House of the Golden Flower

"No! Idril, I can’t go out there, please! The noble houses are there, and the people. I can’t!" I protested, hiding at the top of the stairs.

She scowled at me. "Get your ass out here Glorfindel, or I shall have to do something truly horrible to you in public with polite decorum."

I stepped forward, and hesitated. Hers was no simple threat; she both could and would do something horrible to me in public while smiling pleasantly and sipping wine, talking about this year’s harvests or about a new weaving pattern.
"Now." Her tone was dark. Blushing, I leapt to her side and halfway hid behind her.

"You can’t escort me down the stairs hiding behind me, you fool." She teased, taking my hand. I straitened my shoulders and took her arm, leading her down the stairs with perfect grace that belied my emotional state. "You’ll be alright." She assured, petting my hand with hers. I calmed somewhat, and then we reached the apex of the stairs and everyone turned to stare. I clutched my friend’s hand very tightly and resisted the urge to close my eyes, growl savagely out of gritted teeth and flee back up to my rooms.

I focused on the act of simply breathing and fixed my eyes on an invisible spot above the heads of the semi-formally scattered nobles in the Great Hall. "Why do they stare so?" I whimpered out of clenched teeth. "Because we are very beautiful and graceful, and because you will win my father’s heart this night, that is why. Take no heed of them Glorfindel, I will be with you as long as you need me." She soothed softly for my ears alone as we reached the main floor.

Turgon was talking with a nobleman over by the fountain in the garden; I could see him through the opened doors. One look at his familiar profile and I relaxed. This was nothing more than an annual social event. Why then, was I so afraid? Perhaps because I’d spent most of my life living alone in complete and utter isolation? Yes, that must be it, I told myself sarcastically.

Idril poked me. "Stop being so rude to yourself." She said softly, amused. "How do you know I am?" I countered. She grinned and leaned close for ease in whispering. "You’re the only person I’ve ever met who talks to themselves, both in and out of their heads. Unfortunately, you also tend to beat yourself up, which I must intervene in, because you are far to good a friend to me to allow such debasement." She leaned away from me abruptly to greet a group of noblewomen who approached us, and I suffered their introductions and roving eyes, oddly comforted to have such a friend as to champion me from even myself.

I trusted her. If she’d protect me from myself, then she’d protect me from anybody, and if she said that her father returned my feelings but was just as constipated about showing them, then I believed her. If she thought it was a good idea for me to pursue him, then as far as I was concerned, it was. Idril had had my complete trust from the day she allowed me to seek her out as a friend instead of the opposite. Idril was wise. I was in awe of her.


"Well, hello then." The soft voice came from somewhere in the vicinity of my elbow, and looking down I saw it belonged to a slight maiden with a long train of golden waves. I looked at Idril nervously, for she was still attached to my arm but not paying much attention to me. "Hello." I managed to work out in a fairly normal voice. People who were able to sneak up on me were not high on my list of favorite things.

"I’m Adeline of the House of the Second Star. And you are?" She asked smoothly, her turquoise eyes roving my body. "Glorfindel. Just Glorfindel." I told her.
"Oh. Well Glorfindel, are you the Lady Idril’s catamite? I wasn’t aware that she had taken one." Thers ins insult in that, a barb at Idril’s purity and I noted it and held my tongue. "No, my good lady, I’m afraid I’m simply a guest of the King’s house."
"Ah." She replied, and began doing odd things with her tongue inside her mouth. I looked away, uncomfortable.

Idril eventually came around and rescued me from the overbearing presence of Adeline and a few of her companions. As she steered me into the massive formal dining hall for the feast, she whispered slyly "Don’t heed them. The House of the Second Star is full of pretty faces and empty minds." I took comfort in that, and led her to her seat.

I glanced over to see that Ecthelion was showing an avid interest in a particular young woman, and when he saw me looking at them he smiled and winked, before resuming his polite fawning at her feet. Turgon seemed distant again, as he had been lately. I worried for him. He didn’t look at me. I sent Idril a despairing look and she merely smiled enigmatically and resumed eating.

After the meal there was more socialization and dancing, which I stubbornly refused to join, by was pawed over anyway by the likes of Adeline and those of similar mind. Disgusted, I fled while Idril was claimed for a dance, having had enough of this ‘nobility’.

I was halfway up the main staircase when a hand on my upper arm brought me up short. I whirled with a glare that should have sent the person running. Turgon neither ran nor released my arm. "Glorfindel, where are you going?" He asked me.
"Away." Was my surly reply.
"Why?"
"Them. They’re not nobility, they have hardly the restraint of animals." I fumed.
"Do not insult my guests." His tone was warning, but I could see by his eyes that he was amused. My mood softened. He laid his hand about my shoulders and I allowed the contact. "Come, or I fear you’ll disappoint all the young maidens, especially Adeline."
He told me softly, conspiratorially.

"What a shame." I huffed. "Come now, she could give you one night of passion, if nothing else. I think it would do you good. You have become entirely too stodgy lately for my tastes." The nerve of him. I ripped loose of his hold. "I want nothing to do with that woman or any other. I see no point in raising their hopes for something they shall never have. Do you want to know the truth of it?" I asked angrily.
"Yes Glorfindel, I want the truth." His voice was intense.
"No you don’t." I said, and fled up the stairs, angry with the spectators gathered in the main room, watching the action on the stair.

He gave chase and slammed me into the wall just around the corner, out of sight in the shadows and pinned me there bodily. "Yes I do. I will have the truth from you, even if I have to beat it out of you." He threatened, voice blowing warm on me, his body tucked close. I leaned into him. "The truth is that I don’t want them. Any of them. I never did. There was only one I ever wanted, from the day he first flew overhead on an eagle’s wings, even in the years when I waited him to come every single day, the hope that he would fly over again all I lived for. When he asked me to come with him, I did, and now that I’m here with him I cant figure out if he’s angry with me or afraid, and I’m starting to think it’s more the latter. Now, I dare you to tell me the truth." I told him defiantly, and an unreadable expression came into his eyes.

"You don’t want me Glorfindel. You, who are beautiful and young and strong and so very, very innocent, how could you possibly ever want me? I have a daughter older than you. I’m the king of a realm I built in the mountains. I’m a coward, Glorfindel, hiding away here, and you want me? I sincerely doubt you know what you’re asking for." I caught his face between my hands. "I know what I want Turgon, and nothing shall ever stop me from it."

"Tell me, tell me what you want." He rasped, eyes searching mine desperately.
"You. You forever, for as long as I live. I give you my heart and my body, for I owe them all to you already." I told him, my lips hovering over his, my eyes searching the depths of his changeable, wondrous eyes. He pulled his arms around me, held me close. "As I want you, Glorfindel. But I fear, I fear for you, I fear that this will cost you your heart and body, this ridiculous pursuit of such a man as me." He warned, and then bent his head and touched his lips to mine, warm and soft. He pulled back, and looked at me. We held one another at arm’s length a long moment, regarding one another, and then he whispered "This will be highly unseemly of me, but I find I cannot resist taking you off to my bed, right now, this very instant." I laughed at him, even as he took my hand and dragged me off to his room with shared joy in our hearts.