Water
Idril shivered, gripping the side of the tub so hard that her knuckles turned white as she cried out in pain.
She had asked for this.
She had asked for the midwife to place her in freezing water.
Her mother, Elenwe, had delivered her in the Helcaraxe, surrounded by every elleth available, clustering tightly around her to keep her and the new baby as warm as possible.
Idril could be giving birth in as much comfort as possible.
But no, she had set her teeth and had asked the midwife to put her in freezing water.
At first the woman had brought her only mildly chilly water.
"Colder," Idril had forced herself to say, until it was brutally cold.
And yet she was sweating, she realized, even in the freezing water.
Idril wondered if her mother had sweated, even as she nearly froze in the cold, giving birth to her only child.
When little Earendil came, he was warm.
She wondered if it was possible for a baby born in the middle of the Helcaraxe to be warm.
Yet she felt warm now, gazing down at her little baby boy, smiling as he sobbed.
And she closed her eyes, and pretended she was her mother.