eyefire | but don't make me your enemy

He is old enough now to be presented to Angband.

[ Sauron stares at the boy who stares back, a silent conversation going on between green and gold eyes as a chubby hand stuffs in the toddler's mouth to be drooled on. He takes him to the couch, waving to Adar to put him in those clothes, yes. Would rather not fuss with that himself.

Our of the shadows seeps one of his servants, always ready to take instruction, and he commands, ]

Have the uruks, balrogs, and as many of the rest as can be assembled in the largest hall of Thangorodrim. They will show obeisance to their newest prince or they will be slain.

Oh. [In a more even relationship he might protest, but he has no say here. He has no say anywhere so he slips over to the couch and sits, turned towards the two of them as he signals for Etelo to come to him and the baby does without any real fuss. Admittedly, he jumps right on Adar and nearly breaks his nose with his tiny head.

It's fine.

Dressing him is easy enough once he has him caught in his arms, and when it is over he is sitting on Adar's lap where he gets a kiss to the top of his golden curls, Adar brushing them away from his face and behind his pointed ears.] He is still so little. [Maybe he might protest a little, if only to know he has tried.]

His scent is stronger, it will do. He cannot be allowed to escape these chambers alone, unknown to the main armies.

[ This is Angband, not an elven city, and the first monster who did not know the boy might very well try and eat him. The ósanwe he shares with the baby promises fun and excitement, and an adventure, so when Etelo kicks his little feet in glee and wriggles he does so a lot. Seeing outside has not happened often.

Sauron looks at Adar, pretty and flawless like he never suffered so much as a hangnail. ]

You will be there, as usual.

I would never allow him to escape. [He would go without sleep, had gone without sleep sooner than he would risk that... but he sighs.] Yet we should still be cautious. [Maia were not immune to being disembodied and he was only half of one.

At least Etelo seems excited, though he is not sure if that will hold once he sees just what the hordes of Angband look like. In this room, most things were fair and fine including Adar himself. Out of that door little was, save his master.]

Of course. I am but a soldier in your army, there is nowhere else I would be when you summon it. [He does wrap his arms a little tighter around his son, though, and takes a moment to breathe in the scent of his hair. To listen to him breathe. Good boy. he whispers in Quenya, kissing his hair again. He had hoped against all odds that it would take longer for him to begin to grow up. Elvish children grew slowly in body even though their minds were sharp from a young age. He grew quickly in all ways and would soon be entirely out of Adar's hands.]

[ Okay, Adar, sure, whatever you say. Sauron narrows his eyes at the sight of him attached to the boy to the point of being more devoted to him than Sauron himself and wonders if it isn't time to start putting some space between them. ]

Tonight you will attend me. Alone.

[ He doesn't wait for an answer, sweeping out to get down to business while the majority of Angband answers the muster-call. ]

[It wasn't as if he could go around kissing the top of Sauron's head even if he wanted too. That's somewhere on the list of dumb ways to die, surely.]

As you wish. [The rote response rolls off his tongue without him even thinking about it, though he does watch Sauron as he leaves before going back to getting dressed and playing with their son in the interim. They would be dressed and ready to go when the time came.]

[ The largest hall in Angband is usually full of creatures at work on armour or weaponry, adjacent to the forges, but today the detritus has been cleared out and work has briefly paused for the orcs to swarm in like a tide of filth and take up the floor-space. Werewolves stand guard around the base of the plateau at the front, vampires hang from the ceiling in the darkness where their leathery wings beat and blood drips down, while the fallen ainur line the back of the black stage with Gothmog at the centre. The dragons, of course, are not in attendance because they would crush everyone, but Sauron plans to take Etelo on a little trip down there later to meet them.

The announcement comes from a captain of the uruk whose snarling Black Speech echoes out over the triple-stadium sized space with a little sorcerous help: the child is of the Lieutenant of Angband, the son of Sauron, and all will bow before him. There is no choice, no quarter, if they do not know his scent and swear to protect him with their lives they will be fed to the fire-drakes. The Darkest Star is Morgil of Angband, Prince of Deldúwath where he will take his first station when he comes of age.

Sauron turns to look at where Adar should be with their son, holding out his arms for the child as thousands of eyes glitter up at them in the dark. ]

[Adar is there, waiting in the wings where he bounces Etelo on his hip, whispering silly things into his ear while no one can see or hear them. Only when he is somewhere he will be spied does he put on his serious face and gently encourage the boy to do the same.

Be brave, little love.

He considers letting him walk to his other father, but then, with a glance at the room he decides against it and swiftly crosses the stage himself, instead, holding him out to be taken once he gets there with his head bowed respectfully. Adar's presence around a child was never shocking, everyone in this room knew well what his purpose primarily was. He could be trusted with babies because he was the father of legions, after all.]

My Lord. [Be kind to our boy, please.] Your son. [OursoursoursOURS.]

[ The look he gives Adar is cool, a contrast to the way he smiles at Etelo when the baby wraps his arms around him. He moves to the front of the plateau where the legions can see them and fire erupts around the two of them to the giggles of the child, flames forcing away anyone else as they prove Etelo's heritage to howling, baying approval.

Gothmog stomps forward and drops to a knee, his huge head bowing. Sauron speaks to Morgil, encouraging him to say hello as the flames disappear from their bodies.

The baby reaches forward, allowed closer by Sauron who steps in to close the distance and let that soft little hand touch right above the valarauko's glowing nostrils. Gothmog grunts, griting his teeth, and Morgil laughs as his touch leaves a white-hot print that even the fiery old spirit suffers pain from. The balrog takes it like a favour bestowed from on high and the rest of his kin roar allegiance. So, on and on it goes, with the leaders of each major faction burdened by a burning touch from the baby who flaps his arms delightedly at the vampiric general, awoos at the salivating muzzle of the werewolf lord, and waves back at Gothmog more than anyone in thier right mind should (the balrog, at least, takes this as a sign of high favour from Sauron and isn't offended).

It all takes less than an hour, then Angband knows Morgil of the Black Star and is sworn to him under Morgoth's name. It is all very tiring for the baby, who clings to Sauron as he walks off the onyx plateau in casual dismissal of the hoard only to reach for Adar when they near him in the wings. ]

[It feels like an entire age as he watches, curious, upset, terrified back in the wings and out of the way waiting like a nursemaid instead of a father. That would be how it always was, he supposed. In public at least.

He is so relieved when Sauron turns back to him to come away from the crowd that is milling about comparing their tiny little brands that he has to step on the back of his own shoe to stop himself from lunging forward for one or maybe even both of them.

Adar only allows himself to move when they are in the wing with him, going over to Etelo to tell him what a good boy he is and let him climb back to his favourite spot where he likes to nuzzle into (and inevitably drool on) Adar's neck.]

That went well.

He will begin his studies on the morrow. Not only with you, but with tutors of my own choosing.

[ Adar will be involved (otherwise he will riot) but Sauron is escalating his plans for the boy, walking away from them both with a bark of a command for his werewolf general to follow. ]

[He is such a terrible not-husband(wife?).

Adar stares at him, mostly due to his tone, and then a moment after he marches off decides to take Etelo home unless he gets told otherwise since he was not called away with the werewolf and frankly preferred not to be near them if he could help it. The wound may be gone but he still remembers Sauron biting into his arm a little too clearly to enjoy the company of any dog.]

Edited 2022-12-18 14:01 (UTC)

[ At the appointed time of Adar's summoning to Sauron's personal chambers, he is not permitted entry for the first time in years. One of the giant spiders crawls down to bar his way, huge body covering the doors as its eyes stay focused on him; inside, somewhere to elven ears, is the sound of entwives putting Etelo to bed, and further away than that the laughter of Sauron and Draugluin's roughened voice.

But Adar is cut out cleanly, without warning, for displeasing his master. ]

[Games. They were back to games again.

Adar regards the spider with distaste.]

You are not, by half, the most frightening spider I have seen and our master cannot summon her. [Can the creature understand him? He neither knows nor cares. When it will not relent without him resorting to violence, he decides to just sit against the wall, eyes closed as he listens to his son whining for his song like he did every night that Adar was late.

Without much care for if Sauron comes and skins him he just sings it, loud enough for the melodic sound to slip through the door and reach their son assuming it is not wared against outside noise.]

[ Sauron can hear that song and it does nothing to improve his mood about Adar. Black wraiths seep out of the walls to lay their rotted hands on Adar and drag him away, if he will not leave by his own will, and more spiders crawl down to cover the doors so that it seems as if the entire ceiling has shifted lower. ]

[What a boring, cowardly way to play, Sauron. He does make the wraiths drag him away, rotting or not, for what else does he have to do with his day if he is shut out? Yelling fuck you to the walls will not help.

He is dumped somewhere adjacent to his own rooms, which though not a cell is also not a home. It is with all the others, close to his "work". It is loud and riotous and disgusting.

And all he can think about is his son and that somehow the wind had changed and Sauron was pissed with him (again).

He stays there, now leaning against the door to his own room, unmoving. For days if he is left alone, a knee drawn up to his chest and his head back against the wall.]

[ Adar is left to his own devices. Sauron has Draugluin and Thuringwethil summoned to the upper levels on a daily basis, along with orcs. Handfuls. Three at a time, once in the afternoon, again in the evening. Screams can be heard from the topside of Angband as well as the bottom, the howling of torture echoing through the heavy doors that keep the riffraff out even far below Sauron's private chambers.

Days, then a week. As Sauron has his generals instruct his growing son, Adar is not summoned. ]

Edited 2022-12-18 14:24 (UTC)

[It is the longest he has not seen his son in the boy's short life. He is aware of every minute that passes. He wants to scream and to rage but he doesn't even move until he must, perhaps eight days, grabbing something to eat on his way out and back up to the door he hopes it isn't filled with tiny little Ungoliant impersonators again or worse.]

[ Adar is barred from getting anywhere near the spider-guarded doors; he is limited to the floor above the dungeons where he lives, held at bay by the orcs guarding the passes. They respect him more than any other of the generals but cannot allow him anywhere near the upper echelons of Angband and only repeat what they were told, as well as a few whispers from those who have known him longer: Sauron is furious and bends all his artes and thoughts on the Black Star, raising him to shift his shape into more lethal forms (Draugluin and Thuringwethil are the teachers in Sauron's absence). Training the child. The orcs who march upstairs never come down anymore ... so they apologise, but they cannot let Adar pass or they will share the same fate. ]

[He has half a mind to take them out and go up anyway. They eventually get a fine the best outcome they could hope for in this situation and Adar turns and marches away, back down and down into the very bowels of Angband where he risks running into fouler things but there is also something that will draw Sauron's attention:

His way out. He knows of dozens of exits, the one blocked from his last little saunter into the wilderness is not the only one there is and while no one is looking he slips between the stones and passageways until he eventually ends up outside of the gates. Elves would do anything to know these routes but he brings none, nor does he go to fetch any but slips into shadows where vampires will not find him and the orcs are frankly not bright enough to look.

Come out little wolf, take another bite if you wish.

It isn't running, exactly, for he means to return–but if Sauron will not talk to him like a fucking adult, well. Why the fuck not it wasn't like he could take away from him what he had already taken.]

[ Sauron knows when Adar leaves. He has spies that are not of flesh and eternally cleave to the mountainsides, so when his little elf-uruk has a tantrum he sits himself down with Morgil on his lap and instructs his son to send his thoughts out. Speak to your father, beg him to return. If you love him, you will call to him.

And so, the child does. Across the wastes comes his voice as if on the wind around Adar but stemming from his mind.

Daddy, where are you? ]

[Well it worked, if not quite in the way he had meant it to.

Etelo? he both thinks it and says it aloud, unsure which would be more useful to the child, or Sauron masquerading as their child depending on how lucky he is.

You would have to ask your father for he has kept me away and will not let me come up anymore.

He was trying not to scream about the fact their child could possibly speak, certainly to more than other maia at least and he hadn't been there.]

Edited 2022-12-18 14:54 (UTC)

[ Words are difficult, thought-speech is not, and a week with Sauron has made the child learn a great deal in a short time. Etelo sounds sad, his hair being stroked by his papa.

Papa says you do not love us. Why are you leaving me? Was I bad? ]

[I am not far little one. He would not talk to me or allow me to see you. Leaving was the only way to get his attention.

I have loved you since before you were made, and I will love you until the world is remade. Your Papa knows that. That is why he made you, partly at least.

Stop being a little bitch, Sauron.

Are you well? I have missed you more than words can say.]

[ I am sad you have left.

Sauron offers the boy some snacks as the child focuses on mind-speech, letting him munch on soft honeybread and sip apple juice.

Louie and Tilly are funny. Papa says you may return if you will kill uruks. Please come home! I miss bedtime songs. ]

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