❅ Four (Text)

[stonebird]

I thought about making this private, but I have nothing to hide. My words are typed in the hope that they will do someone good.

I come from a world that is harsh and unforgiving. Decent people die everyday and, more often than not, there is no one to mourn them. Life isn't endless for most, though it can be exceedingly long, and I think, when it's all said and done, the thing that matters the most is how we spent our days.

Personally, I do not wish to be remembered as a victim. Whatever is in store for us (according to the Null) is outside of our control. Do what you think is right today.

Do not live in fear. Otherwise they win.

Comments

[stonebird]

I have decided I want to be a protector too; a guardian like your family. This shall be good practice for when I am a mother.

[utulien_aure]

You are fierce enough to be a guardian to anything you like, Sansa Stark.

Hmm. Planning for marriage already? Is there someone we should know about?

[stonebird]

No! I have not had the best luck in -

I will not marry until I find someone worthy of it.

[utulien_aure]

It may take a long time to find someone worthy of you. And besides, you shouldn't be thinking of such things now.

[He can't hope she waits until she's fifty? Or at least older than Anakin?]

How are you otherwise?

[stonebird]

I will see my nineteenth year soon enough! I was thirteen when I was first betrothed.

(Even by human standards, she had been nearly a child.)

I miss the sky.

I do not know how this thread turned into a series of low blows

[utulien_aure]

Thirteen? Even by Men's span of years, you could afford to wait longer than that. You can even now.

[Fingon is going to have words with the people in charge in Westeros if they ever show up here.]

We all do. When this is over, though, perhaps we can gift you with some of our own memories of the sky.

[Elven illusion-music. Yay!]

Unintentional low blows at that!

[stonebird]

We were meant to be betrothed for a year or two. Then, after I had...

After I could give him children, we would have been wed.

(Lives are so miserably short, though.)

How? I believe you can do what you say, but I do not understand your power.

Yep!

[utulien_aure]

That is worryingly young, by our standards. Even the Men I knew rarely wed at such an age.

[That would have made her... fifteen, at most? Westeros.]

You would have to ask someone more learned than me for an answer worth hearing, Sansa. But there is music all around us. We simply have have an easier time hearing it than you do.

[stonebird]

My land must be stricter about such matters. I know well that some women die young in childbirth. Perhaps we are wed too early.

(But her mother had been strong, so she expects she will be too.)

Can I learn to hear it?

[utulien_aure]

Westeros seems so very strange, sometimes.

[There is no perhaps about it, so far as Fingon can see.]

It's possible. I've never taught it myself, but then I've never been asked.

[stonebird]

You can understand why I have very little misgivings about leaving it behind.

(She can only make the best of any given situation.)

I am a disciplined student. I think you can trust I would not waste your time.

[utulien_aure]

I think your reasoning clear indeed.

[She will have a number of people backing her up in the attempt]

I believe it. And there is no reason we cannot try.... We should speak to Maglor, I think- and to Elrond as well. He has more experience with Men than I could dream of having.

[stonebird]

I have contacted him. Between the two of you and Lord Elrond, I might stand a chance of being successful.

(She isn't sure why the idea of connecting to the natural world - any natural world - entices her so. Maybe it all goes back to having stability even if she is standing alone.)

[utulien_aure]

If we have any say in the matter,
Sansa, you will learn the Music of the Ainur and anything else you wish besides.

[stonebird]

I may not be worthy of hearing your Music. If that is so, I will accept it.

[utulien_aure]

It is not a matter of worth,
Sansa. If it were, the House of Hador would have Sung to shake the world itself.

[Though, in a way, they did. But we are not counting the peredhil for this conversation]

[stonebird]

I am not innocent; I do not pretend to be. I do try to be better and to learn from my mistakes, but I was raised to believe in justice. All wrongs must be punished.

(Maybe hers have been. The Seven above know she has been tormented enough.)

[utulien_aure]

Oh, Sansa. You are not surrounded by innocents. There is blood on my hands, you realize? And on my cousins'.

Do not think this a test of your worth, no matter the outcome. You are brave and clever and resilient, and your soul is brighter by far than any jewel of the Noldor.