Summary: Fëanáro is not the only one to find himself estranged from his wife in the eventide of Bliss. A double drabble.
Vanyarin Year 1493
When Fëanáro and Nerdanel finally separate, it is the talk of Arda. For weeks, nothing is worthy of discussion, save Fëanáro's marital problems. The whispers seem to follow Finwë's other descendents wherever they go, even removed as they are from Fëanáro's blood.
There is something to be said for anonymity. No one is watching when the second son of the third prince is estranged from his wife. There is no sky-shattering revelation, no rumors dripping from mouth to mouth. There is merely a distance between them that was absent before, a growing coldness in their eyes.
And then Eldalôtë leaves.
How strange that, after only forty years of marriage, she has become such a part of him that he cannot sleep without her.
He has an audience with King Olwë in the morning, but the list of topics he will bring up is scattered, half-finished at his feet; he dropped it in his exhaustion, watching the sheets of parchment slide from his hands with dull fascination. His leg, curled under him on the window-seat, is numb and prickling, but he can't bring himself to move, his head rested against the glass, watching the play of Light across the courtyard fountain.
In memory of Klaus Phillips,
July 30, 1947 – October 4, 2011