Numenor That Was by Himring

Cloud Studies

Aldarion's change to the Numenorean law of succession disinherits a distant cousin of the King, Malantur. How does he react? 

Sequel to the drabble of Ailinel, Aldarion's sister.

Warnings: reference to canonical dysfunctional family (PG)

Malantur spent that year, sketchbook in hand, studying the clouds, how they formed and how the wind, coming from the Sea, chased them east or west across Numenor. He was often in the Forostar, where Meneldur still had his tower, much relieved that now, whatever happened, he could not inherit the crown and deeming himself free to follow his interests.

Erendis’s scorn, although not aimed at him, reached his ears and struck home.

‘Am I neglectful?’ he asked his cousin Ailinel.

‘How? When your art yields both beauty and an accurate record of weather?’ Ailinel said, admiring his meticulous drawings.

Chapter End Notes

1 x 100 words on MS Word, for the Tolkien Weekly prompt "Cloud".

Inspired by the surviving cloud studies by the painter Constable, which are both true art and meteorologically accurate.

The scorn of Erendis is mostly aimed at her errant husband, Aldarion, but is canonically later extended to men, and especially male Numenorean aristocrats, as a whole.