Oathbound by StarSpray

oathbound

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Nerdanel did not go to Tirion after the Darkening. Her brothers had been present with Fëanáro and the rest when the Trees died, and they brought back the news of Finwë—and of Fëanáro’s plans. 
And the Oath. That news came like a blow. Nerdanel closed her eyes and breathed through it. “He has killed them,” she heard herself say, the knowledge coming from the same place as each of her sons’ names. “With that oath, he has killed all our children.”

Fëanáro came himself not long after, fey, a blazing torch in the darkness. “No,” Nerdanel said. “I will not go with you.”

He raged. Faithless and untrue, he called her, and other worse things. “Do the vows we swore each other mean nothing to you?”

“The oath you have sworn has overtaken them,” Nerdanel said, “and will overtake all else. This is folly, Fëanáro, and you know it. I will not follow you to death and doom.”

His eyes blazed in the unnatural dark around them, but he spoke no more, turning instead and leaving without a backward glance. Nerdanel watched him go.

She did not weep until she had locked the door of her workroom behind her.