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"What shall we do when it's born?" Elwing asked, fingers carefully threading a tiny braid together, eyes peering sharply at her reflection in the gilt mirror that stood in front of her.
Earendil's reflection appeared beside hers, his body pressing lightly against her back.
"Raise it, I suppose." her husband answered.
"I do not want a child." Elwing stated petulantly, tying off the end of the braid with a silver string and pinning it back.
"I know, love." Earendil soothed, his hands raising, bypassing Elwing's swollen stomach and lifting to her shoulders, adjusting the magnificent necklace that looped around her throat and spilled out upon her shoulders, bearing the blazing weight of the Silmaril upon it.
"You will only have to care for it until it is weaned," Earendil assured her, "Afterwards, I'll arrange for a nursemaid to care for it."
"Good, good." Elwing agreed carelessly, her hands leaving her hair and coming down to stroke the gold of the Nauglamir.
"What will you name it?" Earendil questioned distractedly, brushing strands of Elwing's pale gold hair from the links of the great necklace.
"Elrond, or Elros." Elwing answered dismissively. "I haven't given much thought to which of the two I want."
"Elrond, and Elros." Elwing said, as she was presented with one baby, and then the other.
"It is good you had two names in mind." Earendil pointed out, moving from his wife's beside a group of healers approached.
"Yes indeed." Elwing said, sipping from the water that had been offered to her. "It would have been a burden to choose another."
"It is already a burden that you now have two children to wean instead of one." Earendil said.
"Yes. But I will make do, never fear." Elwing said.
The day Elrond and Elros were weaned, Earendil promptly brought the nursemaid he had contracted into his house to look after the two children.
"Here, here." Elwing said, transferring the hands of the two small children into those of the other elf. The elf's hands closed about the tiny fists, eyes looking over his two small charges.
"Do not let them wander off, or interfere with me or my husband. And above all, do not allow them to become a nuisance." Elwing instructed.
"Yes, my lady." the elf responded demurely, his hands tightening ever so slightly about Elrond and Elros's hands.
Satisfied, Elwing pranced off in a swirl of silk, not bothering to learn the name of the elf that would be caring for her children.
Later, the elf told Elrond and Elros that his name was Erestor.
"Your name matches ours!" Elros had noted excitedly, and Erestor had agreed delightedly, which immediately endeared him to Elros. Earendil and Elwing had never cared when Elros pointed out that their names matched his and his brother's.
It was so shiny, it was so bright, it was so beautiful.
Elrond reached out to touch the beautiful glowing thing, and Elros squealed in delight beside him. They had managed to evade Erestor's watchful eyes, and had gone into their parents' chambers, rooms they had never been allowed in. Where they discovered the Silmaril, laying upon a cushion of crushed velvet on the bed in the center of the room.
Elrond was rather ashamed to have disobeyed Erestor, but this beautiful thing washed away some of the guilt. His tiny hands reached for it, wanting so badly to touch it.
A scream rang out suddenly.
"Do not touch that!" snarled Elwing's voice, and Elrond lurched back in fear, propelling himself off the side of the bed. He fell, and hit the floor, Elros calling his name.
"What are you two doing here?" Elwing snapped, walking up to the bed, heedless of Elrond laying at her feet, and snatching the Silmaril up.
Elrond sniffled, rising painfully to his feet and darting out of the room, Elros hopping off the bed and following him, where they collided with Erestor in the hall. Erestor picked
up the now softly sobbing Elrond, and took Elros's hand, his touch gentle and apologetic.
Erestor could not be found in the ruins of Sirion, no matter how much Elrond and Elros begged Maglor to find find him. Maglor had even took the children to see some of the dead bodies, in hopes that they would discover this Erestor of theirs, and gain closure, but they did not ever find him.
Not once did Elrond and Elros ask after their parents, a thing Maglor found strange. What child would not care about their parents?
Later...
Elrond and Elros had grown, and were able to formulate more concise questions.
"Why did you come to our home, and take us away?" Elrond asked one day.
Maglor had always been mostly truthful with his children, and he saw no reason not to be now.
"The gem your mother had in her keeping, was ours. We came only to get it back." Maglor said, and waited for Elrond's response.
Elrond furrowed his nose, one eyebrow showing signs of rising above the other.
"I'm glad you did not get the gem back." Elrond said finally.
Maglor and Maedhros shared a swift look.
"Why are you glad?" Maglor said evenly.
"Our mother liked the gem better than us. If you had gotten it, you would like it better than us." Elrond explained with the simplicity of a child.
Maglor and Maedhros's eyes met again, and Maglor knew he had found the answer to the question he had asked himself that day in Sirion.
What child would not care about their parents?