Bits and Pieces Under 300 Words by sallysavestheday

Come Into the Light, My Heart

Glorfindel and Ecthelion, as the light grows on the journey East.

They watch one another stealthily in the flare of torches on the Ice, each savoring the smoky flow of shadow over the other’s cheekbones. Warming, secretly, at the way the fire’s sparks catch in the depths of his eyes.

In starlight, the yearning is more tender. Each finds himself drifting more and more into that stillness, outside the circle of the tents. An unplanned wandering, but not, perhaps, unmeant. Every time they find each other there is less of a surprise. The pale stars create a dome of gentle intimacy, a space for sharing secret fears and murmured hopes. For imagining worlds beyond the snow: their visions overlapping, but not yet fully shared.

When the crossing ends, the moon brings its own mystery. Seven times it appears and fades, drawing them together in its luminous glow and then releasing them into the dark. Each night’s silver beams pull them closer to each other with an inexorable drag.

The tide of their hearts is at full flood when the sun flares over the horizon, and they crane and stretch to find each other’s faces in the throng. Their palms touch in something more than reassurance, there in the midst of the singing crowd.

They stare and stare at each other as the new light gilds their faces and their shoulders and their heads. After so many years in the dark, they have nearly forgotten color. Glorfindel’s eyes are so brilliantly blue. Ecthelion’s lips, so red.

Chapter End Notes

For the Love Actually challenge quote: "The Eldar wedded once only in life, and for love or at least by free will upon either part."