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Tasa's mind remained open now, and she felt strong with her ability to feel it, to place barriers within it, and to block what she did not wish to enter. Her mind was her own; no voice, no sounds, spoke within it save those laced with loyalty and care.
I think of you, mellon, as a servant thinks her master, as a child her father, a mother her son, a wife her husband. I see the choices that you have made and I have wondered why those same choices were not given to me. I watch with a mother's pride the goodness in your heart, the myriad ways in which you have struggled against and overcome obstacles. I have watched in adoration as you have won through where others have failed.
But mostly, Malris, I think of you as a friend, as have I always done, and as will I until the last. I could not have borne it, song or no song, that you should forsake the one you loved most. That you should come to a decision, my friend, that would lose you the most cherished memories of ages.
Should you have chosen, think what you would have lost, mellon. Malris, in choosing to remain in Arda in such a way, would you have kept in your being memory of the Valar that love you?
We have scorned them, Malris, but they love us nonetheless; ever harder would it be for me to return, knowing their forgiveness and being unable to forgive myself.
Will I dance my fingers across the strings, or shall I sail?
I say neither, friend of friends.
Her eyes met his and her heart broke, and never had she truly understood the greatest sacrifices of legend until now, and she knew deeply, even through her sorrow, that she was right in choosing.
I would follow you until the utmost end, but the choice you make is no end, but a new beginning. I had a beginning, Malris; I do not ask for another. I cannot return.
Nor can I forsake memory. She looked wistfully at the strings and wished, just once, that she had the will to forget. I will stay in Arda, Malris, and I will fade.
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