So Comes Snow After Fire

19.ii

"How long have you known Fíli cared for Lord Ironsides' daughter?"

Dís looked up at her brother from the clay she was drawing through her fingers on her potter's wheel; her expression was faintly amused. "I was sure of his affection this spring, though I've known she admired him since you all left Ered Luin," she said.

Thorin waited for further explanation while Dís gently pulled the clay up into a simple cylinder, the first stages of a mug or a vase. Around them, the shelves of her workshop were already filled with many finished pieces which might soon grace a marketplace in Dale or somewhere more distant yet.

"It was easy enough to see she waited for news of him," Dís said eventually. "She called as many times in one month as I'd seen her all the rest of the year together."

"She was always such a quiet lass," Thorin agreed. "How did Fíli notice her, I wonder?" Of course, she was a lovely young woman, with her pale golden hair and those bright blue eyes over full, high cheeks. But even such charms did not seem to explain how Fíli should have settled his interest on the shy creature hiding at the back of the room, especially when there were other equally pretty girls quite willing to offer him their attention. Thorin was hardly ignorant of the fact that his nephews had always had their admirers.

Dís chuckled. "Oh, I'm sure she noticed him first. Yet I suspect she may not be so quiet when she knows what she wants."

"I hope so, if he marries her and she's to be queen."

"You don't approve the match?" Dís asked without condemnation.

"I've no objection. I simply didn't realize he'd already decided. When he agreed to marry Andvari's daughter, I had no idea there was someone else he would have chosen if he could."

"He was careful not to let his interest be known," Dís explained. "You must remember I am his mother; I know the things he does not tell me."

Thorin nodded; even if he had been his heirs' father, there must be things only a mother would notice. He said, "I always did hope inclination could inform Fíli's choice, and so I never meant to pressure him. He's always been a dutiful lad, and I never worried he would weaken the kingdom by his choice."

"As you think Kíli did?" Dís let her wheel spin to a halt as she watched for her brother's response.

"The controversy wasn't his fault. If I had not succumbed to the dragon sickness, even Kíli's preference for an elf could hardly have caused such a disaster." Surely there would have been objections, but nothing of such a scale to throw Fíli's right into doubt. "No, I am sure now that Kíli never meant to put Tauriel above his duty," he finished.

"You weren't sure once," Dís inferred.

"What was I to think, Dís? He nearly ran away with her."

"I know." She stared down at the waiting clay, but did not restart her wheel. Suddenly glancing back to Thorin, she said, "Tell me: if things were different, would you give Kíli your consent to marry Tauriel?"

Thorin sighed. "You are asking many things to change that cannot. But yes, I suppose I would."

Dís nodded, and Thorin could see she had needed to hear this answer, as much for herself as for her son. He still remembered distinctly how hurt she had been when he had claimed that love made no difference in a case such as Kíli's. Dís had taken his words as a dismissal of all that her own undistinguished, yet loving marriage had meant to her.

"Do you think Kíli will be very unhappy with this forced match?" Thorin asked cautiously.

"I'm not sure." Her eyes were very bright. "I would have said yes, but... The fact that he chose it, and for Fíli's sake, gives me hope that he will look for the good to be made of it." She sighed long and sad. "But I know one thing: he will never forget Tauriel. Mahal formed our hearts, as he did the rest of us, from stone, upon which the impression of those we love is forever engraved."

"Aye, so I thought," Thorin concurred. He had learned as much from watching his sister, who had steadfastly refused a second marriage, despite several offers from worthy (and high-ranking) suitors back in Ered Luin.

"I only hope young Audha will not resent him for it," Dís added after a brief pause, and then set her wheel spinning once more.