Sorry Anthi and all other Lothiriel fans, but while I normally like Lothiriel, her ending up with Eomer in the canon means that she always is one of the good guys, and I really enjoy this opportunity of exploring the possibility of her being a spoiled brat. There is a lot of people in this chapter... Sorry about that too. Elvea means starlike if anyone is curious.
I should also remind you what Arwen tells us previously: Arandura was once called something else, something elder dunedain remember quite well...
I am not J.R.R. Tolkien and thus do not own Lord of the Rings.
It was three days before the offical ball starting off the winter season when the Numenorian party arrived. A Rohirric party, surprisingly containing both their king and white lady had arrived a day previously, as king Eomer said he couldn't stand his sister pining any longer. They were to travel back to Rohan the dimholt road in good time before the snow came.
As the queen mother's party was announced, the king was sitting in the audience chamber with Faramir, Imrahil, Halbarad, Arion and Eomer, as well as the two eldest Lordesses. "Let them in" Aragorn with a smile full of even more warmth than was his wont.
The party shown in was rather large, but the queen mother, an elderly dunedan with white hair and many lines of both sadness and of joy, was easily distinguished. "Mother" Aragorn rose easily, coming forward to let her clasp his hands. "My dear boy" she answered him in turn, kissing the top of his head in greeting, though he had to bend his head to let her do so, which he did with the easy custom of long habit.
"I see you've taken good care of my son, Firiel" Gilraen added. "As always, my lady" Arandura answered readily, not commenting on the lady's use of her birthname instead of her chosen one.
No more words were said between them, as Arion had risen with a happy exclamation at seeing another in the party "brother!" and he got up to hug a young dunedan man who smiled in greeting. This, too, was interrupted, by a shout from another door. "Elvea!" the youngest lordesse, Anoriel, was suddenly running through the room, and was within an instant aggressively kissing the man apparently called Elvea, pulling him away from her brother as she did so. Arion rolled his eyes. "Try not to murder your husband, will you, sister?"
The son-in-law of the king, however, seemed not to be disturbed, perhaps used to this somewhat ungentle treatment, and their greeting was soon overshadowed anyway, by the appearance between the legs of the adults of four small children, three of them seemingly about four, and one somewhat older.
Having greeting his mother, the king crouched down, and let himself be engulfed in a massive hug from all four of them. "Ah, yes" Elvea had broken away from the kiss from his wife, but was looking her lovingly in the eye "our youngest has grown again. Do you wish to see her?" The lordesse looked as if the mere suggestion was somewhat distateful. "No. I bore three of them for you, now I am out until I am allowed to start them in weapons training. Show my father. I'm sure he'll be fascinated".
Crouching down willingly, Anoriel now recieved a massive hug from the slightly older child, a girl at perhaps six years of age. "How is mother's little lordesse?" "Well they say start them young" another woman, without the signia of the lordesses on her shirt, and strangely unarmed, but with the bearing of a badly injured warrior, noted in a bored voice "at least I am stepmother to only two of those little things..." "We're not a burden, then, Tari?" Arion noted, and she rolled her eyes. "No. Usually". At this, Aragorn finally straighted with a laughter, accepting a small baby from his daughter's husband, and turned back towards the throne to address Faramir, Imrahil and Eomer.
"May I introduce you to my mother. Queen mother Gilraen" he gestured towards her "my only son-in-law this far, Elvea" the man smiled warmly in greeting "and his three daughters." The king gestured to the three little girls; the eldest still whispering with her mother, the next one now in the arms of her father, and the youngest, still a very small child indeed, held by the king himself. "These two are the twins" he nodded down to the two little boys by his feet "my youngest children, by my third wife, lost some years ago, and my fourth wife, Tari".
He gestured to the woman who had spoken in such a bored voice, and looked like an injured warrior. Besides that, she looked to be even younger than Arwen was. "Mother, Elvea, Tari; this is Eomer, king of the Riddermark; Imrahil, prince of Dol Amroth by the coast; and Faramir. My steward and Prince of Itillien".
I promise I will clear up in the next chapter why Aragorn have had so very many wives. I know it would be very unusual with people of numenorian decent, but do remember that in exception to the last marriage, it has been over twenty years between a wife dying and him marrying again every time. It has to do with the succession, and with things yet not explained about Arathorn and Arion. Bare with me, please.
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Here for some help is the OOC family tree of Aragorn!
Arandura (born as Firiel) The oldest lordesse
The king's children and grandchildren.
By the first wife (wife diseased)
Aradora. The Lordesse. Heir to Arnor.
Arathorn III. Died in the war.
Related:
Aramir. Arathorn's seventeen-year-old son.
Elena. Aramir's mother, the late wife of Arathor III.
By the second wife (wife diseased)
Arion. Injured prince.
Anoriel. The third lordesse. Also the married one.
Araniel. The streetfighter.
Ariel. The one running around fighting orcs far away.
Arwen. The princess.
Related:
Elvea. Anoriel's husband.
Three granddaughters at six years, four years and less than a year by Anoriel and Elvea.
Eowyn Alasse. The third wife's daughter, younger than her five children with Aragorn.
By the third wife (wife diseased)
Two twins, four years old.
Fourth wife. Called Tari, utterly sarcastic.