Brightest Stars | Love of Royals: Book I

I: The Fall

Cold. 

Cold and lost beneath the ice-ridden surface of the water.  Home is miles above me, and I am sealed behind a thick glassy wall I have no hope of breaking through.  Darkness engulfs me; shrouds of impenetrable shadow are clawing at my body as the pale moonlight casts but a faint glimmer over me. 

Are those the shapes of trees?  They are far away, farther it seems than the moon itself, but I can still see them swaying as if to a slow rhythm of the twilight.  I wish I could hear the music of the wind they must be dancing to.

The sky is calling me, but I can't get to it.  I'm trapped, and home is too far from me to even dream of.  My home is in the night sky, with all the others of my kind.

Then the realisation dawns.

I, to my utter disbelief, have Fallen. Who could possibly need a Star tonight? We have not been called on in many centuries, and now I have been thrown from the heavens and cast down into Middle Earth, to live as an elleth until my task is done. Stars always have tasks; very important ones at that. There must be a reason for my Fall, but from where I am, it seems there is no way I shall find it.

I stop feeling the cold after a while.  My lungs are burning so much I am barely aware of the numbness creeping slowly up my limbs like a plague of insects.  How could I possibly forget? Even elves cannot breathe underwater. Every second without air is taking my body a step closer to death.

How deep am I now?  It must be several feet.  The world above the surface is drifting away from me.  The trees start to blur and soon the Stars are simply a mass of pale light, ever summoning me to them. 

They have left me to my task. Why? Why must it be me who is punished in this way? Stars do not take physical form—a body is too much to manage, yet I have been saddled with one. And there are probably many Stars who are better suited to carry out this task than myself. I do not understand the Valar's choosing. They decide on which Star is to Fall, and yet one of the least experienced Stars has been selected tonight. Young Elena. Perhaps, if I let my elf body drown, I shall return to the sky and have another Star sent down in my place. Yes, that sounds easy enough.

The question is, how long must I wait until my body is spent?

The truth is, I am prepared to wait forever.

***

Warm. 

Warm, strong hands are suddenly clasping my waist.  A vast silhouette floats before me, its white gold hair swirling and gleaming in the moonlight and its dark cloak billowing like a storm cloud.  What is this strange creature?  Unable to move, I let the figure pull my body towards it before we travel up, up in the direction of the air.  The figure kicks out hard and we break the surface, shattering it like a great icy mirror. 

It's as if I have never breathed for millennia.  Sweet gulps of air come rushing into my lungs, filling me with an exhilarating sensation of life.  Despite my original wish being to die, I take breath after breath, all the while gazing up at the myriad Stars in their deep blue blanket of the night sky.

Perhaps I should let this event unfold.  It is, after all, a Star's job to go with whatever happens after their Fall. 

'Breathe,' says the cool, deep voice of the figure as he sits upon the shore and lays me down in his arms.  My heart suddenly starts pumping faster in my chest as I try to discern facial features through my blurred vision.  'Slowly, now.  Breathe.'