The Merchant of Valinor by Tehta

Essë (name)

“Excuse me,” said the first person I met on the Swan-ship’s deck, a grim woman with appallingly frizzy hair. “Strangers are not permitted on board, be they Vanya, Noldo, or even Manwë himself.”

“Strangers might be unwelcome, but, I, Cévandil the merchant, am no stranger, only a friend bearing gifts,” I told her as I held out one of my precious vials of hair-oil.

“Enter freely, then, friend,” she said, pocketing it.

Chapter End Notes

Big thanks to Shihali for helping me with the name! Cévandil means "friend of the new/fresh" (by which I mean something like entepreneur) and works in both Telerin and Quenya, even if the pronounciation is slightly different. (I do see Cévandil as fluently multilingual and being able to code-switch as needed.)