Across the ages, their passionate yet dangerous bond has remained unbroken. She has known him by many names as Mairon the Admirable, Annatar the Lord of Gifts, as the sinister royal counselor in the last days of Númenor. As a demi-god in disguise, a...
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"Luimëníssë!"
The door flung open. Luimëníssë whipped around from where she stood on the balcony wrapped in a silken robe, her hair loose around her shoulders. Náretarnon lifted the torch he held and squinted in the faint light, scanning the room in confusion.
"Nésa... what are you doing?" he asked carefully. His eyes were drawn to the mussed bedclothes. He strode onto the balcony and peered over the edge in time to spy Rembano disappear over the edge of the cliff and down into the cove. "Was this... some kind of tryst?"
"Náretarnon, I can explain."
"Please do. I'd love to hear why you thought it prudent to meet with a secret lover during the most cataclysmic event of our lifetime," he ranted, not quite yelling yet. "What were you thinking?"
Luimëníssë shook her head vehemently. "No, it is not what you suppose. There is nothing wrong in this-"
"A suitor that seeks your company in the shadows without appearing first before our mother and father cannot be honorable-"
"But you know him!" she insisted. "He is your friend-"
"WHO!?" Her unflappable brother roared at her with a shout for the first time in his life.
She grimaced. "Rembano, the Noldor smith from Tirion."
He gaped at her before stalking back into her chamber, shaking his dark head so that his curls bounced. "How did this come about?"
Luimëníssë followed, twisting her hands. "It started years ago, when I was a child. I met him and I... I stole something that belonged to him."
His eyes widened in realization. "That pearl ring you asked me and Curvo about years ago. Was that his?"
"Yes," she replied, sitting heavily at the vanity. "I never forgot him. Not for decades. Then during that visit when you returned with our Noldor guests, he came with them."
"And he sought you out?"
"Well... yes. At that Festival of Pearls when I won loveliest pearl. And then later, I found him down at the smithy in the city."
He braced a hand to his eyes. "So that is why he suddenly appeared from the city. Curvo was right, I do trust too easily."
"But he is good! He is kind and generous with me, he loves me." She lifted her head. "And I love him."
"And yet he has not brought his suit before our parents as is right and proper. Nésa, think for a moment. Why is that?"
"Because he has tarried long in the city of the Noldor. I believe he has been waiting for Fingolfin to take the throne for he says he longs for proper control and order within Aman. He holds no love for Fëanor or his sons-"
"That is a relief, I suppose." Náretarnon scoffed. "Though I did value my friendship with Curvo at one time, he has grown too close in the counsels of his father. I guess I should be grateful that it is Rembano seeking your hand and not a Fëanorian."
