Fëanor's words put fear into his heart.

"Fair shall be the end, though long and hard shall be the road!" Fëanor cried. Glorfindel turned to Finrod who shared his look of dismay.

"They shall go," Finrod told him. "Look at them, they shall go." Glorfindel made to reply but Fëanor fell silent and there was not a sound upon the hill for a moment. Ominous their silence was and they waited.

Then Fëanor swore an oath and the silence was one of shock. Glorfindel watched, aghast as the seven Princes, sons of Fëanor took out their swords and swore as well. No being, be they Valar, elf, Man or any other creature would stop the eight that stood upon the hill in their quest. The other elves shrank back at the names Fëanor called to witness his oath.

"It shall never leave them, to the ends of the Earth and beyond, they shall know no rest until they have those jewels, and they drag us with them into this abyss." Finrod had turned away, moving through the crowds towards his father. Glorfindel felt Galadriel take his hand and they pushed after him.

"You do not know what you have done, brother!" Fingolfin cried to Fëanor. Behind him came his brother Finarfin and with them Finrod and Turgon. Still Galadriel had a hold of Glorfindel's hand and she pulled him forwards to stand with her father and brothers. He could not see his own parents, but his uncle Turgon stood there with them.

"There again is the betrayal that is so readily in your mind!" replied Fëanor. "I mean to take back what is mine and lead my people out of this bondage."

"Lead them into darkness and misery. You claim to wish to free us of bondage yet you chain yourself with your oath!"

"That you are too craven to take to win back our treasures and to avenge our father!" The two brothers moved in circles, their children watching anxiously from beside them.

"It is madness to take such an oath," Turgon called out. Glorfindel would have gone to him and been with his uncle but Galadriel held onto him and he stayed with her, as he always did, a good little friend and playmate.

"You dare call your King mad?" Curufin shot back with his brothers shouting back at Turgon. Suddenly they had their hands on their swords, Curufin had unsheathed his and seemed ready to strike his cousin.

"Please, calm yourselves," came Finarfin's soft voice. "Brothers, be not hasty lest we do things that cannot be undone." Slowly the weapons were put away.

"Their oath cannot be undone," Fingolfin told his brother. "Fëanor seeks to lead our people forth and pays no heed to the consequences."

Glorfindel watched silently as they argued, the crowds around them debating among themselves. He said nothing, for by rights he should not have been with the princes but with his father down below since he was Turgon's nephew by marriage and had no noble Noldo blood. He wished Galadriel would let him go and he could slip away from the argument he had no say in. Had they asked he would have sided with Fingolfin, he did not want to believe that the great Valar would keep them there for their own purposes. It seemed to drag on, Finarfin barely keeping his brothers, nephews and sons from striking blows at each other.

"Let us be away, father!" Galadriel said at last, echoed by Fingon. Glorfindel backed away as soon as she let go of his hand, shrinking back so that none could think he had a part in it.

"It is folly," Fingolfin murmured. "Yet you have swayed the others. Sway our people and I shall come, for I will not let them go alone." He turned then, beckoning Turgon and Finrod with him. Turgon nodded sharply to Glorfindel who scurried to him as they left the hill without another look at Galadriel. "Stay," Fingolfin said to his son and to Finrod. "I cannot bear to hear what else is said here. Come to me when our people have decided their fate and we shall go whither they will." The three younger elves were left alone in the street as Fingolfin walked off, his dark head disappearing into the shadows between the torches.

"Glorfindel?" Turgon asked him gently and he looked at his uncle. "What say you to this?"

"It is evil's doing," replied Glorfindel and glanced back at the hill. "Do you mean to go, my Lords?"

"We shall see. Go, find my wife and her sister, I would be glad to know that all of you are safely with my father." Dismissed, Glorfindel ran down to where he had left his parents. He stopped in his tracks as he heard them arguing with another elf.

"Glorfindel." His father glared at him, un-amused. "You were on the hill top, what is to be decided?"

"I was bid fetch you and my Lady Aunt to Prince Fingolfin," he answered. "It would appear that-" Fëanor's voice rose once again from the hill and his father looked away.

"Let us be gone at once! To seek out these new lands and treasures and to win back our freedom and our most beautiful work!" A cheer went up at that and Glorfindel saw Finarfin protest to his brother. "Nay, let us be gone!" Then the crowds were moving away, rushing to their homes to gather what Feanor was telling them to take.

"Come, father," Glorfindel begged. "Let us join the others, please?"

"We are leaving," said his mother proudly, looking more of a Noldo than a Vanya. "And we shall not heed them once we arrive."