“The water is unbelievable!” shouted Glorfindel as he resurfaced, shaking the water from his mane. “Ress, Thel, you have to come in here!”

“Says who?” called out Erestor, already tossing his book onto the empty chair that Glorfindel had vacated. He grinned as he looked over to Ecthelion, a large woven beach hat drawn down over his face. “Well, come on, if I’m going, you’re going.”

“Hmm?” Ecthelion yawned and stretched and looked out toward the water as he tilted his hat back and with a frown repositioned it over his face. “No, I prefer to be dry,” he replied as Celebrian approached from the direction of the First Homely House of Valinor with glasses of lemonade on a tray.

“Did you hear that?” laughed Erestor. “The Lord of the Fountain wants to stay dry.” From beneath the shadow of his hat, a wry smile appeared on the Balrog Slayer’s lips. “If I’m going in, there’s nothing to stop you. Come on, Thel,” Erestor said, reaching over to tug on Ecthelion’s sleeve.

“I don’t want to go in the water.”

“But why don’t you-“

“Because I don’t!” snapped the other elf. With a snort, he pulled his hat down further and crossed his arms over his chest.

Erestor glanced up at Celebrian with a stunned look on his face. She shook her head and shrugged. Reaching over, Erestor placed a hand on Ecthelion’s arm. “I’m sorry, Thel, I-“

“Just go play with Glorfindel. I’ll be fine, I’m a big elf.”

Celebrian patted a still shocked Erestor on the shoulder and gave him a push toward the sea. “It’s just as well; I was going to steal your seat anyhow. Times are few when I get to chat with Ehtele,” she said, sitting on the edge of the wooden beach chair once Erestor had stood up. “Lemonade?” she asked, offering the tray toward Ecthelion.

Erestor looked on for a few more seconds until a whistle from the water made him jog toward the gentle waves. He pulled off his shirt near the water’s edge and tossed it on a pile of other garments left by those who were already in the water before wading in, clad in a pair of leggings that had been cut off short when the knees began to wear through. He met both Glorfindel and Elrond where the water came halfway up their chests, though Erestor stood a little higher than them both.

Both of the other elves were concentrating on teaching Elrond’s young daughter, Vilya, how to float. “Don’t hold your breath,” advised Glorfindel from a few feet away while mindful Elrond kept his hands positioned just under Vilya’s back, moving with her as she was carried along the surface. “Keep your eyes open.”

“Mmmmrrr... there’s water in my ears Ada,” Vilya said as she finally exhaled, but still her eyes were squeezed shut.

“You get water in your ears when you take a bath,” Elrond reminded her.

“But this is cold water!” the little peredhel protested. “I don’t like this,” she whined as she began to sob.

“That’s enough for today, then,” decided Elrond, and a moment later, he was lifting her up from the water and she was reaching out to cling her arms around his neck. “We’ll go to the shallow part.”

“I want Nana!” she cried out, rubbing her ears and pulling at them.

Elrond gave an apologetic look at his friends as the wailing arose from the tiny elfling he held and began to take her back toward the house. Erestor continued to watch with a smile as little Vilya nuzzled against her father and fisted her tiny hands around his braids as he patiently made his way back to the First Homely House of Valinor.

“You stilllllllll want one.” Erestor was splashed as Glorfindel slapped his foot against the surface. He was the one floating now, arms behind his head so that his ears wouldn’t fill with seawater.

Erestor nodded. “I can’t lie to you.”

“Even with allllll that noise they make.” Glorfindel sighed playfully. “I suppose I could steal one away from someone for you.”

“No,” chuckled Erestor.

“Maybe we could just get a cat, and you could dress it up and let it sleep in a cradle.”

“No!” Erestor swiped his arm across the water, spraying Glorfindel. The blonde merely smirked.

“Perhaps we might ask Ecthelion and his wife to give us one of theirs if they ever have any.”

“Ecthelion...” Erestor turned away from the house and swam to where Glorfindel had floated to. “Did you hear him up there?” he asked, treading water when he had reached Glorfindel.

“No, why?”

“He didn’t want to join us. Thinking on it more, he never wants to come into the water. Isn’t that odd to you?”

“It is; he used to love the water. Do you think I should speak with him?” questioned Glorfindel.

Erestor shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

Shouts came up from the house, and Erestor looked to see what was happening. Vilya was sitting with Celebrian and Ecthelion, happily playing some game or another with them, but Elrond was now more drenched than he should have been and was chasing after his twin sons, both of whom were running into the water and each carrying a now empty bucket with them.

“Looks like we’re going to have company,” Erestor warned Glorfindel as the twins swam quickly toward their location. Elrohir reached them first, laughing madly and clinging onto Erestor’s arm as he fought to catch his breath.

“El!” he shouted to his twin. “El, get rid of your bucket!”

Elladan paused for a moment and threw the bucket forward before diving under the water.

“Heads up, Fin!” Erestor shouted, making a grab for the renegade bucket. Glorfindel righted himself and caught the object before it hit the water, just as Elrond approached them.

“Not funny!”

“It made Nana laugh!” Elrohir protested before dissolving into a cackling sort of giggle that amused even his father.

“Cold water? Warm water?” asked Glorfindel as he handed the bucket toward Elrond.

“One of each,” he answered disdainfully. “That was uncalled for, what if I had been carrying your sister?” he scolded.

“But you weren’t!” Elrohir said. “We made sure of-“ He stopped as suddenly his father disappeared straight down into the water. A second later, Elladan surfaced.

“Come on! Quick! Grab the bucket!” As per his brother’s directions, Elrohir retrieved the bucket and hurried to catch his older brother as they swam to shore.

Glorfindel and Erestor exchanged amused looks as Elrond resurfaced. “It must come from their mother’s side of the family,” he grumbled. “I know where you live!” he shouted as his sons reached the shore. They each flashed him a smile as they ran for the house. Elrond shook his head and sighed. “Don’t suppose you’d be interested in a pair of bratty children – they’re going cheap these days.”

“One in a smaller size perhaps,” spoke up Glorfindel, who was back to floating. Elrond did not respond as he continued to shake his head. When Elladan peeked outside through the curtain, Elrond raised a fist in the air and shook it, and the curtain fell abruptly back into place.

Turning back to his friends, Elrond grinned. “My two sons – I love them so dearly, and yet, they are the bane of my being some days, and there are two of them and only one of me!” He laughed and then took in Erestor’s troubled expression. “What is the matter?”

“He’s worried about Ecthelion,” Glorfindel responded before Erestor could say it was nothing. “He won’t come and play with us, and he’s a little afraid he offended him somehow.”

“Ah.” Elrond frowned as he looked to the beach to see Ecthelion staring out wistfully at the sea before being pounced by Vilya. Motioning that they should swim further out, the trio made it far enough so that they could nearly see the edge of Tol Eressea in the distance. Turning back, the tiny house showed up on the beach, surrounded by its cheerful pink fence, and on the cliffs, no longer quite so hidden, was the small cottage surrounded by golden flowers. “What a peaceful world we live in,” murmured Elrond thoughtfully as they treaded water and took in the view.

“Peaceful, yes, but I fear that Ecthelion is not at peace,” said Erestor.

Glorfindel nodded. “Perhaps we should speak with Gaileth first and see if anything is amiss with her husband.”

“Glorfindel,” spoke Elrond softly. “your home is on a cliff.”

“Yes...” he answered carefully.

“What if it were up a little higher. Perhaps up there,” he said, pointing to the higher spot. “There is a path that leads to that part of the shore, and the view is remarkable. I’ve never seen you travel up there.”

Glorfindel was quiet as realization dawned on the other two elves. “It causes him trauma. That is your thought.”

“If I died of drowning, I would be very cautious around water,” replied Elrond.

“Surely he’s not so afraid that he won’t wade into the sea,” said Erestor.

“Not all of us are as brave as you are,” Elrond finally said with a wry smile before setting out back to the shore.

Erestor looked down with a hurt expression, and Glorfindel was at his side a moment later. “He didn’t mean anything by that. I think he’s jealous, sweetheart.” Erestor shrugged at Glorfindel’s words. “Oh, my poor little Vala, you’ve had a bad day – big, nasty Elrond making you feel bad and you hurting Ecthelion’s feelings without knowing it – ah, I know what would make you feel better,” he said, reaching beneath the water.

- - -

Glorfindel looped his arm through Ecthelion’s. “So when do we get to see the baby?”

“As soon as she’s born,” Ecthelion answered with a smirk.

“But we’ll be first, won’t we? After you and Gaileth of course,” said Glorfindel as he discretely steered them in the direction of the sea. He had convinced Ecthelion and Gaileth that a midnight barefoot stroll would be lovely, and had hoped that if he could at least get Ecthelion to step into the water, he could gradually help his friend overcome his fear.

As Glorfindel strayed further away with Ecthelion, Erestor walked with Gaileth, and they slowly made their way across the sand. Gaileth had one arm looped over Erestor’s while the other absently rubbed her belly, calming her impatient child. “I’ve not thanked you for allowing us to stay in the cottage until the little one arrives.”

“And as long as you need, and no need to thank us,” replied Erestor. “I love elflings; you may have a time prying her away from me when she does make her entrance into the world.”

Gaileth smiled. “I was warned about that. It must be difficult for you,” she added sadly.

“In what way?”

“Ecthelion told me of your first love here in Valinor, and that you had planned to have a family with her, and all that happened after.” Looking up at him apologetically, she then said, “Learning she was not your mate, that you were meant to be with Glorfindel, that must have been hard. Especially as he is one of the reborn.”

“That isn’t entirely true,” corrected Erestor. “I was in fact to be with no one, but that is a completely different tale. As for Glorfindel, I cannot imagine my future without him. A hundred years ago, perhaps, but now, he is my life, as it were. My completion. My peace.”

Pausing for a moment to rest, Gaileth asked, “May I pose a more personal question?” Erestor nodded. “Does Glorfindel have nightmares?”

Slowly, Erestor nodded. “Now and again,” he whispered, watching two of his dearest friends walk along the shore, the tide slowly ebbing toward their feet. “Not only at night, there have been fits of panic in the day as well. I think here, with his mind cleared of duties he had in Imladris, it wanders. He fears falling, not the flame nor the shadow, but the plunge. I have seen him sit and stare for hours down the cliff we live upon, and though the distance is not very far, I know he fears it.”

“You must then know what it is my Ecthelion is distraught over,” said Gaileth. “He cannot stand the water. When it rains, he shuts himself inside. If there is a puddle, he will go through great pains to avoid it. His reasoning is that he gets nauseous from the seawater, but it does not matter where it is, he is always sick from seeing water. I am surprised he granted my request to be seaside for our child’s birth.”

“He is deeply in love with you and is looking forward to having a daughter,” said Erestor. “I do not think he would deny a request from you.”

Sighing, Gaileth added, “I do not wish to force him to speak to anyone, but I did talk to Lord Elrond myself. His diagnosis is that the condition is psychosomatic; that Ecthelion is making himself this way, as if he feels he has to be sick when he sees water even if he is not. He does not bathe, either.”

“What?” Erestor looked upon the warrior of old, the ripple of the water nearly catching his toes. “He doesn’t seem unclean.”

“He isn’t. He takes a bowl of water and a cloth and thus cleanses himself, but I wish he didn’t fear it so. I wish I could help him overcome this in some way.”

“Glorfindel is trying,” admitted Erestor, nodding in the direction of the pair that was walking, and Gaileth paled.

“This is not a good place for that,” she began, and then bit her lip and looked fearfully at Erestor.

“Why not?”

Gaileth shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry about what?”

A sharp cry came from down the beach, and Erestor turned to see Ecthelion fall to the ground as the water receded, and then washed back up again, covering his feet and sneaking all the way up to brush against the terrified elf’s hands. Erestor broke into a run to reach Ecthelion and Glorfindel.

Stumbling backwards, Ecthelion shuddered as he crawled away from the water, sand sticking to his ankles and feet as he fled. The sound he made was pitiful and whimpering, and upon backing into Erestor and knocking him to the ground as well, Ecthelion let out a sobbing noise and clung to Erestor’s knees.

“I can’t, I can’t do this any longer, I can’t, I’m sorry, I can’t, I didn’t want to, I-“

“Shhh, Thel, it’s our fault, not yours, not yours at all, we should not have pushed you,” apologized Erestor, but this only worsened Ecthelion’s reaction.

“No! It is my fault, I should have told you. I didn’t want to, I didn’t want you to hate me, I didn’t mean to, I didn’t want to, I didn’t have a choice,” he babbled. He turned away from Erestor and retched onto the sand, and then spat. “Please, I can’t, but I should have told you, but I don’t, please, it’s not me, I have a family now, but I would understand-“

“Ecthelion!” Erestor gripped him by his shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

- - -

“To the ships!” cried out Feanor, and the host shouted back their support and began to run to the shimmering white fleet.

“This is madness!” shouted Ecthelion, looking at the female warrior beside him. He pulled off his helmet and waved his sword at the others who were running forward. “We aren’t really going to force them from their ships, are we? This isn’t their fault, it would be like them stealing the silmarils from us!”

“He says they speak against us,” Alatariel protested. “He says they will kill us in the name of the Valar! We must protect ourselves!”

“We’re the ones boarding their ships, I don’t see a single one coming after us! They’re unarmed!” Ecthelion reminded her. “Remember when we’d play as children with Thranduil? He didn’t know what a sword was, and he couldn’t shoot a bow. The Teleri aren’t fighters, Artanis!”

“Do not call me that!” she snapped, drawing her sword as her brothers ran by. “Do not make me call you traitor,” she warned before following her kin into the fray.

“You’re mad! You’re all mad!” Ecthelion threw down his helmet. “This is bloody nonsense, all of it!” He crossed his arms and sat himself down on the sand in a huff.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“No, I’m just going to sit here and take complaints from the Teleri as they flee from their ships. Care to join me?” Ecthelion looked up in the darkness at a now-scowling Noldo.

Shaking his head, the answer was clear. “Why don’t you go back home, Ecthelion. Your heart was never in this quest.”

“What, because I didn’t take the stupid oath?”

“Feanor is our King,” berated the other elf. “Show some respect!”

“A self-proclaimed King, and NOT my King,” retorted Ecthelion, whose eye caught something on the mast of one of the ships. “What, is that a child?”

The other turned. “Mmm, must be a cabin boy, probably won’t cause any troubles for them before they get to him.”

“Get to him?” Ecthelion stood up abruptly and began to run. “Bastards!” he cursed, noting two fair haired elves climbing up after the boy.

- - -

Ecthelion was sobbing against Erestor’s shoulder now, his words edging toward inaudibility. “You saved the child, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I did,” he wept, rubbing his arm across his eyes. “Yes, and I thought I’d never regret what I had to do, but you came to Gondolin, and I thought you knew, that you’d found out, and later, when you came back here, and I thought I could live with it when I realized you didn’t, but now you must know, and I’m sorry.”

“Know what?”

“I didn’t want to kill them!” burst out Ecthelion. “I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t watch them kill that elfling, so I killed them both, and I brought him back to shore, but I still was a kinslayer same as the rest, and so I left, or I would have come to you then, but it became so easy to try to forget until you came across the sea...” Ecthelion’s words were drowned out by his muffled sobs as Erestor drew him protectively against him and looked up sadly at Glorfindel and Gaileth.

“Ecthelion, it was their choice. I can’t blame you for it, you did the right thing.” Erestor sighed heavily as tears streamed down his cheeks and admitted, “I loved my parents greatly, same as any child, but you did what you had to do. You did what I would have done.”