13th birthday insta-drabbles! by RaisingCaiin

Chapter 1

Cycle, disappointment, illusion, south (prompt from angelica_ramses)

“I am loathe to have you leave us,” Elu said. Even one who did not know the cold lord of Doriath well would have been able to hear the stern disappointment in his tone, and Beleg – well, Beleg had known the Greymantle King for a very long time now indeed.

And yet.

“Not near as loathe as I am to let your foster son believe that he has been abandoned,” he returned, ignoring the cycle he was trapping himself within even as he stepped full knowing into its jaws.

He harbored no illusion that Túrin would see this for what it was – Beleg’s love of him taken form, as Beleg raised the Man’s safety and peace of mind above his own oaths of service to the Greymantle King.  

Perhaps Elu would have answered. Perhaps he would not.

But Beleg was already sketching a perfunctory bow and leaving, planning to follow the rumors of Túrin’s passage south wherever – and to whatever end – they might lead him.