“It is hard to find you sometimes among so many fine houses” said Estarfin, as he crossed the hall to stand with Parnard and I near the furnace. A straightforward statement of observation, he had made similar comment about my house in Mithlond. I knew I should speak with him soon, less there was something irking him that could grow out of proportion. Many houses hereabouts lay empty and deserted. All that one need do was make an inquiry with Mithlond Registry as to relatives, and an abandoned house could belong to anyone. I was not the indulged wealthy young girl at Thargelion any more.
“This hall has been abandoned nigh thirty years,” I explained. “I would rather see it restored and put to purpose than decline further.”
Parnard started knocking on some of the wooden beams, testing their soundness.
“I have been showing Parnard what cook has already done with the kitchen. I would have it his domain for the upcoming festival at the least.” I continued.
“It’s very fine,” Parnard interjected, as he blew dust off a sill, then off his new hauberk.
Estarfin smiled slightly, that I knew my many houses were not at the fore of his mind, thankfully.
“Then there is a dining room on the right of the entrance. Parnard says we can fit thirty folk in there.”
“Some will have to stand on the tables,” laughed Parnard, moving on to inspect the wallpaper of the main hall.
“Indeed. There would be no room for chairs.” Estarfin was looking out through the windows, and nodding a little at the view they afforded.
“And as for this hall, I was thinking it could be somewhere for you to store your weapons and armour?” There. I had made the offer. It was up to him to accept or refuse.
He frowned.”You wish for me to send to Imladris for all my weaponry?”
Parnard headed back to the small dais around the furnace. Then leant casually against the wall.
“I was explaining the furnace to Parnard before you arrived. Do you remember?” I asked.
“Remember what?” questioned Estarfin.
Parnard nodded. “Spirits of Fire” he announced.
“Did you not say you had thrown some out?” I asked Estarfin, in an unclear swerve of conversation.
“Thrown what out?” Estarfin’s voice was tinged with a hint of frustration.
“Your weapons.” Parnard volunteered helpfully. “Did you?”
I closed my eyes briefly in a frustration of my own. It was like talking into the roar of a waterfall, that naught was heard properly.
Estarfin frowned again, and Parnard raised his brows in surprise.
Trying to clarify from his point of view, Estarfin said “Some pieces were moved into the armoury, but anything of value I kept. It is all still in Imladris though, save what I carried with me here.”
“It is your choice, Estarfin,” I said, referring to him using the hall, and moving what he wanted from Imladris or not.
“It will take years of crafting to fill this room”, Parnard added.
“It will be small for an armoury, Parnard.” I had a vision of Parnard expecting Estarfin to make weapons for an army.
“You wish for a collection?” Now Estarfin was looking a little confused.
“No!” I answered, confused myself over what had developed from a simple offering. “ I want you to have space here that is your own, to use as you wish. I thought maybe a place to store weaponry and armour may be to your liking, but it is to use as you wish, if you wish.”
And Estarfin nodded slowly at me.
Parnard was back tapping on the furnace, then turning his head one way then another, trying to make out what he was looking at. “Fire lizard,” he said knowingly.
“Oh, I was telling Parnard about the Salamanders.” My thoughts were barely collected from trying to explain the armoury.
“The what?”
“The salamanders on the furnaces in the…” I sighed. “We had one at home, didn’t you? A fire place with the flame image, and sometimes a salamander to remind us we are folk of the flame. We live in the fire and the fire is in us?”
Estarfin shrugged. “Our fireplace was just a fireplace. What is this salamander, a type of dragon? A strange symbol for the palace to choose if so.”
“I didn’t know what it was either,” Parnard added, though he still looked keenly at the image.
In my naivety I had thought Estarfin would know what I spoke of. His father held the same rank as mine. But ah...there was that ‘privilege through blood’ issue again. We had been closer to the court than the families of most other captains.
“A salamander is a small lizard which may resemble a dragon in miniature form. But it breathes no flame. It is not as one of Morgoth’s fell creatures.”
“Morgoth?” Parnard questioned, having heard the name a few times of late, and been given very little explanation.
“Morgoth, our ancient foe. Gone, and best forgotten.“ Estarfin explained succinctly. None of us oft spoke that dread name.”
“I have ne’er seen a salamander.” Parnard was still looking at the lizard figure. “Where do they live? “
“Near lakes and marshlands mostly. They were first found by Lake Mithrim. Though they can live in fire.”
“Any fire?” Parnard would know more.
“Obviously not.”
Then Estarfin joined in, “I have never seen one. You are sure of this?”
I looked back at him stubbornly and nodded. “I had tales of them told to me as a child. They were like a myth to me, symbolising what we are. But they are real enough. They hide in hollowed wood, and when our people first used wood to make camp fires, many were seen running out of the burning wood, and through the flames to safety. Like us, they can be thrown in the flames and yet many survive. They are tiny spirits of fire. Not monsters created by evil.”
Estarfin looked questioningly at Parnard, who looked questioningly at Estarfin in turn.
“Imagine if you will, that flames can seem like small swift lizards moving around.” I tried to encourage.
“Flame lizards crawling on wood.” Parnard nodded. “I have seen small lizards in the woods, they like to sunbathe.”
“It makes me wonder if Morgoth thought of drakes from watching the movement of flames in the volcanoes?”
“I do not imagine his thoughts. It is not wise.” Estarfin brought that speculation to an end.
“If you like not the fire, it can be removed,” I said, Wondering why I had thought he would like it?
He shrugged.
“It is your fire. Decorate it as you will.”
“It is your room, if you will accept it.”
He paused a moment, as if suddenly understanding the evening’s conversation. He nodded, first to himself in acknowledgment, then to me.
“It can remain.”
“Oh! we should tell Estarfin about the Halfling.” Now there was finally some understanding with the three of us, Parnard had reminded me of a most important piece of news that I should have told Estarfin as soon as he returned from Mithlond.
But I was feeling just a little wary of explaining anything at that moment.
