#so they'd hide from me and forbid anyone else from talking to me

[ceescedasticity]

diversions

Elwing’s Fourteen The Company of Elwing, or;

Desperate-Cornered-Queens-Falling-In-the-Sea Solidarity, or;

A True Tale of the Last Days of Númenor, as Never Recorded In Official Chronicles, Because While Some of the Valar Were Definitely Looking the Other Way or Even Aiding And Abetting, No One Thinks It Was All of Them, So the Truth Might Get Some People in Potentially a Lot of Trouble

The Regrets of Elwing Dioriel; ~TWO THOUSAND YEARS LATER~; The Team; A Folkloric Interlude; Expectation Management is Very Important;

CONTINUED

Diversions, or

If Anyone Says The Word 'Honeypot' Caranthir Is Going To Punch A Hole In The Hull

This is going to require going on land and talking to people, probably extensively, and concealment spells notwithstanding it would be a lot safer if they could somehow distract Sauron.

They've been talking about this off and on since well before they set out, but still haven't come up with anything that isn't someone making a scene somewhere else in Númenor, and they really want to avoid that.

But Celebrimbor has an idea now!

Get him out into local waters on a wild goose chase.

Or, more precisely, a wild Celebrimbor chase.

This idea is not immediately well-received by any of the six people present who knew him as a child.

"No, this makes sense. You all know about Glorfindel, right?" They all know about Glorfindel. "It's not impossible that I would be reembodied and sent back to clean up my mess."

"Oh yes it is," Caranthir growls.

Finrod is more temperate: "If they put it like that Aunt Nerdanel would hide you in her basement and Father would back her up."

"That I would choose to go back and clean up my mess, and they'd let me. It's possible."

The idea is to try to give the impression that Celebrimbor has sailed to the vicinity from Middle-earth and is lurking around, maybe planning to try something with one of the Three. Sauron will come looking, and whenever he gets close, they throw the concealment back up, or they do it from a penguin-ship and dive, or both.

To help with the desired impression Celebrimbor has a magic ring with the power to appear to be powerful. That's all it does and it is a rush job that could probably be destroyed by stomping on it, but it looks impressive. Apparently he threw it together while they were waiting for Voronwë.

"He'll still suspect something more is going on — he's not stupid, once we take action he'll notice. But if I'm the lure, he'll come anyway."

The six people present who knew him as a child continue not to be happy, but no one tries to actually forbid it.

"If you do this I'm staying with you," Caranthir says. "Every time."

("Isn't that still just making a scene somewhere else in Númenor, with a slightly broader definition of Númenor?")

There is an argument over who will go on the first diversion trip.

Necessarily Celebrimbor; Curumeldis is the best penguin-ship pilot; Caranthir has made his position clear.

Someone who can do the concealment songs should go, in case diving isn't enough or isn't fast enough.

Caranthir wants it to be Finrod, because if everything goes badly he's best suited to fight a delaying action.

Amarië wants it not to be Finrod, she says because if Sauron recognizes him, and he might, it will blow the cover story, and anyway if the Sea doesn't protect them any delaying action is unlikely to be enough to make a real difference.

Finrod says they're both right and declines to offer an opinion on who he thinks is more right. However, he does point out the non-diversion party is going to be dealing with galley slaves who are mostly not Númenorean and are likely to be very suspicious, and may not have any languages in common — he thinks it would be a good idea to have either him or Caranthir there.

(Somewhere deep down in his heart, Caranthir is flattered.)

The twins say that's fine, they can come on the diversion trip instead; Celebrimbor is their nephew, too.

The Sons of Fëanor excuse themselves to the deck to have an argument.

Celebrimbor looks embarrassed.

Elwing hopes they remember that some of Amandil's men speak Quenya.

Eventually the Sons of Fëanor return with the conclusion that the twins will be joining the diversion mission.

So will Amarië, as the second-best at the songs of concealment. (Finrod, straight-faced, asks her to promise not to do anything too dramatic and pointless. She yanks on his hair.)

So they, in the normal-sized penguin-ship, head around to the northeast side of the island. There, Celebrimbor will try to spy of Sauron with a glass marble; if that doesn't get his attention, they're prepared to escalate.

Everyone else is going to the west end of the island, because a normal penguin-ship, a very small penguin-ship, and Amandil's 'smallest ship which could plausibly have been bound for Middle-earth' will not be enough ships.

(AO3)

#elwings 14 #tolkien #other fic