eyefire | but don't make me your enemy

[ Taking Adar's measure, he turns and the only sound is the soft sussurration of his robes. In the roofless, endless dark of the hallway, both of them lost in giant pillars that reach up in mockery of ancient trees, he barely has to raise his voice for it to carry. ]

Come.

[ He leads the way to a smaller hall, cosy by Angband's standards where a dining table has been set. Skulls sliced cleanly open above eyes, brains made into soup and pate, limbs roasted with honey and herbs, fruit pies with eyes melted atop, goblets of bloodwine fragranced with rose petals. A banquet of death.

He walks in, gesturing to a seat. ]

Eat.

[He follows because he knows he has no choice, yet at the threshold to the door, Adar nearly turns back.

Must we? is clear on his face though he doesn't so much as mouth the words as he swallows and forces himself to go inside.] I see now why you did not bother to find me. [He was concocting an extension of his punishment, one that was almost dressed up like a reward (again) and would be to nearly anyone in Angband.

He tries not to look at them, but his other choice is his master who will surely turn his gaze back and so he finds himself staring at their young faces, ruined forever. He sits, but makes no move to take any of the food.]

Would you not run? [he asks, leaning back in the chair to look at him.] If it were Manwë here instead of Morgoth and you were some cog in his machine? Would you not try? [He asks but he knows, because Sauron would preserve himself at any cost. That was the core of his being, more than anything else.]

[ Sauron takes a seat at the other end of the table and helps himself to the meal, spooning a corned slush of brains onto his plate as he picks at bones, the marrow stuffed with roasted vegetables (he is not against greens, you see). Dipping each bone into the pate, he crunches down. ]

My dear captain, take this as a gesture of apology. I have let you have too much freedom, too highly vaunted for your deeds, and you thought running a realistic option. It never was.

That was my fault.

[Adar still doesn't make himself a plate, now looking squarely at Sauron without so much as blinking.

So he was pissed about Adar verbalising what they both knew, he supposed. That he had failed time and time again to make any other Uruks that compared to him, that he needed Adar and could not simply replace him with whatever elf wandered along next.]

You need not fear it happening again. [Not until he can stab you at the same time.] I have seen the error of my ways, my Lord.

[ He casts a doubtful look across the table. ]

Eat, you will need your strength.

[Always and forever it was what Sauron wanted, no mercy given unless it amused him to do so. Even after all these years Adar picked hesitantly at the options until he had something of a plate of the least offensive looking "parts" that he can slowly eat with his fork, trying not to think about it.]

May I ask why? [Probably not, but he felt compelled to try.]

You are my greatest captain down in the depths, this you know. It was inevitable, perhaps, that your ego would run away with you, [ haha, pun, ] but I have a solution.

[ Wiping his mouth clean, he sits straight and rests his chin in a hand to watch his uruk picking mildly at the extravagantly prepared fare. ]

You have bred many in your time, your service has been noted. However, I have been busy and it is far too long since your position has been inverted.

I am going to breed you.

Oh. [If that is meant to be shocking, the best Adar can summon is a raise of his brow. Fine. Whatever. have his body, ruin his mind. What difference did the thousandth or more time make?]

If that is your wish. [It's not like he could say no and have it be worth the effort it took to expel the words from his lips.]

[ Such a smart-arse. That's fine, he expected as much and prepared for it. ]

It is.

[ He rises, taking a covered platter with him in one hand as he walks to Adar and sets it down nearby. Leaning in, he drops a soft kiss to the scarred skin where hair should grow. ]

But for a far stronger child to be born, as is true custom, I will need you willing.

[ The cover is lifted from the tray: elven broth, the same as what the marchwardens served, and clean water. It practically has its own little atmosphere of purity at the table. ]

[He is grateful for the presence of the broth, if only because it gives him something to focus on that was neither Sauron nor their beheaded almost-friends who were roasted for the table.

He had never been willing, not once, not for that, but his children were still stronger and smarter and better than the others so he blinks. Was Sauron after a new soldier or a replacement for him?]

The mother would need to be willing as well...

[ Sauron's laughter fills the room, deep and lashing like flickering flames from the hearth. He gives him a pitying look, tilting his head. In a world of iron and blood where flesh is malleable, where dragons and balrogs can be created, he has no interest in involving anyone else; nor any need. What is a womb but a sac for a baby? He can build those, no problem. ]

Adar, [ he brushes his fingers through his uruk's remaining hair on the one side, petting it down on his shoulder, ] I am not made of skin and bone, my shape is only as you witness because I wish it. You and I are going to create a child, with your seed and my power.

And a lot of fucking, ostensibly. I will need much from you.

[He really should have slept last night because that one catches him entirely off-guard, snapping his attention immediately to Sauron. He did want a replacement then, or at least a Luthien of some sort. He takes a glass of water, suddenly needing the cool sweetness he had known the night before last.]

You want to be a parent? [When he had pointed out that Sauron's experiments were failures, this was not what he meant! Yet he doesn't want to be too snarky because that broth is real food and he could so easily just smash the bowl of it against the wall and give Adar a thigh bone to chew on instead.]

How do you think anything came to be in Angband? I am already a parent.

[ He leans down, bringing the broth closer. A kiss meets Adar's cheek. ]

Like you.

[When the broth is slid close enough that he can take it as being allowed to have it he slides it close, protectively wrapping his wounded arm around it like this was not Sauron's table and instead was one of the lesser ones where people who as of yet had no reason to fear him stole from his plate (or tried).

He sighs softly. He really should hate him more than he did, it wasn't fair. With a soup spoon he eats some of the broth as he considers this whole situation.]

And you think this will earn you a better soldier? [Or a better Adar???? He really wants to ask without endangering his broth.]

I think you will not abandon a child you wanted.

[ Oh, devious. Yes. ]

...No, I wouldn't. [And now he suddenly wanted the child even less than he might have two minutes ago at the first suggestion of them existing. A child should not be an anchor, and they didn't even know how his blood would react with a Maia's...

He has more broth as he tries to think.]

Do you mean to do to it as you have done to me?

Not if you remain.

[ He wanders behind Adar's chair, kneading at his shoulders. ]

Do you not wish for a trueborn son or daughter? Born in the dark, they will never fear it and truly be strong. [ He leans down, nuzzling a pointed ear as sweet words drip like belladonna. ] I would even let you name the babe.

[He had once wanted many children, which is a thought he knows Sauron has seen before, he has seen all of them before either in his eyes or when he wove his way into Adar's mind and could go through them like it was merely a library.

He nods because he doesn't trust himself to speak right now and does not want to think too much about the fact he naturally leaned towards his mouth as it spoke so softly and sweetly.

Sauron had had many terrifying ideas over the centuries, but this way by far the most frightening.]

Excellent. Then it is settled.

[ Taking the stoic silence as assent, he pats him on the shoulders and makes his way back down the table, robes swishing with his buoyed steps. He pauses to pick some apple slices out of the severed hand protruding from a dish (as if for help), popping them in his mouth, and he sends Adar a warm look of approval. ]

Finish your affairs downstairs, your duties from tonight are to personally serve the lieutenant of the fortress.

[As with all things in Angband, it had been settled long before Sauron deigned to share the idea with him. He could not refuse, even if he wished to (and he did), so he just nods and finishes his much-coveted bowl of broth.]

Yes, my Lord. [As you wish, always. Even in this. When he is done with his food, every last drop drank from the bowl and the water finished he rises to his feet, and bows to Sauron slightly before he walks out to "finish his affairs" by which he can only assume Sauron means scream into his mouldy old pillow, because that is what he goes and does.

But not a full hour later he is back, about as clean as anyone who wasn't Sauron or Morgoth could manage in this hellhole, in his better set of clothes.] Master. [What do you want of him you overbroiled potato.]

[ Sauron is going about his duties overseeing the running of Angband when Adar shows back up, a hand patting him on the head as the maia notices him. Yes, yes, hello. Dismissing Gothmog with a nod, the balrog trails cinders and flame as it lopes off down the endless hallway and the lieutenant's attention returns to his latest project. Captain. Same thing. ]

I must speak with Morgoth before ... we retire. You may come, but do not enter the throneroom.

[ That would explain why Sauron is at his full maian height. ]

Of course, my lord. [He had never had an urge to see Morgoth than he was forced too, anyway, and especially now with everything Sauron had said (or implied) swirling around his mind like a tempest, well he had even less interest than usual.]

Is everything well? [he kind of hoped not, but it doesn't show in his voice at least, merely a gentle curiosity does instead.]

Yes.

[ That is all he answers with, a little more reserved than when delighted at dinner. All the way down to the throneroom he is silent and at the doors he leaves Adar outside. A crack remains to see through, the maia sweeping inside without waiting to be announced.

All is silent for a minute or so as they speak without words, then Sauron's fire flares to life and all the shadows shiver, thickening as they reach indoors to blot the light from sight. Amid the writhing storm of fire and gloom, two faintly discernible figures speak standing close, like ghosts having cast off their flesh; not entirely, they still resemble the forms used in Angband, but they glow. Even the darkness has an innate glimmer as it drinks down Sauron's brightness.

When they rest their foreheads together their shapes start to unravel and are painful to look at, but soon coalesce back into two separate entities. Sauron even reaches up to brush long dark hair from Melkor's scarred face under his crown of Silmarils.

Upon exiting the chamber and rejoining Adar, he is as hot as a torch in the darkness and the hem of his robes melts the floor. ]

... Come, then.

[He follows like the good dog he is, and just like one might he spies as best he can through the crack in the door. It tells him nothing he had not long known, they do not speak as he did to Sauron, nor even stay in their fana's fully. Sauron actually loved Morgoth in the way he wanted Adar to love him.

Before he turns to walk back out to Adar the Uruk has already turned away from the door, standing like a soldier at the door. He both wished he knew what was said and was glad that he did not. He could only imagine it had something to do with his plan to bring half-maia children into the world.

Or a child, at least.

He hoped it was only one.

Adar follows, off to the side as they walk as he has never been inclined to lose a foot to the melted stone that Sauron so often leaves in his wake ~~like the dramatic bitch he is~~. Unlike usual, he doesn't say anything or ask anything. His mouth is dry, his arm throbs, he does his best to not think about anything more than keeping track of where they were in the palace.]

[ A warlike child to rival Luthien is the plan, as much as it benefits Sauron otherwise the notion of having a ready-made soldier greater than a balrog to command has Morgoth interested. Not in Adar, who is as an ant or a cog in a machine, but pleased with Sauron's cunning cleverness. Sloughing off the tension he was carrying before the audience, the maia keeps an eye on Adar as he leads him to his private chambers, the more beautiful wraiths and smart balrogs seen in passing in these levels. A small fleet of exquisite women flutter by in their translucent gowns, their faces hard and gnarled as bark when they glance over a shoulder to titter at the handsomeness of their lord; traitorous entwives, feeders of the great forge fires in exchange for safety from their brunt. At one point a huge spidery shadow crawls overhead through the shadows rattling a noise of surprise to see Adar, a secret guardian of the inner sanctum who melts into the darkness, and then they finally come to Sauron's main chamber.

He opens the door for Adar, a polite and calculated move; only slightly taller now. He can sense something is off with his uruk, an unease that makes him hold his tongue. ]

Would you like a drink?

Edited 2022-11-23 20:45 (UTC)

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