Who are you to judge?
(Irony POV: happening at the same time as the previous chapter)
While everyone was enjoying the party thrown by the king, Irony was studying. She had not been surprised that Galdor had agreed to move their lessons to later hours; the elf didn't like social events, and most social events were set at night. How convenient for him. And how convenient for her: she wanted to avoid the sun's warmth, and did not want to see the king. She was afraid to face him because of those blue searching eyes of his. They seemed to be able to see right through her, and that made her uneasy. Once, he had stared at her with his accusing blue eyes for so long once, that she had almost melted. The kind felt something was off with her, she was certain of it.
Irony sighed as she examined the book the Commender had placed in front of her, on the table. There was too much text in it for her to read in only a few hours. Or so the elf thought. She had practised writing and reading by herself, but she would rather the elf think her slower a learner than she truly was. She had already read the whole book. It was about dunedains, and they had already studied dunedains together. She knew all about them from the way the dressed to the the fall of Arnor. She was afraid the Commender had already ran out of materials about humans: the elves – or at least those from Greenwood – had very little interest in other beings than elves. it seemed to Irony that to Sinda and Silvan, watching a flower grow was much more fascinating and pleasant than conversing with a human.
"Can I not learn about elves for once?" she pleaded, furrowing her brows in a way that would make her look pitiful. Galdor would not be sensitive to it, she knew, but one could always try. "I think you have taught me all there was to know about my kind when it comes to history and customs, though most of the customs we have spoken about, and that I have heard of, were badly interpreted."Galdor raised bored brow at her comment. "I am beginning to loose interest in this." she finally admitted pointing at the heavy looking book.
"And what would you have me teach you about elves?" he asked on an almost cynical tone.
"Tell me about your gods." she replied, ignoring the commender's stiffness. Her reply seemed to have taken him aback for once. "The 'balarre', they are called?" she asked.
He sat in front of her, looking serious, as always. "Valar." he courteously corrected. "They are not gods per say, but we do consider them as godly beings for their powers are great and from them originates all we live of."
Irony would have laughed at that if she had been sitting in front of anyone else: she couldn't believe that any being, even if magical, could have enough power to create a whole world. "Like the sea?" she asked, hiding her amusement and scepticism.
Galdor nodded. "Ulmo is the valar of the sea."
"The mountains?" she asked raising a brow. But this time her question made the Commender growl and shift on his sit. "Melkor made the mountains, but he..." He seemed annoyed, bothered and pained at the same time. "We best not speak of him for now." he finished. Irony noted not to ask any further question about that 'Mélquor' god. Still she made a mental note to herself to remember to search for his name in the library's books during her free time for the fact that only saying his name had made the most stoic of all elves shiver meat the search would be worth the trouble. Though she still couldn't read sindarin properly, she could now recognize quite a few words of the singing tongue.
"Very well then," she started again, "Who made the trees?"
"Yavanna is the fruit giver."
"Are there many more?"
"Yes." he confirmed. "They are 12 more." He paused and stared at her for a few seconds, brows furrowed suspiciously. "You seem truly interested by the Valar."
"I am truly interested." she insisted. She may have had a lot to complain about when it came to elves, and failed to understand many of the things they said or did, but they fascinated her all the same. They were so similar to humans and yet so different. She had no doubt that the differences in the way of perceiving things between the two species came from the fact that elves were immortal; but she wanted to know how could the same world be understood so differently. "I have heard both the prince and Lord Glorfindel talk about them, but I have never seen anyone pray to them, nor have I seen any monument made in their honour."
Galdor shook his head lightly. "The Valar need not be praised; they are humble beings." he told her. For someone who was talking about 'humble beings' he sounded quite proud. "We respect them and show them our gratitude for what they have given us by honouring, not them, but their creations: we take care of all living things and respect all that is." he affirmed. Irony thought about how elves looked down on both her and Kili. She would have liked to contradict the commander, but she could not: the wood elves might not exactly be friendly, but they did allow them the respect every living beings deserved.
"Your religion includes no sacrifices, does it?" she asked.
Galdor grimaced as disgracefully as an elf could grimace. "Sacrifices?" he blurted out. "No!" he affirmed firmly, his hand closing into a fist. "Only vengeful gods would wish for their subjects to commit such a barbaric act as a sacrifice." He sighed, cooling down. "The only sacrifices we make are those we chose to make for the Valar do not interfere directly with our lives, or only rarely. The sacrifices we make have nothing ceremonial."
Most religions Irony had heard about included sacrifices. And does that did not, included dark magic at some level. She thought nothing of religions. She had been raised to believe in some gods, and had even prayed to them quite often when she was a child. But when none of her prayers had been answered, she had decided that there were no gods, and that she could only rely on herself to make the future happen.
"What do they look like?" She wondered. Were elven god even known to have a physical form? Most of the humans' gods were said to have one. Some were even described as frightening monsters; they were half man half goat, with a horse's sex, a bull's horns, and a fur as red as blood.
"Their true forms are unknown for our eyes are not worthy to fall upon them." he told her. That's one hell of an elven answer, she thought. "But when they want to be seen, the appearance they take is elven like..." he seemed to be searching for his words. "only..." he sighed, unable to finish his sentence.
"Do they look- no, feel, like Glorfindel does?" she asked. Galdor seemed taken aback by her answer though he hid his surprise well. Still, Irony noticed it. Ever time he was surprised by something, his lips would part slightly before closing on each other and forming a straight line again.
"No, they do not." he finally said. "The powers they have are by far superiors to the Lord Glorfindel's, but I understand where your misconception comes from." He paused, pushed his long black hair over his right shoulder, and scratched the back of his neck. "It is said that the Lord of the Golden Flower has met some of the Valar, and after their meeting, they have graced him with a second life." He paused again. His face had become emotionless, and his eyes doubtful and distant; and expression Irony had never seen on any other beings than elves. "Their touch have changed him. However, only he knows what he has become; we can only speculate as to what his nature is."
(Irony POV)
After the lesson, Irony had waited. And involuntarily made Galdor wait along with her. Glorfindel had forgotten about her again, she was certain of it. And so had concluded Galdor with annoyance after having waited for the temporary guard to do his job. The commander even told Irony that he would walk her back to her room in her friend's stead, because the said friend was irresponsible despite being as "old as a godtree".
So they walked the corridors in silence, looking only at the poorly lighted path in front of them. The elves needed no more than a few candles to lighten their way at night for their sight was excellent, even during the darkest of nights. It wasn't the case for Irony though. She couldn't see further than a meter away from her, and that made her uncomfortable for if any enemy was waiting for her further ahead, she would not see him until the very last minute. But thankfully, the path they had chosen to walk to her room would soon open on the outside, and the moonlight would enlighten they way.
However, when it did open on the outside, it was to Irony's dismay.
"Your grace." Galdor nodded politely to his king. Since the King ignored Irony, Irony decided to ignore him as well. She knew they would not allow her to walk back to her room unaccompanied, so she strode to the nearby balcony in order to be behind the sovereign's back so that she would not have to face his scrutinizing gaze.
"Commender." The king nodded back at his subject. "Did we receive any answer from the dwarves yet, about the forging of new armors?" he asked.
Without hesitation Galdor spoke, "They have refused our offer saying that we did not offer enough in compensation of what we asked from them."
"Not enough?!" the King's voice grounded. It made Irony shiver, and caused her to glance in the elves' direction. Galdor seemed utterly unimpressed by the king's sudden change of tone. "What would they have me give them? My kingdom?!"he barked. "I have offered them jewels that shine brighter than their precious cursed arkentone!"
As Galdor caught her looking their way, Irony awkwardly went back to staring at what stood under the balcony: Kili an Tauriel. The elleth was sitting on the grass, her back against a tree trunk while the dwarf laid down on the ground, and rested his head on her knees. She was braiding his hair. Irony wondered why elves were so obsessed with having pretty hair. Actually, they were obsessed with anything that was pretty, from far or close.
"Your grace, we are asking them to provide us enough armours made of mithril to arm our whole army." started Galdor again. "The price of mithiril is...more than we should afford. New golden armours would suffice-"
"The right blade can pierce a golden armour. No blade can go through a thin layer of mithril. I will have armours made of mithril." cut the Silvan sounding unsatisfied and determined. "Do you have anything else to report?"
Irony heard the fabric of Galdors's long tunic move when he shifted his weight from one leg to the other."They have sent us a sample of the mithril shirts they offer to design for us instead of forging new armours, should we not wish to pay their price for full armours. I have put it in the armoury for the soldiers to try on while fighting."
"This is ridiculous!" the king yelled in the common tongue so he was angry.
"I agree." answered Irony. " He is slightly more than half her size, and has less than half her grace. And yet, here they are, together." She only realized the words had left her mouth once the sovereign's eyes had set on her, sending a chill down her spine. "Your grace." she blurted out with a shaky voice, as she finally bowed to him.
The king merely raised a brow at her, then looked at the lovers who were seemingly unaware that they were being watched. " Who are you to judge their union?" he spat. His voice had venom in it, and Irony felt poisoned by it.
"I'm not judging anything." she replied, half offended, and half brave. "I was merely just stating a fact." she added as she turned to look at the couple again. " He is shorter than she is. Even when he stands on the tip of his toes, she has to bend down in order to kiss him, what makes a quite ridiculous painting." From the corner of her eyes, she saw the king frown. She wondered if it was because he did not want to agree with her but could not do otherwise. "Still, if they are happy that way, may the lovers love each other and the world let them be." She shrugged.
The king turned to Galdor with an expression Irony had seen many, many times on Legolas's face : puzzlement. If there was one thing she now had no doubts about, it was that King Thranduil was Legolas's father.
"She does not sound half as stupid as I thought her." he complained. "Are you sure teaching her anything at all is safe?"
The commander nodded assuredly. "Nothing I teach her will be of any use to her against us." he affirmed. "And she still can neither read nor pronounce the words of our tongue."
"Good." replied the sovereign without sounding satisfied at all. He glanced at Irony again, as she stared at them with a blank expression on her face. "She looks skinnier than when she arrived. And paler, almost greyish. Is she ill?" There was no concern in his voice, nor was there any showing on the delicate features of his delicate face.
"I know nothing of humans physical conditions." answered Galdor shrugging. He then looked at Irony up and down seemingly bored. "Should I have her sent to the healers?"
The king seem to hesitate for second. "So long as she does not express any need for assistance,"he started again, "there is no need to do so." He paused. "Have the healers reported to you as to why she did not die from the black venom?"
"Not yet. But they should be able to tell us if all humans are immunized against it, or if she is the only one who can survive it soon enough; the elf they have sent to gather samples from other humans should be back in a few weeks. An escort will find him at the border so that he may arrive here safely."
Irony had turned to stare at Tauriel and kili again. Only this time, she didn't see them although she stared right in their direction; she was to busy listening to what the commander and the king were saying.
Elves are idiots,she thought, Because I cannot read a language, nor pronounce it properly does not mean that I cannot understand most of it. Just how long did they think it would take me to learn their sindarin? It's not like I 've got anything else to do in my free time...
A/N:
The Valar more or less created middle earth ; Eru basically showed them that it could exist and created an earth and the valar embellished it all together while Melkor constantly tried to destroy what they were building. When Manwe and the others made plains, Melkor was like "Hell no, bitches." and turned them into mountains X)
Also I don't known if Glorfindel actually met the Valar, but I am certain they are the ones who graced him with a second life.
Charlottees; I am so glad there are no (not many) grammar and spell mistakes x))) I keep on checking every single word to make sure I am not missing a letter or something! Also, I wish I could write more about how are things for humans and about their culture to give the whole story an even more realistic dimension but so far I haven't gotten the occasion :/ I am also excited to see how every one will react to the ending of the story (I did not write everything yet but I know exactly where I am going 8) )
ez: Aww, I'm sorry you had a crappy day, and I am really glad reading the fic made you feel better! I've quit my internship cause it was shit so I'll have more free time starting at the end of week so you can expect quicker updates 8D And the few next ones will be a bit more fluffy and amusing than the last one so if you need any cheering up in the next few weeks, the fic should provide it to you 3
Hobbitpony1:Glorfindel and Irony would have made a great couple 8) but I like to torture the characters I write about, so poor Glorfindel will end up with someone who will make him work for it than harder than Irony ever could have made him work. But that'll happen in the other fic (And the Rain fell down) which I have yet to update
Thank you all for your lovely comments 3 they truly put a smile on my face! And special thanks again to NightlyRowenTree and komakipureblood for keeping up with the story and for your support. 'love you all guys 3