Numenor That Was by Himring

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A Future Queen

The future queen Tar-Telperien asks her aunt about her refusal of the Sceptre.

 

Originally written for Isilloth, for Fandom Giftbox 2018, who had requested  fanfiction on the subject of how Telperien coped with sexism in Numenorean society.

This piece also features her aunt, Tar-Ancalime's granddaughter, who refused the Sceptre, like her sister.  In my 'verse, she left her husband, who had treated her very badly, and went to live with her brother in Tar-Armenelos. 

Rating: Teens.

Minor warning for references to children getting into a fight despite an age difference.

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Telperien usually got on well with her aunt Culurien. Some people at court disapproved of her aunt, because she lived separately from her husband, but to Telperien this was rather a point in her favour. Why allow yourself to be forced by the opinion of others to live together with someone if you did not want to? She had met her aunt’s husband once, taken an instant dislike to him and stubbornly refused to call him ‘Uncle’ when it was suggested to her.

But today Telperien was wearing an unaccustomed scowl. Her aunt, who had risen from her seat to greet her with her usual welcoming smile was clearly startled at this behaviour and Telperien felt she was being ungracious and perhaps unfair. After all her aunt had not said anything to her on the subject yet! She had even agreed to see her immediately when she was probably really busy; she often was. It was just the others…

‘Whatever is the matter, Telperien?’ her aunt asked. Then, looking more closely, she noticed the state of her dress and asked: ‘Have you been in a fight?’

Telperien plucked uncomfortably at her torn sleeve.

‘With Isilmo,’ she admitted, a little sulkily. She was not proud of having slapped her younger brother but, in her current mood, would resent anyone who would try to make her apologize.

‘With Isilmo?! But why? That’s not like you, Telperien!’

‘He expects me to renounce the Sceptre in his favour,’ said Telperien stiffly.

‘Isilmo? The Sceptre? At his age?’ said Culurien, her voice rising in real surprise and puzzlement. ‘Did anyone put him up to it?’

‘That nursemaid of his, I think,’ said Telperien, cautiously relieved at her reaction, but still wary. ‘But she is not the only one.’

They looked at each other for a moment. Telperien, for the first time, consciously noticed the lines about her aunt’s eyes and mouth and wondered whether she was as content with her life at court as she had always seemed to be.

Well, thought Telperien, she needed to know what the answer was, regardless.

‘She said, that maid—and Isilmo had been parroting her, but she was obviously repeating what she had overheard from others—that renouncing the Sceptre was clearly the proper thing to do, for princesses, and that you yourself had shown the way.’ She paused. ‘That Ancalime ought to have resigned the sceptre to Soronto, and it’s no wonder she was a bad queen.’

Her aunt took a deep breath, then let it out again.

‘Telperien, come, sit down. Sit down beside me and let’s talk about this.’

She led the way to a couch at the other side of the room. Telperien, still rather stiffly, perched beside her among the embroidered cushions.

‘It’s true,’ said Culurien, ‘I did renounce the sceptre and so did my sister. We had our reasons, Telperien, and although some things may have been said in heat at the time, as for me, it was certainly not my intention to declare that women were unfit to rule Numenor in general or that all princesses must renounce the sceptre when it is offered to them.’

She added reluctantly: ‘My sister did feel a little differently about this. I have to mention that to you because you may find her words quoted at you. But she, too, was caught up in that moment, at that time. Neither of us got along at all well with our grandmother; I fought her and my sister feared her.’

‘Your grandmother—that was Ancalime. Was she a bad queen?’ asked Telperien.

‘I’d say she was a good queen in some respects, a bad queen in others, and as for the rest, there are matters people disagreed about then and disagree about still, so it would depend entirely on who you ask,’ said Culurien carefully. ‘We should talk about this again, when you’ve advanced a bit more in your studies in history. But’, she went on more decisively, ‘I knew Soronto. He was in his old age, by then, but I very strongly doubt he would have made a better king.’

She took Telperien’s hand.

‘They did not make it easy for Ancalime, Telperien. You should keep that in mind, too, when you judge her rule.’

She squeezed Telperien’s hand a little.

‘You should also keep it in mind when you make your own decision. And it will be your decision. My brother, your father, he and I have talked about it—he will not push you to decide, not for a long time yet. I will tell him about Isilmo and his maid. Meanwhile, stay out of fights with Isilmo over this. He’s not old enough. How bad was it? He didn’t get hurt, did he?’

‘Not much,’ said Telperien. ‘He was yelling, but that was because I scared him. I’ll make it up to him.’

Because he was smaller than her. Not because she was a girl and girls do not hit boys, regardless what the nursemaid had said.

Culurien shook her head, ruefully.

Telperien eyed her sideways, noticing a hint of white among her red-gold hair.

‘Did you ever regret it? Renouncing the Sceptre?’ she asked.

For a moment, she thought Culurien would refuse to answer.

‘This is not something you should be talking to your father about, even now’, she warned.

‘Of course I won’t!’ said Telperien indignantly.

‘Occasionally I did. Not often and not for a long time now. I have made my life, here. I have other regrets, some of them much stronger, and it is not an easy path, taking up the Sceptre. But you will have my full support if you should choose to walk it, Telperien.’

Telperien nodded.

She already knew that she would.

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Chapter End Notes

For previous stories featuring Telperien's aunt, see "A Missed Catch" and "What she said".

This is the first story in which she is explicitly named. Culurien is canonically a by-name of Laurelin and she is named for her red-gold hair.