Summary:
Erestor starts assessing Minastauriel as a potential long term resident. Minastauriel finally develops more personality. The author wants this chapter done and dusted so we can move onto chapter 10.
Thank you for all your paitence 3
Notes:
This chapter has been the bane of my life for an entire month and honestly I am still unhappy with it. Not sure exactly why I dislike it so much (or I would just fix it) but ughhhh thankfully it is now posted and I can move straight onto chapter 10 which unlike this one, I did very much enjoy writing and did not torture me for weeks on end.
Please DO NOT add to any private collections
Chapter 9: Might these hearts be declared in splendour
9th March 2931
The day continued, and in light of the recent events, Elrond sent another missive to Gandalf. Unlike his previous letter, this time he included many details. Heavily coded of course; even when sending such a message by Elven birds, bred for millennia for intelligence, flight speed and agility, he could not risk such information falling into hands of enemies. It would not be wise to let the shadow in the East hear of such a Seer.
There were still many mysteries around this woman, and about her presence here both in Eriador and in the Third age; but she had to be a relation of his – there was no other bloodline among Edain that would grant such gifts. Her ability to See upon command meant the relation had to be close; not merely a descendent among the Dúnedain or similar. The only adaneth relatives Elrond had, had been Elros' daughter and granddaughters.
Her inexplicable appearance in the Rhudaur in a manner that suggested some level of magical relocation... Elrond did not know if an Ainur could have been the one to move her; but something mighty was at work here. Eru Iluvater once sank his brother's nation – corrupted as it had become hundreds of years after his death – could not Eru also move one woman through space and time?
As the girl had said – she had been granted Sight for a reason. And now, Elrond thought, she must have been brought here, to the Rhudaur for a reason too.
If he had read her expressions correctly, then Elrond had seen the woman come to the same conclusion herself as he sat by her side. She had a purpose being here in this place and time. She may not have known she was coming here or remember where she had been. But sat in a room with strangers, speaking words she had just relearnt, with most of her life erased from her mind by the same elf she sat aside; Minastauriel had been unable to understand why anyone would question her intention to help. Hand on her heart as she spoke from that same place – what should have seemed like a child's foolish declaration was only charming.
Her declaration had been in so much in his brother's manner. He had been charismatic; enough to be made King of Edain in Númenor despite his nearly entirely elvish upbringing.
Elrond was convinced – this was Tindómiel. Elros' daughter that the history books forgot. And now, apparently, handpicked and blessed by Eru himself, and sent 6000 years into her future. He had his evidence. Now he needed to find enough to convince his closest friend. Refilling his cup, he gazed at the picture of his brother, Maglor, and himself. Elrond smiled. Perhaps it was time he should start checking his oldest papers?
11th March
After a couple days had passed since his initial meeting with Minastauriel and his subsequent consultation with Glorfindel, Erestor began acquainting himself with Minastauriel as planned.
It was a typical day in the valley for mid-March, complete with the fluttering of petals by the blustering winds that swooped down the cliffs and then along the length of the valley, mirroring the Bruinen itself. The generous array of grey clouds hinted at the potential for a rain shower at any moment; though none that would be as heavy as the torrential rainfall they would receive in April, as they did every year. Lindir hummed at the sky and considered the best song for the moment, whilst the cooks in the kitchens decided it was the perfect dreary day for warm spiced soup. Erestor had taken a look at the sky and then glared with irritation at the clouds, daring them to drip onto the sheets of parchment he carried, that had not been able to fit into his satchel. The seneschal harried along the path to the wards, dark robes billowing as he did.
Entering the wards, he nodded in greeting to Lurlosel and the few other healers present before immediately moving towards the side room door. As he smoothed down his robes and tamed his wind-tousled hair, gently pulling strands that had become tangled around his ear piercings with his only available hand, he noticed Lurlosel approaching with a decidedly saccharine smile. Erestor pretended to be distracted with checking over his teaching materials and deftly sidestepped the healer when she attempted to interrupt his stride. Lurlosel, with a quick pivot, fell into step beside him. He held back a sigh – he really did not wish to hear a repeat of what Lord Elrond had already told him before agreeing for Erestor to tutor the girl. The girl had not appeared offended at his tone in questioning when they met on the ninth, and Erestor was inclined to believe that if she truly was his liege's niece, then she should appreciate the level of care he was displaying to a potential threat to her kin's home. From the feel of Lurlosel's eyes on him, one would think he was juggling thumbscrews.
Realising the counsellor was not going to turn to face her, Lurlosel instead extended her neck so she could speak directly into his ear, leaving Erestor to suppress a shudder that accompanied her sudden proximity to his ears. She knew he hated it when she did that.
"It is lovely to see our Lord Erestor here, so eager to tutor my patient; who only a couple days ago awoke from a coma." Lurlosel's voice dripped with a truly Imladhrim level of theatrical sweetness. "I am sure you know not to ask any questions of Minastauriel's past; for the risk that it may trigger another vision. Does my lord recall her reaction to the last one?"
He mentally rolled his eyes – Elrond had said much the same, without the level of sass all Sindar seemed born wielding. But he did not let the mild annoyance touch his features; that would be admitting defeat. Instead, he met her gaze with a hint of mischief. "Hmm? I beg your pardon – did you say something, Healer Lurlosel? I got momentarily distracted; trying to remember if I had left my thumbscrews in my chambers."
A startled laugh broke out from the Sindar before she composed herself.
Erestor noted the worried glance the healer gave the side room. Sighing he bumped her shoulder with his own, "She will be quite safe; keep the door open if you must but I am ready to grab the girl's hands should there be any sign of an approaching vision. And yes – I would then inform you immediately." He quickly added when Lurlosel opened her mouth.
This finally had Lurlosel's concerns abated. After a quick 'Good,' the healer glided away, quickly resuming the monitoring of two bedbound ellyn.
Entering the side room, Erestor found the woman exactly where he saw her last, with a cushioned lap desk already balanced on her thighs. As he only taken a step when she turned from staring out the window and immediately perked up, suddenly full of eager energy.
"Lord Erestor! It is good to see you – I am glad you have arrived. Lord Elrond said you offered to teach me how to read and write – I am really excited. I've been looking forward to it all day!" The woman bubbled out in enthusiasm, wide smile making her eyes sparkle and her hands flutter slightly in the air; as if she could almost take flight in her excitement.
'Well there are worse manners to approach learning, I suppose.' Erestor cast a glance at the woman's unbridled elation; particularly the trembling of her fingers in her evident eagerness. 'Let's hope she doesn't spill the ink…'
Never one to waste words on superfluous niceties, Erestor gave a quick but polite greeting, then immediately began to explain the intricacies of Tengwar.
"This Elvish script has been used for thousands of years to write our languages, particularly Sindarin and Quenya. It-" He suddenly stopped at the sight of Minastauriel holding her arm completely aloft, parallel with the walls. "What are you doing?" He couldn't keep his confusion out his voice and did little better keeping his expression clear.
Minastauriel looked puzzled at his own puzzlement. "I'm politely getting your attention: I have a question."
"…Yes?"
"Lord Fëanor created Tengwar for record keeping – is there any knowledge on why he developed a written script best suited for penmanship to serve for this; rather than utilising cloth, or gems, or even taking inspiration in stonemasonry from his wife, or metalwork from his father-in-law?"
Ahh – there was the inclusion and implication of knowledge this random little mortal had no business knowing. At this point, Erestor was rather sure she was showing off her random knowledge – in the corner of her lips there was surely a smug little smile. Possibly a result of watching how his eyebrow had begun to twitch as soon as she said 'Fëanor'. He made a conscious effort to stop the spasm.
What part of all that should he address first? That his pupil couldn't recall the name of her homeland but knew it was Fëanor who created Tengwar? That she knew Fëanor's wife has been a skilled sculptor, and her father was a smith, and even implied awareness that Fëanor's mother was a weaver? He wasn't going to touch the fact she gave Fëanor a respectful prefix.
In the end, Erestor only answered the actual question. "I suppose he wanted to create a system accessible and efficient; if it had taken the path of any of your suggestions then it wouldn't have become so popular, nor useful." He ended uncertainly; abruptly wondering what shocking words would next leave the woman's mouth.
Minastauriel nodded along to his explanation, appeased at the easy answer, before giving him a considering look. "I am aware he was the most brilliant minded of all the Ñoldor – did you ever meet him?" Erestor levelled an entirely blank stare at the woman in front of him. Lord Elrond had been wrong to encourage the woman's fondness in poking her nose into other people's past. Had Lurlosel or Elrond been present, they would have admonished his glare quickly. As it was, Erestor then got to see the woman stare right back at him, tilting her head in curiosity as she watched his raised hackles. "Peace Lord Erestor – I have no intention of prying into any sensitive history; I have a genuine question about him."
"…Yes – I did, when I was younger." He uttered, voice audibly highlighting his tension. He was not nervous of judgement. Not from this child of man nor from many, many others; but it would make it a lot harder to keep an eye on her if she insulted him to his face.
Meeting his eyes calmly, Minastauriel gave her next words a hushed quality which showed again an unexpected level of awareness into elvish society, "He invented many things… and I know he is now in the Halls of Mandos, and I was wondering… In – hopefully many – decades to come when I die and take the next great journey; I will also pass through the halls. I wanted to talk to him about his creations; ask him how he created the Palantir and such, but I have a vague idea in my head that he did not like the Atani? Do you think he would answer my questions, um, also considering his, er, situation?"
It was Erestor's turn to give out a startled laugh. Seeing Minastauriel's slight wince at his reaction, he put in a small amount of effort to then mask his sardonic humour. "I cannot fathom what would be his response to being asked questions by an adaneth now. I remember in the Years of the Trees his fondness for explaining his thought process in the creation of his various works to any stranger who stood too close to him," unless they were descendant of Indis, "but that was thousands of years ago. Perhaps he would appreciate the nostalgia of such a thing; perhaps he would take great offence. Even amongst elves are those who would prefer to leave the past firmly behind, regardless of the positive or negative nature of their memories." These words were accompanied by a pointed looking at the mortal, who again merely smiled and nodded.
Huffing Erestor asked, in a mostly polite tone, if he could start his lesson now.
"Here are the all the characters used in Sindarin, each representing a specific sound or combination thereof. Vowels are added afterwards using these smaller symbols." Erestor spoke slowly, mindful the woman be given a chance to query new vocabulary. He carefully traced the strokes and curves of each letter; in the manner it should be drawn in before giving her a blank sheet. "We shall work on these four first."
Despite the residual tension Erestor now held by his heart from the earlier discussion, the scholar had no problems in demonstrating his calm teaching mode, gently guiding Minastauriel's hand in her replication of the letters. He watched her closely, noting her attentiveness and eagerness to learn as it was occasionally curbed by her apparent loss of skill in using a quill.
Once the woman had practised writing the different symbols, Erestor checked her recollection of what sound each symbol represented. Then the entire process was repeated until Minastauriel had been introduced to every symbol used in Sindarin Tengwar; each time ending with Erestor pointing at different symbols for her to sound out.
"Mostly correct, that is good. Now you shall try writing these short words," Erestor handed Minastauriel a list of simple words he had prepared earlier in the day. "Write each one out five times and read them aloud; start with the constants first if needed."
Minastauriel flexed her hand against the slight cramp that was not helping her handwriting whatsoever, but eagerly took the offered parchment. She furrowed her brow in concentration as she did a quick study of the list. The words were all deliberately chosen for their short length, and she soon realised Erestor had chosen words he thought (quite correctly) she would know already. Baw (No), Puig (Clean), Lû (Time) and so on. Shaking off the stiffness in her right hand, she dipped her quill into the inkwell balanced carefully on the padded desk where it rested across her lap and began to carefully copy the words.
The lesson followed the same pattern as the first half; after Minastauriel had completed the writing, Erestor selected different words for her to read out, and he gradually started giving her sheets of longer words to try as well.
Whilst Minastauriel stayed determined throughout, Erestor took notice of her worsening handwriting and nearing the third hour mark informed her the session was nearly over.
As she finished her final word of the lesson, Sant (Garden), her face broke into a relieved but accomplished smile. "So, how did I do? I feel like I made good progress, though it did not come as naturally as Spoken Sindarin." Minastauriel looked ruefully at her increasingly chicken-scrawled writing whilst massaging her right hand's metacarpals.
Erestor nodded in approval; if nothing else he was pleased she understood the value of hard work, though he would have to see if she approached her latter lessons with him in the same vigour. Erestor was also impressed she never mentioned her hand hurting nor tried to avoid completing the lesson. After the first hour, Erestor himself had suggested she take a break, and even then, the woman spent that half hour of rest reading the examples of script aloud over and over until she had, for the time being, memorised nearly every word she had been given at that point. "I am pleased with your work ethic and the progress you have made so far. Whilst I agree with you that you have made faster progress in spoken Sindarin, I will acknowledge your speed in picking up Tengwar."
Minastauriel beamed brightly at this hard earnt praise. "It was difficult to write – I have forgotten how to use a quill. I am also very sure I used to learn languages as a… hobby perhaps? I found this session fun."
The scholar nearly scoffed until he realised, she was serious in the final comment. "Writing out a list and memorising it by rote was fun? I need to speak to Lord Elrond – you have clearly spent too long in this room."
Stoppering the inkwell, Minastauriel shook her head. "You made it interesting and kept changing the words before it could become stagnant. And besides – who could become bored looking at Tengwar? It is such a beautiful script!"
Erestor gave a very short but genuine laugh. "High born lady or not, I think we can both agree you were certainly a scholar."
Minastauriel nodded happily at this assessment whilst she carefully placed her notes along the side table to dry. "Yes – like you. Once I can read, you will see me often in the library." She smiled at Erestor, who returned the gesture, albeit less broadly.
With the lesson drawing to a close, Erestor started gathering his materials and any unused parchment back up and neatly arranging much of it into his satchel. A few niceties were exchanged between the two of the room's occupants, including his advice that she read out the letters and words she had learnt later in the day, before Erestor skilfully steered the conversation towards the weight topic of authority. It was time to take another measure of the type of person his liege was ready to declare kin.
As he spoke, Erestor kept a keen eye of the woman's reactions, looking any telling signs of secret ambition or hidden agendas. He was excellent at reading even the most minute of facial expressions and the Atani were a hopelessly expressive race to begin with. "I mentioned earlier about the current theory that you may be a noble born, Lady Minastauriel. On top of this, Lord Elrond believes your Sight indicates you are close kin of his." He noted the way the woman's eye grew rounder at this comment, even whilst she helped pass him items from her desk, "And I wished to speak to you about considering the authoritative duties that would fall to you, should you be confirmed to be a close relative of Lord Elrond. It would be a significant status change." He posed the question almost casually, whilst his sharp gaze keeping meticulous note of Minastauriel's every expression.
Caught off guard, a bottle of ink nearly dropped from her hand. She fumbled with it awkwardly before it was saved by the elven counsellor. Giving a startled sort of laugh, Minastauriel looked to the elf in what appeared to be genuine bafflement. "I am sorry – 'status change'? Even if it were to be revealed I am a lost princess of Númenor; which we both know is impossible; how could I be given any authority here?"
The woman's voice carried no false humility and a subtle twitch at the corner of Erestor's lips was all that showed of his satisfaction with her answer. He deemed her response truthful. 'Good – there appears to be no presumption of power. How far does that go?'
"And yet Lord Elrond, peerlessly wise, believes it is possible. He has incredibly strong convictions that you are in fact his niece – the Princess Tindómiel. Should this be the case, it is conceivable that certain responsibilities within Imladris may then fall on your shoulders. It would Lord Elrond who would 'give you' such authority." Elven grey eyes watched closely for even the most subtle of cues that may indicate hidden intentions; he even kept note of her breathing – listening for any sigh of satisfaction or aggravation.
Minastauriel frowned and looked around the room as her uncertainty flickered across her face in perfect clarity. She nodded slowly, acknowledging his words but continued to collect her thoughts. Erestor had finished packing up by the time she finished pondering his words.
Finally, she gave her own thoughts, "I suppose that would be true… if I really could be a… a princess of Númenor." Erestor watched her face slightly twitch after both the word princess and Númenor and judged the act to not be thespianism.
"But." Her eyes flickered now to meet Erestor's, who had not taken his eyes of the girl since he began this line of questioning. Her lips turned up in a slight smile whilst she gave a playful glare in his direction, "I think you are having a jest, my Lord, and trying to make me pa, um, panic with the idea of being given any status or authority. I have lived in Imladris only a few weeks – how could I be trusted with any authority?"
Nodding in acknowledgement of her self-awareness, Erestor continued to steer the conversation. "Indeed, Lady Minastauriel, and I would not have you panic; nothing has been confirmed as of yet. But you should be aware that if you are proven to be his niece, it would immediately elevate you to the highest ranked woman in the valley, with the Lady Arwen staying in Lothlorien, and this will bring authority and responsibility in equal measure. Even if you are not as closely related to this valley's Lord as he suspects; you would still have the station befitting such."
Erestor paused momentarily to let the woman process his words, before he artfully resumed. "Consequently, should you progress in Tengwar continue in similar swiftness, then I shall be extending my tutelage to encompass the administrative tasks essential to managing Imladris. In the months to come beyond such tutelage, you may assume some of these duties officially. I would have your thoughts on this matter if I may?"
Minastauriel's face cycled through a flutter of emotions; pride at the compliment, some nature of excitement when he mentioned further tutoring, and then a blend of uncertainty and discomfort at his mention of potential official duties. Erestor watched her fail to hide a wince with a benign smile in his direction. She only took a brief breath of contemplation before responding, "I could not bring myself to reject the chance to learn more, especially not from such an esteemed scholar as yourself." She laughed lightly, trying to lighten the mood, but anyone paying attention could see how she couldn't make eye contact and had started fiddling with the hems of her sleeves. "I have been treated so very kindly since I arrived here; if taking on some administrative tasks is the manner in which I could serve this valley then I will take the chance to return its kindness. However, I have no memory of undertaking administrative tasks; even in six months' time; I do not think I could be granted any short of official decision-making role. I would happily serve as your assistant though; I could learn the tasks and complete them but leave the – as you said – authority in your hands."
Finally finished in her fumbling avoidance, she met Erestor's eyes, and evidently, she also had some skill in reading expressions because whatever she could see in his face had her exclaiming, "Oh – this was a test! The questions – you were testing me!"
Erestor deigned merely a thoughtful hum as he continued to mull over her response, now also looking to see her reaction to having been 'tested'. When the woman only looked to him for a response and gave no indication of having taking offence, and was instead smiling at him in expectation, Erestor let a smile grow on his face without a shred of abashment for having been suddenly caught in his ruse. He decided it was good that the woman had had the wits to figure out what he was doing, even if he hadn't masked his expression well enough and given the game partially away.
He gave a slight bow of his head in her direction to accept her accusation but offered no apologies. "One could say I was testing you – I would say I merely wished to know the intentions of someone who may yet become rather important, rather suddenly."
Minastauriel gave a not so ladylike snort. "I understand your reasoning, but what kind of response were you on guard for? Surely you do not think of me as so foolish that I would start ranting and raving about my desire for – what? Power? Authority and responsibilities?" Her voice was jovial, countenance far lighter now and shoulder released from previous tension. She even gave Erestor a mock pout, "And here I was thinking you had been so impressed with my language skills."
Erestor gave his own snort. "Intellect such as that in learning a language is very different to wisdom. And no, those were not my exact expectations, but it was reassuring to see your… hmm – have you heard the term pragmatism before? No? Hmm… I was pleased to realise you do have common sense as well as your intelligence in linguistics; there is no reason to expect one skill to indicate the presence of the other." The elf glanced at the angle of the sun from the window – it would be time for lunch imminently. "Should time affirm your trustworthiness, which I and everyone else hope it does, then I would gladly welcome you as an apprentice. And that offer is regardless of your lineage – whatever it is revealed to be, if ever. Once you can read and write, you shall receive the tutelage as you like."
Almost as soon as Minastauriel had agreed to this, Lurlosel had interrupted with her patient's lunch and Erestor slipped away to think heavily over their conversation. It was a start; a good start, but it would take more than a single discussion to take the measure of a person's heart. He had other tests in mind, and whilst her figuring out he was testing her did reassure him of her cleverness, he would be making his other tests rather more subtle. She didn't appear to have any illusions of grandeur, nor any expectation for an authoritative role. If anything – she seemed to want to avoid the official nature of it whilst readily offering to be his apprentice.
Now, what virtue or vice should he investigate next?
15th March
Erestor watched Minastauriel progress with unwavering determination through the lessons of several days. Regardless of setbacks, be they tired eyes or cramping hands, Minastauriel pushed through lesson after lesson with the stubbornness of a bull. Her spoken Sindarin, though heavily accented, quickly approached the fluency of the Dúnedain, if not quite to the standard of the main bloodline. In conversations, rarely would she stumble over words though she did occasionally confuse similar sounding ones.
Her reading progressed steadily at a quick but more normal pace as day after day, more words entered her repertoire and the rules for grammar and spelling became practised. Such was the advantage of being able to focus so entirely on something without having any responsibilities to also manage. Her writing however followed a far more typical learning pace, and despite her best efforts, her skill with the quill often left work resembling the erratic path an ink-dipped spider may take rather than the words she was trying to pen.
As days passed by and Erestor watched Minastauriel fall into the rhythm of her studies, he set into motion his next test. Based on his observations, the woman had no inclination for putting on great airs, nor did she shy away from tasks she was not immediately good at. Now – what was her integrity like?
As their morning lesson began to conclude, Minastauriel pottered around her little side room, arranging notes and whatnot into different piles, so she could look over them later to reinforce her learning. Whist she busied herself with one pile, Erestor discreetly hid an envelope amongst the papers of another. Said envelope was emblazoned with red ink in a bold script, advising of the utmost confidential nature of its contents.
Naturally, inside lay nothing more than a few sheets of Second-Age poetry, but coating these sheets was a subtle layer of powder. Translucent and near invisible when dry, even the slightest touch of moisture from the skin was enough to turn it vivid red. His trap was set – now to see if she could respect a clear boundary, or would she be caught red-handed?
As soon as Erestor returned to the library, he dispatched an attendent to bring him lunch and one of his assistants with a message to Minastauriel, in concern over a misplaced but important document, in an envelope with scarlet lettering. As instructed, the assistant emphasised the document's need for discretion and bade her not to open the envelope nor read its contents. Ambalan had then, following Erestor's instructions to a tee, closed the door to the side room and retreated to the main hall of the healing wards, feigning interest in a tonic for a minor injury so the elf could stay close by.
Ambalan returned to Erestor's office in the library to deliver both the envelope and her report within half an hour. His attendent hadn't even brought around his midday meal yet. Ambalan smiled and gave her report quickly, whilst she flit around his office admiring this, that and the other. "The Lady Minastauriel immediately started looking for the envelope, before I had even left the room, and then the door was only shut for a handful of minutes before she left holding the envelope aloft in one hand. She handed it to me as soon as she spotted my presence. I had a clear look at her hands; not a dot of red on them."
Erestor, though pleased, checked to be sure. "There is no way she had time to wash her hands of stain before leaving her room?"
Ambalan affirmed the short time frame the door had been shut for. Erestor nodded in satisfaction then dismissed her to go for her own luncheon.
Another positive outcome, albeit not quite in the fashion he envisioned. Erestor had thought having the door shut would give the girl a chance to have to war with the urge to peek into the mysterious envelope, thinking the woman who was so eager to learn would also have the desire for 'forbidden knowledge'. Whether she had any inclination to such nosiness was not fully repudiated – Erestor hadn't expected Minastauriel to be quite so eager to find and return the document. Perhaps she had been so busy looking for it, she hadn't considered that the door was shut, and she could have opened it without any seeing her.
Erestor leaned further back into his chair, watching the corners of the sunlit papers on his desk tentatively play in the breeze, whilst his paperweight prevented any disorganisation. He suddenly scoffed, laughed even, into the empty room. Minastauriel's room must look truly ransacked, if she had managed to find the envelope within only a few minutes. There was a very particular way, Erestor had noticed, that the woman preferred to organise her notes. On occasion when Erestor had helped her with her increasing amount of paper, the scholar would later observe how the notes were always put back into a specific order by the next lesson. Regardless on how recently they had reviewed the letter shapes, for example, those notes were always placed near the top of that day's pile of work.
'I think… even if she had thought she could, Lady Minastauriel would still not have opened the envelope.' The quiet thought settled into his mind as gently as the sun on the back of his head. He would keep checking and testing on this woman, but Erestor was starting to have a tentative hope that the girl would not be unworthy of the amount of trust his liege was increasingly ready to bestow upon her. Despite Erestor's frequent debates against such hasty actions.
Context/Notes:
Unlike her original clothes, which were made using a synthetic elastic, her underwear was made with natural rubber derivatives so wasn't erased by Eä. However, the rubber plant is not known in this part of arda so it is still a point of confusion.
I also changed something in previous chapter – Glorfindel and the 5 wizards did not arrive to arda at the same time; Glorfindel arrive SA ~1600 whilst the 5 wizards arrived TA ~1000-ish
I am definitely pushing the whole suspense of disbelief regarding her breakneck speed at learning Sindarin, a necessary plot device I'm afraid but I hope I'm slightly forgiven as she is still (and will forever remain) under the power of Elrond's spell and Eä's magic which are hugely enhancing her own natural linguistic abilities plus playing into the idea that the Universe thinks she already knew Sindarin and just needs to be reminded of it. That said, whilst she has gotten very good at speaking conversational Sindarin; A – conversational is a limited number of specific words and B – I do think it will be exhausting to keep reading dialogue broken up with 'Word please', 'I don't understand' and incorrect sentence structures. So… She is speaking very good Sindarin for someone who could barely speak it 6 weeks ago but please assume she is breaking up dialogue with the aforementioned interruptions when needed. :3
I may be being a bit too subtle, but I also adding it how convinced Elrond is; the more his spell makes her into Tindómiel, then the more he is sure it is her; the more he is sure it is her, then the stronger the spell is. I'm not sure if I put that into words prior to this.
I've started including some other traits and characteristics to Minastauriel; some more obvious that others. I really like how Erestor is the one to reveal them, and in some cases be affected my them. I'll give you a couple hints: not all these traits are #nice and I am basing one of these secret traits on the fact that she is now – like Elrond and his children – of an 'Eldritch-line'.
No Glossary this time, as there are no new terms. Correct me if I'm wrong though 😊