Mysterious disappearance

Now, it was not a unusual sight in Formenos that Elrond sometimes was visiting the reborn Maedhros and Maglor, the latter having died from drowning in the sea out of despair when he had learnt about Sauron killing his nephew Celebrimbor. The rest of the House of Fëanor had been reborn as well, on the condition that they lived in the north of Valinor with Formenos as their new home and did not try to create any more weapons unless there was a necessity.

"Ada Maglor! Uncle Maedhros! A crisis have happened down in the south where Thingol rules, I have ridden straight from there! My grandfather Dior and his family are missing!" Elrond called out loudly while dismounting his horse and running upwards the front stairs of stone.

"Missing?! How did that happen?" Maedhros wondered, rushing up from the chair out in the front garden where he just had been reading a book, which now laid forgotten on the small table beside the chair.

"I got a written request to come there and treat grandfather and my uncles for some illness grandmother Nimloth wrote that they had caught due to the rather cold winter this year, since their immune systems have not yet developed to that of true Elves. When I arrived to Thingol's palace, everyone claimed that grandmother had not been seen for several days, not even for getting some fresh food for her family. The door to their living wing had to be broken up for me to enter, and there was no sight of anyone living there for several days," Elrond described, looking and sounding understandably worried.

"Kidnapping? I know that there is a few of our former followers who could want Thingol to suffer for not giving the Noldor more help against Morgoth and his descendants would be a good target, but those are still locked up in the Halls of Mandos. And Celegorm or Curufin knows better than trying anything like that, they will only end up imprisoned in the Halls for one hundred years as punishment and none of us want to be back there for a good while."

Elrond shook his head.

"If there was a kidnapping, Thingol would have gotten a ransom note already. In fact, most of their clothes and a few personal belongings had been taken as well…"

"Sounds like they did run away by their own will instead, then, but why? Surely Melian would have felt something, since it is her Maia blood they carries in their veins?"

That was not a answer Elrond had ready. He had a feeling that it was more than possibly just running away, after all there had to be a reason to why the whole family had vanished and not just Dior, Nimloth or the twins.

"Actually, Melian was away from his realm when they vanished, she was visiting some old friends among the Maiar serving Varda and Manwë when it happened, Mount Taniquetil is in central Aman after all, not in the south and even a Maia need some time to travel across Aman, especially clad in a body of flesh and blood like Melian. Anyway, I came here to tell about this and also possibly warn you, if Thingol get the crazy idea of accusing your family for their disappearance…"

Maedhros just did a facepalm in irritation.

"That is something impossible, Melian honestly should know from her fellow Maiar that we are not allowed anywhere close to Thingol's realm for sake of keeping things peaceful, and she would have told her idiot Elf to husband that fact."

Offering Elrond a room where he could rest from the journey, Maedhros went to search for his family members so they could know about this.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Elrond had perhaps rested for two hours or so, when one house-servant knocked on the door to his guest room. It seemed like he had gotten a express delivery from Celebrian, something that had arrived to their home a few days after his departure to Thingol's realm, and then attempted to make the packet follow in his path.

"Unusual for her to send something all the way here, unless she want our opinions on secret gifts for your begetting-day and marriage anniversary," Maglor commented as Elrond borrowed a small table to open the packet on. The healer did not respond on what his foster-father said, he was too focused on trying to get up the somewhat difficult knots Celebrian had made in order to not have the packet open during the delivery. Finally, he simply cut up the knots with a small knife he always carried in his belt, a habit he had picked up from Maedhros as a means of protection in childhood.

"A book? No, it seems more like a diary, not the private kind but rather the kind used to keep notes on for important events around the year. Celebrian uses a similar one to know when it is the begetting-days of various relatives."

But Maedhros had already spotted something that stood out from the diary, a gentle pull out from the shut pages revealed a separate drawing done in rather childish hands, of a very tall stick figure with silver hair surrounded by fire, in the manner either meaning anger or someone wishing that person to be killed by a Balrog.

"I think that is meant to be Thingol, I recognize my uncles' way of drawing him. They are pretty good at simple portraits of their parents nowadays but keeps to the more childish stick figure-style whatever it is a person they dislike," Elrond smiled a little sadly at remembering the hand style.

A look inside the diary at a random page revealed several drawn portraits of Dior in different poses and the handwriting of Nimloth as the possible owner or at least writer, but something seemed unusual in the drawings. There was a almost haunted look in Dior's eyes even as the drawing was not directly of his face, and the poses that of a person trying to hide something with either hands or clothing.

Suddenly Maedhros simply snatched the diary from Elrond and moved to the first two pages, where a horrible drawing was seen; Dior, who was weeping openly in pain with several bruises on his face like he had been fit with fists with no way of defending himself, and what seemed to be blood dripping from his left ear into his hair and shoulder. At the writing page, Nimloth had written down the date of the event and the exact amount of injuries her husband had gotten. And who that had caused Dior to suffer so.

"That thrice-cursed Sinda King! Just what is going on in that thick head of his!? Yes, Dior allowed his own pride to cloud his judgement of what to do with the Silmaril and us, but given his age back at the Second Kinslaying we have at least agree that part of his actions were a folly of youth! It is not like he had the gift of foresight to see what would happen!" Maedhros growled like a animal at reading though the diary and seeing more drawings of Dior being physical hurt by Thingol again and again, each time marked with the date and the exact injures Dior had suffered. Elrond's eyes were wide from shock at seeing the drawings and recalling his last visit to Dior's family last summer, his grandfather had claimed that his broken left arm had been caused by slippering on the wet floor in the bathroom, that kind of unexpected accidents not even Elves were immune against, but he had almost recoiled the moment Elrond had touched him in order to ensure that the court healers had set the bones right under the bandage.

"That explains why grandmother Nimloth or their sons was able to touch him without causing him to flinch, back then….!" Elrond gasped in realization, wanting to slap himself for failing to see the possible hints of abuse back then in his grandfather's behavior, especially in how he tried to avoid being seen by Thingol?

Had Dior already at that time starting to associate a touch from someone of the same gender as a sign of incoming pain? Elrond had dealt with victims of abuse among mortals back in Middle-Earth, knew that some of the most common victims were those who was viewed as different from the rest, or when alcohol was involved. However, Thingol was not known to be overfond of wine, and while Elrond knew that the relationship between Thingol and Dior was not the best due to Thingol openly preferring that Dior had been sired by anyone else than Beren.

"That old argument between them about the Second Kinslaying is something I heard about already before I even got to finally meet my maternal grandparents face to face….unless, from the angle Thingol seems to have stricken Dior the most, based on the drawings….no, do not tell me that…!"

Elrond grew cold inside when he remembered a particular detail about Dior, something Elwing had slowly forgotten over her life due to how young she had been when he died, a small child on three years could not exactly be expected to recall much normal details when her strongest memory of her father was of him wearing the Silmaril.

He was brought back to the present when Maedhros called to his mother Nerdanel in the other end of the house:

"Ammë, are Tyelko still in the Woods of Oromë? We should tell him about this in case Thingol tries anything funny…watch the pages, Atar, they could be a valuable evidence and testimony about that something is not right in Thingol's family!"

Now Fëanor himself had arrived from his forge where he had been busy earlier, removing his sooty leather gloves before taking the diary from his eldest son to see what all the disturbance in his home was about.

"We need to wait with bringing this to my father until that Dior and his family are found, he is already dealing enough with grief over how Thingol had changed from how he remembered him in their youth. Learning that his close friend actually treats his own grandson like this, would be a massive shock."

"Only because Grandfather himself spoiled all sixteen of his grandchildren rotten no matter which son we were born from, though he still favored us seven slightly more because of you, Atar," Maedhros remarked with a side-glare, not scared at all by the dark look Fëanor sent him. Fëanor's infamous temper from the past was but a memory now, cooled down a lot in grief over what his sons had suffered due to the Oath. Even so, a angry outburst from him nowadays was less scary for his eldest son after the imprisonment in Angband and the long wars against Morgoth in the First Age.

"Send messengers for your brothers who are away from Formenos to see if they can spread out the warning about that Thingol might accuse us for the disappearance, that way his suspicions is bound to reach the royal court of Tirion like a rumour of Thingol wanting to cause unneeded trouble out of the blue, especially as we have not even taken one step closer to his realm than absolutely necessary. If Dior and his family already have been gone for a month without being found by Thingol, they have likely chosen a escape route that avoids the big cities, it is not unheard of that notification of a missing person are set up in big squares and markets where a lot of people gather, and they are bound to draw attention with the twins around them even if they claims that they are just a common set of brothers born unusual close in age.

"I knew that there is a few Avari tribes living in the mountain of Hyarmentir, since the Valar cleaned it of the evil of Ungoliant after the creating the Sun and Moon. Rumours even says that some of the Dwarven clans might live there, those whose origins is from the Orocarni in the far East of Middle-Earth. Celebrimbor was rather interested about the Dwarven rumors, especially as he should have arrived there two weeks ago if he was not taken by surprise by Thingol's people for interrogation about this new mess that is bound to happen when his direct heir is missing alongside his family," Caranthir spoke up from his seat at the dinner table with a large book open in front of him, writing down numbers as he had been put in change of controlling trade here in Formenos due to his skills with money.

"Why do you think people claim that he is almost having a Dwarvish obsession with crafts, outside that he no longer creates rings due to what he links it to?" Maedhros questioned, knowing already that a message from Celebrimbor had arrived that very morning to tell them that he was fine and had arrived to the mountain. Borrowing a spare quill from Caranthir, he wrote down the short messengers to be sent to his other brothers.

"Tyelko should remain in the Woods of Oromë for the summer if Thingol ends up being a idiot about this, he spoke of possibly invite new members of the sect created to the honor of Oromë in his last letter home and that happens most often during summer and autumn when the weather is warmer," Nerdanel recalled, checking over a few letters she had spared in a small box to ensure that she had been right.

"Well, part of the compromise for his release from the Halls of Mandos and rebirth was that Oromë would keep him as a follower with limited travel outside his Woods, since he already knew our son from before."

Fëanor tried hard to not start complaining about this again. He hated every time his sons were spread out in Valinor outside Formenos with strict supervision to keep a eye on their actions, but he knew that it was way better than them being locked up in the Halls of Mandos, or worse. He had already doomed them once because of his own poorly chosen words and actions, they would not have to suffer because of him a second time if he could avoid it.

"Elrond, stay here for a while until that we might get a clue to where Dior, Nimloth, Eluréd and Elurín are hiding. It could be that they were not joking about needing medical attention, especially if Dior suffered another beating that became the last drop before the the glass overflows," Maglor requested, using the Elven term for when someone's already stretched-thin patience had reached its limits.

"Yes, I just recalled a detail about my grandfather that likely would indirectly invite Thingol to strike him from a special angle…"

Elrond did not dare to mention what kind of detail it was, Dior had pleaded with him to not reveal it for others since there was a very high risk of it becoming the reason for ill-intentioned gossip that once again would put Dior in disfavor as a young, foolish King who had gotten himself killed and maybe even blackmail if Dior really was that unlucky.

"That detail is not for you to mention, yes. There is that little thing called professional secrecy that all healers have to keep."

As Maedhros went to send off the messenger birds to his brothers and a few loyal servants who lived in Tirion with the task of keeping track of any dangers against the House of Fëanor there, Elrond desperately hoped that Celegorm would not run into Dior or his family face to face somehow. Only Eru could know how each one may react on seeing the other, given the horrible way they both had died so long ago.