b2mem | Tyranny of Family by LadyBrooke

B2MeM Prompt and Path: Tyranny - Purple Path
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Drama
Rating: General
Warnings: N/A
Characters: OCs, Finarfin, Orodreth
Pairings: N/A
Creator’s Notes (optional): It doesn't need to be read to understand this, but the main character in this is the same one from my SWG February challenge story Obsidian to Cut.
Summary: The Valar can force one the Tatyar Avari to the court of the Noldor, but they cannot make them accept the Noldor as their leaders.

Finarfin's advisors can yell all they want, he will not bow to their King, no matter who he is related to.

“I will not submit to a tyrannical form of government, no matter what the Valar say or who the King is,” he said.

He could see the advisors to Arafinwë shift in their seats, and Orodreth shift in his seat as he leaned forward, frowning as though he didn’t have all the information he needed to solve a riddle. Perhaps there was hope for one of them, at least.

“The rules of the Valar are absolute in this matter,” said one of the advisors. He looked rather like a weasel, except that was unfair to weasels. At least they killed poisonous snakes.

“And you’ll note that I was unwilling to submit to them. Your own name for us makes that clear. It is hardly my fault that they decided to force me to be reborn in this forsaken land, anyways.” Orodreth was still looking at him, and he smirked. Orodreth raised an eyebrow, nudged one of his cousins (Argon, he thought, though he was less certain about that), and started whispering back and forth.

“You do not get to choose which rules you obey and which you do not,” the advisor said.

“Because they are tyrants, yes, we’ve gone over that already.” Really, he was starting to understand why most of his grandchildren acted like they did. If his son had been anything like this as their father, they were
probably ready to throw themselves into the ocean to get away from it.

“No, because they are the Valar, and-”

“That is enough, I think. I doubt we could resolve this issue, even if we discussed it for years on end,”
Arafinwë finally spoke. “However, I believe my son and nephew have a matter of interest that they wish to discuss.”

Orodreth finally spoke, after a brief round of arguments whispered with his cousin. “We were merely wondering if you were related to any of the Noldor.”

Perhaps there was hope for some of them, unless Ingwë had told them.

Though, if Ingwë had told them, he also would have told Arafinwë and the rest, so at least these two had listened.

He looked at the advisors and smiled. “I believe my son adopted the name Finwë after he became the leader of those who wished to go on the March.”

Orodreth leaned back in his chair, unsurprised, while Arafinwë just sat there blinking.

The advisors were on their feet arguing now – and was that Mahtan in the background, laughing?

It was. Good to know all of the ones his son’s age weren’t dead and stuck in the Halls, some of them would probably have to vouch for him.

End Note: He’s definitely a grumpy old elf, though I can see why. Also, I really need to figure out how to reconstruct him a name from all six words we know from the various Avari dialects. I don’t want to call him by some Quenya name, it seems insulting.

And yes, there’s a reason half of the characters are known by their names from Valinor and the others in Sindarin. Politics of language is fun.