Many Journeys by Elleth

Phantasmagoria

Nerdanel, the Darkening, a candle.

In their first night she dreamt she held a candle.

She remembered that dream many years after when there was indeed a candle clutched in both her hands, the flame feeble against the unlight, flickering wildly in the winds Manwë sent, and soon snuffed out. Darkness descended. Her fingers dug into the wax of their own accord.

Back in the house, in the light, she saw her work. A near-perfect likeness of him that surely would move in rhythm with its flame before it guttered out once more.

Though she tried, it could – would - not be lit again.

Chapter End Notes

phantasmagoria fan-taz-muh-GOR-ee-uh, noun:
1. A shifting series or succession of things seen or imagined, as in a dream.
2. Any constantly changing scene.

Phantasmagoria is from French phantasmagorie, from phantasme, "phantasm" (from Greek, from phantazein, "to make visible," from phantos, "visible," from phainein, "to show") + -agorie, perhaps from Greek agora, "assembly."

(from www.dictionary.com)