The Book of Short Tales by Lyra

Random - The Key

For Instant Drabbling Friday Night, a triple drabble for the prompt The Key: Can open anything.

Sometime in the First Age, Nerdanel unlocks the past. A triple drabble according to OOW.

There was not much demand for keys and locks, when my father first invented them. This was, after all, the Blessed Realm. Things that you did not want others to see were just laid aside or, at most, put inside a drawer. Things that might be dangerous to children were simply put on high shelves, out of reach. Houses were unlocked: There were no intruders to be feared. If you asked somebody to stay away from something, they would – naturally – comply. Even for Angainor, no key was needed: It was locked or unlocked when Aulë willed it so.

But Father had shown foresight: After Melkor's Unchaining, keys became popular. My late husband used them profusely: on our house, on his workshop, on the chests of jewellery and tools. Even when he went to Formenos and I stayed behind, he sent me a key to his house in exile. I never needed it. I did not go to Formenos until all was over, and then the doors had been thrown open, the locks broken.
But inside the ruins that must have been his workshop, I found a hidden box. There was no key to be found for its lock.

It took me a long time to face Formenos, and longer to remake a key for that box. First I told myself that it must be insignificant. Then I feared that its contents might trigger painful memories. After that, I didn't want to invade Fëanáro's privacy. Finally I found that the lock was more complicated than any I knew.
It took many failed attempts to produce a working key, but at last the box opens, revealing -- my old letters, sketches, trifles I thought I had lost. Enshrined like sacred heirlooms.
After all this time, there is no pain: only fondness.

Chapter End Notes

It is nowhere said that Mahtan invented keys and locks; I just liked the idea.