Invisible
Prologue Part 1: The Beginning
Word Count: 800
Notes: The timeline is in the end of Fourth Age, Arda-wise, and the italisised dialogue is done in Quenya but with Sindarin names.
The State of Things
`They still wish to do it, brother?`
`Sadly, yes.`
`Can we not do something about it?`
`Sadly, not.`
`Finrod!`
`Hey, I have not been called that for millennia of the human calendar now…`
`Then?`
`You are making me miss the humans even more, sister.`
`Save those humans that they caught, then.`
`I cannot. Do not tempt me, please, sister.`
`Why? Because you might be tempted to kill all those morons?`
`You are indeed wise, Galadriel. I do not wish to be a Kinslayer, if I could help it.`
`Do not call me that, FINROD. And you are condemning those humans to horrors too-much-imaginable if you refuse to be a Kinslayer anyway. I still cannot fathom why you are so interested with humans even until now; but in this case, I am willing to aid you.`
`Well, payback is nice indeed, dear sister. And no, I would rather that your hands be clean forever, dear one. And if the Powers do nothing about it, why do you think we can? Would it not end up as disastrous and horribly sad as the Battle of Alqualondë after the thieving of the Silmarili?`
`It was a most different case, brother. Can you not see that? Uncle Fëanáro wielded anything and everything in order to achieve a selfish gain, but we would not be doing anything like that.`
`Would we not, dear one? Or have I mistakenly guessed that you would love to save our dear brothers from this foolish and terrible venture of theirs?`
Silence permeated the lush, somewhat waterlocked mountain valley in which the conversation took place. But even when the conversation had yet been ongoing, there had been nobody there physically, and there had not been any sound spoken aloud anyhow. The only disturbance to the pristine, idealic mountainous scenery was the refraction of sunlight on something that was not supposed to be sunlit, let alone having the light refracted, namely the shadow under a stand of trees. The softly-glowing mass of light stirred occasionally, but it did not disturb the nature around it at all in all senses of the word. In fact, it seemed to fit in the general setting, somehow.
Sadly, however, as much as the speakers involved wished otherwise, the conversation did not reflect the innocent, peaceful place around which it was held.
`Do you know when and where that despicable ritual is going to be held, brother?`
`Soon, I suppose, if they wish not to be interrupted by anyone and anything. Everything they need have been gathered, after all.`
`… You are putting those poor humans into the category of THINGS now, Finrod?`
`No, sister, no; NEVER. But it is better for my sanity that I distance myself from them right now. I do not wish to kill my own brothers!`
Profound sorrow and horror linked the two minds together in misery, and neither spoke for a long, long moment. Around them, the green-but-rocky vale, decorated with various creeks, freshets, small falls and eddying pools, changed lighting many times over, displaying breath-taking beauty through subtle shifts of the angle and quality of the light, though sadly much unheeded. After a few cycles of the sun, the "glowing shadow" just moved over, glided past dewy grass unmarked, passed over freshets and small falls undisturbed, and left the valley altogether. And after leaving the valley, the light-shadow split into two smaller shades, glowing just a little less vibrantly, and separated ways, still without exchanging any mental nor physical words.
The brother and sister were all too aware that they were only two of the many helpless spectators of a horrifying event soon to be conducted on the land thought to have been "Blessed," "Untainted," and "Undying." Soon, at least a third of their race, including three of their own brothers and some more of their relatives, would not fit the description related to the Firstborn Children of the Creator any longer, regardless if their desperate bid for physical bodies went through or not, and they could not bear the horror of this thought alone. The brother, known most famously as Finrod Felagund, was going to seek solace among the Powers of the Waters whom he had grown quite fond of these millennia; meanwhile his sister, Galadriel the Ring-Bearer, was going to spend her time attached to their parents, who must also be just as devastated as they were, especially knowing that two of their father's sisters were counted among those who were about to blatantly violate all laws of the One: bringing humans to Valinor, murdering sencient beings for selfish gain, and violating their own spiritual bodies to achieve wordly physicality.
Neither of them thought that they would come out of this event unscathed, even though they were not counted among the blasphemers; but they hoped, desperately hoped.