A/N – Big and wordy. I do apologise. More than that, sorry for the delay. College has recently started and I am on a very intensive course. A desire to not suddenly run out of chapters leaves me trying to stay 'one step ahead' of the fic. Thanks.
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At that time in Endor there were only two great Elven Kingdoms: Doriath, realm of Elwë Singollo, and Greenwood the Great, realm of Oropher father of Thranduil. But Greenwood was far distant from the shores which now the Noldor trod, and the southern shores of Losgar which in later years were called the Grey Havens was then abhorred to them. For Fëanor and his sons had led the First Host to mooring there, then when the consciences of some of his followers had flared he had ordered the boats burned instead. Dark plumes of smoke carried East over the land, and tall flames licked at the sky, and so were the white swan boats of the Teleri lost to history.
Seven moonrises then passed, and as the moon set for the seventh time the sun rose golden on the eastern horizon and painted Endor with a colour the like of which it had never before seen. The Avari looked up in wonder, and the Noldor in awe; far beneath the earth, the fathers of the Dwarves turned their bearded faces towards the filtering strands of light; the Ents in the great wildwoods stirred their wooden limbs. And in the far eastern land that was to be called Hildòrien, figures stirred and then awoke, and so the race of Men came unto Endor also.
The Second Host of the Noldor paused for those few days on the frozen northern soil, then as the sun rose turned their feet south towards the waiting Doriath. Fëanor's host, more proud and with more time, had already claimed for themselves Kingdoms in Beleriand, though they were theirs in nothing but name at that time. Those that followed Fingolfin, however, were less foolhardy and had stronger ties of companionship between them, and so their first turn was towards another Elven Kingdom. They came to Doriath still clad in their travelling garb, and reluctant were the Elves of Doriath to permit them entry until they heard that the children of Ëarwen niece of King Elwë led them. Even then but Artanis and her brothers were bought before the throne of King Elwë, and the others were left to the watchful eyes of Fingolfin and his sons.
Thus the five were bought before Elwë's throne, and the thrones of his wife Melian and daughter Lùthien, and the King looked upon them in wonder. For once nobility, they were now as wild as their followers, with ice-matted hair and muddied clothes, and the Princes were less wild than their sister. The chill of the Helcaraxë had settled upon Artanis, in her cold grey eyes and proud bearing, and her hair cut short still looked harsh against her face though its raggedness had softened with the time. And though her brothers wisely knelt before King Elwë, she would not, and so in a many unprecedented did she come before him.
Elwë turned her eyes towards her, cool and impassive in the face of her defiance, and each looked into the heart of the other. In Elwë, Artanis saw a stern King but fair, a man who had seen both great darkness and the light of Valinor without leaving the shores of Endor. She could not tell what he saw in her though, for his eyes perceived pride and loyalty together, and saw in her heart the darkness of some battle real or imagined.
"Why is it," he said eventually, the words echoing around the hall, "that your brothers seek so to placate me, yet you have pride too much to do so?"
"I gave up on placation before I had even seen the Helcaraxë," she replied, dauntless.
Again a moment of silence fell upon the hall, and this time it seemed to become much more than a moment. Artanis's eyes moved to either side of the King, again searching. To his left sat a young elf maid, not more than a century of mortal years in age, but already with a great ethereal beauty in her twilight hair and silver-violet eyes. To his right Melian herself, not so fair as her daughter but greater in her power, and as Artanis met the gaze of the Maia awe fell finally upon her and it took strength to refrain from falling to her knees.
Elwë saw the moment but appeared to think not of it. "Your action now, then, is quite a different choice. What is it that you would try in the place of placation?"
"I will ask you directly: let my people cross the borders of Doriath."
"Indeed? You ask that I allow the Second Host of the Noldor into my Kingdom when without approaching it the First Host has bought bloodshed upon my people. They fell upon these shores as wolves upon the fold, and darkness they both pursued and attended." Elwë gestured for the Princes to stand alongside their sister, and wordlessly they did so.
Another elf stepped forwards, a Telerin Prince and the son of a nephew of Elwë, from his silver hair and tall bearing called Celeborn. This news was then delivered to them as their people were to hear it, dark news of what the First Host had bought to Beleriand.
Fëanor's host, so it was said, had landed at Losgar and on his orders turned their torches towards the boats. It was Amras then that had been discovered to be called fated, for the flames consumed him also, and so the first of Fëanor's sons was lost. Then Morgoth had come with creatures of darkness upon the Elves, in that which had been called Dagor-nuin-Giliath, the Battle Under Stars. Fëanor himself had fallen there, beside and before many of his people and the people of Doriath, and even after in what should have been talks of peace Maedhros the eldest of the sons of Fëanor was taken captive, and so a great darkness did befall the Elves.
His story told, Celeborn fell silence, the Elwë turned his stern gaze upon his niece's kin each in turn. "Some of the First Host whom my people fought alongside spoke of a doom upon your people, laid by the Valar themselves for your," his eyes lingered longest on Artanis, "defiance in leaving the shores of Valinor. By your being my kin, I have answered your call for sanctuary, and that alone. No, Princess of the Noldor, I will not let your people enter my Kingdom."
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Years then passed, enough to be heeded by Men but not yet by the Elves. The great rescue of Maedhros from Thangorodrim became known, and Fingon was much praised for it. And as the years of the sun began to pass, so did the Noldor lords begin to seek themselves permanence in their realms, but Elwë did decree:
"In Hithlom the Noldor have leave to dwell, and in the highlands of Dorthonion, and in the lands east of Doriath that are empty and wild… for I am the Lord of Beleriand."
And so the lands around Beleriand were divided, Fingolfin in Hithlum to the west, and Fingon in Dor-Lomin, and in the most western Nevrast dwelt Turgon for many years. And to the East Celegorm and Curufin, Maedhros, Amrod, Maglor, and Caranthir at the foot of the Blue Mountains where the borders of the Kingdom of the Naugrim lay. And it was in his Kingdom that the first tentative alliances between the Noldor and the Naugrim were made, and just as tentative was the peace that was then formed.
Artanis and her brothers remained in Doriath for these years of formation, and many thereafter. The men were treated as Princes, but Artanis's pride did humble enough that she asked to become a handmaiden of Melian and a friend of the Princess Lùthien. She learnt from Melian more lore than had ever been before available to her in Noldorin halls, the passing times of Endor and the ways of magic in the hands of the skilled. Her wilfulness was tempered and her defiance bowed, and as her temperance refined she become more surely the greatest of the Noldor, and certainly the greatest that then lived.
A/N - Quoted from the Silmarillion. Not my words.
