There Is No Story Without a Fall by Deborah Judge  

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The Dance

Melkor watches Indis dance


There was no sorrow in Valinor, no marring and no grief. Then Indis set foot on it, one of the first of the Eldar in the Blessed Lands, and she brought with her the marring in her heart. "What is my purpose here?" she asked Lady Varda. Was it wrong for her to come? She hoped the Valar would protect her.

"Look on my stars and you will know," said the Lady. Indis bowed low to the ground and did not say that in Valinor there were no stars. 

In a distant field of Valinor Indis danced alone. She danced to the music of the beginning, the entangled melodies, and always loved the discordant notes. In this music all time was as one. She saw the stars under which her people were made but found in them no answer. Then she followed the music forward to look upon the faces of her two sons, sons of Finwë: one dark and one fair, one wise and one noble. She knew these faces like her own, though their existence was impossible. 

But will there be stars? she asked the music, and let it carry her on past anything she had seen.

In the distance, through the music, she saw starlight above a darkened Valinor. A shout rose of murder and death and she knew her beloved Finwë was lost. Her own children were doomed. An end to the eternal bliss of this land had come. She saw herself returned to Valimar alone and shamed, knowing with certainty that her actions had brought this about. The discordant notes played louder.

When the music stilled a Vala stood watching her. He was not one she recognized but she saw in this stranger the same discordant notes to which she had danced.

"You were made for a reason," he said.


 


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