The first time I saw Celebrimbor was just after the Dagor Aglareb.
Those were the good times, the years before the Bragollach, when food was plenty and most of us got along fairly well, considering the circumstances. And so, because the weather was so good, the food stores so full, and because things in general were going so unbelievably well, it entered the head of Cousin FIndarato to hold a feast in Nargothrond. My father was invited, of course, and that meant I was, too. Looking back it was remarkable that he let me tag along and I do not know why, and perhaps now I never will.
Nargothrond in those days was one of the great realms of Beleriand. Though the Sindar declared that Menegroth exceeded it by a thousand times and though our own folk whispered that Gondolin was greater, it was beyond all doubt really something. The ceilings were so high and vaulted that sometimes when it as dim and you looked up it was as if you were looking at the night sky, and upon my first entrance my childhood self found, to my delight, that if you hollered your voice would bounce throughout the vast cavern and make all the fine lords and ladies look around startled. The vast halls were connected by miles and miles of wide, spacious corridors, and to add glory upon glory, cousin Finrod was the richest of us all and decorated his great halls with gorgeous gold and silver and diamonds and tapestries and all sorts of marvelous treasures that can no longer be found East of the Sea. Treasures, my father said, worthy of Valinor.
But I didn't really know what Valinor was; anyway I hadn't been there. All I knew then was that cousin FInrod was so nice and jolly and that he was also rich, and that in a few days my other cousins would be over and we would all sing songs and eat good meat in his pretty, pretty halls. My father had arrived a few days ahead of the feast, you see, to take care of some business, and while he spent time speaking behind doors I ran up and down the great city, being spoiled by the cooks and accidentally smashing priceless vases, for which I was soundly scolded.
There came a day, when I was rushing about one of the corridors, that I heard the sound of horses. A herald announced something and I heard my father's and Findarato's voices. I had been waiting for this for days and so I rushed to the great gate just as cousin Findarato was meeting the guests, but when I saw them I stopped short. There were three of them standing astride three horses, and suddenly I felt somehow that if I rushed into their midst it would be the most disgraceful thing ever and that the shame would never depart from me. I slunk about and finally stood in my father's tall shadow.
"Celegorm, Curufin," cousin Finrod was saying, "and Celebrimbor. It is a pleasure."
Two of them had dark hair, like most of the Noldor, but the other's was like spun gold. His face, I felt, was so immeasurably fair that it was a pain to look at it. It was a sharp, sweet, heart-wrenching kind of pain, as if my heart were crying tears of blood.
"It is entirely ours," one of the dark-haired ones said.
As the conversation went on it transpired that the fair-haired one was Celegorm and that the dark-haired ones, Curufin and Celebrimbor, were his brother and nephew respectively. The elder two exchanged niceties with Finrod and father, until Celebrimbor broke in:
"Fingon," he addressed my father. "How fares your son?"
Once inconspicuous, I immediately became the centre of unwanted attention. I shrank under the crushing weight of their gaze and at that moment I felt very small and very weak.
Then Celebrimbor smiled, and it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
That was the first time I met him.
A/N: This might be kind of AU