Mîn Melo Rîn

Sitting here alone I gaze upon the beauty captured within the gem so tenderly clutched between my trembling finger and thumb, twisting and turning it to watch the colours change and glitter far within its depths. It holds my heart. For there inside, my love, your very essence dwells.

I raise it to my lips and wish the cold, hard touch would soften into lover's warm, sweet kiss. Oh how I miss you, sweetest love that I could ever hope to know. How I wish to see your perfect smile, hear your gently teasing voice just one more time.

The white gem stays silent.

I place it down upon its tiny silken cushion, leaning back in order to collect my thoughts. I have this one night in which to fill its glowing core with all the love and life you once possessed. Where do I start?

At the beginning?

When first I saw you all those years ago? Glorious under starlight, music spilling from your lips in waves of purest sound, enchanting all who listened to the song you sang. You did awaken deep within my breast a yearning I had never felt before and did not know from whence it came.

With the perfection of your form?

The grace and elegance with which you moved, the skin that glowed so brightly under moonlight, felt like silk to touch? Aye, there was no other I would rather sit and let my eyes peruse. Your flawless beauty, held by many to rival even that of Luthien herself would steal my breath each time I looked your way. That day you granted me the power to do much more than look I felt I had become a king.

Within your heart?

The strength and courage hidden under slender frame that would the fiercest orc confront and battle to the death to save the ones you loved, yet held such tender spirit as to weep over a tiny, plume less fledgling which fell from nest above to land, bereft and broken on the stones before your feet.

The tears begin to fall and through them, blurred and out of focus I can see the light stream from my heart towards the waiting gem. All that you were to me I pour into that silver flow until I feel that I am left an empty shell, your love and life no longer mine to claim. I slump, defeated, lost. What am I now to do without you here beside me, keeping watch over my weary faer? How shall I temper hasty thoughts and words without my conscience here to guide me down a smoother path? I feel such pain within that tears and shatters once again my broken heart and wonder how it is that it still beats.

You were my world. The very pinnacle of all that I achieved.

I reach and let one finger slowly stroke the gem that glows so brightly now that I can hardly bear to look. 'tis warm. As if it has been sitting under Anor's brightest rays since break of morn. But then, my dearest you were ever full of light and our love did burn as bright as any star that glowed above.

A sudden draft, a movement in the shadows and I feel a hand upon my shoulder, light as thought then gone as swiftly as it came. Is that you beloved? Has all this been but a dreadful dream? I dare not pull my eyes away to look so stay, transfixed, afraid.

A perfect face swims into view, with eyes the colour of the leaves at height of summer, peeping from inside the gem as if to say, 'I have not gone. I linger still within this jewel, within your heart. As long as you remember I remain and as the seasons pass our love will keep you whole until the time will come for us to meet again.'

Then with a gentle sigh, so soft I know not if my ears have truly heard, the glow begins to fade, the gem begins to cool and this, our final night alone is at an end. Oh yes, there will be future nights, when I will speak your name aloud and tell our son about the mother, gone before he had the chance to even see her smile. And I will talk of beauty, life and love but he will never really understand the person that you were, never know how much you longed to hold him in your arms

I feel the world begin to settle once again upon my shoulders but not with such a weight as was before. There still remains an emptiness inside yet now I know it partly can be filled with what is left behind. The symbol of our love. As pure and dazzling as the gem that sits before me, yet with spring time's warmth and joy instead of winters frosty melancholic woe.

Translation-

Mîn melo rîn = in Loving Memory (translated using Hiswelókë's Sindarin dictionary)

In Wynja2007's WIDS universe the sylvan elves use white gems (diamonds and pearls) to hold their memories of the dead and may only speak their names on one night of the year. It is such a beautiful concept and something I feel Tolkien would have loved. If you have not read her work you need to do it now.
This piece wouldn't let me rest until I had written it down. I originally had Thranduil in mind for the narrator but as this doesn't fit in either my own or Wynja's universes I have left it open.