Winterlights by Elleth

Sun Ensnared

For prompt #4: Decoration. Tauriel of Mirkwood entertains a visitor from Dorwinion.

Beeswax candles reflect in bronze mirrors, on the fur of red foxes, and amber gifted from the shores of Rhûn: Tauriel’s chambers gleam deep golden, and the light plays like a fire in her hair. But for all the lavish decoration, she has – and needs – on herself only her parents’ pendant at the hollow of her throat, and indeed when Baraneth sidles into the chamber, Tauriel wears nothing but.

"As though you caught the sun in here; one would never think that it is winter outside."

"I will release her with the solstice thaw." Regret and mulled wine tint Tauriel’s voice into something heavy, but she nuzzles behind Baraneth’s ear where her black hair curls, trailing her lips over the elaborate ear-cuff, itself a fashion from her eastern homeland.

"Ah," says Baraneth softly, understanding, and turning caresses Tauriel’s face. "But likenesses attract… all this gold here, and you. The sun will not be needed in Dorwinion again until the summer, to ripen the grapes for the wine you forest-dwellers so love. Perhaps with all this decoration she may wish to grace you with her presence at solstice, or longer… and who would deny her?"

A smile. “Not I…”