If Time Run True and Away by Anne Wolfe

If Time Run True and Away (Full Text)

“I knew it from the first,” said Celebrían, when her mother told her, “from the first spark of her fëa. No long-daughter of Lúthien could let her life pass without defying the order of the world.”

“I hoped she would take after us a little,” said Galadriel. There was a hint of bitterness in her smile. By all accounts the tea in Tol Eressëa grew just as Yavanna had made it, but still it did not taste as it had in Lothlórien.

Celebrían shot a sharp look at her. “You knew just as well as I did, Naneth. Everyone did.”

Galadriel took another drink of tea. “Did you know that my brother goes down to the docks every day to see whether another ship will come sailing out of the east?”

“Does he still!” Celebrían laughed. “I wondered. I heard he popped out of the water more than a mile from shore and climbed aboard your boat without so much as asking leave.” She raised her eyebrows. “You’re much alike.”

“Perhaps,” said Galadriel.

They sat in near-silence for a while, listening to the wind on the water and the sound of birds.

“I wish…” began Celebrían, “I wish I might have done it first — being mortal. I could have learned how to live, taught it to her. It’s silly, isn’t it? But that was the way with everything, speaking, walking, spinning, sung down in one long thread from the very first of us. It’s —” She screwed up her face, as if looking for an answer written on the air. “How can I say such a thing? It was as if she were a different kind of creature entirely. All of them were, and are still.”

Galadriel rested her head on her hand. “Do you know,” she said, “I have still not gone to see Queen Indis. I do not expect her to remember me fondly. Before I left I very much believed I was not the same kind of creature as any elf alive, and I was not kind about it.”

“That is very different,” said Celebrían, smiling a little. “In your case it was not true.”

“Was it not?” Galadriel twisted the glittering ring on her hand. “It was arrogant of me, certainly, and I did not express it well. But nothing Eärwen or Indis could say would have taught me how to defend elves from elves, and I could never have fully prepared you for your life.”

“Certainly not,” agreed Celebrían. “Since none of us are the same, then, I suppose a little more difference will not be too much trouble for Arwen in her own life. And I am glad Adar is still there.”

“And whatever her fate will be, it was Lúthien’s fate first,” said Galadriel, “I trust she will be there.”

“Yes, Lúthien for Arwen, and Lady Elwing for me,” said Celebrían, “and Lady Melian for you, I suppose, long ago — how near our families are to each other! I wonder that I had not realized before now.”

“You have met Elwing?”

“Oh, yes,” said Celebrían. “She came to visit soon after I arrived. I nearly asked if she would go away, but she only came and sat with me, and she never asked me to talk. We talk much more now, when she visits. Sometimes I nearly forget she is Elrond’s mother.”

“I am glad to hear it,” said Galadriel, “I always thought the two of you would like each other. And you are kin, too — doubly kin, as my new friend Bilbo would say, and I believe he knows such things about our family better than I do.”

Celebrían laughed. “Perhaps!” she said. “Ai, Nana, I had thought that I might spend my time here growing very wise, and surprise you by having grown wiser than you are — but of course you have befriended a new people entirely, and beaten me thereby!”

“You are very welcome to befriend them too!” said Galadriel. “In fact I believe Frodo, particularly, would enjoy your company very much, although he has the strangest ideas about going visiting without an invitation. We must go and visit ourselves, and make introductions.”

“Ah,” said Celebrían, “if you say we must, then we must.”

They stood, and went away. In the strange way of Tol Eressëa summer had passed the tipping point into autumn, and the leaves were tinged with gold.

Chapter End Notes

This took way longer (and got way longer) than I planned for it to, even with it mostly being dialogue, none of the huge descriptions I tend toward. This is probably because I completely rewrote every line at least once. It was good for me, probably - dialogue is a skill I don't train as often as I should.

Scrapped ideas include Celebrian and Galadriel talking about what they would do if they could turn into birds, Elwing eavesdropping on the whole conversation as a piping plover, and a description of the two actually going to visit Frodo (which just would not cooperate - probably because my subconscious knew it wouldn't fit the theme. Oh well. The idea is waiting for me sometime else, I'm sure.)