Silver eyes. That was what struck Arwen Úndomiel the most about him: his silver eyes.
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He was the last thing that she expected to encounter in the woods of her homeland, as she walked under the trees of Imladris for the first time in many years. Much had changed since last she had been in the land of her birth, not least the addition of this exciting new enigma.
The handsome young man's hair was pinned back in the elvish style, and his garb was of elven style too. With his high cheek bones and beautiful silver eyes, he could almost have been a young elf. Almost. The scrubby wisps of dark hair on his chin gave him away as to his heritage.
But Arwen could not bring herself to look away from his eyes.
The youth and naivety in them was refreshing to Arwen, a being already centuries old. But his raw enthusiasm combined with the innate wisdom he carried transfixed Arwen the most. It also saddened the Evenstar to see those silver eyes clouded by some great burden; a shame that such responsibility should come to one so young.
Arwen talked with the young man and discovered the reason for his burden. He was Aragorn, son of Arathorn, lord of the Dúnedain and the sole heir to the throne of Gondor. But he was also called Éstel, which meant Hope, and by some means unknown to her, he gave Arwen a small measure of hope.
Éstel and Evenstar parted ways, and ere the year ended the young man left Rivendell altogether. Arwen put him out of her mind and thought of him no more, until even his silver eyes seemed naught but a dream to her.
---
The next time Arwen saw Éstel was many years later, wandering in the woods of Lothlórien, the land of her mother's people.
His face was older and more grim, and the beard was no longer the thin wisps of man just out of boyhood. The eyes were no longer grey, but a cold sea colour. No longer were they full of youth or naivety, nor even of enthusiasm. These grey eyes were filled with sorrow, and weariness, and wisdom borne of a hard life full of hard lessons.
Arwen Úndomiel wondered what had happened to that young man she had met so long ago, who then seemed full of such promise. The Evenstar knew the burden of his ancestry and the weight of his destiny had wrought such a profound change in Éstel.
Arwen met the man's eyes with her own orbs of elven blue, and he smiled. And when he smiled all the weariness and grimness and bitterness of his burden was washed away, and he was once again Éstel. His eyes were full of mirth and hope and even love.
Arwen looked into those eyes and knew she could fall in love with them once more. And she knew that she could fall in love with the man Éstel, who was everything she had ever dreamed of and more.
True, his eyes were no longer silver, but when he smiled they still sparkled with something Arwen could not quite put her finger on. They were the window to this complicated man's soul, and they were still the most beautiful thing that the most beautiful elf in the world had ever seen.