Calma by elennalore  

Celebrimbor doesn’t remember lighting a lamp. Night has fallen; he has been reading all day. It’s a horror novel about a creepy forest in the distant past, and he enjoys reading it. The doom in the story is different from his, and the horrors the protagonist faces are different from what he has encountered. Besides, it’s almost impossible to stop reading it before the end.

The lamp bothers him, though, so he reluctantly raises his head from the book. There’s no lamp; the light comes from Annatar, from his body. He’s lying in bed, close to Celebrimbor, and his whole body radiates light, so bright that it’s difficult to see the shape of him behind all that light. It’s an eerie sight, and Celebrimbor is dazzled. He doesn’t know what to say.

The light dims, and he can see Annatar again, Annatar’s real body. No, not real; the one he prefers to use with the Elves. He’s completely naked, and Celebrimbor finds himself suddenly blushing.

“I thought you needed light,” Annatar explains. “It’s getting dark here.”

Annatar gives a confused look as he sometimes does after revealing too much of his Maia-nature. Celebrimbor finds that little expression cute.

“Perhaps we can light a lamp,” he suggests, then hesitates. “Unless you want to be my lamp a little more? Does it bother you?”

“Not at all,” Annatar says happily, and his golden light fills the chamber again.

Celebrimbor continues reading.

Chapter End Notes

I used the prompt calma (lamp) from the Tengwar challenge.

In Finnish, kalma is a poetic word for death, which may have affected my treatment of this prompt.

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