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Confirmation reaches them in the spring that Elwing of Sirion has the Silmaril.
It takes as long as the spring only because they weren't looking. They can stretch the oath that far, they can be disinterested in knowing - but now they know, and so there it is. Elwing of Sirion is twenty-three. Half-man, so fully grown. Sirion is a city of refugees. Elves and Men and, since there are Men, children. Elwing herself has infant children.
They debate whether to send messengers. Debating is allowed, even protracted debating. The Oath, these days, is loud in their minds, and louder when they're pushing it like this, but they drag out the debate for a few months. Messengers will probably be shot on sight. The last time Elwing of Sirion received news of the House of Fëanor it would have been the news that her brothers, twins, aged seven, had not survived the sack of Menegroth.
They send messengers anyway. The messengers are shot on sight. They have good armor, Fëanorian armor, and return home injured but not lethally. Maglor's songs no longer stitch them together. War makes you worse at healing. Maglor's songs are more powerful than ever - he can knock back a wave of approaching enemies, he can make a blade's next touch deadly, he can make them faster and more impervious to danger, but he can no longer do healing.
Maedhros, when he thinks about this, thinks that perhaps there needs to be part of you that is not broken for healing spells to draw on. Or perhaps the Enemy is amused to strip that away first. Perhaps the Enemy finds it suited to the theme as the Oath tugs and yanks and twists them into violence against the lands they once defended and the peoples they once sheltered.
They send messengers to Sirion again. The messengers deliver a plea for the Silmaril, an offer of anything at all in exchange. The messengers do not return at all.
The Enemy is many many hundreds of miles from here but at night Maedhros can hear him in his head. Is it so implausible that I really let you go? the Enemy likes saying. You serve me better free than you ever would have willingly.
The Oath allows them to work slowly. They begin planning the sack of the refugee camp even more slowly than the Oath allows, so slowly that its currents are constantly tugging at them. Any slower and the currents would erode all the things they care about which are not the Oath, and it would be a disaster to go to Sirion once they've been stripped of their capacity to care about anything that is not the Silmaril. So they do not hold out forever. But they work as slowly as they can.
"Almost all of my attention is occupied by screaming panic at the existence of orders and the fact there is someone who can give me orders and the fact she is doing it and the fact you are making her. The rest of my attention is mostly dedicated to thinking about how I could have avoided this if I'd been in possession of a larger share of my wits when I'd found her, and extrapolating from that to determine how many obvious ways to get out of here I am missing because of the current state of paralyzing screaming panic.
Oh, and amusement at how outmatched you are. I am definitely experiencing amusement at how outmatched you are."
Oh, and amusement at how outmatched you are. I am definitely experiencing amusement at how outmatched you are."
"Order him to always answer questions truthfully," he says, frowning, "and with all relevant information."
Maedhros does not respond to this. He has reached them, and has now stopped moving.
"What did you order the fairy to do?"
"Not hurt anyone," he says, "not order anyone, get the Silmaril - she got an exception to not ordering anyone, for that - not eat from anyone's hand but mine, send the orcs she wanted to save south, get Melkor's name - she got an exception to not ordering anyone for that, too. Not use the names she knew. Stop other fairies if they tried to take me or anyone else prisoner. Arrange my death if I was in a situation with a fairy giving me orders which she couldn't get me out of. There might have been others I can't remember."
"Why did she cooperate with you?"
"I am told," he says, "I am among the most likeable mass murderers out there. Also, didn't torture her. Also, she might have believed me that the Enemy was worth stopping. Didn't press her on whether she did."
Sauron raises an eyebrow at her. "Always answer questions truthfully and with all relevant information. Is there anything important he's missing?"
"What did you order the fairy to do?"
"Not hurt anyone," he says, "not order anyone, get the Silmaril - she got an exception to not ordering anyone, for that - not eat from anyone's hand but mine, send the orcs she wanted to save south, get Melkor's name - she got an exception to not ordering anyone for that, too. Not use the names she knew. Stop other fairies if they tried to take me or anyone else prisoner. Arrange my death if I was in a situation with a fairy giving me orders which she couldn't get me out of. There might have been others I can't remember."
"Why did she cooperate with you?"
"I am told," he says, "I am among the most likeable mass murderers out there. Also, didn't torture her. Also, she might have believed me that the Enemy was worth stopping. Didn't press her on whether she did."
Sauron raises an eyebrow at her. "Always answer questions truthfully and with all relevant information. Is there anything important he's missing?"
imeanforever
"I didn't have anywhere else that seemed like a better idea for where to go even though I could have gotten away. I don't hold people too responsible for what their masters tell them to do and interpret his oath as something similar. And he didn't touch me."
So he crawls forward and puts a shaking hand on her foot. And Sauron flickers his fingers again and suddenly he is not injured.
"You give him too much credit for that," Sauron says, "it's not that he's too noble to take advantage, it's that he doesn't like girls. Tell him to pretend you're his boyfriend."
"You give him too much credit for that," Sauron says, "it's not that he's too noble to take advantage, it's that he doesn't like girls. Tell him to pretend you're his boyfriend."
imeanforever
Tell doesn't mean order. "Pretend I'm your boyfriend," she says anyway, and every time she uses a loophole she risks Sauron closing it later but the alternative is not using them.
imeanforever
That's not a question. She has to answer, and it has to be a real reason because otherwise it's not 'why that didn't work', but it doesn't have to be complete and it doesn't have to be all relevant information. "Maybe he and his boyfriend wouldn't be in the mood with you standing over them."
Fire goes out. "Maitimo, why -"
"We'd spend at least a few decades talking about our feelings," he says, "and the fact I got him killed, and the things I've done since then -"
"I want you," says Sauron, "to hold her down and fuck her."
That's not an order. He doesn't move.
"Fairy, order him."
"We'd spend at least a few decades talking about our feelings," he says, "and the fact I got him killed, and the things I've done since then -"
"I want you," says Sauron, "to hold her down and fuck her."
That's not an order. He doesn't move.
"Fairy, order him."
imeanforever
And this is really about time.
Listen. HELP.
Ulmo can hear her near the sea.
Maybe Eru can hear her from here.
Listen. HELP.
Ulmo can hear her near the sea.
Maybe Eru can hear her from here.
The castle cracks open above them.
No, doesn't crack open, just ceases existing in a manner that is patterned like a widening crack.
No, doesn't crack open, just ceases existing in a manner that is patterned like a widening crack.
imeanforever
Oh good. She was worried that wasn't going to work. Attempt no circumvention or retaliation against me. Give me Sauron's name. Prevent him and Melkor from acting. Protect me and Maedhros from inconvenient consequences of this prevention.
Sauron's name, first, a deep and terrible trill. Sauron himself is not moving. Not at all. Nor is Morgoth. Nor is anyone except her and Maedhros, though he's still under orders to take no new action -
Morgoth holds the oaths of all orcs and could release them. Morgoth engineered the suffering of all orcs and could end it at will. Morgoth cannot be vanquished without the destruction of the continent. Angband is collapsing. I can release people from oaths that were spoken before me, such as the oath of the house of Fëanor. Celebrimbor, who is still alive, could with Sauron's aid build a gate back to your home world. The names of the Valar are - and he shares them.
imeanforever
She thinks at Melkor. He's probably around somewhere. Stop Angband from collapsing. End the suffering of the orcs. Release the oaths of the orcs.
To Maedhros, "Tell me, d'you want out of your oath?"
To Maedhros, "Tell me, d'you want out of your oath?"