[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[bythewaves]

Lead on!

[ he smiles back and follows after head up and listening to the world around them ]

The woods here sing.

[mistyday]

I know! Isn't it wonderful?

[She spins away again, to the nearest tree and rests her hand on the bark.]

Must be even louder for you.

[bythewaves]

[ he laughs softly and there are trees in his eyes ]

Very. [ he agrees ]

Although it does not call to me the way the sea does.

[mistyday]

Yeah?

[She leans forward, interested.]

What does the sea say to you?

[bythewaves]

"I do not know that it says anything, as such... But...it is like...a draw, or a pull.

Come here, come home"

[mistyday]

"Is that where you're from, then? The ocean?"

[bythewaves]

"Not as such, no - but Elvenhome is reached across the Western Sea, where Cirdan's mariners can find the Straight Road that leads away from the bent world."

[mistyday]

"What's your home like? Is it beautiful?"

[bythewaves]

"Yes." He smiles wistfully, and for a moment the leaves in his eyes recede, a memory of another time and place making them light up.

"I was born in the city of Tirion, built on Túna's green hill at the top of the pass of Calacirya in the Pelori Mountains. The walls are white and the watchtower of Ingwe that gave the city it's name spears high and proud above the city so that the light from it's crystal lantern may be visible out through the pass of the Mountains all the way out to sea. The streets glisten, for when we Noldor learnt the art of making gems, we had diamond dust to spare, and we used it in the roads. The lands are fertile and the gates of the city were always open, the markets always busy."

[mistyday]

"That sounds beautiful!" She's quiet for a moment, picturing it all - real diamond streets and white towers. Almost sounds like how people describe heaven. "Why did you leave?"

[bythewaves]

"It is." He says sadly, remembered shadow rising in his eyes.

"It was Feast Day, and most of our people had gathered to watch my father and his younger half-brother reconcile. But my grandfather remained away, in Formenos, our place of exile, and there we were vulnerable, although we knew it not. Using the webs of Ungoliant as cover, Morgoth returned, slipping past the guard, and slew the Two Trees that gave us light. In the confusion and fear, he came to Formenos. I... we ran. But Grandfather was one of the Unbegotten, the first of those who awakened. He remembered the Dark, and he did not fear it. Morgoth killed him, and broke down the doors, stealing the gems which father prized above all else. With father and treasure both taken from him, my father went mad. He... swore an Oath, to reclaim as weregild that which was taken, irregardless of who or what stood in his way. We swore the same. And so we left, seeking after that which was taken."

[mistyday]

Misty doesn't understand all the details - words like Ungoliant and weregild are not familiar to her, but she understands betrayal and the need for justice - even revenge. She moves to take his hand. "Did you find it? The... were... the gems?"

[bythewaves]

He lets her and his smile is very sad as he lets her trace the burn scars, the ones in his right burnt almost in straight lines, as if the facet of a great gem once sat there.

"Oh we found them. But as it was foretold, wr who left against the warnings of the Valar, blinded by rage, that all we began came then to ruin. Our first sin was to slaughter kin who stood in our way, and it only got worse from there."

She will hate him, he thinks, but does not stop. He cannot, now he has begun.

"We brought death and ruin, and even our good deeds turned in the end to evil ends. And the jewels, long hallowed, would not bear our sullied touch. When at the last we laid hands on them, they burnt us, and so we were not just exile but also oathbreakers, for there was now no way to fulfil out oath."

[mistyday]

Hate him, no. She can't. But still she recoils at the admission of the kinslaying. That hits far too close to home. Yet he continues and she finds it impossible to abandon him. Never has she seen someone so truly full of remorse, so haunted by his sins, and quite literally marked by them.

Without a word she steps forward to wrap her arms around him.

[bythewaves]

He sees the recoil and accepts it. But the embrace is surprising, and he stiffens, startled by the kindness offered despite the obvious disgust.

"Milady?"

[mistyday]

When she looks up at Maglor, arms still wrapped around him, her eyes are full of tears. Her words are broken up by the crying. "I just can't hate you, I can't, but...why would you do it....it's just some damn jewels!"

[bythewaves]

He reaches to wipe away her tears.

"Do not weep for me, little fleet foot. I deserve all my pain. And the Oath, Misty. The Oath was a chain and scourge, and we could not escape it, although perhaps it would have been better to face the Void as Oathbreakers, than to become the monsters that we did."

[mistyday]

She lets him dry her face but then she catches his hand again, studying the scar there. "What kind of father would do this?" Her gaze turns back to his face, her own expression a mixture of pity and fury. "He shouldn't have made you promise such a terrible thing. That's a promise that deserves to be broken."

[bythewaves]

"Do not blame my father." He murmurs gently, sadly.

"He was crazed with grief. But he did not make us do anything. We were all adults, Misty. We all swore, of our own will, not once, but thrice."

[mistyday]

Misty turns her head away from him, yet she does not move. It's proving difficult to reconcile this, this... murderer with the man who has treated her with such kindness and affection. And her read on him - there was no evil in his aura, just sadness. At least now she knows why.

"How long have you been living with this?"

[bythewaves]

"It has been 6,465 years of the Sun since my brother Maedhros killed himself on learning that the Silmarils themselves rejected us." He says simply, and does not move to pull her back, quiet and sad and empty.

"And it was perhaps some 635 years before that, that we swore the Oath after grandfather's death."

[mistyday]

"Six thousand years!" Misty exclaims, turning back to him in disbelief. That... changes everything. All that time he's been punishing himself, all that time repenting of what he's done - he can't be the same man that he was, not after thousands of years. She reaches for him again, this time resting her hand over his heart. "And you would take it all back, if you could?"

[bythewaves]

"Yes. And no." He sighs softly. "There was some light, in the dark." He whispers softly. "And I could never have let my brothers go without me."

[mistyday]

"Because you are loyal." To a fault, it seems. She leans her head against his chest again. "I'm sorry."

[bythewaves]

"They are my brothers." He agrees simply.

He startles again, both at the offered affection, and the gentle words of conciliation.

"Thank you, Misty, but I brought this on myself."