VIII. (Aredhel)
The Lady Elenwe was crying into her palms, covering her eyes, struggling to comprehend that such a thing was even possible. But of course, upstanding as she was, she had spilled no blood, nor incurred any other sin than to hold fast to her husband and child.
This was not so for her brother-in-law, and much less for his cousin, both of whom looked unflinching at the great tapestry unfolded on the wall before them, and unspeakable scene of a lady in white writhing on her beds, surrounded by a flock of panicked healers – the piece was truly an astounding piece of art which had captured their expressions in all their ugly dramatism.
None of them wanted to be the first to inform the king that it was much too late, and standing out among all, places squarely in the center of the composition was a golden, barefoot maiden holding the lady's pale hand.
Their sister's anguish was only beautiful now after some skilled weaver had made it their calling to capture the moment with her skill – the stains were now careful allusions, discreetly draped islands of beautiful vermilion thread –
Back when it was first spilled, it was probably just red.
There was once a world where something like this unthinkable – when they were born, nothing of this sort had ever been done. And now it had come into the world, by their own hands.
"You know, I really hate to say this…"
"Then don't. I'll say it. What's one more stain after that oath? I'll say it: Curvo should have slit that bastard's throat back when he had the chance. I wish so much that he had. She's your sister, not mine, but she was still the closest thing that we had. I repented of my deeds back then as soon as I had done them, but still I feel like, if it was this man, I shouldn't have regretted it at all."
"Fool. Don't you understand? It's precisely because of what we did that this Eol had a loathing for us in the first place. It's because of our thrice-damned squabbles that she didn't tell our brother where she was going. It's because of our distrust of each other that your brothers never told Turgon where she was. She was the only person that all of us cared about… and now, her blood is on all of our hands."
Distraught by every horrific implication of that exchange, Elenwe's weeping grew louder. "Why couldn't she just stay with Turgon? Idril was so fond of her… She did so much to help the two of when I couldn't be there…-"
"Of course she did. After what happened to the both of us, she was the only one who could. But Idril was grown by the time that she left, and none of left Valinor because we wanted to stay behind guarded walls. Least of all my sister."