Note: I am sorry if this is really choppy and chapters are all of different lengths. FFNET will only let me post in short bursts so I am doing my best. I keep almost giving up on ffnet and then it just lets me do little.

part 3 of latest chapter.

Erestor waited, and allowed himself a moment of regret that the long, golden hair would stay pristine and the ice-blue eyes would not kindle in passion as they had a moment ago in fury. It was a waste, he thought and smiled slightly. Not for Erestor, but someone should enjoy such glorious magnificence, he thought a little sadly, a little bitterly. It would have to be a woman of courage and beauty for Glorfindel, he thought. Like Idril.

'How much we have lost,' he murmured. 'Such magnificence. I remember the sunlight on the spires of Gondolin. The white stone of Nargothrond, and Himring's bleak elegance.' He reached out and lightly, so gently, touched Glorfindel's cheek; he was warm. 'Were they not glorious? Fingon and Maedhros. Do you remember? Turgon and Echthelion. Finrod. Fingolfin.' Erestor sighed and smiled slightly. 'And how we are diminished by their loss.'

He gazed for a moment West, and felt the fury in his heart that he thought had long ago settled and slept. It surprised him to feel it still there. 'They cannot come back,' he said softly. 'Whatever the Ring is whispering to you, my friend. They cannot come back. Your loved ones are over the Sea. Somewhere. We hope.'

'And you?' Glorfindel asked softly. 'Do you bid yourself lose hope the same as I? Your loved ones, it appears, may not be over the Sea at all.' Glorfindel's sharp blue eyes pierced Erestor and he knew that Glorfindel had perceived every hope, every dream. And understood. 'Tell me the truth for the Ring read your heart rightly, did it not? Do you not intend to return to Phellanthir, even though you cannot release him?'

Erestor looked at him defiantly. 'Of course.' He lifted his chin. 'You would. For your beloved Turgid, you would.'

He could not help it. He had hated Turgon for his betrayal of the Noldor, for his cowardly scurrying off to his mountain kingdom and abandoning Fingon when he needed hi most… because Fingon would not forsake his lord.

But instead, Glorfindel said with utmost gentleness, 'We must guard each other's hearts, Närmófinion, for I find I do not know which is my voice, and which is not my own.'

Närmófinion. It jolted Erestor to hear it, and he wondered if Glorfindel knew how it still pierced him to hear that name though the one who had given it to him no longer drew breath...and how he longed to hear it spoken... But he merely let his amber eyes focus on the snow on the mountain peaks, where the slow sunrise gilded it and made them gold.

Glorfindel watched him steadily. Then, so quietly that Erestor could barely hear him, he said, 'You asked what I was thinking of when you came in.' He paused and the he said softly, 'I was thinking how wrong it was, how fair was Gondolin. I was thinking how it should be built again and I be its King.' It was said with such honesty it took Erestor's breath away, and Glorfindel's beautiful face so open and full of joy normally, was closed in grief. 'This time I thought, it would not fall...This time, I would know. This time…there would be no Maeglin to betray them and let them pass.' He breathed out softly through his nose, an exhalation of longing so poignant, such yearning for what was passed.

Erestor knew that longing, that grief. There was not a day passed when he did not miss the diamond-bright burning of the Noldor in their pomp. Diminished indeed.

0o0o0o

Tbc

Probably only two more chapters I think.