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silwritersguild----
This story is a response to the Sea challenge. I was told that it didn´t have to be strictly new, so this is the third part of a tryptych about Númenorean original characters (who appear or are mentioned in my fic Full of Wisdom and Perfect in Beauty) gazing at three of the Númenorean seas. Unlike the other two, I haven´t published it before because it addressed a character that would be mentioned later in the story.
It´s the first time I post anything for a challenge. I don´t even know how to post a challenge in the archive site. So, if I did something stupid by posting a vignette that comes with other two which are already published, sorry. I promise I´ll get it the next time. :P
And: these are the other two:
The Northern Sea
The Western Sea
This story is a response to the Sea challenge. I was told that it didn´t have to be strictly new, so this is the third part of a tryptych about Númenorean original characters (who appear or are mentioned in my fic Full of Wisdom and Perfect in Beauty) gazing at three of the Númenorean seas. Unlike the other two, I haven´t published it before because it addressed a character that would be mentioned later in the story.
It´s the first time I post anything for a challenge. I don´t even know how to post a challenge in the archive site. So, if I did something stupid by posting a vignette that comes with other two which are already published, sorry. I promise I´ll get it the next time. :P
And: these are the other two:
The Northern Sea
The Western Sea
For Yehimelkor, it is becoming difficult to kneel, to lie on the cold floor at nights muttering his prayers. His old bones ache under the purple of his robes, but the worst of all is when he stops and feels that he cannot hear the answers anymore.
Once, Amandil had used to tell him that he should not humiliate himself this way at his age. He listened to him, shaking his head in vague condescendence, and sometimes graced him with an answer.
He is the last High Priest. He has abandoned the capital to the spinners of lies.
He cannot humiliate himself enough.
* * * * *
People whisper around Rómenna, he knows, telling horrible stories about him. They say that he killed many of theirs during the Temple massacre. That he is sullied, his soul sold to Evil, and that he brings bad luck to the place. And still, no one is able to meet his stare, and whenever he passes by they turn their faces away.
Yehimelkor does not care for the opinion of people who cannot even look at him.
* * * * *
Sometimes, in the few hours of sleep that he allows himself, he dreams. He sees the temple again, and his eyes on him, bright like liquid fire. His fury, and the silent promise of murder as both stood at the fire altar.
He wishes he could have said much more.
* * * * *
See? I warned you. A great evil would come from war. Darkness would be stirred in Middle-Earth, long and terrible. Back then, you did not understand why I forbade you to engage in sword-waving, but this is what I saw in my visions, this what consumed my mind day and night.
It might well be, Amandil replied, but at least now I know how to fight it.
Self-absorbed brat.
* * * * *
He left at night, when the full moon was rising. His ship was anchored in a lonely beach, and when he told Yehimelkor of his plans, the old High Priest had flown into a rage. You are insane, he told him. Not even your volatile gods can approve of a man who gives his life away.
Amandil had not argued back. He had merely withstood the storm -as he did many years ago, when he left him for the first time-, and pleaded with him to see him off. No one else would be there.
Yehimelkor had refused to speak to him for days, but in the end he had come. After all, this self-appointed “leader of the Faithful” was his only child.
Since that day, nobody has helped him up from the floor.
* * * * *
The dark cloud is on Númenor now. He can perceive it, perfidiously suffocating his breath in the middle of his chanting litanies. No sword can pierce it now, and not even the Great God will tear it apart with a flaming sacrifice.
Images and thoughts tempt him in unguarded moments. Amandil leans on the prow to cut the ropes with his sword, and the ship starts to slip away from the shore. A pale woman stares at the flames in silent fear; then slowly pulls her courage together and jumps.
Is this, as they claim, the ultimate faith? To smile as you feel the burning gap under your feet, to sit back while the inexorable flux of the current drags you to your death?
Is he a coward, for doing neither?
In the end, however, his well-schooled thoughts always end by bringing him back to reality. And then he sees it clearly: those are nothing but the illusions of error. The only real faith is to stand and face evil, refusing to surrender to the morbidity of sacrifice.
Yehimelkor had never shrunk from his duty. He has opposed three kings and a demon, and now, in his exile, he waits for a lonely death among Elf-friends who despise him. Every night, he wakes up to lay on the floor, and resumes his prayers for the cursed island.
Faithful. He curves his lips, in a small and bitter smile. All sides call themselves like that, but none of them knows the real meaning of the word.
Yehimelkor, the last High Priest of Melkor, is the only Faithful. And even now, this gives him some satisfaction.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-07 02:37 am (UTC)I just wanted you to know that if you need help with setting a story as a challenge on the archive, do let me know. It's very easily accomplished. Or let me know the story and the challenge you'd like to include it under, and I can do it for you.
Meanwhile, once B2MeM settles down, I look forward to coming back and reading these. Your writing is always such a delight. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-07 10:08 am (UTC)I´m such a disaster. :(
no subject
Date: 2008-03-08 08:18 pm (UTC)If you haven't added the stories already, then you can start by adding them. Go to Account Info at the top of any of the archive pages and select, "Add New Story." On the Add New Story form (the place where you'll input your Rating, Summary, et cetera), there is a scroll box marked "Challenge Entry." Select "Sea Voyages" from the list there.
If you've added the stories already, then go to Account Info and choose "Manage Stories." This will bring up a list of all of your stories. Click "Edit" for the one you wish to add to the challenge.
The same form will appear that you fill out when adding a new story, only all of your information will already be in there. Do the same as if you were adding a new story: choose "Sea Voyages" from the "Challenge Entry" menu. Click "Add Story" at the bottom, and you're done! :)
To check if it worked, your stories should then be listed here:
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/browse.php?type=class&type_id=3&classid=80
If you have any problems, please let me know. If your stories are already added, and you'd like me to add them to the challenge, then I can do that too. :)
Oh, also, it is no matter that Sea Voyages was last month's challenge. Challenges are good forever! We did this when we realized that some challenge responses were more ambitious than a month could allow. Far be it for us to discourage this, so you may add to a challenge for as long as you would like.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-08 11:37 pm (UTC)I´ve finally added all three vignettes to the category because they are supposed to be read together. They´re all about the sea, but the voyage theme is just in the third.