9: Playing at World’s End

Aldundil and Vorondil sat in the cloister by one of the willows, both looking uncertain and not a little confused. The older elf glanced at his son who was idly twisting a low-hanging branch of the willow, staring at nothing in particular. He gave the ellon a gentle, wry smile and leaned conspiratorially towards him.

"Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage without making things worse?" he whispered in Vorondil’s ear.

Vorondil gave a start and stared at his atar in confusion, then followed Aldundil’s gaze to the willow branch he was unconsciously mangling. He released the branch with a guilty sigh and inched closer to Aldundil who wrapped an arm around the elfling’s shoulders in comfort. They weren’t sure but both of them thought they heard a sigh of relief come from the tree, its branches rustling gently though there was no breeze inside the cloister.

"You’ve been here before," Aldundil then said, trying to distract his son, "so what did you do for fun?"

"Fun?" Vorondil asked in confusion.

Aldundil nodded. "When you were not at lessons," he added.

"Oh," Vorondil said. "Well... um... I mostly spent time on the beach, though it really was too cold for it sometimes, but there’s not much else to do here." He looked about, as if to assure himself they were alone, then gave his atar a watery grin. "It’s really rather boring here," he whispered and Aldundil gave him a wide grin.

"Lady Nienna told me yesterday that I should spend my time playing with you," he said.

Vorondil gave his atar a strange look. "Why?"

Aldundil shrugged. "I’m sure she has her reasons."

Vorondil scrunched his face, looking younger than his years. "Wh-what do you want to play?"

"Well, I thought I would leave it up to you," Aldundil said with a smile. "After all, you’re the elfling, not me."

"Atto!" Vorondil protested and Aldundil merely laughed, hugging his son tight and giving him a kiss on the head.

"Well, I don’t know about you," Aldundil then said, standing up, "but sitting here is getting boring, so why don’t you show me around and let’s see what kind of mischief we two can get into before they catch us."

Vorondil’s eyes went wide with surprise and then he was giggling guiltily as he joined Aldundil. "I know where Marilliën hides the sweets," he whispered, standing close to his atar but not actually looking at him.

Aldundil raised an eyebrow and an amused smile graced his face, though Vorondil did not see it. "Lead the way, yonya," he whispered, "and I shall follow."

Neither noticed Tiutalion standing on the other side of the cloister watching them with approval as they slipped quietly (for elves) towards the kitchen. The Maia grinned as he relayed the news to Marilliën to be on the look-out for two thieves and ‘heard’ the other Maia laugh as she warned her staff of the imminent invasion....

****

In retrospect, Aldundil decided as he sat next to Vorondil on a hard bench in Lady Nienna’s study while said lady glared at them, it was probably not the smartest thing to do, encouraging his son in this particular game. It was amusing though to see his oh-so-serious child acting more like an elfling than he ever had, crawling past supposedly unsuspecting Maiar towards their goal: a cupboard on the far side of the kitchen — Naturally!, he had thought with wry amusement as he followed Vorondil in a convoluted dance of avoiding the kitchen staff. They had actually made it to their goal unmolested, but just as Vorondil was reaching up to open the cupboard door there had been the sound of someone behind them clearing their throat....

"You know, Aldundil," Nienna was saying, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice, "when I told you to let Vorondil decide on the choice of game, I didn’t mean this type of game."

Aldundil had the grace to look embarrassed as he muttered an apology. Nienna merely nodded and turned her attention to Vorondil, sitting there with fear in his eyes, something she did not want. "So, just what was the game, anyway?" she asked, pitching her voice to seem genuinely interested and nonaccusatory.

Vorondil gulped nervously before answering. "W-we were playing B-beren and Lúthien sneaking into Angamando to... um... to steal the silmaril."

Aldundil stared at his son in surprise, for he had no idea that Vorondil had such imagination. The elfling looked up at his atar and shrugged. "Master told me the story," he said, responding to the unspoken question in Aldundil’s eyes.

Neither were aware that every Maia in the vicinity was listening in on the interrogation and finding it most amusing. Nienna was relaying the conversation to Irmo and Námo as interested parties. Both of them were laughing at the image of the two elves sitting dejectedly before their sister.

"So... which one of you was Lúthien?" Nienna couldn’t resist asking and had the pleasure of seeing Vorondil go, first white, then red, as the implication of the Valië’s question hit him.

Nienna could practically see her brother Námo falling out of his throne where he was sitting in Mandos. *It can’t be Vorondil,* he exclaimed, nearly incapacitated with laughter, *he has the wrong color eyes.*

Now they were all laughing in earnest though neither elf heard. "I see..." Nienna said out loud. "Very creative of you, Vorondil, if a bit misguided." She glanced meaningfully at Aldundil when she said that and the ellon nodded, looking chagrined. "Well, since you appear so fond of Marilliën’s sweets, you may help make the next batch. Off you go now." Nienna made a shooing motion with her hands and the two elves rose somewhat reluctantly and with no little confusion.

"Lady?" Aldundil asked hesitantly, not sure what was expected of them.

Nienna merely pointed at the door. "Kitchen. Now."

They understood that well enough, so with short bows father and son left the Lady’s presence and headed for the kitchen. When they were safely away the Valië of Pity and Ruth started laughing helplessly, wondering what other mischief those two ellyn would get up to next.

****

Vorondil began learning to distill various herbs into tinctures under Tiutalion’s watchful eye while Aldundil found himself learning the art of illumination with Aiwendilmë. At first he had been doubtful about such work but soon he found he had a real talent for it and when Lady Nienna praised his early efforts he felt immensely happy, perhaps for the first time since before Vorondil’s birth. So, for a while, all was quiet and peaceful in Nienna’s demesne as Vorondil and Aldundil worked with their tutors.

*Boring is more like it,* Tiutalion opined silently to Aiwendilmë when she ventured that it was nice everything was so serene for a change. The two of them were standing in the cloister overseeing Vorondil and his atar weed the garden. The weeding was additional punishment for the attempted thievery. *I always like it when our Masters send one of the Eldar to us,* he continued. *They are all so young and it’s amusing to see them carry on so or, like Vorondil, get into all sorts of mischief.*

Aiwendilmë snickered. *I remember when young Arafinwë was sent here for a few months. I thought even you would give up on him and send him back to Lord Manwë by way of Mandos.*

Tiutalion laughed. *I almost did, too,* he said. *The only thing that stopped me was knowing how disappointed our Lady would be that she didn’t get to kill him first.*

The two Maiar laughed as they continued watching their charges, though neither ellon was aware of it. Vorondil stopped for a moment to sit back on his heels and wipe his brow. "I hate gardening," he muttered crossly.

Aldundil stopped what he was doing and gave his son a wry smile. "Me, too," he whispered, "which is why I think Lady Nienna gave us the task."

"I’d rather be helping Marilliën bake more cookies," Vorondil retorted with a sigh.

"Me, too," Aldundil responded, looking equally glum.

That proved too much for Vorondil, who snickered, and then, in a fit of elfling mischief, threw a clod of dirt at his atar. Aldundil retaliated by throwing a slightly larger clump of dirt back. Vorondil actually laughed and, grabbing a handful of dirt, threw it at Aldundil before running to the other side of the cloister with Aldundil right behind him with his hands full.

"Vorondil! Aldundil!" Tiutalion shouted above their laughter, trying to sound stern. "Lady Nienna said to weed the garden, not play in it." Even as he said the words, the Maia knew they were a mistake, for the two elves stopped their play and gave each other wicked grins. "Oh, oh...."

****

Nienna sat in her chair staring in disbelief at the two elves sharing the bench before her. The two of them were covered with dirt and twigs and weeds, their faces nearly black with smudges, their clothes filthy. Standing near the door was Tiutalion, the Maia’s pristine appearance marred by a clump of dirt sitting on his head with a single weed sticking up. Aiwendilmë had not been a victim of the elves’ assault, but she had been a witness, so she stood beside her fellow Maia trying not to laugh.

"Attacking one of my People," the Valië began without preamble, "is not how you win my favor."

"We didn’t attack," Vorondil retorted rather boldly. "We... well... er... we retaliated against unfair punishment."

"Excuse me?" Nienna asked with a raised eyebrow, not sure if she had heard correctly. She noticed that Aldundil was giving his son a strange look as well. Even the two Maiar stared at the elfling in disbelief.

Vorondil nodded. "We both hate gardening," he stated categorically as if that explained everything.

"Which was the whole point, Vorondil," Nienna said with studied patience, wondering where the ellon’s reasoning was leading.

"Master says punishments should fit the crime," the ellon continued, seemingly very sure of himself, much to everyone else’s amusement. "Making us help Marilliën bake more cookies even though I burned half of them by mistake was the correct punishment."

"Why do you say that, yonya?" Aldundil asked with some perplexity. "We never got a chance to pilfer any of the cookies in the cupboard."

"But if we had been able to, making us bake replacements would have been fitting. Making us weed the garden wasn’t." Then the ellon sighed, suddenly looking less sure of himself. "But now that we’ve made a mess of the cloister...."

"Trampling over half my flowers in the process, I might add," Nienna said with a meaningful look at them both.

"I’m sorry, my Lady," Aldundil said softly, not looking up. "I’ll make sure the cloister is cleaned up and I’ll see to it that we don’t cause any more trouble."

"Oh good grief!" the Valië muttered in exasperation and then started laughing, much to the elves’ surprise. The ellyn stole glances at the two Maiar, both of whom sported wide grins. "Aldundil, haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying? I told you to play with your son and let him be the one to choose the manner of play. You’re both doing what I want you to do, though I admit not in the way I imagined you doing it."

She continued staring at them, her eyes bright with amusement. Neither Aldundil nor Vorondil knew what to do or say. Nienna saved them the trouble. "So now, Vorondil, I want you to apologize to Tiutalion and then you and your atar are to go and put my cloister back the way you found it. After that you may bathe. I think we will have you eat in your rooms tonight and you will be locked in for the night as well. Tomorrow you will both have extra lessons. No more playing for a while."

She watched in amusement as the two elves tried to understand the contradictory messages she was sending them, deciding to let them figure it out for themselves. Vorondil gave Tiutalion his apology, which the Maia accepted with good grace and humor, though he was wondering to himself if he would ever live down the embarrassment of having been attacked by two Children with hands full of dirt. Then, he and Aiwendilmë were escorting their charges back to the cloister where they spent the next couple of hours clearing the mess they had made, and finishing the weeding, much to Vorondil’s dismay. Afterwards, father and son took turns bathing. Nienna relented enough to allow them to eat together in Aldundil’s room and when Vorondil asked if he might sleep with his atar, she allowed that too.

"You’re getting soft in your old age," Námo told her as the two of them sat in the restored cloister under the light of the stars, enjoying the evening.

His sister merely snorted, refusing to dignify that statement with a reply. Námo put his hand on Nienna’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "How long do you think it will be before Aldundil’s resolve to keep Vorondil out of trouble crumbles?"

Nienna gave her brother a wicked grin. "What would you like to wager?"

****

Aldundil and Vorondil stared at the Lord of Mandos in disbelief. Námo was standing there dressed in a grey ankle-length tunic with a darker grey surcoat over it that sported the fountain emblem of his sister. On the outside he exuded a grave humility as was only fitting for one of Lady Nienna’s servants, but inside he was laughing at their expressions. These two Children didn’t know it but their new companion in durance vile was an expert in getting into mischief, the right kind.

"That’s correct, Aldundil," Námo said. "I will be sharing in your... er... punishment."

"But, my lord, why?" Aldundil asked, his eyes full of shock. Vorondil merely looked ill.

"Let’s just say that I lost a bet," Námo answered.

"A... a bet?" Vorondil ventured in a strained whisper.

Námo nodded, then sighed for effect. "It seems I have more faith in you than does my sister. I thought for sure you would both stay out of trouble from now on." He gave them a sardonic grin which did not comfort them. "I guess I was wrong."

****

Angamando: The Quenya form of the Sindarin Angband, Melkor’s stronghold.