The Eternal Starlight

A Home Long Lost

A warm hand touched her shoulder. Erenien jerked at the contact. Slowly, her eyes traced the hand to its owner.

"Anoriel...," she breathed, for in front of her stood the lady, clothed in spotless white. Erenien's eyes then turned to Calemir, who stood beside his wife wearing a serene smile upon his lips. An ethereal light emanated from the couple. In their light, the dark spots splattered across the withered carpet, where the couple had fallen became all too obvious. A quick glance across the room revealed that it was no more clean and cozy but dusty and grim. The walls were mouldy and there was stench of pooling dampness. A dim light crept through the dusty glass of the half-broken window pane to her right and through the broken roof-tiles, revealing the rusted pair of knives lying beside her knees. A quick glance down at her own dress, showed that it was covered in dust and dirt.

She stared blankly at the couple, as her mind refused to form coherent words among the rush of emotions within her. "What happened?" she finally choked out, unable to understand anything that occurred or seemed to, mere moments ago. Anoriel leaned forward, her hand wiped off a single channel of tear that trailed down Erenien's cheek with atmost gentleness. "This was only a memory, dear one, of what happened to us on that fateful night."

Erenien frowned, remembering that somebody had called her so, once, but who or when- she couldn't exactly place it. Yet, she didn't dare to voice her thoughts. Have we met before?

"The baby...what happened to the others?" she asked, snapping back to the present.

"You know the answer to that question, iell nîn (my daughter)," it was Calemir who answered.

Her eyes widened with realisation. She drew a shaky breath and sank to the ground in utter shock, looking back and forth between the two gleaming elves.

Anoriel smiled fondly at her baffled expression. "Come. We have something for you," she extended her hand. Erenien managed to stand up and nearly stumbled as her knees and aching muscles momentarily refused to support her weight.

They led her to another room beside the one in which she had found the cradle. Mothballs hung from the wooden ceiling. The room smelled of dust which itched her throat. A bed and two chairs occupied the left side of the room and a wardrobe and a mirror were lined against the farthest wall. She was relieved to see that above the room, the roof had sustained, providing protection from rain or snow. Calemir draped his hand over her shoulder and guided her to the ornate mirror.

Erenien absorbed the image in front of her. Her eyes, a perfect combination of Calemir's green and Anoriel's silver. Her hair, somehow golden unlike her parents' but still highlighted with her father's brown. As she stood there, heart soaring in the new realisation, a small wind fluttered through the curtains of the broken window to her left and blowed strands off her face.

Erenien froze and her breath hitched at her throat. For a moment she wondered whether she was dreaming or not. This felt... as if one of her distant dreams came true. Anoriel gently squeezed her shoulder in reassurance and tucked strands of gold behind her daughter's ears, which, much to Erenien's wonder, were not round but with tapered ends.

"You were always one of us, dear," Anoriel smiled at the dumbstruck expression of her Aerien. "All my life, I was hunted by those filths because of my powers. They wanted me to join the Dark Lord or to kill me. I did not want you to have the same fate," Anoriel paused, as her voice wavered.

After a moment, she continued in her clear, silvery voice. "I wanted to shield you from them. I hoped that if you looked like one of the Edain, you might be overlooked. But I was clearly mistaken." She uttered as regret filled her words.

"I used my powers to hide you, to make you look like one of the Secondborn. It was not entirely impossible, as you carry a fraction of their blood through your Ada." Erenien's eyes flitted to Calemir, who smiled and nodded.