(no subject)
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Pairing: Elrond & Celebrían
Theme set: Epslion
Rating: T for mild suggestiveness
#01 - Motion
He knew that things had been set in motion that could not be undone, though at times he found it selfishly difficult to care about the fate of Middle-Earth when regardless of the outcome of this war he would soon be greeting his lovely Celebrían on the other side of the sea.
#02 - Cool
A cool, gentle breeze blew across the water and caressed his face, but his attention was drawn to the white ship pulling farther and father from shore, and he did not feel it.
#03 - Young
When she first met Elrond, he was already the King’s vice-regent and she was just an ellyth, too young to fully understand the nuances of love but old enough to feel its power.
#04 - Last
“At last,” he heard Galadriel softly exhale when he came to stand beside her at the bow, for after three long ages she was returning home, and Elrond found himself agreeing even though his longing for Valinor was better defined as a longing for his beloved Celebrían.
#05 - Wrong
She did not make the wrong choice, Elrond knew, for he had admitted that her wounds had been too grave for him to completely heal, and that perhaps was the greatest pain of all.
#06 - Gentle
His hands were that of a healer, strong yet incredibly gentle, and she loved his touch.
#07 - One
When the One was destroyed the power of the Three waned swiftly along with all the good they had wrought in Middle-Earth; now the gold band on the third finger of his left hand was the only ring that governed Elrond’s life, and it called him home.
#08 - Thousand
Celebrían swore to spend eternity at his side, but two thousand and four hundred years later Elrond discovered that even eternity has its limits.
#09 - King
“When this war is over, Elrond, you should marry Celebrían; she would make a good wife for you,” Gil-Galad had said to him one day, randomly, during the siege of Barad-dûr, and over the course of the many battles that followed he had practically forgotten it, until the day when he at last took Celebrían to wife, and his King was not there to see it.
#10 - Learn
Elrond may have been the most scholarly elf in Middle-Earth, but it was only after his marriage to Celebrían that he earned his seat among the Wise, for life cannot be learned by reading it.
#11 - Blur
The years after Celebrían sailed passed in a blur of lonely and unending gray until at last Hope came as a gift unlooked for.
#12 - Wait
When word came to Valinor of Middle-Earth’s victory over Sauron, Celebrían knew that at last her husband’s tasks were at an end and that she would not have long to wait before he sailed to join her.
#13 - Change
The world had changed considerably since the days of his youth-for better and for ill and back again in endless cycles marked by war, and as he watched yet another age descend into twilight he couldn’t deny that at times he yearned for the timeless peace promised in the West, away from the ebb and flow of tragedy, where his only duty would be to Celebrían and their children, as it should have been from the beginning.
#14 - Command
At the time of its founding, Rivendell had been little more than a military outpost, its inhabitants consisting mainly of refugees from Eregion protected by the remnant of Celeborn’s forces and the vanguard out of Lindon under Elrond’s command; it did not earn its title of Last Homely House East of the Sea until Celebrían arrived, and for that feat the Lord gave his Lady full credit.
#15 - Hold
“I would have you hold me like this forever,” she said one night in the aftermath of passion.
#16 - Need
She never said she needed to leave-that had been decided for her, by her mother mostly, and eventually Elrond had agreed, for in the end he overcame his own need for her to stay and longed only to see her well again, even if that would not come to pass for untold years until he was free to follow her.
#17 - Vision
Celebrían stood before him, clad regally in a gown of purest white and crowned in a circlet of elanor set in baby’s breath-but then the flowers withered swiftly and crumbled-tumbled down and Celebrian’s soft hands as they reached out to catch the remnants shone with pale light-as did her frightened face-before her body burst like a soap bubble and sent a spray of sea-foam into his startled eyes, and all that remained of his lady wife-his precious silver queen, was a small knot of dead flowers that scattered quickly across uneven ground.
#18 - Attention
Gil-Galad was speaking to him-and he really ought to have been paying attention, except that Celebrían had just entered the courtyard from across the way, and the morning sun was at her back, bathing her in a soft light that caused her hair to shimmer like true silver, and at that moment nothing and no one else existed.
#19 - Soul
On the first day of spring, the year one hundred and nine of the Third Age of the Sun, in the westernmost garden of fairest Lindon, Elrond Halfelven married the Lady Celebrían, declaring before all gathered and to the Lords of the West that forever their two hearts would beat one rhythm with one soul shared between them.
#20 - Picture
The portrait of Rivendell’s Lord and Lady was commissioned three years after their marriage and hung with prominence in the Hall of Fire until the forth age when at last Arwen removed it to the Citadel of Minas Tirith.
#21 - Fool
Elrond discovered-quite painfully in fact, how love tends to turn even the bravest into cowards and the wisest into fools before he succeeded in asking Celebrían for her hand.
#22 - Mad
When at last the day’s work was done Elrond rose from his desk-and to his dismay discovered that the moon had risen quite high outside his window; alas, he had promised Celebrían he would retire early tonight, but nothing makes a colder bed than an angry wife.
#23 - Child
Elrond had lived through more horrors than many elves dare name, but the only time he ever fainted dead away was when Celebrían first told him she was with child.
#24 - Now
“Now Elrond”-kiss-“are you sure that”-kiss-“your work”-trail of kisses down his jaw line-“won’t keep”-trail of kisses down his neck-“for another hour?”
#25 - Shadow
Even as Celebrían physically recovered from her ordeal her spirit did not strengthen, and so it was a mere shadow of his wife that Elrond at last escorted to the Havens.
#26 - Goodbye
“This is not goodbye, meleth-nin, for as soon as I am able I will follow you-I promise!”
#27 - Hide
“Oh Elrond, Celebrían would consent to court you in a heartbeat if you would just stop hiding from life behind your books and guise of duty!”
#28 - Fortune
For all their strength and wisdom, the Valar have no dominion over Fate, and in the gray days of his increasing loneliness in Rivendell Elrond tried not to hate them for it.
#29 - Safe
The only place that Celebrían found sleep was in her husband’s arms, even though her wounds prevented her from resting comfortably it was the understood safety of the embrace that kept the dreams at bay.
#30 - Ghost
“Are you so certain, my lord?” she asked in a serious tone, though the ghost of a smile was playing on her lips.
#31 - Book
While Celebrían didn’t exactly share his love for books she knew well enough that often Elrond spent his leisure time in Lindon’s expansive library, and as her infatuation with him grew, so did her interest in reading.
#32 - Eye
His eyes were the first thing that attracted her-the color of smoky twilight, their timeless depths held an allure of mystery she could not resist.
#33 - Never
“I will never leave you,” she had promised him-as Elros and Ereinion had promised before and Arwen after; and so it was that Elrond learned to hate that word, for it rang only with empty promises.
#34 - Sing
Lore-master that he was, Elrond knew many songs and verses in many tongues, but believing the gift of song had passed him by he very rarely shared them; and so Celebrían had never heard him sing until one night she awoke to overhear a lullaby meant for their newborn twins, and she instantly and vehemently cursed any and all who allowed such a belief to fester in her husband’s mind.
#35 - Sudden
The tedium of paperwork was interrupted by a sudden knock on his study door, and when Celebrían entered a moment later carrying a picnic basket, the tedium of paperwork was forgotten for the rest of the day.
#36 - Stop
“Don’t stop…” he all but purred, as his Celebrían kneaded the knots in his back with strong fingers.
#37 - Time
“I trust you had a good time?” Glorfindel teased them when they returned from a ‘ten minute stroll’ through the gardens thirty minutes late, hair haphazardly righted and clothing slightly soiled.
#38 - Wash
Celebrían sat in a chair, completely relaxed, daydreaming simple things like whether the children would have dark hair or silver, while Elrond gently washed her swollen feet.
#39 - Torn
When it was finally decided that Celebrían would sail, Elrond felt as though his spirit had been torn in two… again.
#40 - History
Their children learned their letters, numbers, and the like in a classroom, but history lessons were imparted in the form of bedtime stories from their parents and grandparents, who had lived it.
#41 - Power
Elrond was considered among the most powerful of elves, a mighty prince of both the Noldor and the Sindar and the master of Vilya, and that therefore made Celebrían the most powerful of all, for only she had complete mastery over him.
#42 - Bother
The sun was climbing higher in the sky, and Elrond knew it was well past the time to begin the day, but Celebrían’s arm rested warm across his chest with her head pillowed on his shoulder, and he found that he couldn’t be bothered to move her.
#43 - God
‘Ilúvatar’s Gift’ it is called, that which forces mankind to become bent and withered with age before death takes their spirits beyond the circles of the world to where not even the Valar have the power to travel; whether or not to embrace this gift is the choice of all Half-Elven and the doom that Elrond imparted to his children, and now he must somehow find the strength to break the news to Celebrían, that their only daughter has chosen the path of mortality-this gift whose only tangible evidence is bitter tears and sundered families.
#44 - Wall
One more than one occasion Rivendell’s Lord and Lady were greeted with thunderous applause (led of course by Lord Glorfindel) when they entered the Dining Hall for breakfast, and on more than one occasion Elrond lamented that the walls of his house were not nearly thick enough.
#45 - Naked
Many things under the sun he had considered fair, but it wasn’t until he first saw Celebrían that he gazed upon true beauty; then on his wedding night, when she appeared before him a vision of shimmering silver cascading down to moonlit ivory, he knew at last the appearance of perfection.
#46 - Drive
They stood together before the opened doors of their balcony, gazing into the driving rain as lightning danced across the sky, chased by rolling thunder, and worried for their sons, caught somewhere in the summer storm that lengthened the hour of their return.
#47 - Harm
She was the first to drift to sleep in the warm afterglow, and as he held her close his thoughts strayed into darkness and to doubt, for the threat of Angmar was growing, and war might be upon them soon; if things grew worse he would send her to Lindon, he decided then and there, even if he had to tie her to her horse, for he would rather she be safely angry then risk her coming to harm.
#48 - Precious
“Aren’t they precious?” Celebrían whispered to him as they entered the nursery and found their full grown twins curled up to somehow fit on Arwen’s bed, their infant sister nestled safely though snugly between them.
#49 - Hunger
Never before-and not likely ever again, would their lovemaking be so passionate-their hunger for each other so intense, as on that joyous night of their reunion beyond the Sundering Seas.
#50 - Believe
Never in his wildest dreams did Elrond believe that Celebrían harbored any feeling for him beyond friendship until that fateful day when Celeborn cornered him in the library and politely demanded a confession of his intentions.
Translations:
Ellyth: young elf girl
Meleth-nin: beloved
Pairing: Elrond & Celebrían
Theme set: Epslion
Rating: T for mild suggestiveness
#01 - Motion
He knew that things had been set in motion that could not be undone, though at times he found it selfishly difficult to care about the fate of Middle-Earth when regardless of the outcome of this war he would soon be greeting his lovely Celebrían on the other side of the sea.
#02 - Cool
A cool, gentle breeze blew across the water and caressed his face, but his attention was drawn to the white ship pulling farther and father from shore, and he did not feel it.
#03 - Young
When she first met Elrond, he was already the King’s vice-regent and she was just an ellyth, too young to fully understand the nuances of love but old enough to feel its power.
#04 - Last
“At last,” he heard Galadriel softly exhale when he came to stand beside her at the bow, for after three long ages she was returning home, and Elrond found himself agreeing even though his longing for Valinor was better defined as a longing for his beloved Celebrían.
#05 - Wrong
She did not make the wrong choice, Elrond knew, for he had admitted that her wounds had been too grave for him to completely heal, and that perhaps was the greatest pain of all.
#06 - Gentle
His hands were that of a healer, strong yet incredibly gentle, and she loved his touch.
#07 - One
When the One was destroyed the power of the Three waned swiftly along with all the good they had wrought in Middle-Earth; now the gold band on the third finger of his left hand was the only ring that governed Elrond’s life, and it called him home.
#08 - Thousand
Celebrían swore to spend eternity at his side, but two thousand and four hundred years later Elrond discovered that even eternity has its limits.
#09 - King
“When this war is over, Elrond, you should marry Celebrían; she would make a good wife for you,” Gil-Galad had said to him one day, randomly, during the siege of Barad-dûr, and over the course of the many battles that followed he had practically forgotten it, until the day when he at last took Celebrían to wife, and his King was not there to see it.
#10 - Learn
Elrond may have been the most scholarly elf in Middle-Earth, but it was only after his marriage to Celebrían that he earned his seat among the Wise, for life cannot be learned by reading it.
#11 - Blur
The years after Celebrían sailed passed in a blur of lonely and unending gray until at last Hope came as a gift unlooked for.
#12 - Wait
When word came to Valinor of Middle-Earth’s victory over Sauron, Celebrían knew that at last her husband’s tasks were at an end and that she would not have long to wait before he sailed to join her.
#13 - Change
The world had changed considerably since the days of his youth-for better and for ill and back again in endless cycles marked by war, and as he watched yet another age descend into twilight he couldn’t deny that at times he yearned for the timeless peace promised in the West, away from the ebb and flow of tragedy, where his only duty would be to Celebrían and their children, as it should have been from the beginning.
#14 - Command
At the time of its founding, Rivendell had been little more than a military outpost, its inhabitants consisting mainly of refugees from Eregion protected by the remnant of Celeborn’s forces and the vanguard out of Lindon under Elrond’s command; it did not earn its title of Last Homely House East of the Sea until Celebrían arrived, and for that feat the Lord gave his Lady full credit.
#15 - Hold
“I would have you hold me like this forever,” she said one night in the aftermath of passion.
#16 - Need
She never said she needed to leave-that had been decided for her, by her mother mostly, and eventually Elrond had agreed, for in the end he overcame his own need for her to stay and longed only to see her well again, even if that would not come to pass for untold years until he was free to follow her.
#17 - Vision
Celebrían stood before him, clad regally in a gown of purest white and crowned in a circlet of elanor set in baby’s breath-but then the flowers withered swiftly and crumbled-tumbled down and Celebrian’s soft hands as they reached out to catch the remnants shone with pale light-as did her frightened face-before her body burst like a soap bubble and sent a spray of sea-foam into his startled eyes, and all that remained of his lady wife-his precious silver queen, was a small knot of dead flowers that scattered quickly across uneven ground.
#18 - Attention
Gil-Galad was speaking to him-and he really ought to have been paying attention, except that Celebrían had just entered the courtyard from across the way, and the morning sun was at her back, bathing her in a soft light that caused her hair to shimmer like true silver, and at that moment nothing and no one else existed.
#19 - Soul
On the first day of spring, the year one hundred and nine of the Third Age of the Sun, in the westernmost garden of fairest Lindon, Elrond Halfelven married the Lady Celebrían, declaring before all gathered and to the Lords of the West that forever their two hearts would beat one rhythm with one soul shared between them.
#20 - Picture
The portrait of Rivendell’s Lord and Lady was commissioned three years after their marriage and hung with prominence in the Hall of Fire until the forth age when at last Arwen removed it to the Citadel of Minas Tirith.
#21 - Fool
Elrond discovered-quite painfully in fact, how love tends to turn even the bravest into cowards and the wisest into fools before he succeeded in asking Celebrían for her hand.
#22 - Mad
When at last the day’s work was done Elrond rose from his desk-and to his dismay discovered that the moon had risen quite high outside his window; alas, he had promised Celebrían he would retire early tonight, but nothing makes a colder bed than an angry wife.
#23 - Child
Elrond had lived through more horrors than many elves dare name, but the only time he ever fainted dead away was when Celebrían first told him she was with child.
#24 - Now
“Now Elrond”-kiss-“are you sure that”-kiss-“your work”-trail of kisses down his jaw line-“won’t keep”-trail of kisses down his neck-“for another hour?”
#25 - Shadow
Even as Celebrían physically recovered from her ordeal her spirit did not strengthen, and so it was a mere shadow of his wife that Elrond at last escorted to the Havens.
#26 - Goodbye
“This is not goodbye, meleth-nin, for as soon as I am able I will follow you-I promise!”
#27 - Hide
“Oh Elrond, Celebrían would consent to court you in a heartbeat if you would just stop hiding from life behind your books and guise of duty!”
#28 - Fortune
For all their strength and wisdom, the Valar have no dominion over Fate, and in the gray days of his increasing loneliness in Rivendell Elrond tried not to hate them for it.
#29 - Safe
The only place that Celebrían found sleep was in her husband’s arms, even though her wounds prevented her from resting comfortably it was the understood safety of the embrace that kept the dreams at bay.
#30 - Ghost
“Are you so certain, my lord?” she asked in a serious tone, though the ghost of a smile was playing on her lips.
#31 - Book
While Celebrían didn’t exactly share his love for books she knew well enough that often Elrond spent his leisure time in Lindon’s expansive library, and as her infatuation with him grew, so did her interest in reading.
#32 - Eye
His eyes were the first thing that attracted her-the color of smoky twilight, their timeless depths held an allure of mystery she could not resist.
#33 - Never
“I will never leave you,” she had promised him-as Elros and Ereinion had promised before and Arwen after; and so it was that Elrond learned to hate that word, for it rang only with empty promises.
#34 - Sing
Lore-master that he was, Elrond knew many songs and verses in many tongues, but believing the gift of song had passed him by he very rarely shared them; and so Celebrían had never heard him sing until one night she awoke to overhear a lullaby meant for their newborn twins, and she instantly and vehemently cursed any and all who allowed such a belief to fester in her husband’s mind.
#35 - Sudden
The tedium of paperwork was interrupted by a sudden knock on his study door, and when Celebrían entered a moment later carrying a picnic basket, the tedium of paperwork was forgotten for the rest of the day.
#36 - Stop
“Don’t stop…” he all but purred, as his Celebrían kneaded the knots in his back with strong fingers.
#37 - Time
“I trust you had a good time?” Glorfindel teased them when they returned from a ‘ten minute stroll’ through the gardens thirty minutes late, hair haphazardly righted and clothing slightly soiled.
#38 - Wash
Celebrían sat in a chair, completely relaxed, daydreaming simple things like whether the children would have dark hair or silver, while Elrond gently washed her swollen feet.
#39 - Torn
When it was finally decided that Celebrían would sail, Elrond felt as though his spirit had been torn in two… again.
#40 - History
Their children learned their letters, numbers, and the like in a classroom, but history lessons were imparted in the form of bedtime stories from their parents and grandparents, who had lived it.
#41 - Power
Elrond was considered among the most powerful of elves, a mighty prince of both the Noldor and the Sindar and the master of Vilya, and that therefore made Celebrían the most powerful of all, for only she had complete mastery over him.
#42 - Bother
The sun was climbing higher in the sky, and Elrond knew it was well past the time to begin the day, but Celebrían’s arm rested warm across his chest with her head pillowed on his shoulder, and he found that he couldn’t be bothered to move her.
#43 - God
‘Ilúvatar’s Gift’ it is called, that which forces mankind to become bent and withered with age before death takes their spirits beyond the circles of the world to where not even the Valar have the power to travel; whether or not to embrace this gift is the choice of all Half-Elven and the doom that Elrond imparted to his children, and now he must somehow find the strength to break the news to Celebrían, that their only daughter has chosen the path of mortality-this gift whose only tangible evidence is bitter tears and sundered families.
#44 - Wall
One more than one occasion Rivendell’s Lord and Lady were greeted with thunderous applause (led of course by Lord Glorfindel) when they entered the Dining Hall for breakfast, and on more than one occasion Elrond lamented that the walls of his house were not nearly thick enough.
#45 - Naked
Many things under the sun he had considered fair, but it wasn’t until he first saw Celebrían that he gazed upon true beauty; then on his wedding night, when she appeared before him a vision of shimmering silver cascading down to moonlit ivory, he knew at last the appearance of perfection.
#46 - Drive
They stood together before the opened doors of their balcony, gazing into the driving rain as lightning danced across the sky, chased by rolling thunder, and worried for their sons, caught somewhere in the summer storm that lengthened the hour of their return.
#47 - Harm
She was the first to drift to sleep in the warm afterglow, and as he held her close his thoughts strayed into darkness and to doubt, for the threat of Angmar was growing, and war might be upon them soon; if things grew worse he would send her to Lindon, he decided then and there, even if he had to tie her to her horse, for he would rather she be safely angry then risk her coming to harm.
#48 - Precious
“Aren’t they precious?” Celebrían whispered to him as they entered the nursery and found their full grown twins curled up to somehow fit on Arwen’s bed, their infant sister nestled safely though snugly between them.
#49 - Hunger
Never before-and not likely ever again, would their lovemaking be so passionate-their hunger for each other so intense, as on that joyous night of their reunion beyond the Sundering Seas.
#50 - Believe
Never in his wildest dreams did Elrond believe that Celebrían harbored any feeling for him beyond friendship until that fateful day when Celeborn cornered him in the library and politely demanded a confession of his intentions.
Translations:
Ellyth: young elf girl
Meleth-nin: beloved