But Maybe That Was The Light Of The Trees by Nekomitsu

Nargothrond

In response to the March 9 entry at the B2MeM 2011 challenge. Write a story or poem or create artwork where the characters have to decide between loyalty or betrayal.

In Makalaurë's family, loyalty meant following Fëanáro's will from the smallest details to the last consequences.  Makalaurë accepted it as the natural order, and he saw very little to criticize in it.  After all, even the Noldóran bowed to Fëanáro's wishes before his own.

Makalaurë's wife thought very little of the fëanorians' concept of loyalty, and she said as much in her one and only visit to the exiles in northern Formenos.

"Blind obeisance isn't loyalty," she sighed wearily, "but the very thralldom Fëanáro seeks delivery from."

Makalaurë frowned.  "Deference towards one's own father can hardly be compared to slavery at Taniquetil's feet," he said, but he said it softly, slowly, because she had never truly been one of them and wouldn't understand.

"Oh, Lauron," she answered in a sad, sad voice, "you wouldn't understand," and he didn't.  There was no alternative choice to family loyalty.

Obeisance or thralldom, Makalaurë still jumped in Nelyo's footsteps the moment he stepped into the ring of burning torches and claimed Fëanáro's accursed Oath as his own.