Galdorion

As I wait, the sun slips slowly down behind the trees, so that the leaves blush with rosy light. I light the lamps myself, kindling each small flame one by one. In the gathering darkness, the stone maiden stares out into the distance she cannot see, one hand always reaching out, expression lost in shadow. I sit cross-legged on the soft grass, listening to the sound of the waterfall just a few feet away. It doesn't completely mask the approaching footsteps, but I do not turn until I feel the hand drop lightly to my shoulder.

“So what will you do with him?”

I shrug, inadvertently jostling my hand so that Maltariel’s neat strapping falls loose. She gives me a reproachful look and reaches for the ends of the cloth, her deft hands tying it up again with quick, sure movements. Although it is only bruised, my wrist is stiff and sore still when I come to lift a sword, and she has decreed that it must be strapped, for now, until it is recovered. While she reties the cloth, I look up across the river, enjoying the peace for a moment.

I was bringing a tray of thin wafers and broth to Rainith, and thinking of a hundred ways to coax my stubborn mistress to eat a bit of this delicate fare if she refuses it

Went for a walk in the gardens, and found my mistress Rainith standing alone beside the roaring waterfall. Very weary she was, as she seems always to be lately, and I thought she looked a little too pale. We talked a good while, and I was pleased to give her an account of my studies, and prove that I shall attain anything that I set out to do, and how I have mastered the first three chapters of the little book of Quenya that she gave me.

Continued from Reunion.

For the first few days after she had arrived, Maltariel was not particularly concerned by the absence of her friend. Even in Lorien Rainith had been known to wander, and was rarely if ever to be found in the rooms she’d been assigned, unless Galdorion was there with her. As the days passed, however, and the notes she left with various people around the valley were ignored, Maltariel’s patience began to wear thin.

Dear Lords and Ladies of Swan,

It saddens and ashames me greatly to write this letter, but circumstaces of the latest events have given me no other choice. 

Sir,

You do not know me, but I met your wife Rainith in Duillond, and I could not be anything but troubled to hear the lady speak of your present difficulty, which the whole House is full of talk of, and the poor lady is near rattled out of her wits from worry. She desired that I write you, and give my opinion, and I promised I would, for I have concerned myself thoroughly in this matter.

I was out of bed yesterday without too much pain, and ate with a very good appetite, as I used to do, and being so long indoors, I was allowed to walk on the grass a little and look upon the stars, when the lady Rainith came to me, and among other things tells me that her husband Galdorion has gotten himself mixed into a grea