Star-queen's Servant by Zdenka

Chapter 1

I. Light

“Come to me, Ilmarë.”

Summoned, Ilmarë came quick as thought to where her Lady stood beneath the Two Trees, amidst the mingling of their light. Varda raised her fair hands to touch their leaves; the light ran through her fingers in drops of silver and gold to pool upon the earth below. “This light must be gathered as it falls,” Varda said, “and stored, both for purposes that we know of and others that are yet to come.”

“What sort of vessel can contain such light, Lady?” Ilmarë asked respectfully. This close to the light of the Trees, she could feel and hear their music that resonated with the song of her own being.

“That I know not,” Varda answered. “Yet speak with my folk and the folk of Aulë, and together you will contrive it. And some must be appointed to gather the light each hour.”

“It will be done, Lady.”

“I thank thee, Ilmarë.” Ilmarë bowed. A moment later Varda was gone with a thought, to stand once more upon Taniquetil beside Manwë.

Ilmarë gazed upon the Trees a moment longer, and then departed to seek the halls of Aulë. Long was their planning and contriving, the length of centuries in years of the Sun that were still to come; and longer still was their labor. Their making was like digging and forging and weaving, singing and the shaping of clay. It was all of these and none, for no ordinary vessel of earthly substance can hold light as if it were water. Yet when they were finished, there stood great vats full of light in rippling pools, which all the Valar might use as they would for the brightening of the land and the creation of many fair things.

II. Stars

Varda returned from the council of the Valar with great joy. “The time of the Children of Ilúvatar is soon at hand,” she said. “We must prepare now for their coming.” At her bidding, Ilmarë and her other handmaidens brought her silver dew of Telperion in many vessels, and Varda began that labor which is of all her works the most renowned: the making of the innumerable stars.

When at last the work was complete, Varda darted up as if on swift wings to stand atop the dome of the heavens; and Ilmarë was beside her. With great care, Ilmarë handed her each star, and Varda set them in their places until no place was left that was not bright. The light of the stars shone down upon Middle-earth, and with that light, it is said, the Eldar awoke.

III. Wrath

From her place in the host of the Valar, Ilmarë could see the twisting and turning of the battle. There stood Orcs and trolls, wretched beings ripped from their place in the Song and forced to serve Melkor in hatred. Ilmarë marked where they stood, and where they fell to the blades of Elves or Men or those of her own order. The Maiar of Mandos would gather them afterwards, and there would be time, she thought, to seek healing even for them. There too were those who had once been her brethren in the service of Varda; yet now they stood dark and terrible, shapes of flame and shadow. In sorrow and in anger she blazed light against them, while she sang of Eä, of what is and must be; and they fell, whirled away into nothingness.

When at last Melkor’s armies were defeated, the Valar stood beside the broken peaks of Thangorodrim, before the fortress where their once-brother had hidden. They had warned all the Elves and Men to be well away. Manwë and Varda exchanged silent speech, and then Varda stepped forward. They all moved aside for her, even Tulkas, who was barely restraining his eagerness to join battle.

Varda raised her arms. The seven stars of the Valacirca shone behind her head like a crown, and the light of Gil-Estel spilled between her fingers. She sang, her voice rising higher and higher in power and beauty until her spirit blazed with the light of the Flame Imperishable. Then she brought down her hands in a single swift motion, and the walls of Angband crumbled before her.