*hugs you, and hugs this fic* I already rambled to you at length about how much I love this - the image of Idril in the ivy garden will stay with me for a long time, I think, in fact the whole scene will - so I'll spare you further ramblings and say thank you - again. ♥

Astris, I thoroughly enjoyed this short story!  Your Aredhel has such a wonderfully strong, confident voice (as one might expect) and yet, you show her vulnerability and uncertainty, too.  I really like how you've built the concept of the gilded cage of Gondolin (that's certainly how I see it, too):  beautiful, elegant, but also claustrophobic with the spectres of stasis and stagnation looming in the background.  Aredhel's desire for freedom, but her loyalty to her brother and her affection for her niece clearly cause conflict.  

I loved the interactions between brother and sister and aunt and niece.  The latter two seem more attuned to one another.

At any rate, very nice work!

I greatly enjoyed this story. Aredhel is wonderful. Beautifully characterized, complex and not perfect either, but a decent person, with a good heart who does not shut her brain off, even when she makes choices based upon the needs of others, while making a conscious decision to subvert her own interests. But there is a sense of her, lacking positive alternatives, she recognizes that there are people she cares to support.

I never really examined the idea that Idril might have felt as trapped in Gondolin as Aredhel did. Maybe for slightly different reasons. I was wondering as I was reading it if it actually passed the Bechtel test. (I am not as in love with that idea as most of my friends might think I should be--but that's a discussion for another place.) Actually, I think it does not. We do have a long interaction between two women, extended would perhaps be a better word (because one enjoys it so much that it does not feel long at all), wherein no man is mentioned except briefly in passing. But really it IS all about Turgon--brother and father, idealistic, and perhaps very wrong. And the choices I see Idril and Aredhel making are women's choices.

I know I'm not supposed to think holing up in Gondolin is wrong. Ulmo, a pretty good guy as Vala go, one of ones I like, told him to do it and he does have their interest at heart. Tolkien spent years plotting this out and he would have us believe that Gondolin actually served its purpose. It did protect Idril and bring Idril and Tuor together and save Earendil to give the light of the Silmaril to the world and bring hope to Middle-earth, etc., etc., etc., and all the way down to Arwen and Aragorn. Whatever.  Well, I don't buy all of that 100 percent. But I do very much like this story. Because it examines motivations, personal loyalities and relationships, and does raise a lot of questions, unanswered and unanswerable.

Perhaps my favorite part, a small but very telling detail, is when Aredhel figures out how long Turgon has been plotting this city without including her and then asking for her support at the very last possible moment and she still gives it. She has a big heart. I have to love her for that.

Sorry I did not mean to go on so long or make this so contentious. Thanks so much for sharing. Two thumbs up.