"Mine."
Lúthien said it from the long rug.
Aldric had been at the door of the family quarters at the sixth bell of the evening; he had been bringing up the small folded plate of the dwarven bread Grimgar's daughter had set aside for him at the morning's market, in the small careful steady evening gesture he had been making for years on the days he could be at the upper rooms before the seventh bell, and he had been crossing the long inner corridor at the small steady careful pace.
He had stopped at the door.
He had stopped because Tauriel was at the door already.
She had come up before him by perhaps a quarter-hour. She had set her own small folded note on the small inner table at the side of the corridor, in the small careful steady way she set notes at side tables when she was on her way to the inner rooms and did not want to interrupt the inner rooms with the note before the rooms were ready for it. She had come up to the door of the family quarters. She had stopped at the door — Aldric registered, in the small reading at the door — for some minutes; she had not gone in.
She was at the side of the door now.
She inclined her head a fraction at his coming up.
She set her finger against her lips — the small flat private signal she had been using at doors for fifteen years to mean do not enter yet, in the small inner courtesy of a parent who had been at the door of a small room with two small children at the rug and had been reading, by the small careful steady inner reading of the room, that the small careful steady moment at the rug was not yet a moment for an adult to break.
He stopped beside her.
He set the small folded plate of bread on the small inner table at the side of the corridor.
He looked through the door.
The family quarters were — at the sixth bell — at the warm slow careful set of the long evening. The fire in the inner grate was at the half-line. The two small lamps on the long inner shelves were at the half-flame. The long rug at the centre of the room had been moved a finger's width westward from its proper line at the morning's cleaning by the keep women, and had not, by the small careful evening pattern, been pushed back. Lúthien was at the long rug.
She was, by Aldric's small careful inward count at the door — two years and ten months at her last Sindar-count by Arethil, walking well now, naming most of the small steady things at the upper rooms by their small steady names. She was wearing the small wool tunic of the autumn fitting, which Tauriel had cut for her at the spring with the small careful Sindar inner-stitch along the shoulder. She had on the small leather house-slippers the dwarven craftsman had made for her at the year-mark.
She was at the long rug with the small wooden toy sword.
The small wooden toy sword had been Cael's.
It had been, by the long inner working count of the keep, Cael's since the autumn of his fourth year, when Halbarad had asked the carpenter for the sword and had had it cut by the carpenter to the small careful steady measurements of a sword Cael could swing without injuring himself, in the small careful steady inner courtesy of a witness-elder making a small careful steady gift to his witness-child. The sword had been Cael's for the better part of two years. He had been using it, at the long evenings of the past two years, at the small careful steady set of practices Aerin had set out for him at the small careful steady inner courtesy of Tauriel's archery deputy taking an interest in a small careful steady boy who was — by the small careful inward count of the realm — going to be a tactical-minded man.
The sword had been on the long shelf in the family quarters at the small careful resting position Cael set it in at every evening.
Lúthien had, by Aldric's reading at the door, reached the long shelf at some point in the past quarter-hour.
She had reached the long shelf — Aldric registered, with the small flat inward private acknowledgment — by climbing onto the small low stool that was set against the long shelf for the small careful steady use of the keep woman who dusted the shelves at the seventh bell of the morning. She had reached the small wooden toy sword on the long shelf. She had — by the small careful steady inner work of a small careful steady two-year-old — taken the sword off the long shelf. She had carried it to the long rug. She had set it on the rug.
She was now at the long rug with the sword.
"Mine."
She said it with the small careful steady confident voice of a small careful steady two-year-old.
She said it not to anyone in particular.
She said it, by Aldric's reading, to the sword on the rug. She said it in the small careful steady voice she used in the upper rooms when she had picked up a thing she had decided was hers. She said it with the small careful steady set of her two hands on the small wooden hilt.
Cael was at the long rug.
He was at the other side of the rug. He had been at the long rug, by the keep women's count which Aldric had learned at the door of the family quarters at the side of Tauriel, since the fifth bell. He had been working at the small wooden tally-stick he had asked the carpenter to cut him at the spring, with the small careful steady set of small careful markings he had been adding to the upper side of the stick at the small careful steady evening pattern of the past two months. He had been sitting at the long rug with the tally-stick in his hand and the small flat private inner inventory of a five-and-a-half-year-old who had been working at the tally-stick for some time.
He had stopped working at the tally-stick on Lúthien's first mine.
He had stopped working.
He had looked up.
He had registered Lúthien on the long rug with his sword.
He had not, by Aldric's small careful reading at the door, moved.
He had not made the small steady careful sound a five-and-a-half-year-old made when he was about to take a thing back from a sister who had taken it. He had not stood. He had not crossed the long rug. He had not — by the small careful steady inner reading of a boy who had been at the small careful steady fence of the training-ground for the better part of two summers — done any of the small careful steady things he might have done.
He sat at the long rug.
He looked at Lúthien.
She looked back at him.
She said, in the same small careful steady confident voice: "Mine."
He did not, for a long beat, answer.
He registered her.
He registered her, by Aldric's reading at the door, in the small careful steady flat way he registered Eorlund's third man on the brother-discipline, and the four men on the left of the second rank on the morning the cant was named, and the small careful steady set of his father's hands at the head of the long council table, and the small careful steady set of his mother's mouth when she was reading a petition.
He registered his sister.
He did not, on registering, smile.
He did not, on registering, frown.
He did not, on registering, do any of the small careful steady things a small careful steady boy might do.
He set the tally-stick down on the long rug.
He crossed the long rug, in the small careful steady walk he had been working at for some seasons, at the small careful steady pace of a person who had decided he would cross the rug.
He stopped at three paces from Lúthien.
He did not, at first, speak.
He sat down.
He sat at the long rug at three paces from his sister, in the small steady careful set of a five-and-a-half-year-old who had been taught — Aldric registered, with the small flat inward private acknowledgment — at the small careful steady fence of the training-ground that the right reading of a thing was the slow reading and not the fast.
He said: "Yours."
She nodded.
She did not, on nodding, register the small careful steady inner work he had just done.
She said: "Mine."
"Yours, Lúthien. The sword is yours."
She set the sword down on the rug, in the small careful steady set of a small careful steady two-year-old who had been told the sword was hers and who was — by the small careful steady inward registering of being told — registering the telling.
She looked at it.
She looked up at her brother.
She said: "Swing."
"Yes. You swing it. Like — like this. Watch."
He picked the sword up, very carefully, in the small careful steady set of a boy who had set the sword in his own hand at the long evenings for two years.
He swung it once — slowly — in the small careful steady arc Aerin had taught him at the practice yard at the fourth bell of the autumn, in the small careful steady form a six-year-old's sword took in the inner family quarters at the long evening.
He set the sword back down on the rug.
He pushed it gently across the rug, with both his small hands, to her.
He said: "Try."
She took the sword in her small careful steady hands.
She swung it once.
It went — by Aldric's reading at the door — three finger-widths off the proper line Cael had set for it. It hit the long rug at the small careful angle of a two-year-old's first sword swing. She did not, on the hit, fall. She did not, on the hit, register that the swing had been imperfect.
She said, in the small confident voice: "Done."
"Done."
"Again."
"Again. Yes. Swing again. Like — slower. Slower this time, Lúthien. With both hands. Like — yes. Like that."
She swung it again.
It went two finger-widths off the line.
He inclined his small head a fraction at the side of his sister, in the small careful steady inward set Aldric had been registering on him at the fence of the training-ground for the better part of two summers. The small inclination was — by Aldric's small reading at the door — the small careful steady set of a tactical-minded man being patient with a person who was not yet at the level of the work.
He did not, on the swing, frown.
He did not, on the swing, take the sword back.
He said: "Better. Again."
She swung it again.
Tauriel set her hand on Aldric's arm in the doorway.
She did it without taking her eyes from the room.
She set her hand on the inside of his arm, against the line of his sleeve, in the small careful steady inner gesture she had been making at doorways for fifteen years when she had been reading, beside him at the doorway, a small careful steady moment of the country or of the family that the small careful steady moment was — by the small inner reading of two people who had been at small careful steady doorways together for fifteen years — going to be carried by both of them in the small careful steady inner inventory of their joint reading of the country.
She did not, on setting her hand, speak.
He did not, on registering it, turn his head.
They stood at the door of the family quarters for the better part of half an hour, watching the small careful steady son at the long rug teaching the small careful steady daughter at the long rug how to swing the small wooden toy sword that had been the small careful steady son's for two years, in the small careful steady set of the long evening at the half-light of the family fire, with the small leather house-slippers tapping the long rug at the small careful steady pace and the small wooden hilt finding the small careful steady line one finger-width at a time and the small careful steady inner work of an older brother who had — by the small careful steady inner choice of an evening at the long rug, in the small careful steady inner privacy of the family quarters — given a thing of his to a small careful steady sister who had asked for it.
She did not, in the half hour, take her hand off his sleeve.
He did not, in the half hour, ask her to.
⚜ ━━━━ ROYAL PROCLAMATION ━━━━ ⚜
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