by Lihan Taifun
The Valië Nienna drifts soundlessly through the Halls of Waiting. A spirit among spirits, she needs no body, nor even the illusion-shape she customarily wears among the living. The Halls themselves have physical shape, since they exist in the physical realm, on the farthest western shores of the Undying Lands. Yet their physical form is only the least part of what the spirit inhabitants perceive. The rich wood paneling, the stone tile floors, the carved pillars go almost unnoticed. No lamps illuminate these Halls, for the inhabitants need no eyes to see.
This is Mandos, the Halls of her brother, Namo, who keeps the spirits of dead elves. Here the Dead tell their stories to Vairë, the Valië of History, Namo's wife, who weaves those stories into great tapestries. Here, with the help of Nienna the Compassionate, the Dead must learn to understand their lives.
The tapestries hang close together, in an intricate three-dimensional arrangement that no one hampered by a physical body could move through, nor see the images. Each panel is a story, told from one person's point of view. Follow the panels in one direction, and see the story of that person's life. Look in a different direction, and see an event, from the perspective of each person present. Reach out to touch a panel, with bodiless senses, and feel the emotions of the one who lived that story.
Here she passes the spirit of Eirein, a elven child tragically drowned. Nienna sends her a warm greeting-thought. "Up!" laughs the child, and Nienna guides her to the tapestry of her favorite memory of playing with her parents. Someday, when this little one is full and content with the memories of the love in her short life, Nienna will introduce her to the tapestries of her relatives' memories, and let her learn the history of her clan.
Here is a crowd of spirits, hovering around the cluster of memories of a great wedding feast. Some spend centuries studying a pivotal event from their clan's history, experiencing the intrigues and undercurrents from each participant's viewpoint.
Those spirits who finally learn that their quarrels were petty and pointless, and who feel only a wistful sadness for the follies of their life, those Nienna recommends to her brother that they be allowed to again take a body, and return to the lands of the living.
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