Just and Equitable Government by Himring

Prologue

A long time afterwards, in Tirion

Community is entered upon to the benefit of all and demands sacrifices from everyone. Yet be aware that each sacrifice weakens as much as strengthens the community. Do not say, then, of the discontent: ‘They are fools; ignore them. Those who cannot see the benefits of the community do not deserve them.’ It is their discontent that will confound you, if you take no account of it.

From: Principles of Just and Equitable Government (III. ii. 17)

Maedhros’s finger tips hover over the volumes neatly aligned on the book shelf and come to rest on Principles of Just and Equitable Government by Tatiel Rumille. Fingon, watching him, feels a moment of doubt. Maybe he should not have kept it there. After all it cannot mean the same thing to Maedhros as it does to him—and might he not take it as a kind of reproach? Not a personal reproach from Fingon, of course, his cousin knows him better than that…

Maedhros pulls the volume out and weighs it in his hand, in the way of one who knows a book too well to need to open it and check its contents.

‘I copied a sizable chunk of it out again from memory, you know’, he says, after a while. ‘I wrote down all the bits and pieces I remembered for use in the school room in Himring—with annotations, naturally.’ The corner of his mouth twitches slightly. ‘That volume would have burnt with the rest, I’m sure.’

‘You never mentioned it to me’, says Fingon.

‘Didn’t I? I was too ashamed, probably. Certainly I would have been ashamed.’ Maedhros fixes his eyes on Fingon’s. ‘But I couldn’t let shame stand in the way of education, could I?’

‘No,’ says Fingon. ‘You couldn’t, not you.’

Maedhros looks at the volume in his hand, then at Fingon. He scans the contents of the book shelf.  He looks around the room, studies the desk, the carpet, the curtains, and finally looks at Fingon’s quietly anxious face again. It is all far too good to be true, but that is basically what he has always felt about Fingon and, given half a chance, Fingon has always proved him wrong.

‘You did say that you had been waiting for me’, he says and falls silent.

Chapter End Notes

Tatiel Rumille is intended to be a descendant of Tata and Tatie, who is related to Rumil on the mother's side.