Year 100 of the Third Age
The whole forest glowed in an amber haze. The suns rays shone through the branches, and down through the leaves and the wind whispered through forest, making the light ripple on the creek. The elleth tried to catch the beams of light in her hand and they flittered away, and slipped through her fingers, out of her grasp.
"It is not my own, it slinks away from me, like scattered sunbeams. I can always see what it will be, but the water twists it from my grasp." She whispered to the elleth next to her. "I yearn for it Nimrodel, I yearn for my life to be my own."
But Nimrodel said nothing, and lay a hand on the back of the elleth, unable to quell the ache of the child's heart and the despair in her soul.
"She is overburdened, Galadriel is careless with her."
"Hush Amroth." Nimrodel sent him a dark look, but he continued to pace along the creek.
"I am the King, and I shall not still my tongue. Galadriel overburdens her, a poor atonement for the feeble daughters she created."
"Speak not so harshly of them my love." Nimrodel pleaded as she rubbed the crying childs back. Unede wiped away a hot tear.
"They lay on her shoulders the burden of two daughters and the crown of a people, and expect her neither to bend nor cast it aside. She has barely reached her majority and already she is weary from their demands."
Nimrodel stood swiftly and crinkled her nose at the King before her. "Now you have gone to far, she is stronger than she looks. Unede has fire in her."
Amroth turned hotly on his heal, and the pebbles along the creek tumbled away, crackling as the sudden movement sent them flying. "Aye, her spirit is strong and willful, and Galadriel means to extinguish it, and bend Unede to her own desires. She forces duty on a child." He shook his head and looked towards Unede who sat with her hands in the water, still she tried to catch the sunbeams scattered across the bottom. "My father was never so careless with my education."
"Galadriel knows the Noldor will need a Queen soon, they are not elves who tarry peacefully with no leadership." Nimrodel chided the King in a feeble effort to make since of all the burdens that were put upon the youngling the so cared for.
"The few Noldor that tarry in Middle Earth will suffice with Lord Elrond as their steward. Galadriel is to proud, Rivendell is no Kingdom to be ruled."
"She thinks a young Queen will give them hope, especially one who was born in Middle Earth. Galadriel is of the mind that Unede's youth demonstrates the opportunity for a new Noldor Kingdom. She means to use Unede's lineage to unite the elves, forge alliances, grow her peoples." Nimrodel said hastily.
"The Lady means to rule through Unede because the Noldor will not accept a Queen who was exiled, and whose rule of Lindon and Eregion was so short lived. She will break Unede before she has the strength to stand up to one so great. It is despicable." The King spat.
"Grandmother has me do all of My Aunt and Mothers duties. I have to go to all the dances, sit at all of the councils, I aide Amroths councilors with all of their duties. I have tutors every morning at sun up until the afternoon! I haven't a moment to breath Nimrodel." Unede pleaded, and took her friends hand desperately. "I can't do it, father would have never had me burdened so."
Amroth clasped his hands on her shoulder and shook her head. "Surely child your mother does some of her duties? Does she not correspond with Rivendell? Or perhaps something simpler, I believe I lay the trade duties with Rohan onto her?"
Unede flung her arms into the air, and her robes ripped in the breeze in swirling green fury. "Alas it is I who does that duty." She cried out in a foreign tongue.
"There, she has gone away again!" Nimrodel sighed in her silvan.
"I see." Amroth shook his head. "Well you are fluent enough in Rohirric-"
"And Westron, and Khuzdul, though I'll need none of them in Eryn Galen." She crossed her arms and kicked the pebbles in the creek, water sprayed into the air and left them soaked in her fury.
"Unede." Nimrodel tried to sooth her and pulled the elleth down to sit next to her. The old elf stroked her friends hair and looked desperately at her lover behind her dark hooded eyes.
"I am not suited for court Nimrodel. If I have to sit through another council meeting about who will gather fall fruit, and what day feasts shall be, and how many barrels of honey a horse is worth, I think I shall scream so loud all the birds in Lorien will despair. Oh and those maidens she assigned to me!"
Nimrodel stifled a laugh, but Amroth sent her a sharp look, and shifted on his feet.
"All braiding my hair, and making me knit. I spent three days embroidering flowers on the hem of a dress I would only ever wear for one dance. What a waste of our eternity it is to embroider. It is a misuse of my skills. I should be learning to fight, not reading trade agreements and sewing."
"Oh I rather enjoy it." Nimrodel said now fingering her own sleeve.
"It is to much." Amroth said quietly. "It is to much on a child. Perhaps you were right, Nimrodel, to ask me for her leave. Unede should be with her family in Eryn Galen. There are other heirs, let Celebrian take the crown, or Elrond. They have the rings of power, and the Noldor are safe. Galadriel intends for him to have the Elfstone. Unede your people are safe, safe in Rivendell and safe across the sea."
But her eyes had glassed over, and her jaw was slack. Amroth watched a hand come to her breast as her breath heaved.
"Unede?" Nimrodel squeezed her hand. "Unede what is wrong."
"What do you mean she intends for the elfstone to be my Uncles?" She whispered.
"These were her words to me, a gift given for Celebrain." He replied.
"She…but the mirror…I" Unede pursed her lips and shook her head. "She doesn't care about my people. She doesn't care about Sauron, she only cares about a crown on her head. That foolish, proud witch."
"Child, be not so harsh with your words, Galadriel is wise, she has seen the light of the trees." Nimrodel chided her.
"Perhaps she has, but she also knows that Sauron is not defeated. He will come to Dol Guldur, I saw it in the Mirror. She will hide the elves of Lothlorien and Rivendell, and she will leave my family in Eryn Galen to die! That stone is mine, my birthright, to use to protect my people, and she would take it from me!" She said it desperately and the trees shuddered as she blinked away hot panicked tears.
"Unede your speaking in riddles." Nimordel said quietly, and wiped away her tears with her sleave.
"No she isn't." Amroth said quietly. "For I have heard whisperings of this. Whisperings of a quiet malice in Mirkwood."
"Yes, Sauron will go there, I saw it Nirmodel, I saw it in the mirror, and I have to warn them. I can't let him take my home Nimrodel. Gandalf entrusted Galadriel with the elf stone to give to the Elessar. I am the Elessar, and I am their only hope. Galadriel keeps me from my people, she would let all the wood elves die, and let that forest wither, when she holds a stone that would make it hale and whole. A stone that would allow me to heal that forest. " She looked desperately at Nimrodel. Her hands shook, and her blood ran cold, and all the fire in her body fell in boiling tears. "Let me go, please, please help me leave this place. Help me escape Amroth."
Amroth watched her then and felt a cold wind sweep through his soul. He recognized her fea, it reached out to him with grief and longing for that great vast forest of her childhood. He pursed his lips and knew, deep in the very core of his being. He must help this child protect his kin in the North. She was their only hope.