Chapter One: Lady of Tears

"Olorin, please!" the high and mighty Lady Nienna almost begged, her long, gracious hands around his neck, her big, grey eyes watery and sad.

He merely raised his eyebrows, his arms determinedly crossed.

"Nienna, come on, really. What you're trying to do is going against all laws of men and Valar, you know that? You're giving up every single responsibility you have, and for what? For what?"

She was crying, he noticed as his voice grew louder and louder. She was crying, and big, salty tears trickled down her pale cheeks as she stared at her entwined fingers. Olorin found himself biting his lips in anguish- he could not possibly see her cry. He might have been married to the notorious Lady of Tears for years and years, but still he couldn't bear the thought of her being sad, and almost clumsily, he threw a comforting arm around her. He opened his mouth, in order to defend his statement, but she cut off his sentence by one simple line.

"For love, Olorin, is that so hard to understand?"

Her suddenly dark grey eyes bored in his, and he sighed.

"Nienna, I know what you mean, but we cannot intervene just for the happiness of two people... please understand that. Perhaps they're a nice couple, but nevertheless..."

"It is not just about the happiness of two people!"

It was nothing like her to yell, to raise her voice above a normal level even, but yell she did, balling her fists beside her hips, staring fiercely at the man she loved above all others. Immediately, though, she controlled herself and sank down on a particularly fluffy cloud again.

"Olorin," she muttered, never looking him into the eye.

She was focusing on the two people down there, so it seemed. Still animatedly chatting, their eager hands occasionally touching, they really were an adorable couple.

"This isn't about their happiness alone, don't you see? They are not just decorations of the world they live in- they are that world! They'll never find out if we don't make them, and what will happen then? They carry the weight of the world, and they will collapse in the end! And dark will finally destroy good, just because we were too lame to do what so obviously has to be done!"

He remained silent, and she grasped the opportunity to turn towards him again, her grey eyes a begging stare, her hands softly stroking his bigger ones.
"Olorin, a little nudge. Just a little nudge, that's all I ask for them!"

Still, despite the sudden feeling of pity with those two mortal individuals down there, Olorin shook his head, unwilling to engage in something that was so obviously wrong.

"Eru will never approve."

But she rolled her eyes.

"As if Eru cares! Frankly, my love, I thought that after King Elessar and his Arwen everything was possible! If Eru would get so much as a headache for every so-called "scandal" in this world, he would have no head anymore! Really, Olorin!"

And he, realize how weak an excuse he'd brought forward, finally gave in at the sight of the fresh tears on her cheeks. Lady of Tears indeed, he pondered, before, finally, pecking her softly on the lips.

"It's alright, my Lady of Tears. We will help them. But just a little nudge, understood?"

The smile that enlightened her face would have been a fit reward for the biggest of efforts, as she nodded.

"Just a little nudge."