Súlimëo Quentar: March Stories by Elleth

Mithrim Flowers

Maglor's wife discovers a strange door and a remarkable gift. Fluff.

Lasbaneth discovered the door a little while after they moved to Lothlann. It was no surprise; beyond the western wing set apart for her and Maglor, which she had come to know quite well, the keep was vast measured by any comparison she could make. To find gateways and corridors leading to unfamiliar parts of the building was a logical conclusion. This door was in no way remarkable, excepting only the shafts of light filtering through the cracks. The room behind must be very bright, Lasbaneth thought, and reached for the handle, finding none.

When she told Maglor about the strange door, he merely smiled and leaned in to kiss her. The topic soon was forgotten, but a few days after, Maglor had left a package sitting next to her pillow when she woke. He must already be riding dawn patrol, Lasbaneth decided after a look out the window, where the early sunrise stretched first fingers over the sky, before turning to the gift. The package revealed a door handle; surely the one that had been missing, beautifully wrought in brass, with copper leaves snaking around it like a vine. Thrill had her laugh out loud, and after breaking her fast she quickly made her way toward the door.

The handle, after a little trying, fit, and the door swung outward soundlessly. Sunlight momentarily blinded Lasbaneth, but when her eyes adjusted, they found a courtyard, stretching between the inner walls and the keep itself. The morning sun slanted into it, revealing a landscape of rocks, trees, and high, nodding grasses in a light breeze. In between them, specks of colour in the grass, small lilac asters, lilies in bright orange, feathery coltsfoot, buttercups, carnations, even a stand of great pink peonies, and cinnamon roses beginning to climb the walls – all flowers that she knew from Mithrim, all flowers whose names she had learned in early childhood, all here. Her breath caught as she began to explore and the smells – grass, trees, flowers - wafted up around her.

By the time Maglor returned from patrol after noon, he found Lasbaneth still in her garden, on a shaded spot beneath a pine, apparently deep in thought, but smiling contendedly. Spotting her husband in the doorway, finally, she jumped up and lightly ran to him, leaving the flowers bobbing in her wake.

"Do you like your garden, love?" he asked, smiling, when Lasbaeth embraced him.

"I do, I do," she confirmed with shining eyes. "It is a piece of home. Why have you brought it here?"

"Because you followed me, and this was the least I could return," Maglor said, and happily met Lasbaneth's lips as she pulled him down into the grass.

Chapter End Notes

Written for the following prompts:

G59: First Lines: ____ discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.; Last Lines: I'll Come With You.