aredhel írissë nolofinwiel

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

Aredhel couldn’t help but laugh, though there wasn’t derision in the sound, only amusement. 

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

The warg sniffed the air and took a cautious step forward, it understood Common and given that his little orc was acting nice he knew to act accordingly.

"You can pet him, all wargs love pets. They love ear scratches, deer bones, squirrel chasing. More or less gigantic dogs with a bad reputation."

Aredhel approached cautiously and reached out a hand to scratch behind Fluffy’s ears. 

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

The warg sniffed the air and took a cautious step forward, it understood Common and given that his little orc was acting nice he knew to act accordingly.

"You can pet him, all wargs love pets. They love ear scratches, deer bones, squirrel chasing. More or less gigantic dogs with a bad reputation."

Aredhel approached cautiously and reached out a hand to scratch behind Fluffy’s ears. 

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

Though, it was peculiar that an orc so young was wandering alone at all, if this Elf even knew orcs could be children instead of popped out of dark magic and thin air “Bet you’ve never seen a Warg up close before, unless it’s trying to make you a chew toy.”

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

"Gee, lone gal in a forest with only her bow and arrow. Rings a lot of bells for me." She gestured to her own bow and quiver on her back. The only difference was that Viola had only Fluffy to care if she was killed or maimed by orcs.

The way she saw it, the stranger couldn't kill the warg in one shot, and shooting the orc guaranteed the Wargs hostility "You won't shoot and I can't touch your fancy head. So put the bow down, before you hurt someone."

She'd been watching someone a while now, it was clear they were no simple traveler, dressed far too well for that, underdressed even to be trapsing about a forest at night "Gosh, the Gods are on her side. Imagine, Fluffy, if any other orc and warg found her." She finally spoke and nudged the great warg beside her "Eh, lucky we're a decent enough pair."

“You think I couldn’t win against you in a fight?” she asked, pulling an arrow from her quiver.

“Yet you don’t seem interested in fighting.” Aredhel tilted her head, considering. “Why?” 

“Of course. It would be no trouble at all,” Aredhel said. “Especially since the planning committee for the Gates of Summer festivities was canceled this afternoon. One of Pengolodh’s students is defending a thesis or something.”

Namely, something Turgon and Idril cared about enough to attend, but Aredhel was under no obligation to do so.

“Sounds dreadfully dull.” Duilin did his best to avoid as much of the academic circles of Gondolin as he could. Oh, he was sure they were all very clever and hardworking, but it was just so boring. And it reminded him of his mother, and he tried not to think of home.

After the death of Turgon’s sister, there were reports of a lady in white who wandered the Tower of the King, but always disappeared before anyone could reach her to speak to her. Servants whispered that they could hear weeping at night, and passers-by swore that sometimes, when the moonlight was just right, they could see someone on the balcony that had once belonged to Aredhel Ar-Feiniel.

It was there, on the balcony, that the fea of Aredhel stood now, looking out over the city that had once felt like a cage. Now she struggled against the insistent thrumming of the Call to the Halls of Mandos, closing her mind to it so that she might remain in the world for but a little while longer. She knew her son still grieved, alone in this strange city, and she desperately wished there was something she could do to help him, to reassure him that he was not truly alone. But no one could see or hear her, and so she remained out of sheer stubbornness, refusing to believe that it was all right for her to depart and heal in the Halls.

He had carefully read the letter, saying nothing of its contents.

Ghosts? A tower haunted by a white lady?

Now, Aratacáno found himself walking up a seemingly endless set of spiral stairs.

Laying a hand on the door, the image of a lady in white came to him:

Lady Aredhel, why are you still here? What keeps you lingering in Middle Earth?

When he opened the door, Aratacáno immediately felt that he was not alone.

A woman’s voice:

“Why have you come here?”

“You are the Lady Aredhel, are you not? the Maia asked, closing the door behind him. “I was called here by your brother, to investigate these strange claims of a ghost.”

Aratacáno smiled:

“Are you what they’ve been seeing, my lady?”

This newcomer could see her without having to try, and in his presence the Call grew louder in her mind, more insistent. You could go with him now, and be free. Go and rest.  Aredhel had heard there might be Maiar in Beleriand, but she had not known there were any so near to Gondolin. It did not exactly surprise her that one had come to Turgon’s aid. But in this case, she was the problem, and she did not like to think of herself as a problem to be solved.