The Small and Secret Things by Dawn Felagund  

Nonsense

Just after Fëanor's birth, before Míriel's condition is revealed, Finwë is tormented by unease. A perfect hundred-word drabble.

Behind diaphanous curtains drawn across the bed they sleep: my wife and my son in her arms. Night is deep outside the window, yet I am wakeful. Why? Sitting and turning a gilded letter-opener in my hand, letting it lie in my palm like a weapon, as though there is something dark beyond the palace against which I must guard them.

Nonsense.

Behind diaphanous curtains, my wife and son sleep. I should join them. Yet I cannot dispel this feeling, this foolish hysteria, weighing heavily upon my restless heart.

That I will part the curtains, and they will be gone.

Chapter End Notes

Today's Word:

diaphanous dy-AF-uh-nuhs, adjective:

1. Of such fine texture as to allow light to pass through; translucent or transparent.
2. Vague; insubstantial.

Diaphanous ultimately derives from Greek diaphanes, "showing through," from diaphainein, "to show through, to be transparent," from dia-, "though" + phainein, "to show, to appear." It is related to phantom.