Silm Ficlet: Past Deeds

[martasfic]

Title: Past Deeds
Summar: During the attack on Sirion, Maglor is reminded of past deeds.
Word Count: 300 + Notes
Characters: Maglor, OC
Timeline: First Age (Silmarillion canon)
Warnings: angst, violence
Beta: agape4gondor
Note: Written for rhyselle, who requested "an angsty drabble set during the sacking of the Havens at Sirion", but not being Elwing-centric.

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Maglor looked out the palace window, entranced by the sight: ships burning; the whole harbor alight. He swallowed hard against the bile in his throat.

He closed his eyes, as if doing so would take away the ships that burned now, and the ones that had burned at Alqualondë. The harbor had not simply burned at Alqualondë; he and his brothers had turned it red with blood. And for what? Some pretty bauble, his father's pride, oaths sworn at Túna when mist and grief clouded his heart? And why was he still so willing to spill blood for that curséd promise uttered so long before?

He had heard screams since then, seen elven-blood on his sword, but the flames.... It was the flames that pulled him back to that bloody night. Maglor remembered a Telerin youth who'd stood on a berth, blocking his way. Had the boat been his father's? Had they used it to pull fish from the sea, or perhaps explore up the coast? Had it really been worth dying for?

In the end, none of that mattered. In the end, Maglor had sunk his dagger into the youth's gut. He'd frozen in horror, then, and the lad's blood had run through Maglor's fingers and over his hands. The Telerin had died, and Maglor – he'd been cursed to live.

Maglor grasped his sword more tightly, to steady his hands. 'Twas too late to save that boy, he knew that, or even to turn aside from this latest battle. His hands were bound by that ancient oath, and he could no more change his course now than a twig could alter a river's path.

His only hope lay forward, he knew: to find Elwing, to reclaim his father's cursed jewel. Then, perhaps, the oath would rest for a while.

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Notes
Some of you less familiar with the Silmarillion may be curious about the backstory of this drabble. What follows is my own bare-bones summary of the events pertinent to this drabble.

The "baubles" referred to in this story are the silmarils, created by Fëanor in Valinor. They were stolen by Morgoth when the vala killed Fëanor's father Finwë, and Fëanor and his sons (including Maglor) swore an oath to reclaim the silmarils. This was actually what drew them to Middle-earth.

The Fëanorians made war against Morgoth but finally it became clear that this war was hopeless, and so the brothers let the matter rest. After Beren and Lúthien took the silmaril from Morgoth, the Fëanorians attacked the Elven kingdoms that held the silmaril, events that became known as the Kinslayings. The silmaril was passed to their son Dior and finally his daughter Elwing, who carried it out of Doriath to Sirion. After a time the Fëanorians learned that the silmaril was in Sirion, and so they attacked that settlement in what Tolkien described as "the last and cruelest of the slayings of Elf by Elf" ("Of the Voyage of Eärendil," The Silmarillion).

The encounter between the Telerin youth and Maglor is my own invention, but the attack on Alqualondë is not. The Fëanorians needed ships to travel from Valinor to Middle-earth and did not have any of their own, and the Teleri shipbuilders refused to give them ships since they were leaving Valinor against the wishes of the Valar. The Fëanorians tried to steal their ships, and the conflict escalated into an all-out battle. The Fëanorians then burned those boats they did not need to keep the other Noldor from sailing with them to Middle-earth. This is the "ships burning" that Maglor remembers.

I hope this helps you understand the context of this ficlet better, if you did not understand it already.