Author: theambernightingale
Fandom: Tolkien
Pair: Lindir x Fading!Reader
Summary: As an Elf raised by Dwarves, Y/N is unaware that Elves have different courting traditions. When Lindir rejects her gift of a finely crafted dagger, he breaks her heart and she begins to fade.
Warnings: saddo
Other:
Y/N - Your Name
E/C - Eye Colour
H/C - Hair Colour

Your hair is long and braided dwarf style but you look like all elves.

Lord Elrond had welcomed her two seasons ago, and Lindir had undeniably fallen for her.
Lady Y/N, the tall elleth who had dwarvish habbits, had wandered into Lindir's life entirely by mistake and he had been smitten with her since.
Elladan and Elrohir joked that Lindir must be learning how to craft weapons with the amount of time he spent down in the forges.
In reality, he kept Y/N company and they spoke of many things, the right hand of Elrond spending every possible waking moment with the master blacksmith.

Recently, Y/N had been more closed off about her projects, dodging Lindir's endless questions as she heated enormous ingots of gold into a glittering liquid that she poured into a mould, waiting for it to set before removing the oddly shaped metal and beginning to add detail. Silver soon stood out in gorgeous swirls, glittering sapphires that seemed to layer off into infinity soon being inlaid into the crosspiece of each small blade.

The process took months, longer than the average set of blades usually took.

Then came the custom leather scabbard, Y/N using Lindir as a model for her sizing. The elleth seemed to have thoughts for someone or something else as she worked, her mind wandering until she ended up slipping and cutting herself.
Lindir patiently stayed with her, mesmerised by Y/N's work. As she had no elvish family, Lindir had nobody to request Y/N's had in courting from.

When she tried to gift her beautiful throwing knives to Lindir, he refused her because the blades were so beautiful that surely no mere steward such as himself would be able to obtain the weapons.
Y/N left him in a rush, practically sprinting down the corridors of her palace home in Imladris.
When she didn't reappear from her quarters for lever a week, Lindir tried to coax her out with promises of anything she wanted.

It was when Y/N ceased to even answer his calls that Lindir became panicked, believing her to have taken her own life. He resolved to stay and keep trying to have her willingly open the door before he resorted to using brute force.
Lord Elrond had soon excused Lindir of all duties after he finally caught his apprentice sitting against Y/N's door, talking to the wood.

After getting permission from Lord Elrond, Lindir decided to force his way into Y/N's room to make sure she was alright.

What he saw broke his heart.

The knives lay in their dusty sheath, not having been moved for months. The curtains were drawn shut, blocking all light from entering the sitting room. As most rooms in Imladris were laid out, the bedroom part was to the left and the bathroom part to the right. Blushing at the idea of searching Y/N's bathroom, Lindir knocked on the bedroom door before entering, Lord Elrond hot on his heels.

A film of dust covered everything, Elrond's words too slow to stop Lindir from throwing the curtains open to reveal a barely visible unmoving shade of Y/N's body on the bed. Even as Lindir rushed to her side to grasp her hand, his warm flesh passed right through her transparent form and she faded away entirely.

'The daggers, she made them for me. Why would she fade after I rejected them?' Lindir questioned Elrond, holding back tears.

'Y/N was raised amongst Dwarves. Part of their courting ritual is to offer a handmade gift and if the gift is turned down, courting does not ensue. She presented you with some of the finest blades one can acquire and you turned them down. As the case is with all elves, she faded away from a broken heart.'

Lindir had no reply. His slender fingers curled around a gorgeous ring on a chain, drawing it from a pocket in his robes to lay it between himself and his superior on the dusty bedspread. White gems of pure starlight glittered in the silver.

The ring was useless now, for it would never slide onto the finger of the elleth it was intended for.