Under the storm by Aprilertuile

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Under the storm

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Maglor was sitting in the shelter Elrond and him had built for the coming winter, looking rather put out at the entrance, when Elrond woke up, startled by the sudden thunder.

Elrond looked at Maglor immediately, then at the entrance of their shelter were the rain was falling, and falling hard, and then back at Maglor with a rather sheepish expression.

“I think I see somewhat of a hole in our plan."

"A hole the size of the door we didn’t build perhaps?" Maglor answered deadpan.

"Yeah, about that size.”

The wind was enough to carry the rain far enough inside the shelter that their little fire pit was drowned.

“I can hear my brothers laughing at me from Mandos’ halls for that oversight." Maglor said with a glare for the shelter’s entrance and it’s clearly missing door.

"See the bright side of things, at least we noticed because of rain, and not because of snow. That would have been problematic. Not to mention far colder."

"That was a stupid oversight on my part."

"On both of our part, atto."

"I’m more used than you…"

"I think we established that neither of us was used and it was precisely the problem when we built that shelter to start with."

"Every single shelter or tent I oversaw the building of or put together had a door."

"Yes, and every tent I help built or worked in had a door too. You’re not the only one in the possession of a brain, atto. Not every mistake is yours to bear or yours alone. We were both building this place, we both made the same mistake of forgetting to add a door.”

Maglor didn’t answer Elrond’s affirmation, and Elrond sighed, before he decided that he was getting cold, and the atmosphere was far too humid for his taste. He curled up against Maglor who blinked and looked at him in surprise.

“I’m cold, and you’re warm.”

Maglor snorted at that.

“You may be an adult, but you still act like an elfling, my dear.”

Elrond bite back the answer that came first to his mind. They stayed in silence for a while, until Maglor looked down on Elrond who was lying with his head on Maglor’s laps.

“What turned your thoughts so dark, Little Star?”

Elrond almost denied it, but he was aware it was useless. They had taken up the habit to exchange via Osanwë as often as not, and Maglor likely picked up on his mood from that and there was no denying it.

“Nothing. Just thinking."

"Just thinking, hm? Must be some thoughts to be that dark."

Elrond would move, get some distance to get some illusion of privacy, but Maglor's fingers in his hair were doing things that were too nice to move...

Maglor smiled as Elrond was downright purring. The younger elf could claim all he wanted that he wasn't a cat, he had the proof right there.

"So, those thoughts?"

"Thinking of Elros. Of Mother, and father. Of uncle Nelyo."

"Oh?"

Elrond hesitated to move but...

"Are you going to disappear from my life too?"

"No."

Elrond frowned at that immediate answer.

"I'm not lying, Elrond. The world is large, but it's not *that* large. I can't die, and the same way I found you when you needed me, you'll find me when you want to."

"You can't die? Sorry, but..."

Maglor sighed, and told a part of the oath:

"This swear we all: Death we will deal him ere Day's ending. Woe unto world's end. Our word hear thou, Eru Allfather! To the everlasting Darkness doom us if our deed faileth..."

Elrond grimaced at that. He too, knew the words of the oath of Fëanor and he didn't like it at all. How someone described as a genius could have thought that *this* oath was a good idea, he didn't understand.

"So? You succeeded, no? The Silmarils..."

"Two out of three."

Elrond's eyes opened, horrified.

"So the Oath..."

"Still there. Still haunting, but try as I might, I'd be hard-pressed to catch a star. But that means that the Oath will stay unresolved until the Valar decide otherwise and pull someone of my family out of the halls of Mandos to give them the last Silmaril."

"How likely is that?"

"Entirely unlikely."

"... So that means... If you die your fëa will..."

"Disappear into the Void? Yes. But, El, you don't understand. It's not just my fëa at stake here. The Oath says: “to the everlasting darkness threw us if our deed faileth”... But our deed hasn't failed so long there's one of us out there *alive* to try to get that damned stone of my father."

"So... So long you're alive... the spirits of your brothers and father..."

"Are safe in Mandos' Hall. But the moment I die..."

"The Oath will take over."

Maglor nodded at that.

"Celebrimbor..."

"Didn't swear the Oath, neither does he consider himself a part of our family any longer. For all his fault, Curvo never insisted for his son to fall under the same Oath we did."

"So... Even if he's alive..."

"Chances are we'll still be collectively thrown in the Void if I die."

"... Atto... How do you know that they're not already..."

"When we left Valinor, Namo said he'd see my father's fëa soon in his Halls. We figured, when atto died, that he knew he'd die soon and that so long one of us is alive, Nàmo will be able to keep our spirits in his Halls, instead of..."

"Instead of to the Void."

"Yes."

Elrond grimaced at that. With his father's star sailing the sky, and he wasn't blind, the star was still sailing every evening, Maglor would have under his eyes but too far to do anything about it, the very tool to put an end to the oath that kept him.

"Your father was an idiot."

That had Maglor splutter in shock.

"Elrond!"

"Who with even half a brain ever thought that this oath would be a good idea? Let's go and threaten death to our allies, because that's known to resolve so many problems when our enemy is already trying to do all he can to kill everyone off."

"... Right. I... Can't say you're wrong but..."

"But?"

"Atar and king Finwë were very close. I know the situation is different but... El, when you heard your brother celebrate his mortality, you went and were going to commit suicide by warg."

That had Elrond wince.

"I know what people think about our family, but quite frankly, your reaction wouldn't have been entirely out of place in mine in that it was a spectacularly bad idea. Atar... Lost his mind when our king died."

"According to a lot of people..."

"The same people who welcomed Melkor's teaching and poison spreading in Valinor, you mean?"

Elrond grimaced.

"Your father threatened his half brother with a sword. I can hear that he lost his mind when his beloved father died. I can also hear that he was as taken as everyone else by Morgoth's ability to sow discord, but still. His own brother!"

"Their relationship was always... strained."

"That's not really an excuse, you realize?"

"I know... Atto was... Greatly changed in the last few years of his life. When we were kids... He never liked the rest of our family or the Valar, but still he let Tyelko learn to hunt with Oromë, and he let Nelyo babysit our cousins and didn't outright forbid our friendship with our cousins. So long we weren’t making friend with uncle Nolofinwë that is. But after Morgoth's release... It's like he suddenly believed that everything and everyone not us was out to get him. Even when he was banned to Formenos and we followed him, he stayed somewhat distant with everyone, and anyone who wasn't us specifically had reasons to worry shall they be found too close to our quarters."

That had Elrond frown, thoughtful.

"I don't know what went on in my father’s mind at that time. We followed him but... The oath was a mistake." Maglor noted.

"But you still love him and won't accept for others to comment on it."

"He's still the man who made my first flute just because I said I wanted to learn. He's still the man who played games with us in our childhood. The man who taught us to jump into puddles after the rain. The man who taught me to ride. He wasn't just an insane lunatic. And if we go by number of atrocities committed, then know that he was the better of us, on ground of having only one kinslaying to his name, while both Nelyo and I have 4 of those.” Maglor said firmly.

There was silence in the while in their shelter, only broken by the storm outside.  

“Tell me of the father you knew then." Elrond asked suddenly, looking up at Maglor.

"Why?"

"Because I know only the insane lunatic who created the most badly worded oath I ever heard. So I want to learn about the father you’re mourning."

They stayed in silence for a while, Elrond waiting for an answer patiently. He’d ask again later if necessary.

“One thing that the stories keep right about my father… He was always a passionate elf. Oh, not in the sense that when he had an idea or saw one of us want something he’d give in immediately… But if it showed to be a serious idea, or if we could prove we were serious about whatever pursuit, then nothing could stop him."

"Oh? Like what?"

"My father was an inventor. He liked to tinker with whatever he had at hand, his hands were ever restless, fiddling with something. He had a forge in his personal home. A forge and a study. My mother was an artist. She worked mainly with stones, that’s what she’s most renowned for. Of course, she could use other medium, but she preferred stones. My father built her a studio to arrange to her needs. The house didn’t come fully equipped with a music room until I came along. I was still a very small child when I started to play with musical instruments. At that time you could still mainly find me clinging to Nelyo or atar."

"Not your mother?"

"I loved my mother, but even then she wouldn’t have let me get away with half the things Nelyo and atar did so…”

Elrond snorted in amusement at that.

“Shush you."

"Shutting up… But I think it loudly nevertheless.”

Maglor chuckled at that.

“At that time of course, it was no more than a child playing with things that make noise. I know you don’t… Have that same experience but…" 

"I can understand the impulse."

"Your favorite childhood game was trying to see if you could enter Nelyo’s office or steal his books, that’s not quite the same. When we were still in Amon Ereb, that is."

"Correction, my favorite childhood game was trying to see if I could have uncle Lyo react to something with something else than a sigh and your name shouted through the fortress."

"… That explains so much.”

Elrond giggled at that, even as Maglor looked at him tiredly.

“To my defense, we stopped fearing cle ‘Lyo after he saved us from the spiders that time? It’s not like he’d have done anything to us, and he never seriously got after you either. That was the one thing that was sure with his mind as it was."

"Ugh, Nelyo was right, you’re a brat.”

Elrond gave him his most innocent face in answer. Maglor rolled his eyes at that and went back to the story.

“Anyway, at that time I had no idea what I was doing, and mostly I was doing things for the pleasure of making noise. I’ll tell you that Nelyo, at that time, wasn’t quite happy with me, but never could tell me no effectively.”

Elrond snorted in amusement at that. Some things hadn’t quite changed despite all the years and horrors then.

Maglor smiled softly in turn, noticing Elrond’s reaction.

“Shush brat. I think it’s only when I met the court minstrels of Tirion that I decided I wanted to play an instrument, and not just make noise. At that time, harps were well and good but the one time I tried one ended up with me copying extensive lines on how and why I shouldn’t touch an instrument that didn’t belong to me, and it had far too many strings."

"Do I want to know?"

"It was a small instrument for an adult. We were in the palace of Tirion, and I had sneaked out of Nelyo’s study. I swear the music room on palace ground was a mess. Anyway, I tried pulling strings of the harp but it had 27 strings and so 26 too many. And it might have fell, which alerted the palace minstrels who reported my “transgression”.

Elrond couldn’t help his snickers at that. 27 strings and 26 too many? Yeah, he knew the feeling.

“So what instrument did you pick?"

"The flute. It seemed like a reasonable instrument, it had a serious range, and you didn’t need 27 fingers to play it.”

Elrond couldn’t help his laughter at that. It had been exactly an answer that Elros had given Maglor when the minstrel offered to teach them the harp.

Of course, both Elros and him had come to like playing the harp, but Elros had been tad reluctant to learn at first.

Maglor nodded at Elrond.

“When I said I wanted to learn the flute, atto made me one, and for a while I tried to learn music with it. It was fun. I think Nelyo started to hate me just a little bit at that time. Something about never getting any rest with my playing music at odd hours. Not that I’ll admit to such horrible behavior, you understand."

"Of course, yes."

"In any case, it lasted a while, but I found that the more I learnt and the more I wanted to learn. And I wanted more than the flute. I’m afraid that at the time I became rather focused. It took about a year, but one day, atar built me a music room, next to my bedroom. Complete sound insulation from top to bottom. In the year I was really getting passionate about music for the first time, atar had research sound insulation, acoustics, and everything he could to build me a room specifically made for music.”

Elrond looked vaguely impressed at that level of dedication.

“I think Nelyo would have kissed him if he hadn’t been our father. Being able to sleep at night without hearing me tinkering with my instruments was apparently strangely restful. Who’d have known?”

Elrond chuckled at Maglor’s story.

“So you were insane from the start, duly noted."

"Hm, excuse you, who exactly was found hiding in the fortress just to read at night when he should have been sleeping?"

"Ah but reading only stopped myself from sleeping, never someone else."

"Oh, just your guards. And nurse. And Nelyo and me."

"That… That doesn’t count."

"Uhu."

"It only prevented you lot from sleeping if someone noticed I was gone from my bed, and decided to alert everyone else so I’d be found. I didn’t make noise that’d keep everyone awake whether or not they cared to notice my disappearance."

"That’s the worst excuse possible, you brat.”

Elrond smiled at that and leant on Maglor.

“We’ll have to try and dry as much of the shelter as possible when the rain stops."

"Hm… If you can do that, I’ll see to build us a door."

"That works for me.”

Tasks decided and shared, they settled in to wait for a change of weather.

At least they had confirmation that their shelter, missing door apart, would be good enough to keep the worst of the weather out.