Numenor That Was by Himring

King's Sister, Pretender's Mother

Tar-Aldarion changes the laws of succession with the purpose of allowing his daughter Ancalime to succeed.
But this also foments the ambitions of Soronto, son of the king's sister Ailinel.

As Oshun has recently pointed out, we do not learn what Ailinel thought about this...

Here's Oshun's bio of Ailinel, written for the April newsletter, in honour of Legendarium Ladies April.

Rated Teens on AO3, just for the politics.

The message arrived during breakfast, which she took alone in the arbour.

A brief scrawl in Adunaic: Sister, can you not control your son?

Clearly, Soronto had made himself unpopular last evening. No need to worry her husband. She drained her teacup and adjourned to her desk.

There she wrote in neat Tengwar: Anardilya, if you change the laws of succession to suit your private preferences, you must not be surprised if it gives people ideas. Be glad you only have my unruly son to deal with, not our cousin Malantur, who could justifiably resent being robbed of his rights!

***

Soronto stormed into her parlour.

‘She is going to marry Hallacar, after all!’

‘What a surprise,’ commented Ailinel. ‘Have I not told you time after time that Ancalime would not easily let go of power or allow herself to be pushed? If you wished to gain influence, you should have got on a good footing with her, as your father was with mine.’

‘But she cannot rule!’ cried Soronto. ‘She is a mere girl!’

‘Take care to whom you speak!’ said Ailinel sharply. And when Soronto stared at her uncomprehendingly: ‘I may be your mother but I’m also a woman.’

Chapter End Notes

Written for the drabble prompts "message" (Tolkien Weekly) and "time after time" (Tolkien100).
2 x100 words in MS Word.

Some of Tolkien's comments about the laws of succession and how they changed are contradictory. I've gone with the version in which Soronto would not have inherited before Tar-Aldarion changed the law in favour of the female line, because Malantur was heir through the male line.

Anardilya is Tar-Aldarion's canonical nick-name (Tar-Aldarion is his regnal name, Anardil his birth name).