[Closed]

[longestnose]

CHARACTERS: Fili & Nuala
LOCATION: Oxygen Gardens
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Fili meets with Nuala to try and help her sort out what this place is.



Fili was hoping that he could help Nuala; it was strange, that Nuada had not yet found his sister, to speak with her...but if their connection was as the Prince had said, then he may not have realized she was on board, so used to relying on their connection to know where they were in each other's world.

He had no connection like to his brother (though at times, he wished he did). Still, he could understand how troubling this place could be, especially when a sibling was involved.

So he resolved to do what he could to help the elf. Dressed in his typical garb, he added the crown upon his head, if only to try and appear more familiar to her (and for some reason, it made him feel more at ease, more settled within himself. The arkenstone was still on his person, of course, nestled within his tunic.

Comments

[favouring]

The gardens are a comfort, when she finally finds them, carrying her blade on her person and reassuring herself of its presence at various points in her search; there are many things about this situation that make her feel unsafe, and it is a little thing (she is no warrior, like her brother), but it is something and it steels her spine to leave her assigned room and search out the dwarf king who has offered his aid.

She is acutely and uncomfortably aware, in contrast, of how little she feels like herself in these strange clothes.

“Thank you.” For offering, for coming-- she doesn't know, in truth, what she expects to achieve in this meeting, but she is grateful for the effort.

[longestnose]

"Do not think anything of it, lass. I am a man who is very close to my own brother, who I am lucky enough to say is here with me." Fili smiled, giving her a warm glance and a slight, but proper, bow. "So I would hope if I was in your place, someone would do this for me, as well."

He took a step closer, giving her an even look. "So it is true, then, what Nuada said--that when you were at home, you were tied together, as with a thread. You would feel what he felt, and vise versa?"

[favouring]

Her smile is warm, but measured; there is a caution about her that doesn't quite track with what she's offered. A friend of her brother's would have been a true comfort, once, and she is glad of his kindness-- but she remembers too well how Mr Wink came for her, and she hesitates to trust wholly.

“It's so. From birth, we were of two minds and but one being - we shared our death the same way.” She doesn't flinch from saying it; she will not flinch from owning the hands that brought it about, if she must.

[longestnose]

Fili gestured for her to follow, then moved to sit against a nearby tree. It would bring them both down to a more equal position; it made him a bit more comfortable--always having to look up to others could cause a mighty crick in the neck.

"Ah...yes." Fili did not like to hear about death, but it was such...it was such of the way, of some things. "My brother and I--we did not share the same sort of bond as you and your brother, not in a literal sense, but I know some of what you speak. I always had a sense of him, since the day he was born. We...we died together." He shook his head, a sad smile hitting his lips. "As terrible as it sounds, I would rather have died with him, than lived alone."

He tried to sort out, why she couldn't feel her brother, now. "Perhaps--perhaps after your deaths, the bond was broken, in some way. And that is why you can not feel it, now, even though you are both here. Or perhaps because he was here without you--the ship took the bond away."

[favouring]

“Perhaps,” a touch bleakly, “there was nothing for him to be bound to without dying himself a second time.”

Any explanation is fundamentally madness, but this one makes some measure of sense to her; they've been brought here time apart, but both of them after their shared death. That much is clear. If he had been living while she didn't, what else could have been done? The bond would have dragged him down with her, the way she'd counted on there in Bethmoora.

[longestnose]

"...which he has not done, I assure you." Fili smiled softly, hoping that it could give her some sort of comfort. He gestured to the garden around them, continuing. "Him and I spoke here, when he first arrived--I know there is some tension between him and humans, but he has formed a good deal of friends here, with good people. Ones that will be happy to meet you as well."

[favouring]

The notion of walking into a place where her brother has thrived out of her sight, where he has many friends whose purposes she doesn't know and who may know only her brother's half of their story--

--she is little comforted by his presence, or his alliances, but at least he is not making war. At least she can be comforted by the fact that this place has not undone her sacrifice, that she did not fail in the only thing she had left to do by his resurrection. How could she have planned for that? Perhaps there will be a day when she has more to take comfort from than only that lack of bloodshed; she hopes, even if she can no longer expect.

“You are very kind,” she says, after a moment, appreciating the gesture as it was meant and not as it lands.

[longestnose]

"...I said something wrong, didn't I." Fili frowned, shaking his head. "I do not--I do not know what has gone on, between you and your brother. But I can only hope that somehow you both can mend the bond between you. I...I do not know what I would do, if I was without my brother. Or that we quarrelled so that a vast expanse was between us." He would not be who he was today, that was for sure; so much of his life was bound up within Kili, the other side to him.

[favouring]

“I have long hoped,” she says, carefully, “and I hope still.”

There is a but hanging in the air, the shape of it there as if it could be traced with fingertips, so precise and so delicate. A tangible sorrow, the ache of a perfect melody played once, and not again.

“Perhaps in time.”

There is a but, and-- this is not the time, or the place. She knows too little to confide, when confiding hasn't served her so well, lately.

[longestnose]

"Well I will lend my hope to you, in the hopes that it will lighten your heart in some way." Fili smiled, just slightly. "I am sure others will be contacting you regarding him, soon enough. And others of your ilk--at least you can take comfort in knowing there are a great many elves here. Good, kind people, if not exactly from your own world."