The Line of Kings by Michiru

Estrangement

Fëanáro is not the only one to find himself estranged from his wife in the eventide of Bliss. A double drabble.

In memory of Klaus Phillips,

July 30, 1947 – October 4, 2011

Valarin Year 1493

When Fëanáro and Nerdanel finally separate, it is the talk of Arda. For weeks, nothing is worthy of discussion, save Fëanáro’s marital problems. The whispers seem to follow Finwë’s other descendents wherever they go, even removed as they are from Fëanáro’s blood.

There is something to be said for anonymity. No one is watching when the second son of the third prince is estranged from his wife. There is no sky-shattering revelation, no rumors dripping from mouth to mouth. There is merely a distance between them that was absent before, a growing coldness in their eyes.

And then Eldalôtë leaves.

How strange that, after only forty years of marriage, she has become such a part of him that he cannot sleep without her.

He has an audience with King Olwë in the morning, but the list of topics he will bring up is scattered, half-finished at his feet; he dropped it in his exhaustion, watching the sheets of parchment slide from his hands with dull fascination. His leg, curled under him on the window-seat, is numb and prickling, but he can’t bring himself to move, his head rested against the glass, watching the play of Light across the courtyard fountain.

Chapter End Notes

As has been made clear by the past few months of absence, Life Happened. As is more obvious from the above Chapter Notes, Life decided to take the form of the death of my German professor one month into the semester. While I had only known him for that long, Klaus was the kind of person who made you feel as if you had known him forever, and his consideration for his students and love for his native language was obvious after only a few short weeks in his class.

He died on the day our second chapter test was scheduled; the last thing he said to us was, "See you Wednesday." We received an email Tuesday morning informing us class had been cancelled until after fall break because, as we were told, "Professor Phillips has been called away unexpectedly." We assumed there had been some sort of crisis in his family that had required him to fly to Germany. We were concerned for his family, and hoped it was nothing too serious, but celebrated that our test had been put off, giving us more time to study.

A general announcement was released by email to the campus Wednesday afternoon, but I had already left for my Spanish class by the time it was sent. I didn't find out until I walked into class and was told not to "mention Klaus' death to Profe," as they had been close and our professor had been hit hard by his death.

I won't go into the many ways I feel the administration mishandled informing Klaus' students about the situation, but suffice it to say that the emotional rollercoaster of being told one day that you had a week off of class and then the next that your professor had been dead while you were celebrating the fact that you had no class hit all of us hard. It felt inappropriate to continue with my pre-planned posting schedule in light of what had happened. Then came the interesting transitional stage in which the administration debated between combining the two German classes (which not all the students in my class could do, as it was at a different time and conflicted with our schedules,) or finding a new professor (as we had only two German professors including Klaus, and the second professor could not cover the class at its original time.) So I had more pressing Real World concerns after the immediate emotional trauma had worn off.

Since Klaus' death, I'd had it in mind to resume posting on the fourth of the month, but various Life and Real World things prevented that from happening. I've therefore made the decision to post today, January 30th, because Klaus was born on the 30th of July. While it is nowhere near July, enough time has passed that I can feel excited about the Line of Kings without being reminded of his death, and that I would rather honor his life than his death. Thus...