"The Invitation" by Independence1776

[independence1776]

B2MeM Prompt and Category: Initial: Create a fanwork where a character crosses a river or the ocean.
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Family
Rating: General
Warnings: None
Characters: Maglor, Lalwen, a surprise
Pairings: None
Summary: Maglor receives an invitation during Númenor's seven hundredth founding anniversary.

The Invitation

Maglor unrolled the message he’d clenched in his hand. The paper was already starting to tear given how many times he’d looked at it since it was hand-delivered by a palace guard late the previous evening.

Maglor,

I know you know I saw you in the market this early afternoon; I let you leave without making a fuss because I thought you would appreciate it. You managed to disappear quite thoroughly after the War. Yet an Elf trying to be inconspicuous in Númenor? I talked to Tar-Elendil and he knew within hours where you were boarding, how long you had been there, and on what ship you had crossed the ocean.

I hope you don’t mind my intrusion, but I would like to converse with you. Given that neither of us will be here for much longer, I do not think it too much to ask. Come to supper tomorrow evening at sunset. I guarantee it will be private. Tell the guards at the palace garden gate that you will be visiting me; they’re expecting you and someone will escort you to my chambers. I look forward to seeing you again.

With my full regards,

Lalwen

He rolled the note back up and shoved it into his pocket. He glanced at the guard standing next to the open gate into the palace gardens, sighed, and stepped forward. His cousin had not lost an iota of Finwëan stubbornness and he knew full well that if he did not listen to her, she would come to him. That was a disturbance he did not want; while the proprietor of the inn Maglor had arranged to board at for providing light entertainment every other evening during the festive week knew he was an Elf, it would not do to have any more attention drawn to him than necessary. Of course, that caution had proven all but pointless when Lalwen spotted him.

True to Lalwen’s word, he was admitted and led by a guard through the winding gardens-- some decorative with flowers in full bloom, some useful for healing and kitchen, one with a hedge maze-- to an offshoot palace wing that overlooked one of the gardens that had required the unlocking of a wrought-iron gate to enter.

Lalwen, her black hair now cropped short in an interesting change from what had been typical Elven hairstyles, opened a glass-and-wood door near the building’s end and smiled at him as the guard took his leave. “It’s lovely to see you, Maglor.”

He raised an eyebrow and stepped into the dining room. It was small, private as she’d promised: there were only two place settings on the wooden table. A bottle of white wine stood on the table next to a covered tureen on the embroidered runner. Two doors on opposite sides of the room from each other led elsewhere in the wing. He suspected this was supposed to be a private dining area, either for immediate family or a pair of lovers, for it was hardly furnished apart from a small china cabinet against the wall opposite the garden door. “Are you sure?”

She sighed. “Maglor, if I want to see my cousin again, I can. You are not out of bounds here and neither am I. Regardless,” she said, “if people question me, I can say I am ensuring my people’s safety from a Kinslayer.” She rolled her eyes and gestured at the chair closest to him. “Sit down. I promise I haven’t poisoned the soup.”

Maglor chuckled and moved toward the chair when the door opposite him banged open and a woman with auburn hair in a loose braid hurried in. “Lalwen, I’m sorry I’m late. I lost track of time in the statue gard--” She stopped when she saw him, one of her hands rising to cover her mouth.

Maglor swallowed, staring at her. Both of them ignored Lalwen slipping out of the room through the door behind Maglor. “Mother,” he finally said and took two giant steps across the room to embrace her.

Nerdanel wrapped her muscular arms around him and held him tight.

Comments

[starspray]

This is wonderful! I adore your Lalwen, and the surprise at the end is really delightful.

[independence1776]

Thank you!

[zdenka]

Aw, I like this! I'm in favor of Maglor getting hugs.

I like your Lalwen and her determination.

[independence1776]

Thank you! I am obviously likewise in favor of Maglor getting hugs. He needs them.

Thanks. :)

[sasha_honeypalm]

*grin*

[independence1776]

:D

[raiyana]

... This is so Nerdanel(Did Uinen never go back for fear of being harangued into smuggling her to Númenor, I wonder... IDEAS!) I find far too few Lalwen fics(bunn has made me take an oar in her Círdan/Lalwen canoe) so it's lovely to find someone who has had Thoughts about her! ^^

[independence1776]

Thank you! (Ooh!)

I love Lalwen, but I don't write her all that often. (I should; I know more about her than ever ends up in the few ficlets.) I'm a Lalwen/OFC shipper, though.

[raiyana]

Ship away ;) I have no strong attachment to any of my ships(okay, no, I do rather favour my celebrimbor /narvi ship, and I strongly dislike silvergifting... But aside from that!) If the story works that's the main thing imo, and kudos to you for inventing a whole new lady(I do that, too, and it's difficult at times) we need more of them :D

Den 20. mar. 2018 1.19 PM skrev "independence1776 - DW Comment" < dw_null@dreamwidth.org>:

[independence1776]

I am very attached to a few ships (Elrond/Celebrían, Maglor/canonical wife, Arwen/Aragorn, Beren/Lúthien), but I'm also largely a low-key canon shipper who prefers canon/OC if the canon character isn't canonically linked with someone. Not to say I don't have noncanon ships; I do. I'm also willing to give many things a try as long as they don't hit my squicks.

Is silvergifting Annatar/Celebrimbor? I'm not really up on the smushnames/nicknames/whatever-the-term-is-that's-slipped-my-memory.

Yes, we do need more women! I make it a point to write as many OFCs as possible.

[raiyana]

Yes, it is. And yes, canonical ships are Good (although Maglor/canon wife is... well, we don't know anything about her, really, do we? Imo she might as well be an OC)
Where do you archive? Now that I've finished this Uinen thing, I need stuff to read in between working on SWG & Feanorain week lol.

[independence1776]

Maglor's wife is pretty much an OC; literally all we know about her is that she exists. So I consider her canon, if only just. (If the textual ghosts count as canon, so do the women we have canon existance for.) But I admit it's a gray area up to individual interpretation!

SWG has all of my Silmarillion fic; most of it's on AO3, too, but not all of it. I am fairly focused on Maglor and Elrond, though not exclusively.

I don't have time right now to read the last two chapters of your Uinen story, but I'm looking forward to them!

[raiyana]

No rush, they're not going to disappear on you! XD

Currently tapping away at my next swg challenge, too ^^ another almost-canon OFC this time :D (Curufin's wife - unless he's secretly a lady, she had to have existed to give birth at the very least)

[independence1776]

:D Hope you have fun writing!

[hhimring]

How clever of Lalwen! If Maglor had guessed, he might have backed out, you show him as nervous enough!
I also like how apparently she's friends enough with Tar-Elendil to set all this up and the description of the location, which she seems to have selected very carefully.

[independence1776]

Thank you! She didn't tell Nerdanel, either; my Lalwen is a bit of a prankster. And yes, Maglor could very well have backed out. Not that Lalwen would have let him…

She is. It actually is a private dining area in the wing of the palace the official Elven guests of Númenor are staying in. At this point in time, Lalwen rules Tol Eressëa, so she was explicitly invited monarch to monarch. Nerdanel was also official (as opposed to just one of the random Elves who decided to visit (and there are a fair number of them)) due to the Maglor-Elros connection.

[narya_flame]

This put a huge grin on my face. I love your Lalwen (especially the pixie crop!) and that hug at the end...gorgeous :)

[independence1776]

Thank you!

Eee! I am thrilled you love her pixie crop! It is so freaking difficult to describe things that have a word in their name in modern English that doesn't work in a Middle-earth setting and I'd hoped it came across.

[nialoke]

Awww, this is awesome! You got me by surprise there in the end, too, and what a delightful one. I love the idea of the Finwean family visiting Numenor (why have I never thought of this before?, and I can only agree with everyone else and say, your Lalwen rocks!

[independence1776]

Thank you! I'm glad the surprise worked. I'd never thought about it before this story, either.