Written for Back to Middle Earth Month 2019. Prompt(s): Living Quarters & Windows, Mirrors and Statures

Fractured

Celebrían could not remember how long had it been since she had last seen her quarters.

The suite of rooms she shared with her husband and daughter was in the southwest corner of the second floor. The sitting room, where the family spent most of their time, was brightly decorated. The stone walls were plastered and painted cerulean. The floor was covered with brightly dyed rugs. The settee was in the Noldorin style, high-backed with arms and legs of verdigrised bronze, piled with cushions. The sitting chairs were in Sindarin fashion, pale grey wicker with broad arms. Dried bundles of yellow flowered bedstraw hung in from the ceiling, infusing the room with the aroma of fresh cut hay.

After so many weeks spent in Elrond’s healing hall, the room almost seemed foreign to her, as if it belonged to another.

She walked to the casements lining the south wall, overlooking the river. On the center window sill someone had placed a narrow stone bowl. It was filled with smooth river pebbles and held succulent rosettes of houseleek and clusters of rose-pink blossoms of starflower. Raising her head, Celebrían gazed at the diamond panes in camework between armatures of wrought iron. Her reflection stared back at her, twisted and despoiled. Silver hair crudely hacked to a finger’s length, the long scar running from her right temple to her mouth. And worst of all, the misshapen lumps of flesh where her ears used to be.

A fist smashed through the panes, sending glass tinkling to the floor along with drops of crimson blood.