Many Journeys by Elleth

Chronicles

Instadrabbling submission from February 17: Maglor returns to Aman and sings of what he experienced wandering. For the prompt "Wait, this can't be right."

Kanafinwë Makalaurë has returned to Aman. His time of walking the mortal world have been judged penance enough, and few who have seen the dim-eyed, frayed man on worn feet would have the heart to call him unpunished.

He is given leave to sing. Chronicles, he calls the concerts, stretching them over an entire Long-Year, for his wanderings have passed Ages, horrors and wonders. Even the Valar themselves attend.

Eve after eve the seas wear away at the edges of the world. Eve after eve, the temperatures rise. Eve after eve, the air becomes heavier with mortality and greed, choked with the fumes of industry. Eve after eve, they see trees and empires fall. Some remember Númenor, only that no Sauron leads mortals to ruin. The spirit of malice is their very own.

Murmurs carry even to withdrawn Makalaurë's ears. He weaves them into his song effortlessly, smiling bitterly, for even he, on the margins of the mortal world, heard the arguments of untruth and denial of the world's changes around them.

Waiting for a ship, his feet sink ankle-deep in water where once was beach, and his song crescendos like a wave, and ends, but its echoes carry on.