Breaking Point by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

 

Laws and Customs challenge prompt:

"'Would you then betray the King?' said Elendil. ‘For you know well the charge that they make against us, that we are traitors and spies, and that until this day it has been false.'"

~ The Silmarillion, "Akallabêth"

(more on this in the end notes)

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Amandil is pushed by developments into rejecting his loyalty to Ar-Pharazon. 

(drabble)

 

Major Characters: Amandil

Major Relationships:

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet

Challenges: Laws and Customs

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 100
Posted on 5 July 2020 Updated on 5 July 2020

This fanwork is complete.

Chapter 1

Read Chapter 1

He walked away, silent, head held high, but felt himself deeply shaken. When he reached the safety of his chamber, he locked the door, fell to his knees and began retching.

When he rose, he knew he had left Aphanuzîr dead on the floor and could only wear that name as a mask, ever again. He had been both, the King’s friend and Faithful, however uneasily, but from this day on he was Amandil only.

I cannot follow you, Ar-Pharazon.

There was only one loyalty, he had discovered, from which no one could be absolved in heart for any cause.

Chapter End Notes

The context from which the prompt is taken continues:

'If I thought that Manwë needed such a messenger,' said Amandil, 'I would betray the King. For there is but one loyalty from which no man can be absolved in heart for any cause.'

That could be read rather straightforwardly as saying that Amandil's loyalty is to Manwë, but on re-reading it, it seemed to go deeper than that. So here is Amandil reaching that conclusion, earlier. (The substitution of "one" for "man" is deliberate.)

Aphanuzîr is Amandil's Numenorean name (i.e. in Adunaic).

 

100 words in MS Word.

Leave a Comment

Thank you!

I get the impression that, for Amandil and his family, their sense of identity was bound up with this loyalty, so forsaking it would have been very painful.

Of course, it was partly reading about your take on earlier generations of the family at Andunie and reflecting on it that has influenced me here!