Laurië Lassi – Golden Leaves by Esteliel

Isolation

Write a story or poem or create artwork that will illustrate the consequences of isolation.

Isolation

The first step he takes is hesitant. He does not know how long it has been. He remembers his death: fire, pain, defiance. There was no place for fear.

Then there was rest. A long, deep sleep. He felt arms surround him, hold him with impartial love, and yet it did not assuage the ache that was his fëa crying out for his hröa, a small, vulnerable thing that wants to cringe and hide in its sudden nakedness.

His soul recovered in the Halls of Mandos, yet the ache of being incomplete never abated. Time did not truly exist, and yet he could feel it pass as he slept his deep, dreamless sleep. Mandos guards his fëa well, yet disconnected from his hröa, he feels perpetually cold, barely even remembering what it was like to warm his hands at a fire, to sink into hot water, to love with ardor.

“Awake, child of Eru.” Glorfindel feels the brush of cool lips and trembles. His skin shudders, suddenly too large, too small to contain all of him. With sudden, brutal force his fëa is squeezed as if at the heart of a giant star, compacted to the size of a needle's tip, and then, ah, Ilúvatar...

“I am,” he says, trembling in profound worship at the wonder that is voice. Words come to him slowly, memories of experience. This is tears. That is kneeling.

There is earth beneath his hands. He buries his fingers into the rich soil and weeps.