Pearls in the Shell by Raiyana

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Chapter 1

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The waters were deep and dark. Once, they had been lit by the smile of one most beloved.

My Brithla… but you are lost to me.

Sorrow lingered in the dark waters swirling coolly about his body.

The clams were still there, waiting to have their nacreous innards exposed to light, the gleaming colours pale yet distinct, a lustrous silverbright that warmed the soul.

Or at least it had, then.

The shell gave way, and inside, nestled in soft flesh that would taste sweet yet salty…

Brithla.

They were named by her, and she for them, down long years beyond count. Beyond memory, if but for a few who recalled that place beyond these shores where their people began.

They grew here, the same ones she had carried so far, loved too much to leave behind.

For she had followed him into the strange unknown beyond their home.

For love.

Brithla.

A name, a longing – grief.

Dark waters pressing around him, lacking the peace once found in this cavern.

With her.

She had borne children, here, borne them to the light of torches set in pearly shells, a shelter kept safe by the arms of their best loved Power.

His lungs burned.

The shell split.

And breath burst into his lungs, his head rising above the rippling wet.

And the light was there, captured in his hands, silversoft and lovely.

Brithla…?

Olwë turned in the waters, caught by a single breath of light from the mouth of the cavern that had always been his special place. Their place. Sanctuary.

For a moment – just a moment – gentle hands cupped his face, a memory of lips against his own sweet as agony.

And then the moment ended.

But the light remained, silverbright and calm.

Swimming cautiously towards the half-submerged entrance, Olwë raised his hand above the water to watch the light gleam on the nacreous insides – soft like silver hair in his fist, like joyous laughter among the waves.

Is this your gift to me, beloved?

Brithla… are you with me, still?

The light came from above, a strange globe set in the sky, pale and round like his beloved with child, and Olwë laughed, holding his prize aloft.

Thank you, beloved.

Pale, still, but soothing as he swam for shore, bathed in the strangeness that seemed almost familiar, washing his skin with silver like Telperion had when strongest.

Silver like she had been. His Pearl, his wife.

Brithla.

 

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Chapter End Notes

And so the Moon has arisen for the first of many journeys across the night sky.