Chapter Text
Seasons passed, as the years always did. It was spring once again, this fine day that was almost warm enough to be summer. Andreth was already outside to find more herbs for medicine and other uses, placing them in her wicker basket as she knelt on the warm ground covered in green spring grass and flowers.
“It is high time that I take an apprentice to pass on my knowledge to the newer generations…”
Of course, Andreth knew that her family tended to be long-lived, but she wanted to train a successor while she still had the energy for such a task. There were many bright girls among her people, one of them would be perfect if Andreth just made sure that the girl was a good choice and not likely to grow arrogant in adulthood and look down on others for not having the same knowledge as herself. Stories could be told about such poorly chosen girls ruining their chance to have a high status among their people that was not tied to marriage with a powerful husband or motherhood, and how the wisewoman ended up needing to start all over again with another girl.
“I should take a look at the girls and see for myself. Asking the parents about their personalities, and from others as well, for family and those not related do not always share the same view on a person…”
Andreth had no idea that she was being watched from a distance, by a tall figure hiding himself between the tall pine trees outside her village. It was her butterfly brooch that revealed her, as she always wore it on her bodice, refusing to hide the gift away like some shameful secret she no longer wanted to be reminded of.
Aegnor had finally found the courage he needed to meet Andreth again, when Finrod returned last autumn and gave him the silver maang tika alongside a tale of how their talk had gone. But he waited with the journey to Ladros until late spring, because that had been the season when they first met.
And the passing years had turned her more beautiful, in a manner that would never happen with immortal Elves. For Aegnor, Andreth's aging proved that while mortal, she would forever be one he always loved.
“Le i veleth e-guil nîn, Andreth.”
Andreth froze at hearing a man behind her. The sound of the voice was too real to be from her memories. For a moment, she did not dare to turn around, fearing to see the empty landscape and that he would only be a fragment from her past that haunted her.
But he was there. Proudly wearing the maang tika like a crown, the silver jewelry standing out against his golden hair and blue clothing, not the same set he had worn on their last meeting two and a half decades ago, but still enough fine clothing to mark him as an Elf of high social rank.
“Aegnor…!”
He looked both happy and sad to see her again.
“I was a fool to leave you instead of taking the chance of a life together with you. Can you ever forgive me for such foolishness…?!”
To his surprise, Aegnor found himself hugged tightly by her. Their height difference made it a little awkward, given how tall he was, but she did not care if anyone saw them at this moment.
“You came back...you came back...you really came back! You idiot, wasting almost twenty-six years that I spent alone...you Elves honestly need to start acting faster, else you will lose the chance to fix something you regret…!!” Andreth wept against his chest, as Aegnor held her closely. But those tears were not in anger over the lost years, rather from happiness over that he was brave enough to see her again now when she had aged and not merely recalling her as a young woman.
“Yes, I am a thoughtless fool compared to your wisdom, beloved.”
“You are my thoughtless fool, Aegnor.”
Their lips met in a kiss as proof of an unspoken promise to not break apart again. This time he would not be a coward and leave her again. Perhaps they would never marry, but Aegnor intended to come back to Andreth for as long as she lived, for as long as this Siege of Angband did not break and he was needed to defend Dorthonion. He had failed her once in the past, causing pain for them both for nearly three decades. It would not happen a second time, he had promised himself that and this he now swore to her:
“ May our paths never split again, even in the afterlife. ”
Together, they would face everything.