Pariahs by LadyBrooke

Chapter 1

The Sindar reborn in Valinor know they are considered on par with Fëanor and his lot to most of the Vanyar and Noldor.

Olwë hold his tongue and does not speak for or against his brother and his people publicly, and the Noldor consider it a sign that he understands that the bonds of family must be forsaken sometimes. The Vanyar see it and mourn for what they see as another sign of how ill-tempered, disobedient rulers can lead their people to dangerous paths.

Elu receives the letter from his brother that begins with Elu Thingol, and he forgives his brother for taking the name Olwë to belong here.

Nimloth refuses to bow and take a seat lower than the rest of Elu’s advisors. She may be a woman, but unlike the Noldor, the line of Kings of the Sindar passed through Elu’s daughter and it was not merely because she was the only one. Nimloth may have married into the direct line, but she is born of the line of Elmo and she will not be consigned lower than her male relatives just because of that.

Nor will she smile and thank the Valar when they say that it is right and good that she is separated from her sons and her husband, because this is how it was intended to be. Something can be fate and not be good, in her view, and she has seen fallen Maia and Vala. Manwé is no closer to perfection than Morgoth was and his words will not be unquestioned among the Sindar.

Oropher is reborn later. He acknowledges Elu first as King, bypassing the others sitting in higher seats on the dais. Elu is his King, above Ingwë, above Finarfin, above Olwë. He will not bow to a King that expects him to conform to their standards of behavior.

Nor will he bow to one that lectures him on how his death was his fault. He may not have trusted Gil-galad (and he still doesn’t), but it was the Noldor themselves that broke trust first. The betrayal of one group of Noldor in not telling of the kinslaying is no less than the one in the kinslaying itself.

The Sindar are pariahs now.

The pain of that is less than the pain of betraying themselves.