A Curse of Death by LadyBrooke

Chapter 1

Prompts:

Theme: Birth

Story element: Pesky relatives (where pesky quickly becomes tragic)

Popular characters: Míriel Serindë

Rare characters: Denethor of the Laiquendi

This was supposed to be a birth, and Denethor’s wife is dying.

He will have no heir, and he will be alone. Outside, Celeborn is swinging Míriel around – and isn’t it unfair, he thinks, that his nephew would find a child without needing to risk his wife like this? And for a moment he wants to curse Celeborn to feel the same pain, but he can’t bring himself to until she’s actually dead.

 No matter how much his relatives are annoying him at the moment, as they continue to laugh and be joyful while he watches his wife wilt away.

It isn’t fair, he wants to say, that they should still be able to be happy. It isn’t fair that he gets to be alone, and they’ll both grow up to have families of their own (and he ignores that while he will lose a wife and child, they’ve lost their parents and Celeborn has grown up far too quickly to be raising a child as his age).

Finally she dies and he cries and he curses everyone who is happy.

Centuries later, he watches the tapestries in the Halls and curses himself this time, as Fëanor leaves and the Sinda die at his hands.

And Celeborn loses his adopted sister. For what was Míriel, if not that? In turn, he also loses the boy who should have been his nephew and her grandchildren as well.

And he continues watching as they enter the Halls, and he can’t bring himself to go speak to them and tell them who exactly the Sinda they slaughetered in Beleriand were.

Galathil, your mother’s adopted brother. Her sister. Nimloth, who would have been your father’s cousin had things been different.

He wants to hide those things from them, because it will break some of them.

This is especially true when Maedhros joins. But the twins take it upon themselves to cheer him up. Elured and Elurin refuse to let anything stand in the way of gaining new family, and forgive the Fëanorians everything.

Fëanor weeps when his oldest son breaks down.

Denethor keeps watching. Ages pass, and Celeborn loses his daughter and his wife to the sea, and his granddaughter to time. Celeborn’s son-in-law sails too, and even reuniting with Thranduil doesn’t bring a sense of family after Celeborn’s grandsons leave as well.

And Denethor doesn’t know if Celeborn will ever forgive him for those thoughts that started this all. 

Chapter End Notes

My Míriel is born in M-e, for anyone wondering, pre-March (she's actually found while Elu, Ingwë, and Finwë are off exploring Valinor, and is almost an adult when they return).

And no, Celeborn does not easily volunteer that info to his in-laws. It's a hidden part of his past.