Under Cloud and Under Star by StarSpray

Epilogue

TA 3021

It was a lovely summer day in Long Cleeve—all the better for the efforts of young Sam Gamgee, who had been traipsing around the Shire with his box of elven soil almost since the moment that Sharkey had been killed and his ruffians chased off, planting and weeding and trimming, and directing others in the best ways to do all of the same. They had been luckier in Long Cleeve than elsewhere, it being mostly Took land and nearly all of the Tooks having followed the Thain's lead when it came to dealing with Sharkey's Big Men.

Not that Peony had done much dealing with anything. She was too old for that sort of thing. But she'd been quite happy to hide valuables for her friends and family in her little hobbit hole, hidden away behind false panels and dug into the cellar, and to provide a hiding place for the younger hobbits whose joints did allow them to run about with bows and slings and harry the ruffians when they came calling.

Now all the valuables had been dug up and returned to their owners, or to their owners' heirs, and the holes in her floors and walls had been patched, and her garden put in order by Master Gamgee himself, and Peony was quite happy to sit in a padded rocking chair in the sunshine beside her blooming roses, enjoying the warmth and the green and the birdsong.

A shadow fell over her as she half-dozed, and Peony opened one eye to find a surprisingly tall visitor looming over her. He crouched down, and she opened her other eye with a smile. "Why, Maglor!" she exclaimed. "Fancy seeing you, here! I wondered when you would next turn up."

"Well met, Miss Peony," said Maglor with a smile. He looked almost exactly the same as he had when Peony had first met him, though his clothes were in better repair, and he had no bruises nor dark circles under his eyes. His hair was neatly combed and braided in a long rope that lay across one shoulder, and he had little golden rings twinkling up the edges of his ears. "I am very glad to find you safe and well."

"Thank you! I am glad to see you, too," said Peony. "I hope the rest of the world fared rather better than the Shire. You should have seen the mess in Hobbiton after Sharkey was finally got rid of."

"I have seen it now," said Maglor, "and the mallorn tree growing in the field. Your young cousins have the favor of Lady Galadriel." He sat down cross-legged on the grass, and leaned over to smell the roses.

"Your young cousin, you mean," Peony said, and laughed when Maglor looked up. "Yes, I know who you really are, Maglor son of Fëanor! Bilbo sat me down and explained it all, once he realized I didn't have any idea that I'd been traveling for months with the most famous singer of all the Noldor!"

Maglor grinned, and then laughed. "You do not sound so very impressed! And you never mentioned it before."

"I'd nearly forgotten by the time I saw you again," said Peony. Maglor had been an unpredictable but fairly frequent visitor over the years, popping up every now and then in Long Cleeve to startle all of Peony's relations and then to charm them with his music and stories. "And I was very impressed at the time, with all that business at the river, you know." She peered at him as she adjusted her shawl about her shoulders. "This is to be your last visit, isn't it? I've seen that look before, the one the elves all get when their thoughts aren't quite here in Middle-earth anymore."

His smile turned a little wry. "Yes, it is," he said. "Elrond and Galadriel are taking ship this autumn, and I am leaving with them, at Elrond's insistence."

"Good!" said Peony, which seemed to startle him. "I always thought it wasn't good for you, wandering about all by yourself, singing in pain and regret or whatever it is the stories say you do. And what are you doing in the meantime? I hope you aren't visiting me just for the afternoon."

"Of course not! I thought I would stay here until it is time to meet the rest of my party."

It was a very pleasant visit, and a long one. Once word got out that Peony's elven friend was visiting her again, even her young cousins the Travelers, along with Sam Gamgee, came one afternoon for tea and stories. That was near the end of August, and it was a very pleasant afternoon, although Frodo was much quieter than Peony remembered him being before he'd gone off. Then September came on, and one starlit evening Maglor bent down and kissed Peony's cheek. "Farewell, Peony Took," he said.

"Goodbye, Maglor," she said, patting his hand. "Be safe. And if you meet Limwë and Lagreth and the others, do give them my greetings."

He smiled, and bowed, and disappeared down the garden path. As he passed onto the tree-lined lane he began to sing, and it seemed to Peony that the stars grew a little brighter as his voice lifted up over the trees, singing of starlight on western seas.