We stand by the ruins of Aqualonde, watching. Nay, not we, for "we" cannot apply to my Noldor children and their father, for 'twas their kin who slew my family.

I stare fixedly at the stones, and see once again the beautiful arches of my childhood, where my brothers and I would play. We would run through the halls, along the seashore, and sail in the swan-boats that Feanor so desires. Tears are beginning to stream, unbidden, down my face as I mourn.

"Melda?[1]" Finarfin's voice resounds in the silence. I turn and see him and the children carefully advancing, obviously in a planned siege. The twins have puppy-eyes and are wearing the innocent look, the same one, I dryly note, they wear after pranks. Finrod looks guilty, Orodeth is silent, and Nerwen is almost regretful, beneath the closed face.

"Amme[2]-" "We did not know-" "How could they-" "Ancalime, I never meant to-" I level my fiercest look at them all, daring them to continue and promising dire retribution. The twins are first to fall silent, as should be; they have cause to know what "The Look" warrants. My emotions are blurred, and I know not what to fell anymore, for any of them. All around me, bloodstained golden Noldor wander freely, just like the completely golden-haired ones in front of me. None of my children bear any evidence of my Teleri blood, and I realize with a start that I am the only one with silver hair, living, that is.

For there are corpses, bodies that I avoid seeing for the pain of recognition. Those are the ones with silver hair, hair that shimmers and shines like mine, pure voices that are the best in all of Aman.. were.

I turn my face fixedly away from them, and clutch myself into a tight ball, shielding my eyes in darkness, like those who are dead. My kin.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- Note: Nerwen is Galadriel's Quenya mother-name, and Ancalime is Quenya for "shining swan", which I chose as an epesse for Earwen since she was known as the Swan-maiden of Aqualonde. . ----------------------- [1] beloved [2] mother