simaethae:

The city arched into the rock like a wave cresting; there were towers and archways and the white sails of the ships in the bay, stone worn smooth by time, carvings delicate as lace. And the people –

Alqualondë was –

Elwing dug her nails into her palms, trying to make sense of it. She had been born in Doriath; she had seen cities; only, it had been such a long voyage –

The Teleri she had met, on the shore, had been almost embarrassingly kind, offering her what she was told were travel-rations and working-clothes to replace her own much-mended skirts. She had not liked to say how fine it all seemed; but she had done her best to thank them, after she had managed to stop weeping.

Olue, one of them had said, and that was a name she thought she recognised, in all the bewildering strangeness of their speech, which was neither the Sindarin of her birth nor the Quenya her husband’s people sometimes spoke amongst themselves. We must take her to – the king will know what to do –

She was Dior’s daughter and Lúthien’s granddaughter, who had faced down Powers alone, with only her voice and a cloak made from her own cropped hair. Elwing straightened her spine, and refused to be afraid.

It was only a short wait, in the small, private room her escorts showed her to, with nervous murmurings. Elwing bore it patiently, resisting the urge to pace.

At the noise in the corridor – voices, urgent – she felt her head snap round, despite herself.

The man who stopped in the threshold, staring at her, was tall, and silver-haired, his braids set with pearls. Elwing drew herself up, fiercely –

“His – ” the man was saying, staring at her, his eyes wide and startled, and then another stream of words she could not quite seem to catch. “Elue’s – look at – oh, child – ”

There were words she had meant to say; she could not quite seem to find them.

“Elwing,” the man who must be the king of the Teleri, and Elwing’s great-grandfather’s brother, said, wonderingly, coming forward and taking her hands; and then she was crying again, despite her best efforts, but somehow it seemed not to matter.