I, Maedhros,
Son of Feanor
Watch the ships burn
Heart heavy.
My oath weighing me down?
My loyalty to my father
My brothers
Who are wrong?
My guilt at swinging my sword
Beside them
Though the foes were our kin?
My love for those
We have most recently betrayed?
Fingon
Turgon
Aredhel
Finrod
Fingolfin.
Fingon.
Stranded on the other side
Of this merciless water
By us.
Thinking
We all turned our backs on them.
They did not hear
My naïve protests
And commendations.
Even Fingon,
My friend,
Must hate me now.
I watch the crazed fire
Reflected in my father's eyes.
He smiles.
I cannot bring one to my face.
My brothers feed the flames
Triumphant
Not thinking
Of those we left behind.
All but one.
I sit down next to Maglor
Whose eyes
Are empty.
I Fingon,
Son of Fingolfin
Watch the ships burn
Across the water.
Maedhros
Maglor
Curufin
Caranthir
Feanor.
Maedhros.
They must have slipped
The swan shaped boats
Early into the strait.
Ships bought dearly
With lives at Alqualonde
Now going up in flames
Before the House of Fingolfin
Reached Middle Earth.
Betrayal.
A hard word
A cold one
Full of bitterness
And one I never understood
Before it happened to me,
To us.
A quicksilver word
Hissed from one elf
To the next.
In its wake
Eyes narrow
Mouths curse Feanor
For holding my father to his promise.
For bringing us here
And leaving us here.
Others sit in disbelief
Frozen as I am.
How could Maedhros
My childhood friend
Before the suspicion
The lies
The politics
Who I still think of
As my closest confidante
Be a part of this?
I guess it is 'thought'.
Return to Aman,
Impossible.
And forward?
A long journey
For which we are not prepared.
Ice and cold
The Helcaraxe to the North.
Figures swarm around
The fires across the water.
Their hungry flames
Devour our hope.
The figures move
In a synchronized dance.
Reveling traitors.
Maedhros?