So, they began to sing by Novenoe  

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So, they began to sing

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The world was fragments of darkness. The river flooded through it, shining like a blade, the only light that still lingered. The cozy wooden house near it seemed like a ship wrecked here, warm in the cold at the end of the world. 

The maiden stayed near the river-bank, she was dressed in flowy silver, her light hair flowing like water. She had a concentrated expression, not mournful, just looking inward herself. She kneeled attentively, studying the fractured steam in the utter darkness. 

Tom went near her, his jollity transformed in curiosity for the inevitable yet unusual course of the events. He put his hand on her shoulder, she was tense and he remembered she could be dangerous as the tide. 

"Why do you think this river is the only thing left, my Goldberry?"

"Not the only one" she grabbed his hand gently, she always knew he would be the last as he was the first, but she wasn't yet prepared to fade away from him "There is our house too. But this river is here because she's here. I tried for millennia, but I think she was waiting for the end. Now it should work..."

She wasn't exactly so sure, but she really wanted it to work, she was the river-woman's daughter, they were linked heart to heart and bloodstream to flood stream. She really wanted to meet her, at least now, before fading. 

Goldberry grabbed the river stream, feeling something hand-like which grabbed her as well she felt like a child being reassured from her beloved mother, she picked the hand up and from the river emerged a woman made of water who fell heavy on the river-bank, she took human form, breathing heavy. She was light haired, like Goldberry. 

The woman pulled her hair back, pragmatically, looking around herself in wonder, she was dressed in an old Manish armour from the old sunken Beleriand, she was really young, yet ancient. 

Her eyes fixed on Goldberry, who was sobbing in her hands while Tom stroked her back kindly, he was fatherless, but understood what means to look for a mother.

"Berry?" the woman reached her, hugging her tightly, she has been a river for so long that now her body felt alien, but not so her daughter's hug "Goldberry!"

"Hi, river-woman" Tom waved jolliously behind the two women in the cosmic darkness"It was about time we properly met without your daughter trying to drown me, indeed. What are you?"

The woman scoffed in her child's hair, she had a knack for the  mischief like her father:"I'm myself. But if you are asking me who I'm, you know your answer."

"What of your names you go by, my lady?"

She answered still lulling Goldberry against her plated chest, it hurt having a heart which could have been broken again, because she felt divided like her heart was, and yet, fully whole:"I'm myself and I go by all my names, for all my names are what I am. I'm Niënor Niniel, I'm both, and that I'm both is sorrowful, but I'm not going to deny either of them, and that was the death of me. If I'd killed the love in my heart, I would have killed my life, if I rejected myself for my love, it would have killed me anyway. But I'm here... And things have come to an end anyway."

Goldberry let her go reluctantly, she would have liked to spend what time remained against her mother's drumming heart, but there were things to do, things that were sung in the fabric of the universe and needed to be done:"I'll go with you, my mother, you are the only one who could do it, just give me a second, for I'm to say goodbye."

Niënor nodded and kindly and awkwardly fixed her eyes on the fading riverbank while Goldberg kissed Tom goodbye.

"We wouldn't be separated for long, this is only a small detour, my Goldberry. Your path will find mine really soon"

"After the world is made again then... Don't wait up."

Goldberry took her mother's hand and they plunder through the darkness.

The tomb was standing above an ocean of nothing, there was a dark haired woman waiting, like a spirit of death trying to remember how to live again, she climbed her way out of the grave, her fingers still dirty. 

"Hail, mother" said Niënor kneeling to the grave"Have you been waiting for long?"

Morwen scoffed, but then her gaze softened:"All my life, my child."

Nienor nodded, she remembered everything, even when she didn't have her memory, she felt loved:"I don't know if... He'll suffer, and he doesn't deserve to suffer much. Maybe it would be better to let him rest, I would have liked it as well. We already gave too much"

She had fingers in the dirt, as if she was comforting something beneath.

Morwen kneeled beside her, speaking the truth was what she did best, a sorrowful smile rose to her lips:"Not too much, it seems. The young lady here is right, you have to do it, my stubborn children only even listen to themselves, didn't they? But for once listen to me, and he'll do it too, I hope"

Niënor began to dig, fretting:"He never did, but for once..."

Niënor dug and dug, hoping he didn't need air down here, she felt like her human muscles weren't enough, her lungs hurting like she was drowning in the darkness. 

The dirt began to soften, someone breathing heavily down there. A pale hand went up, grabbing air like it was solid, to Nienor it felt like she was doing necromancy, she asked herself if he could  forgive her for this, she wasn't so sure. Her brother, her husband, her beloved, she should have let him rest. 

He rose up spitting dirt and coughing up for air, the deep and dark wound still visible to his chest. 

"It's not fair" he cried, like Niënor supposed he would do, still half covered in dirt and trying to feed his legs from it "What do they want from me now? The blonde bloke from Tuor's bloodline, can't he end all that himself, since HE is a knight in shining armour?"

Snarky as usual. Niënor laughed to herself, then kneeled to clean his cheek, he grabbed her hand hesitantly, like he was afraid to break her, she didn't say anything besides whispered:"Hi!"

"Hello!" answered him, in the same tone, like he wanted to apologise, like he was drunk on her sight "I'm sorry."

"I'm not... Well, not anymore. Some millennia in river's form gave me time to think..."

"And what you thought about?" 

She didn't answer, not yet. Goldberry rushed in her father's beguiled arms, she knew she resembled her mother, she felt that, but he had her same way to tilt the head and furrow the brows:"We haven't met, properly, I fear. Don't say you're sorry for this too, father."

"Well... I am." He stuttered, hugging her really tight, like she some kind of dream "But I suppose... You should hate me, at least as much as I do... But know we loved you since the very beginning and... Even after... You shouldn't have been born in this crooked world, your mother was right, but you know... We love you, always did... I don't know if I should ask you forgiveness because you're here or because you could not... Probably yes... But I'm glad you're here anyway as much as I'm not...."

Goldberry nodded, keeping him close:"I know, father. But if you should hate someone... Hate who did it all to you. Didn't you want to do as your lord Fingolfin, and even more?"

He sighed loudly, the black sword his daughter was offering him untouched:"I was a child then..." He crossed his arms "And that dammed sword is a menace if held by anyone. I can't, whatever astronomy and mythology said to you. I tried there was never hope."

"And when it stopped you, anyway, get a grip, my son. Are you conquered?" Morwen helped him to rise from the grave and put Gurthang in his hand, the blade was dark with rage and thirst for blood.

Túrin smiled, darkly:"Well... I suppose the blond bloke isn't the only one who should have is fun... And I've some personal issue to resolve with someone. If humanity has decided to count on me, it's their horrible decision, anyway."

Niënor rolled her eyes, he was alive again since a few minutes and already she found herself exasperated, she loved him for that, Eru be damned:"Come on and say that you are an idealist, for once. We are counting on you too. If you want to prove yourself something, you could do it. Aren't you the master of doom?"

He widened his smile, even more grimly:"I was mastered by Doom, but I assure you, Niniel, that I would die again before being subjected to all that again. And if I'm to die covered in Morgoth's blood and taking him with me, so it will be."

Niënor tuened to Goldberry:"He's dramatic, always been, don't think about that"

After everything ended, Túrin and Niënor sit on a garden, somewhere in the old world. They watched as Lalaith ran in Hurin's arm, her laugh echoing in the spring, in the darkness. 

"They really want to make us Valar, my dear?" he said ironically to Niënor, still in her armour. 

"So it seems..." She replied in the same way, eyeing him to study his reaction "I know you are wary still..."

"Still a means to their end, why gave me the opportunity to end it all now? Because my rage was convenient. I should have brought them all down... They let me happen to you. They didn't do anything, not really."

Niënor didn't say anything, she sometimes felt the same, but she was a river and she must flow, not get struck. 

She didn't reach for his hand, even if she wanted and he was looking at her like he would do in their old days. It was the lord of water to gave her a river's form and to gave Elwing her wing, her twins were strolling in the garden together, she waved at them when the two passed by. Then she hesitated a bit.

"I'm... I don't regret that you happened to me... Not like.. and it's horrible that I don't regret it... I felt like I was going mad that day, maybe I'm mad. I don't regret it and I regret it all... But the wife doesn't regret anything like the sister does. I just want to..."

He stayed silent for a bit, not knowing what to do, it was easier murdering Morgoth himself than breaking his own heart again:"Said it. Whatever it is."

"Be free of disharmony." She breathed out heavily "That the sister and the wife were in accord... Twice beloved, you know?"

"I would like it, too. That's what you choose?"

"I'll do"

He kissed her on the forehead, something both the brother and the husband agreed to:"All disharmony will end when the world is sung again. But does that mean one thing or another?"

"Both, for the divine."

He grabbed her hand, wishing to do something the brother would not agree to:"So, Valar, would we be in the new world. But Valar of what?"

She watched as Lalaith ran to her and she picked the girl up:"We have here laughter and sorrow already, and there is our Berry, and we don't need anything else... If we should be Valar of something let us be Valar of balance."

Turin picked up his little sister, giggling, cheerfully for once:"What do you think, Lalaith? Your joy was missed too much in this world! You brother and you sister will assure that it doesn't go missing anymore. Let us be Valar of Harmony, for this was lacking into that crooked old world. Where there was sorrow and not laugh."

Goldberry rushed to them, she was bouncing on her feet, as the river she once was by:"Are you ready? Tell me you are ready or the Hobbit down here will start singing again of some kind of foolery the man of the moon once did!"

They all went up quickly:"We are ready!"

And so they all began to sing.