Answering Light by Anérea

| | |

Fanwork Notes

For Keiliss.
Namárië...

Fanwork Information

Description:

Inspired by Surfacing, Into Light by Maggie Honeybite featuring Keiliss' Erestor and Gil-galad from Answers in the Dark, the sequel to Burning Bright: The Road.

- - - 

Music:  Come Back to Us · Thomas Newman

Major Characters: Erestor, Gil-galad

Major Relationships: Erestor/Gil-galad

Genre: Romance, Slash

Type: Character/Portrait, Drawing/Painting, Illustration

Challenges: Restoration and Rebuilding

Rating: Teens

Warnings:

Posted on 23 August 2022 Updated on 4 September 2022

Answering Light

Maggie Honeybite created a beautiful "missing scene" as a gift for Keiliss when she went into ICU, bringing a touch of healing and light that creates a lovely sort of "end of part two" to the story.

Water has always held restorative healing energy for me (and I believe for Kei too) so Maggie's subtle water and light imagery resonated with me so powerfully that a vivid, dreamlike, underwater image came to mind, with elements of light, floating, loving embrace... and Gil's four-poster bed in the middle.

I visualised Kei embraced in healing light while in hospital, and although she's no longer embodied 'in Arda', I trust her spirit is embodied in light, beyond the Circles of the World.

Gil-galad/Erestor

Comments

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

This is absolutely breathtaking. The more I stare at it, the more lovely it seems. THANK YOU for taking a moment from my fic and making it come alive on the page. The sense of floating, of water and light, of love and redemption -- it's all there, and portrayed so beautifully. It's truly humbling for a writer to receive such a gift. And the thought that it was Kei's universe that inspired all this makes it all the sweeter. I feel very lucky today.

Thank you Wisteria! And I'm really pleased you particularly appreciate the light.

(I also apologise, I read and apprected your comment days ago, and thought I had replied but clearly only thought my reply!)

I am in love with the symbolism and beauty of water and this captures it so well -- the comfort, the fluidity, the intimacy. stunning.

Thanks Gabriel.

Yes, I'm totally in love with her Gil, but even more, I never saw much in Erestor until I read hers, and now he's one of my favourite, multifaceted, characters.

I've been reading more of her fics that have been sitting in my to-read queue with such bittersweet feelings, grateful that she's still here in that form, and really sad I can't tell her how her stories and characters make me feel...

Hugs to you! ?

Thank you so much, Gabriel! The painting is indeed beautiful, and I'm so glad you liked the fic. Kei's Gil-galad really is top notch, as is her Erestor. It was quite moving for me to write these characters (whom I used to write back in the early 2000s in stories Kei used to read) but give them more of a Keiliss spin. This fic is pretty special to me for that reason.

Like Anerea, I have some of Kei's stories in my to-read queue, but I haven't been brave enough to actually read any since she passed away. I click on them and then chicken out. Still too sad -- but I'll get there. Her stuff is too good not to read and re-read.

(Yes, that's a Nightwish songtitle)

I've never interacted much with Keiliss, but anytime I did, she took the time to reply to my comments on ao3. I heard she was dedicated and kind. I heard of what happened, I'm glad she's no longer suffering.

It's a beautiful piece of art.