In LOTR with Harry Potter system-Chapter 454: Varda’s Surprise

The celestial realm was like an invisible sea. Countless stars drifted through the expanse, scattering dazzling light in every direction. The starry sky was not silent, it was a bustling realm unto itself.

Myriad celestial spirits dwelt here, tiny and delicate as luminous fish in an ocean of light. They were responsible for tending the stars and illuminating the earth below. These spirits were Varda's subjects and servants, tasked with assisting the Star-Queen in maintaining the great celestial mechanism.

And among them all, the most dazzling and singular presence was Eärendil.

The great mariner sailed his ship Vingilótë through the star-sea of the ilma, following a fixed and sacred trajectory. Upon his brow he wore a Silmaril, and its light transformed him into the brightest star in all the heavens, a beacon of hope and guidance for the peoples of Middle-earth far below.

Ilmarin stood at the very pinnacle of the world, only a short distance from the starry realm. Over the course of five hundred years, Sylas had followed Varda into the celestial sphere countless times. It was no surprise, then, that he eventually encountered Eärendil himself, and was invited aboard Vingilótë to experience the great crossing from east to west across the dome of heaven.

Standing above the star-sea and gazing down upon Arda, Sylas was filled with emotion.

The world below bore a striking resemblance to the Earth of his long-distant memory. From this vantage, it was an immense sphere, beautiful, finite, and achingly familiar.

This was the primary world of Arda. In the most ancient days, the Valar had shaped it as a flat expanse, with Middle-earth at its center, surrounded by the encircling seas. But after Númenor, seduced by Sauron's whispered lies, had embarked upon its path of self-destruction, everything changed. At Manwë's behest, Eru Ilúvatar himself had reshaped Arda into a sphere. Simultaneously, the Undying Lands, Aman and Valinor, were removed from Arda's physical surface and set apart in a separate dimension, accessible only by the Straight Road.

From Sylas's perspective, compared to the Earth of his previous life, this world was relatively small, or perhaps its evolution was simply incomplete. Arda was essentially just Earth, but its cosmology was fundamentally different. The Sun, Moon, and all the stars were not distant celestial bodies but rather luminaries,"satellites" set within the atmosphere beyond Arda's surface, revolving around its central sphere.

Beyond Arda's outermost boundaries lay an endless, dark void. It resembled the universe of his previous life in its vastness, but it was not like that universe at all. There were no galaxies, no nebulae, no distant suns. Only silence and absolute darkness, an infinite emptiness devoid of celestial bodies or planets.

This boundless space was called the Abyss, Kúma, the birthplace of Ungoliant, the primordial horror who had drained the light of the Two Trees.

Arda and the Abyss beyond it together formed a single sub-universe, the complete creation of Eru Ilúvatar. Yet the Valar showed no inclination to expand into the outer darkness. Even Valinor, though removed from Arda's surface, remained within the bounds of Arda's sphere.

Sylas gazed through the world-barrier at the silent, dark Abyss, then turned his eyes to the shimmering celestial spirits around him. The astronomical knowledge he had received from the Sign-In System, the knowledge of planetary mechanics and cosmic architecture, stirred in his mind. An idea that had been brewing for a long time now crystallized, ready to be put into practice.

He looked at Varda, the supreme goddess of light and starcraft, and thought quietly to himself. This goddess, who had devoted herself to supporting her husband's rule, likely did not fully grasp the extent of the power she wielded.

Varda was a goddess of both light and starcraft, but she leaned far more heavily toward the power of illumination. The stars were, to her, tools, beautiful and purposeful instruments she used to light the world of Arda. She had never delved deeply into the study of celestial mechanics as a discipline unto itself.

"Teacher," Sylas said, breaking the silence. "The Abyss beyond the world of Arda is vast and boundless. Have you ever considered expanding into it? Placing true stars in the void, not merely to illuminate Arda, but to fill the darkness itself?"

Over five hundred years, Varda had devoted herself to teaching Sylas with patience and generosity, and in turn, she had grown quite fond of her exceptional student. Now, hearing his words, the Star-Queen turned to him with a look of genuine curiosity.

"Sylas, what do you have in mind?"

Sylas did not answer immediately. Instead, he brought his palms together.

Countless streams of starlight erupted from between his hands, cascading outward before condensing into a constellation of luminous spheres. The spheres arranged themselves in an elegant orbital pattern, each one tracing its own trajectory around a central body, rotating in harmonious, self-sustaining motion.

It was a miniature model of a solar system.

Unlike the solar system of Sylas's previous life, this model did not revolve around the sun, it was geocentric, with the spheres orbiting the largest central body: Arda itself. But the underlying principles were unmistakable, gravitational harmony, orbital mechanics, the architecture of a true planetary system.

"This is..!" Varda's luminous eyes widened, her expression one of profound astonishment.

To lesser eyes, it might have seemed like nothing more than a clever trick of starlight. But Varda perceived far more. Within each spinning sphere, she sensed a cosmic mystery, a deep, fundamental law governing the motion of celestial bodies along self-determined paths. Her gaze locked onto the star system hovering in Sylas's hands, and something stirred within her, an instinctive recognition that what she was seeing was of immeasurable importance to her domain.

Seeing the seed, one could envision the tree. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Varda needed no further explanation. As the supreme goddess of starcraft, the very being who had kindled the stars of Arda, she grasped the implications of Sylas's celestial model almost instantly. Countless inspirations cascaded through her mind, each one branching into new possibilities.

A surge of divine power erupted from her, so vast and sudden that every star in the sky began to pulse and flicker in response. Varda's radiance blazed with overwhelming intensity, so dazzling that Sylas felt as though his very being might dissolve in the light.

He reacted swiftly, raising his hand and weaving a temporal barrier around himself, placing his own body in a slightly displaced time-stream, separated from the searing brilliance by a fraction of a moment. The light washed over him harmlessly, its lethal edge deflected by the thin membrane of altered time.

At last, the radiance subsided.

Varda turned to Sylas, her expression a mixture of exhilaration and genuine contrition.

"Forgive me, Sylas. The knowledge you shared moved me so deeply that I lost control of my power."

Sylas shook his head, waving the apology away.

"Teacher, there's nothing to apologize for. After all, I'm perfectly fine, aren't I?"

Then, with a note of eager anticipation, he asked: "Did you gain something just now?"

Varda's luminous eyes brimmed with joy and gratitude as she nodded.

"An enormous gain. I never imagined that the stars could be made to evolve in such a way. And it is entirely thanks to you, Sylas."

She paused, her brow furrowing with a scholar's precise curiosity.

"I understand now how to create true celestial bodies, planets. But I am still unclear on one point. How can those stars move autonomously along specific orbits without requiring anyone to guide them?"

Sylas did not explain directly. Instead, he smiled and posed a question of his own.

"Then tell me, Teacher, why do you think an apple on a tree falls toward the ground, and not toward the sky?"

Varda fell silent, contemplating the question. Then, like dawn breaking across her features, a look of sudden, radiant comprehension illuminated her face. The joy of discovery shone in her eyes.

"So, your meaning is to use that force to govern the movement of the celestial bodies?"

Sylas smiled and nodded.

"Precisely, Teacher. When you create the planets, you could imbue each one with gravitational force, and then let them guide one another. That way, no one would need to control or steer them. Every planet would move and operate autonomously, held in balance by the same invisible force that pulls an apple to the earth."

Varda's delight was incandescent.

The entire world of Arda grew brighter in response to her joy, a phenomenon so pronounced that even the perpetually dark polar regions blazed with shimmering curtains of aurora.

"I truly cannot thank you enough, Sylas. Your wisdom is like the light of Ilúvatar himself, allowing my power over the stars to expand beyond anything I had conceived. I do not know how to repay you."

"It is enough that I could be of help, Teacher," Sylas replied simply. "You need not thank me for this."

Seeing his sincerity, Varda did not press the matter further, though she held this great favor close in her heart, resolving to express her gratitude in due time.

Then her eyes blazed with renewed purpose. She gazed out at the star-sea, and for the first time, Sylas saw something like ambition kindle in the Star-Queen's expression, vast, luminous, and breathtaking.

"Come, Sylas. Let us return to Ilmarin first. To complete this celestial transformation, to reshape the heavens and fill the Abyss with true planets, I cannot do it alone. I will need the other Valar."

Without another word, Varda gathered Sylas in her radiance and transformed into a streak of blazing starlight. They arced across the sky in an instant, landing upon the snow-crowned peak of Taniquetil, returning once more to the halls of Ilmarin.

Moments later, Great Eagles, Thunderbirds, and Phoenixes burst from the palace in every direction, each bearing Manwë's summons, and streaked across the skies of Valinor toward the domains of the other Valar.

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