Thanks to everyone who read the second chapter. Special thanks to Calathiel, Holly, "Elrond Peredhel", Pansy, Cecília, Erfan Starlet, Khylea, Oleanne, Mystery Maiden, Yolanda, Patty P, Myriara, SilvanShemesh, and Crumpet93 for reviewing; and an extra thanks to Virtuella, my beta in this story and a very good friend and for Erulisse, for her important help. You are all really kind. Hope you like the last chapter.

THE SUNSET – CHAPTER III

"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us."
Marianne Williamson

Despite the warnings, Elrond did not leave that room feeling willing to follow the advice he had received. That sincere conversation had revealed more to him than he wanted to know. He was not sure what he wanted to do anymore, but facing the couple's daughter definitely was not among his options, at least not at this time.

He went down the staircase, trying to seek a way to go. His office, or any place where he felt surrounded by walls and papers, was not inviting in the state which he was in. He needed air, needed to think, needed to decide on important issues, needed to find his own self.

They were living in a peaceful time. It was what his subconscious had repeated to him in recent years, while his healer and warrior's heart compelled him to spend days looking around him as if he still waited for something. That morning, he had gotten up determined to find out what it was, but now he was not sure anymore. Now he was not sure about many things.

He crossed the courtyard, with the goal of going into the woods where some of his medicinal herbs grew. Perhaps smelling the aroma of his plants would bring him some peace. Perhaps remembering the necessity and purpose of each one would help him remember his own needs and functions perhaps they would help to bring him back to himself.

He had almost reached the hidden entrance to the small garden in which he usually worked, when a strange thing happened: two children left the path like whirlwinds and passed by him at high speed, one of them almost colliding with him. Elrond jumped out of their way, before hearing the sound of their laughter, the sound of those children enjoying themselves reached his ears.

"Ada!" they shouted in unison, before Elrond turned around in an instant to see where they had gone. He did not remember those children. However, all he could feel were the echoes of their presence, as if they had circled the main house, living just traces of themselves behind.

Elrond stood there, watching the silent path he had left. He carefully looked for any trail of those young elves, visual or audible, but found none.

Actually, they were very fast….

There seemed to be two identical children, he still thought, while his senses insisted on searching for any sign of them in the vicinity and in some corner of his memory.

He did not remember them ... They really looked like each other, but he did not recall any couple with twins in Imladris. He lowered his eyes traveling the path of small stones that he thought those elfling had taken while his mind was still filled by the sound of their voices.

Ada!

He had certainly called his father so in his own youth. But he could not remember it. Many things had happened to him and his brother. Yes, many things had happened, he thought, and the image of those two children transformed into an image of him and his own twin, Elros, while he raised his head searching for a known brightness in the sky. Gil-Estel, Eärendil! Yes, his father was a legend now, but he was still his father. He was the one who heard him use that magic word, he was the one who had seen his children run and play and call for him as those two children had just done.

Like those two children...

Elrond turned again to the direction on which he had turned his back, to where he believed the elflings had gone.

It was the path to the backyard… The path to Celebrian…

It was then that other names came to visit him...

Thingol and Melian

Beren and Lúthien

Dior and Nimloth

Tuor and Idril

Eärendil and Elwing

He listed some of his ancestors.

Would they have faced so many questions about the differences that separated them before deciding to entwine their lives?

"This decision is not ours," he heard the voice of Celeborn repeat.

"And do not think the power of that decision is yours alone, Elrond," Galadriel's warning followed.

Elrond closed his eyes and felt the bittersweet taste of that truth. The couple was right. Whatever the result of that impasse was, it was not for him alone to decide which path to take.

Elrond then breathed out and turned his steps to where his heart had long been claimed, while he tried not to think about coincidences, views, chances or risks. He would just do what they had asked him to and see what kind of fruits, sweet or bitter, that decision would offer him at the end of that path.

After all, she might even not be there.

It was his last thought before circling the house and a picture which would hold its place for many years as his favorite memory appeared in his field of vision: Celebrian, embroidering silently on one of the backyard banks, dressed in white, her hair adorned with small flowers.

Elbereth. Approaching her was like violating a sacred territory. He almost gave up, suddenly forgetting his truths. Perhaps he would have done that if she had not lifted her eyes toward him immediately as if noticing his presence.

Elrond took a deep breath when their eyes met and Celebrian shook the little needle she used before pushing it gently into the fabric stretched over the wooden frame.

"Lord Elrond." This time her smile seemed to him not as spontaneous. It was as if she had known that this meeting was not the result of a coincidence as the previous one.

"Milady," he replied, putting his hand on his chest.

"I have never seen you in this garden," she observed then, taking a deep breath to see him approaching. "It seemed to me a good hiding place, sir."

Elrond took a few steps before stopping.

"Did you want to hide from me, milady?" he asked.

"I have been trying not to trouble you, sir" the elf-lady admitted, returning to her work; even though her hands seemed too shaky for that.

"Why would your presence be a nuisance, milady?" Elrond asked surprised, approaching to the bank on which the lady was settled.

Celebrian moved her eyes from her stitch work and Elrond realized that she was looking at him with a big effort.

"I've always seen you in the window of your office while you were there, but you have never come down. We haven't even had some little opportunities to talk, is it not true, sir? I think that if you have not come to me, not even to say good evening, it was because my company was not very pleasing. When we met that time in the garden, you seemed terribly uncomfortable in my presence. "

Elrond breathed out with that comment.

"And I was." He decided to be sincere, even noticing the lady grow pale with his comment and regretting being responsible for that. He approached a little more. "If I may?" he asked, indicating the place beside her.

Celebrian nodded, trying to disguise her anxiety when the lord of Imladris sat down and she could see him so close to her.

They were quiet for a while, as the courage had fled them both.

"May I ask you a question, sir?" It was her initiative.

"Of course, milady."

"Do you believe that something bad may arise from the good?"

Elrond tried to read the purpose of that question, but soon Celebrian's eyes returned to the small embroidery she was working on, It was the image of a garden like the one where she used to stay before deciding to transfer her attentions to the back of the house.

"I do not remember seeing you embroider when I could see your image from my window," he noted.

"I was choosing the right place I wanted to transpose to the fabric."

Elrond frowned.

"And just when you had decided which landscape you would like to do, you stopped staying there?" He did not understand.

"I have the memory, keeping it is a good exercise," she answered and her eyes finally lifted to him. "You have not answered my question, sir."

"No," Elrond said, holding that look.

"No... No what? "

"I do not believe that some harm may arise from the good things..." he added.

"And from love?" Celebrian risked and Elrond noticed that she was surprised when he had not moved, even facing such a direct question.

"No," he said in a lower tone. "But there are those who believe," he explained. "There are those who believe that even a sincere love can bring people a bad future."

Celebrian was surprised.

"Were you with them?"

"With whom?"

"With those who believe that?"

"Yes... I was ..."

The elf-lady parted her lips genuinely surprised now and Elrond had the distinct impression that Celebrian reviewed the metaphor of their talk; as if afraid they were not actually talking about the same subject.

"And what did they say?" she asked, though she was afraid of the answer.

Elrond did not answer, lowering his eyes instead on the embroidery that Celebrian held. It was a beautiful garden of the land he had founded with its countless flowers represented in thin colored lines. It brought an irresistible temptation to him. He raised his hand, pressing it gently on the image that was formed there.

Celebrian's eyes followed the movement and she paled, but the little gesture made her close her eyes, giving up to that new feeling which was intensified at every single moment of that caress, especially when, in its short trajectory, the host's hand found the one which was holding the hoop.

Elrond did not hesitate; he covered the beautiful elf's slender hand, and then closed his fingers around it to gently wrap it.

"They said they do not like the idea but that the decision is not theirs," he finally answered the question, still with low eyes.

"Whose is the decision?" Celebrian asked with difficulty, her lips already parted with the thrill of that first touch.

Elrond looked at her fondly.

"It is yours, my lady. It is up to you to choose. "

"And which decision is that?"

The lord elf breathed in and for a moment he thought he would not find the answer among so many confused thoughts that invaded him just by being there holding the hand of that beautiful elf.

"It is my deep desire to court you properly, Celebrian, daughter of Celeborn," he said solemnly. "But it is my responsibility to warn you before I hear your answer that I'm not known as a half-elven only because of a choice imposed on me one day. I carry a stigma that will pass to my descendants. Like me, they too one day will have to decide between the eternity of the Eldar and the gift of the Edain."

Celebrian was shocked for a moment, breathing steadily. Her mind still repeated the first sentence she had heard several times, just to make sure that she was not experiencing a good dream, and then added.

"Will that be your legacy to our children?" she asked and Elrond this time had to take some time to respond. To hear her speak of "their children" had made him speechless.

"Of which legacy are you talking, milady?" he remembered to ask after a few moments, holding her hand now with both of his.

"The choice... Will your bloodline offer our children the possibility of that choice? "

"Yes. That will be their legacy. "

"And do you think it is not a good legacy?"

Elrond would have responded, when the impact of that issue hit him. He had no answer for that unexpected question.

"How hard was that decision for you?" she asked.

"It... it was not hard. Just the separation that it caused, this still weighs on me. It grieves me to this day."

"Much like other separations which we sometimes have to face."

Elrond did not answer; his eyes were now on their intertwined hands. Yes, he understood what she was trying to imply. Would it really be better for them both to accept living apart from each other just to avoid a future possibility? To avoid the possibility of having to be separated from their children in the future because of the choices their heirs would have?

"I accept," he heard her say and his eyes moved to look at hers as if asking for confirmation. "I accept and I feel much honored, Lord Elrond Peredhel, that your eyes have turned to me. I hope not to disappoint you. "

Elrond was stunned for a moment, and then looked down shaking his head slightly.

"It would be more likely all the stars that guide us fall from the sky than you disappoint me, my lady," he said, bringing the elf's hand close to his lips and kissing it.

Celebrian then smiled broadly, but her smile faded when Elrond raised his eyes. How foolish those feelings were. Those feelings she thought would separate them. Just now she realized through the tired features of the elf lord, that it was not only she who had all sorts of anxieties, until both found the courage to face what finally seemed to be a not so arduous a battle at all. She raised her right hand, touching gently and cautiously Elrond's face.

"Would you take me to watch the sunset in my special place in the square, my lord?" she asked, anxious finally to remove the weight they both seemed to still carry unnecessarily. The lord elf smiled again, already standing and extending his hand. Celebrian rushed to put the embroidery into the basket that lay at her side, which Elrond took gently as she stood, offering his arm for the first walk that they would do as a couple.

It was the end of another day, an afternoon which fate conspired to be different from all its predecessors, even under the same sky, even with the same stars as witnesses to appear, one by one, in the intense black veil that would be formed. As they walked, watching the last rays of the sun disappear, Elrond looked at his companion from the corners of his eyes and realized that she was already enjoying attentively the end of one more day.

"Is it the sunset or the nightfall which takes your attention, my Star?" he asked and Celebrian shuddered with satisfaction at that small sign of affection.

"Both... meleth-nin," she answered. "It just happened, the evening turned out to represent my hopes. I have never missed a sunset since I met you. "

Elrond frowned and she realized she had not been clear enough.

"The evening is when the night hugs the day..." she explained and smiled when a fresh air of understanding emerged in the tired face of her companion. It was all she wanted, that he could feel by her side the same peace he offered her. It was her greatest desire now; to be able to make him happy.

"The sunset…" she heard him repeat, also looking at the sky.

"Yes... For me it has always symbolized my desire," she said absently, but when her companion stopped suddenly she looked at him with inquiring eyes. Elrond placed the basket that he held onto the ground at his feet and straightening back up, looked at her carefully. They were beside the main house, under the shadow of a great oak, whose branches, full of leaves, were pierced by the last remnants of the daylight.

Celebrian tried not to show her insecurity before those wonderful watchful eyes, especially when Elrond took a deep breath before raising his hand and made a soft caress with the back of his fingers down the right side of her face. His gaze seemed to draw every line he had before him with intense pleasure.

"And now, my love?" he asked, still following the direction of his hand touching that soft skin. "What will the sunset mean from this day forward?"

Celebrian took a deep breath again, her eyes also tracing the beautiful face of her beloved, while every other thought was fading. Actually, she was unwilling to answer any question at that moment. All she wanted was to stay there and that this day would never end.

However, when she felt her companion draw kindly a little closer, the answer to that question became urgent, not just to the one who had asked the question, but for herself, so that the sound of her voice gave herself the certainty that every moment she was living was not only a good dream, but a dream she had been waiting for so long.

"My dream..." she said, closing her eyes to that silent invitation that seemed to reverberate all around. "Now it symbolizes my dream finally come true..." she completed with conviction, even though the certainty of those words was yet to come.

But such confirmation was not long missing. It was more intense and less brief than she had thought in her most beautiful daydream. His hands rested on her back bringing her closer and when she thought she finally knew the meaning of the word warm his lips covered hers, and they were beyond what could be called only "warm". That unexpected, unimaginable, indescribable contact made her move her arms up and then she did what she had only dreamt of before. She embraced her beloved, running down her fingers through his soft hair, feeling not only his healing energy, but his intense affection. When the distance between them could not be measured or calculated in any way, when all that united them could almost make them only one, she realized that in no dream she could have imagined a feeling like that, a happiness like that.

Beneath that oak, the future couple of Imladris finally forgot their doubts and fears; driven only by the certainties that day had brought them, the emotions on which they had almost given up. There, they exchanged their declarations of love, listening to the songs of birds coming back to their nests, made their hope reborn. There they found happiness, with the sunset to witness them.

THE END