There were so many good stories in this year's trsb! I had a lot of fun doing this late treat art for @polutrope 's story, Hearken Still Unsated.
Here's the summary:
“For how many years," he asks, "have we two listened for the echoes of the Music of Creation in the oceans and lakes and rivers? And yet we will never be sated. Like the water in which they say it lives, the Song does not rest but ever moves and changes. It may pool in a great lake for an age and then pour down into the Sea in another. It fills whatever spaces it can and flows by whatever paths most easily open before it.”
When the Noldor return to Middle-earth to make war on Morgoth, only rumours reach Menegroth of their reasons for coming, but Doriath's minstrel experiences their loss and longing through his connection to Music and the gift of his Queen. Years later, he is sent to the Feast of Reuniting and meets the Elf whose grief he felt. A story about the Eldar returning home, their connection to the land and to each other, and their relationship to Music and fate, love and free will.
It's a gorgeous Daeron/Maglor fic. I'll leave close ups of my art as well as the symbolism and a few non-spoilery thoughts on the fic under the cut. :)
