Súlimëo Quentar: March Stories by Elleth

Paper City

Tirion is a paper city, with all the consequences. A double-drabble according to Open Office.

"Tirion is a paper city," Ortaquin explains to Estelindë. What her father means is this: The city has been drawn and planned before its raising by the Eldar and the Valar, and when she runs her errands, she'll happily pretend the streets are ink marks on a sheet. Her game reveals a host of ingenuities to marvel at: the marble stairs, the bridges spanning waterfalls, the Mindon rising like a needle in the center. It fails to tire her until she departs for Lórien. The gardens there are wildly grown, not built, a first hint of the greater world outside.

Returning, she is always slightly restless, all too aware of rules and restrictions placed on her, the stifling weight of expectations that she stop her healing and her studies to marry and have children. These rules, too, being set on paper, make the city, the underpinnings, stanchions and supporting beams glossed over or invisible. How she detests these little details, the jealous thou-shalt-nots that her sister's eyes are windows into.

It takes Fëanáro to transform all that; she gladly joins his service. And at last, with torches flaming orange, he proves that papers cities also burn. Speaking figuratively, of course.

Chapter End Notes

Written for the following prompts:

G50: Book Titles: Paper Towns; Colours: Orange

G51: Relationship: Jealousy