Cradle of Stars by Dawn Felagund, Elleth

Revealing Light

[From the oral tradition of the Teleri, circa 3 FA, collected and translated by Rúmil of Tirion]

When the King and Queen of the Teleri returned to Alqualondë in the retinue of the Valar, they found many things unexpected, and did not find many things expected. When the King and Queen of the Teleri returned to Alqualondë in the retinue of the Valar, they came in the gray clothing and with the shorn hair of grief. They came to a city left in darkness and mourning. They found darkness and mourning but they found more and unexpected too. They were greeted by their daughter Eärwen and shown to the palace where the windchimes were again permitted to play.

They did not find their people hungry.

They did not find the streets silent.

They did find music on the beach that night, and a feast of fish, which they joined. The Valar brought fruits coaxed by the will of Yavanna, but these were gifts and delights, not the succor they'd intended.

They found the first frail workings upon a white ship—perhaps not as grand as the ships they'd lost of theft, then fire, but enough to plow through the waves and keep their people fed.

They found their daughter Eärwen had ruled in their stead with the Noldorin princess Anairë, who had refused to leave Aman, largely because of her friendship with Eärwen.

The found Anairë not at the feast and not in the shadows of the dunes but unwinding the cloth that swathed the lanterns, so that they might light their way.