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I really enjoyed this! I skimmed it while bestowing participation stamps and caught myself actually reading. (One of the perils of being the mod who bestows the participation stamps and part of why it always takes so long! :D)

I really like the contrast between the two moments of Feanorian revolt--the leaving of Aman and the antics of C&C in Nargothrond--and the contrast of Telperinquar's reponses to each. I'm very interested to see where you go with this!

Thanks! Haha, I can imagine being distracted with so many new stories around ^^

Celebrimbor is one of the few characters present by the majority of the events in the First Age, so he was quick to come to mind when I read the quote. As for the rest of the story - you will just have to wait and see! By which I mean that I myself only have the vaguest of ideas where I'll take it xD

Telpërinquar took a breath. “I denounce my father, my uncles, my grandfather. I denounce their quest, their Oath and I denounce their heirlooms. . ."

He is explicity denouncing the Silmarils here--apparently would not take one if it were offered him. Wise move! I always sympathize creatly with Celebrimbor. He did everything he could to do makes things right and not get caught up in the curse, but he was cursed anyway. This little story is moving on so many different levels. Well done ficlet and very painful to read.

Thank you! I'm not so sure about the not-taking-them-if-they-are-offered-to-him thing... He states he denounces them as heirlooms, which means he won't take them as a Fëanorian. As a smith to admire the work of a fellow craftsman, however, I'm not so certain he would refuse.

Celebrimbor was cursed anyway, and fighting against it, while making him something of a hero and providing him with a short time of peace, proved even more harmful to him in the end.

And yes, I seem unable to write anything happy xD

Thank you! You are absolutely right, though in my opinion (and hopefully also in this fic) while thinking about it for some time, actually denouncing them is more of a temper/pride-induced moment of spontaneity. I like to imagine that, after he has returned to his rooms, the first thing he does is bonk his head against the wall, muttering, "Why did you have to do that? So stupid, so stupid..." and so on. Of course, this is funny and I am incapable of writing non-drama or non-tragedy, so it probably won't ever be written.

Nooo, Tyelpo, don't trust him! *flails* This is a very well-written encounter though. Your Annatar is so smooth and clever and if I didn't know him, I'd probably like him too. No wonder he worms his way into the Gwaith so easily. "The Vala I serve is in need of your legacy" indeed. *shudders* Looking forward to - and dreading - the next chapter in equal measure.

Well, since I promised myself not to go off into AU-territory with this story, I'm afraid he is trusting Annatar. And you know: the best lies are based on truth; Sauron/Annatar honestly likes Celebrimbor, or at least enjoys the work in the forges. Add that to the fact that he's a real smoothtalker, and Celebrimbor doesn't stand a chance.

Haha, that means I'm doing at least something right xD

Thank you for your kind words!

At this point in time Celebrimbur trusts Annatar completely and without reserve, so it makes sense to me that he would include his best friend in a project of this magnitude, that to top it off is a sign of collaboration and peace between two very different peoples.

And let's not forget that whatever he claims, he is a descendent of Fëanor, and pride/arrogance is in his genes ;) He doesn't even consider the possibility that he might be wrong in his judgment, even when literally everyone else says he is. I dare say it makes him even more convinced of his own right.

Oh this was absolutely heart breaking. Poor Tyelpe. And that he has to bear his loss and his rage in secret! To have to look at a face that was reveling in the death of those closest to him--despite their differences they were still his FAMILY. even renouncing all he did couldn't eradicate them from his heart or his memories. And he knew them before--when they were his young, fun uncles, when Curufin used to carry him on his shoulders, answered his limitless questions, shared the satisfaction of making a thing of beauty. Very few in Beleriand ever knew that side of the Sons of Fëanor. 

one of the most tragic realisations for me is that, by the end, Maglor is the only one left who truly remembers his brothers and father as they were. 

yes Galadriel is still around and has her own memories, as does Gandalf from his Olorin days but Maglor knew them as infants, babies, toddlers. He knew his father in the time before--before the rift with his uncles, before the politics, before the Silmarils. He remembered the man who used to snuggle him as a little boy, who told him fantastic stories at bedtime, who taught him to read, to ride, took him on trips through the beauty of Valinor.

your Celebrimbor is having a moment like that right now in this--the dichotomy of his loved ones, that good people can do bad things but that they are still not inherently evil. Poor Tyelpe. 

You are so right! It was exactly that sense of masked rage and hopelessness I wanted to convey, knowing that absolutely no one will mourn them as he does. The world changes around him, and Celebrimbor is struggling to keep up with it. There are precious few who at this point see the Fëanorians as something else than a collective "Kinslayer"-persona, without anything else that distuingishes them as different people.

And Maglor's fate is already tragic enough as it was, did you have to make it even worse? XD

One of the things that I believe is that no character is purely evil or purely good, but that eveyone is a shade in between. Of course there are those more close to the 'good' and those more nearer the 'bad'-part of the spectrum, but no one is without flaws or without any redeeming quality.

And yet he still put the a Star of Fëanor on the doors of Moria, a detail that always gets me when I read LOTR. 

In my mind I think Maedhros and Maglor stayed away from him at this time because they believed Tyelpe had escaped--the Oath, the Doom, all of it and they were adamant about not dragging him back into it or tainting his name by association, even a moment of conversation with him being too risky. 

Aaargh!! Now I'm going to think about it differently! 

It has always seemed to me a symbol that Celebrimbor had made peace with his past, that he had chosen to remember the good and that he celebrated the creativity and skill that he had inherited. 

But ugh! Thinking it's Annatar's suggestion is disturbing me!

Haha, Annatar turned out to be my muse in disguise and I couldn't resist have him make the suggestion.

Don't worry, I think in canon Celebrimbor did finally overcome the demons of his past and decided to celebrate what was worth celebrating in his family. And this si only fanfiction; I wouldn't dare go agaisnt Tolkien! (Actually, yes, but nevermind that now xD)

Curufin is absolutely no Melkor, true, but that doesn't change the fact that Annatar's/Sauron's emotional attachments to him are like those to a father. Or that's how Celebrimbor sees it here, in any case. You have to forgive him; due to Annatar's betrayal, the fall of Eregion and he being a prisoner, he's not in the right mind here ;)

I don't think uncle Nelyo would exactly agree with that comparison, nor would any of his other uncles. And I'm glad you liked (?) the ending; it was not meant to be a cliffhanger as it was just the most natural place to cut the chapter in two (even though the parts are not exactly equal in length...)

Thanks! I;m still somewhat in a daze that I both finished and posted it, and am not desperately wishing I could take it back under my stone with me ;P

From the beginning it was the plan to have them reunite in the end, it's just that Annatar happened and sort of took over. (He has now firmly established himself as my muse and refuses to leave. Secretly I appreciate it very much but don't go telling him that ;)