Postcards from Arda by Elleth

Gathering Strength

Thanks for the beta, GG, and the concrit from the Lizard Council.

Write a story or poem or create artwork where your character battles and overcomes their darkest hour.

For B2MeM 2011, Day Twenty-Nine: In helping others, Nerdanel gathers strength to overcome her own grief. (A drabble according to Open Office.)

After the blood spilled at Alqualondë, Nerdanel helps re-light the town, cleanse the quays, re-sculpt the toppled statues, and carve a memorial into the living rock of the harbour's arch.

The guilt is not hers to assuage, nor the shame hers to bear. But some grief dissipates with each lit window, goes dripping into the sea each time she wrings the scouring cloth, dwindles each time another statue is restored, and falls from her with each sliver of stone.

She gathers strength to scale the steep hill yet before her. On its summit waits Tirion, and waits yet more healing.