Choice & Consequence
by North-took

"I waited for you, brother," Elros rasped. Secretly, he was surprised Elrond answered his summons. His brother had never approved of his decision to follow their great-grandmother's path, but Elros always felt greater affinity for mortals than ageless elves. They were alive.

Elrond knelt beside the frail creature and took the claw-like hand into his own. As a healer, he had seen death numerous times, but had never lost a family member to the ravages of time. This was the moment he had dreaded for five hundred years, the parting that would endure until the world was reformed.

"I am here."

"My time comes swiftly." It was a statement of fact, the king accepted his impending death, even welcomed it. Elrond never knew the woman his brother wed, but he had heard that since her passing the king's love of life lessened. Now Elrond saw for himself that it was true; Elros wearied of the world.

"I know."

"I wish to..." Elros felt uncharacteristic tears collect in his eyes. "I apologize for the pain I've caused you."

"You would not be my brother if you chose otherwise." A slight smile crossed Elrond's stern features and the ancient king saw again the brother he'd played with as a child. "You were always one for change. I knew your choice in my heart, but I feared to hear it or give it voice."

"I hope you never have cause to fear your own heart again." They both knew that Elrond's descendants would face the same choice set before them. Elros wondered if any others would follow Luthien and Elros and if his brother could endure another such loss.

"Sleep now," Elrond whispered, gently brushing Elros' snowy hair away from his face, not wanting to walk down that path even in conversation or thought. Something whispered to him that Elros was not the last of his blood he would lose to mortality.