Lihan Taifun
Nienna sprawls on a softly upholstered bench, in the deep chamber which was once a prison. "Day" and "night" have no meaning here, far even from the filtered lights of the Undying Lands, farther yet from the cycles of Middle Earth. A cup of wine sits at her elbow. She has learned to drink the wine slowly, savoring the scent and taste. No longer does it overwhelm her, as it did at her first meal here. It is one of many thing she has learned from Aule.As Aule teaches her about life in physical bodies, she continues the work that brought her here: listening to his tale, understanding his frustrations, calming his troubled spirit.
She understands the Children so much better now. How blind the Valar have been living isolated here in the Blessed Lands: Manwe viewing the world from the heights of his mountain; Este sleeping by the pools of her garden, and brother Irmo never questioning this; she and brother Mandos spending all their time with the dead; Varda with her stars. The Valar dabbled perhaps in the physical world -- a feast for a day, a stroll in Vana's meadows. Orome with his hunts, and Yavanna with her orchards.
Yes, while the Valar drift in lives of ease, in the spirit world and a perfectly controlled model of the world. Meanwhile, the Children, living in the hard-edged physical world, battle, and love, and develop passions unknown to sheltered spirit-beings. But Nienna understands their world and their passions now.
Their burning desire for justice, not as a cold theoretical following of a distant plan of a distant Eru,but the urgent personal need to redress personal wrongs. She now feels,in her own inner being, Aule's pain at the injustices and indignities he had suffered -- from Eonwe, from Yavanna, from Manwe himself. If the Valar cannot treat one of their own number well, how can they hope to govern a world?
Their fierce love of a homeland, as she now loves this quiet and safe room. This is a tiny "home" perhaps, but belonging only to her and her kind, gentle, thoughtful Aule.
A mental disturbance intrudes on her thoughts -- her brother Irmo, still in the mortal lands. Among the many pleasures she has learned in this place, solitude is one that appeals to both her Ainu spirit nature and her physical body. To be free of the clamor of demands on her attention. Surely her work with Aule is of greater importance than anything that could be happening to the mortals. Irritated, she brushes the mental touch away. Again she feels Irmo's attempt at mental contact, and closes her mind firmly, lest he continue to pester her. Angrily she mutters to the room around her, "I am busy. I have important matters to attend. Did I not already tell him so?"
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