A Deed Unforgiven by LadySternchen  

Flashback- Elrond

Not again.

It was all that he could think about.

Not again.

It did not matter that he and Elros were almost adults now, in body even more than in mind. It still felt as though he were again nine years old, watching their mother cast herself into the sea. He could not bear to live through such grief again, such loss.

He did not even feel ashamed to grasp Maglor’s tunic, holding onto him as if he were a lifeline.

“Please don’t leave us!”

Maglor, who had become something like a parent to him and Elros, stared back at him with a grief written in his beloved face that was too vast for words.

“Now, it seems, we have indeed done more harm by befriending you than we would have done by chasing you away.”

“Then why? Why would you leave us? You and Maedhros… you are like family to Elros and me. We have learned so many amazing things, and you never did us any harm! We love you both!”

“You love us as we love you. Finding you two… it was like glimpses of another life, one we might have had had we not sworn this terrible oath. But we did, and now you are ensnared in it as well, as much as we tried to keep that from happening.”

“But how? Why?”

“It will not be long now, ere the last war of this Age will be fought. Maybe the last war of the world as we know it, should Morgoth gain the upper hand. Do you not see that new star, that your people call Gil-Estel? It is the Silmaril that your mother took to the sea without any doubt. And that can only mean that the Valar are finally ready to come after Morgoth. Maedhros and I cannot survive such a battle, one way or another, and you must, MUST, stay away from us!”

Elrond shook his head violently. Stupid tears, blurring his vision when he needs to see, for if he dared to blink, Maglor would surely be gone.

“We will never leave you! You are also our parents now. We are a family. I understand why my mother and father had to do what they had to do, but please…”

“We must. There is a madness inside both of us that knows no kinship, no bounds of love. And I could not bear to exist should this madness destroy you or Elros. Please. You cannot save us. Maybe not even Eru himself can do that. But if you bear love for Maedhros and me as you say, then please, please, save yourselves.”