beruthielthequeen:

“Your Lord is unique indeed, and these paths and passages have been welcoming to me, indeed. Some have looked at me with suspicion still, and I cannot find it in me to blame them,” she said quietly. “I know the stories they tell of me in Gondor, know how my name is used to frighten children into obedience. I am become the monster in the shadows for many, a bogey-monster of legend. Strange, when what I see in the mirror looks to me only a woman—but I know who I have been, and who I am now, and I cannot find it in me to blame them.”

She was quiet for long moments. Maintaining suspicion and hostility was draining, the Lady Celebrian was entirely correct. And Berúthiel had spent long years exhausted by the effort of hating, of fearing those who had ever been her enemies—those she had been taught were her enemies. And then she had somehow found it in her to come here, and had met the Lord Elrond, and had found—welcome, and kindness, and no sign of the monster of legend reflected in his eyes when he looked at her. She looked back to Celebrian, the question in her now decided.

“I worry for your Lord’s health,” she said simply. “He works too hard. And he has headaches, and spells of dizziness. You know of this?”

“We all have our pasts,” Celebrian replied, smiling slightly as she glanced at her guest. “But you need not linger on it here - you will find no one here shall. We offer no judgments - just our hospitality.”

She did not quite know what to made of Beruthiel’s confession, but it seemed somehow more comforting that she had spoken about her life. It seemed better than skirting around the issue, at least. Now it was out in the open, and there was no need to think about it now. Hopefully the lady would now be able to enjoy herself a little more in the House. “You need not linger on your past here, if you not do wish to, not when there is great potential for a future.”

Whether or not this lady did have a future that looked bright, Celebrian truly did not know, but if this house could give her some respite from a life she wanted to escape or a past she wished to leave behind, well, that was far better than nothing.

Her confession of Elrond took her a little by surprise. “I know he works often and suffers headaches, but I did not know of the dizziness. I must admit, he keeps certain things from me now when he doesn’t want me to worry - do you think his health is something to be concerned about?”