The swords have been cast down
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Strange New World by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
08 May 2020
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Summary
“You may live freely in these unmarred lands,” Manwë added quietly, moving towards the door. “There is no corruption in Arda Healed; there is no need for retribution. We have sung it so. You are not our prisoner, Mairon.”
After the Dagor Dagorath, the Valar allow Mairon to reincarnate in Arda Healed, but he finds himself struggling to cope: alone, his powers diminished, and Melkor's fate unknown.
Series
- Part 1 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 28 of Ends and Beginnings
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Come As You Are by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
24 Apr 2023
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“No,” Melkor repeats, and he can hear the fraying in his own voice. They have done this before; so many times they have done this, and each time he hoped it might be the last. “You’ve bled enough. You’ve hurt enough.”
Series
- Part 2 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 29 of Ends and Beginnings
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A quiet sort of introspection by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
19 Jun 2020
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You remember the day when you first realised that you loved him. The knowledge came to you gently, easily, as if you woke up one morning, opened the curtains, and there it was, your love for him, like a blanket of snow stretching out to the horizon.
It is early morning and Mairon is asleep, and Melkor finds himself watching him and thinking about their relationship: how much their lives have changed, how things could and should have been. Set post-Dagor Dagorath, when Mairon and Melkor have both been allowed to reincarnate in Arda Healed.
Series
- Part 3 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 30 of Ends and Beginnings
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Know Thyself by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
15 Oct 2024
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Summary
“But I am not me,” he says, Melkor says, who is neither lord nor god but a being who chose to be here sharing this half-life with him—with him—and that means something, means everything, must do. “I am… someone else. Stranger, you named me, when we first met in this new world. And you did not speak wrongly.”
Mairon is shaking his head before he is even done speaking. He bodily twists around so he’s facing Melkor, arranging himself cross-legged, and he stretches out a hand and where Melkor’s is worrying at the floor he laces their fingers together and holds him still, holds him warm and close.
“I spoke in hurt,” he tells him. “I knew you then and I know you now, and even if it were possible for me to reach inside you and reconfigure your component parts, I… oh, I would not do it. I would leave you precisely as you are, unchanged, you.”
It is a little like grief, to speak these words. They pass his lips heavily, and leave in their wake a certain emptiness as though his organs have been tipped out. But in the emptiness there is something clean. Something strong. Something resolute.
Series
- Part 4 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 31 of Ends and Beginnings
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A bond once called fealty by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
01 Nov 2020
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It is as if Melkor can see backwards through time, tracking each subtle change in Mairon, each circumstance and twist of fate that have moulded them into the people standing here today, sharing this moment.
Mairon is not the same person who knelt before his throne all those years ago and vowed to serve him. Melkor is not the same person who accepted that vow.
Melkor and Mairon have built a new life for themselves in Arda Healed. It is a life of peace, a life where they can be together without any wars to fight or empires to rule. But peace does not always equal happiness, and as the months wear on, Melkor comes to understand that some of Mairon’s wounds need more than just time to heal.
Series
- Part 5 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 32 of Ends and Beginnings
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(how to live as) ghosts by crackinthecup
Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
14 Dec 2023
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Summary
Bitterly, Mairon shakes his head. “No. You do not get to do this. You do not get to just… just decide that everything we have done to each other and been to each other is in the past and doesn’t matter anymore. No. I won’t let you.”
Series
- Part 6 of The swords have been cast down
- Part 33 of Ends and Beginnings