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This is really lovely. It took me a bit to realize Nelyo was a ghost--you did that very well. I liked Maglor's rationalization despite his despair--it was heartbreaking to see him relive those memories of loss. 

Dior being the voice of redemption was very powerful. I've always felt what happened with Elros ano Elrond shows us how the Fëanorions still have a capacity for choice, free will and doing the right thing, amongst and despite all the horrendous decisions they have made. 

And yes my headcanon has always been that he stayed because he is the only one now who knows who they were--before all the misery. Who they were inside, who they were before the oath, who they could have been. He knows the true story of their family and he will preserve that by living, even if he is the only one who knows or remembers. . 

Thank you for the lovely comment! It took Maglor a while, too... And you're right, Maedhros a houseless spirit. But I suppose "ghost" is just a more colloquial word for that, or maybe every houseless fea is a ghost, but not every ghost is a houseless fea? :) Dior took me by surprise, it was interesting to expand his character a bit. And yes! No matter whether or not the Feanorians had a choice with the Oath, but I don't think they were irredeemably evil. (Amongst and despite the horrendous decisions for which they are absolutely responsible, yes.) I have two divergent headcanons on that, this is the nicer one. The other is that Maglor believed he didn't even deserve death, and eternal isolation was his form of self-punishment. But either way I like to believe Elrond fought tooth and nail for him and managed to drag him home in the end.

This is very interesting. I'm often very annoyed with Dior when I think about his part in the story, but you give it a different slant here which made made me pause to think.

"No," Dior admits thoughtfully, "it truly was unforgivable for me to decide. I should have known better, should I not? Given my age and experience, and the glowing praise I heard from my family about the house of Fëanor..."

It is certainly true that everyone had their own views to color their choices and Dior was young and in this version of his story sheltered and influenced by what he had been told and thought he knew.

Go Maglor! I am one of those hope-springs-eternal types myself. I also love the idea of a re-do. Read a great story yesterday that covered that aspect.

I adore the use of the Gandalf quotation: “Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.”

Thank you! I felt the same about Dior, which is why I decided to look a bit more closely at his character here. Now he mostly makes me sad. He was a young man (half-man) whose short reign was probably overshadowed by the HUGE shoes Thingol left him to fill, and he hadn't even grown up in Doriath. He had very little experience in kinging. And his parents had reasons to mistrust the Feanorians... *shrugs* Any take on this is valid, but now I mostly think he was completely out of his depths. - Hope springs eternal, YES! I want to believe that the story of the Feanorians doesn't end like it seems to end. Gandalf and his views on pity and mercy make me think the Valar may have reconsidered their position at some point. (Well, no one tells us otherwise, so we can make our own stories about it!)