Chapter 5: Avacauro continues to remember
Avacauro had some questions for his neighbour.
"Do you know if there was someone else arrested?" he asked the nís.
"No, I have heard only about Horëamo's grandson and his servant. Anyway, I must go, I have some work to finish."
The visitor scurried off and Avacauro remarked: "Yes, work to finish and gossip to spread afterwards. And she is not the only one who will talk. Horëamo will soon have a scandal to handle."
"Do you think Finiorë has run away from Valmar?" asked Mírimë.
"I don't know. Why do you think so?"
"Well, he is no genius, but he is not completely stupid either. Until now he was mostly insulting people and purposely caused inconveniences. With the attack he stepped over a line and he will realize it, maybe he already realized it if the news about his noble friend's predicament got to him. And I don't see him confessing and bearing responsibility, after all he threatened me in order to keep me quiet, so there are really two possibilities: either he would stay and scream he is innocent when they come for him, or he will run as fast and as far as he can."
"You have a point. King Ingwë and prince Findaráto act quickly. If there is no rumor tomorrow about another arrest, I believe you will be proven right. Do you want me to continue talking about the War of Wrath?"
"Yes please."
"Very well. As I said, when Erdanon found out what was his Vanyarin counterpart doing, he immediately sent word to Gil-Galad. Then he proceeded to find an easily defensible place where the injured could be gathered and waited for reply to his message. I went along. Erestor recommended it. He said that I have finished what I was ordered to do, so I should take care of my safety and stay with a larger group of elves until we are out of the orc-infested area.
It wasn't long before Gil-Galad answered Erdanon's note. He sent another troop. Erdanon and this new commander agreed that part of Erdanon's soldiers led by Erestor and his company's healer, young nér named Elrond, would stay with the wounded, and the others would try to get to whom they called 'idiotic Vanya'. I stayed behind also.
For a few days things were strangely calm. No attacks, the injured were slowly recovering, I had time to talk to a few of the Noldor and hear their opinion on everything from dwarvish eating habits to Sindarin nobles. Then the soldiers returned. A lot of them were wounded, a number of them seemed to be serious cases. Elrond and Erestor immediately sprang to action before chaos could arise. As I have seen before, soldiers helped each other with minor injuries and Elrond tended to serious cases. But this time, there were some injured so seriously that he couldn't help them. Erdanon was among them."
Avacauro paused and took a drink from his glass. Mírimë used this time to think about his words.
"Avacauro, can I have a question?"
"Of course."
"At the lecture, Horëamo said that according to the Vanyarin commander the healer first took care of the Noldor, even when there were some more seriously wounded Vanyar. Could it be that it is a twisted version of what really happened?"
"Yes, it could be. I remember a conflict between Elrond and the commander. Elrond was very busy and in all probability stressed and Verion, the commander of the unfortunate troop, was pestering him about something. He got a sharp reply, most likely it was something along the lines of 'Let me do my job and don't be in the way'. When Verion ignored it, Elrond signaled to Erestor he needed some help. Erestor understood what was the problem and dragged Verion away. The Vanya resisted, squirmed and screamed. I caught words 'lousy' and 'idiotic', Erestor heard even more. Remember, he thought Verion's actions were foolish, the attempt to lessen their consequences had cost Erdanon's life and now he was insulting Elrond and complicating his work when the healer was trying to save as many lives as he was able. It was too much for Erestor and he punched Verion to silence him."
"Verbal and physical abuse by the healer and Erdanon's second in command," said Mírimë to herself. Avacauro heard her and grumbled:
"The Noldor and some of the Vanyarin soldiers would say it was deserved. I would say so, too."
"What happened next?"
"Both Gil-Galad and Ingwë wanted to know who was responsible and sent someone to investigate. For the Vanyar, it was Horëamo, for the Noldor came Celebrimbor. As you know, the latter was a descendant of Fëanáro, and that bloodline is not known for patience. Horëamo is not a peaceful person either. They had a massive argument. Celebrimbor accused Horëamo that he had not investigated the matter properly and had given too little consideration to Elrond's and Erestor's testimony. In short, Horëamo claimed that Erdanon had the greatest share of responsibility, followed by Mairacallo, who had no respect for his superior. Celebrimbor claimed that Verion is to blame. Then, Horëamo tried to accuse Elrond of incompetency and Erestor of inappropriate behavior, which earned him quite a lot of anger and he reconsidered it. After all this, he collected all living Vanyar present, me included and headed away. That is, I think, the end of my story."
"It seems that Horëamo really told half-truths," Mírimë said. "But I don't understand why he returned to this matter now, after so long a time."
"Neither do I. I'd wager it was not a particularly noble reason."
Mírimë checked the time and after finding out how late it was, she took her leave and headed home. Whenever she passed a group of elves talking, she caught words like 'scandal', 'arrest' or 'unbelievable'. On the street where she lived she saw behind windows of several shops a likeness of Finiorë with words "Wanted for assault" above it.