The Small and Secret Things by Dawn Felagund

Thralls

Finarfin considers his choice, that of the majority of his people, and the illusion of freedom. A tribble.

Fëanor's words come from The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor."

Fire-laced dreams awaken him and he goes to the balcony to gaze upon the darkened city. He aches for light, as though it might erase the nightmares, the memories. The truth.

Why, O people of the Noldor, should we longer serve the jealous Valar?

And have ye not all lost your King?

His head drops to his folded arms.

Let the cowards keep this city!

As slaves, Fëanáro likened them, and Arafinwë was momentarily convinced. A tidy coat of paint will hide a blemish, and Fëanáro's words were bright upon endless night, offering hope. Yet with time, all deceptions are revealed.

Night remains.

The eyes of the Noldor looked different that night. At first, he blamed the leaping torchlight that ignited their dark depths, but later, he realized that they looked more like one slapped awake, blinking as they shift from dreamscapes to ponder that which is tangible. Undeniable.

They looked like slaves upon realization that the master has left off the shackles for the first time. That they are free to go.

But upon the road, that changed. Many voices and many ideas no longer rose in a cacophony of debate. No, the Noldor were a single voice again, and all words seemed to circle endlessly, nauseatingly, to the same source.

They had been again enslaved.

But this time to what? Arafinwë ponders it. To power, perhaps. To vengeance, certainly.

Eärwen named him courageous for turning back when he did. She had not seen the eyes of their gentle eldest, still with fire in their depths, and the angry shapes his mouth made. Made with such conviction.

"We are all held thrall to something," Arafinwë often says, but Eärwen claims not to believe that.

In the dark of night, despondent and wearied, Arafinwë wonders, Where does my chain lead?

Chapter End Notes

Today's Word:

manumit man-yuh-MIT, transitive verb:

To free from slavery or servitude.

Manumit comes from Latin manumittere, "to emancipate a slave," from manu mittere, "to release from control," from manus, "hand" (hence "power of control") + mittere, "to let go; to send." The noun form is manumission.