Illuminate
We stood before the sea of shattered mist, the fragments of Illuin and Ormal, the Twin Lamps which had lit Arda. We salvaged the designs of our hearts, and rebuilt Aman. At that time the Music of the Ainur, which flowed from the heart of Ilúvatar, granted me a song which I would make once and never again.
I sat upon the greenness at the foot of the Mound, before our newly hallowed Valmar and the Ring of Doom where my kin were gathered, above the world that fell silent for this moment alone, and sang into form the Light of Valinor itself: two trees, entwined as brother and sister, to illume the world; towers beneath the roof of Varda's stars.
Laurelin – She who was the laughter of Eru, casting gilt joy across the landscape of Arda, shimmering newly-hatched green and gold and glorious. From her branches sprang flowers and fruits, spilling out rain like holy fire. She was the bright lady of Corollairë, and spoke ever of loving and doing and dancing, when I turned my ear to her glow.
Telperion – He who was the gentlest heart of the One, compassion and the showing of the ways. Sooner grown was he than Laurelin; mature green and bright silver he glittered. From his blossoms and leaves slipped dew like gems and silver, and though his light, paler and cooler than his sister's, created shadows and movement, he never once whispered of real darkness, nor of stealth or tearing down. He smiled ever in tranquility and knowledge.
A hundred names were bestowed with grateful adoration upon each tree, in prose and song alike, all testament to their splendor. Varda gathered the gilt rain and the filigree dew and formed great wells, whose light did not soon fade, whether she kept them close or sent them into the aether or the earth.
In the working of the Trees, summer and Bliss came to rest upon Valinor, and we sorrowed no more after our lost genesis at Almaren.
As one tree waxed, so the other waned and seemed to die, until some measure had passed and it sprang up again. In a rhythm we saw that only one tree shone at a time, except for one measure at each end of the cycle in which the mingled light of the Trees shone together and lit all Valinor with their astonishing brilliance, almost as the Lamps had once shone immutably. We arranged an order of hours around the rise and decline of each Tree, and reckoned Day and Night for Arda, and in this creation, the gift Eru set upon my shoulders, was woven the fate of a history even we could not foresee.
And thus, to the awe of the Ainur and all that dwelled upon Arda, was set in motion Time.