April Fancies by AdmirableMonster

Undercurrents

A devoted priest of Ossë begins to drown, as Númenor falls.

Prompt:

♥ broke, silence, stone, carry

♥ word: undercurrents

♥ Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
     And the tide rises, the tide falls.

The sea was already rising around him when Uilin realized he was not going to see another sunset.  It was funny, because he’d accepted he was going to die when the other members of his Faithful temple turned on him and the other worshipers of Ossë, so he did not bother to renounce his god, and he was able to keep the others safe, at least, when they did.  But it had not occurred to him until the sea was already here that he would be carried away beneath the cloud of ash that had risen to block out the sun.  And there would be no new sight of the Sun until after there was no Númenor anymore, either.

It was foolish for it to be that realization that broke him, as he sank into the waves.  He had already accepted that the folk of Númenor had lost the favor of the gods, but some part of him wailed with the loss of the Sun.  (The tide rose.)

Beneath the water, there was silence all around, and Uilin, despite the buoyancy of his plump frame, sank like a stone in his ragged, too-heavy robes.  Above him, there was only darkness, though he knew that somewhere there must be light, for the roar of the Meneltarma as the ocean struck the raw fire in the heart of the earth had been a sound louder than the loudest thunderclap.

No, something inside him cried.  Air bubbled from his lungs.

And then, hands caught his shoulders, carrying him back upward.  His head broke the surface.  (Around him, the tide fell.)

My faithful, the waves whispered.  My faithful! the white water roared.

Ossë rose, carrying his devout with him.