Some die that deserve life | Glowfic Constellation

It had not been long since Ar-Pharazôn had himself crowned King of Numenor. But that had made little change in the great harbor-city of Umbar.

For generations, Umbar had been essentially the capital of the Numenorian viceroyalty in the northwest of Middle-Earth. The Faithful might flock to Pelargir on Anduin, but the King's Men ruled from Umbar. And so, when Tar-Palantir King of Numenor had declared himself Faithful and banned sorcery and reopened the road to the Hallow of Illuvatar on the Holy Mountain - Gimilkhad his brother had decamped to Umbar and ruled as viceroy from there while winking at all the decrees from the King. After Gimilkhad had died, his son Pharazôn had done the same.

And then, Pharazôn had declared himself King.

At that, Tar-Palantir had finally bestirred himself to do something about Umbar (both Pharazôn and Míriel agreed on that phrasing). But now, Tar-Palantir was dead in battle, and his daughter Míriel had offered her hand in marriage to Ar-Pharazôn in exchange for peace and unity.

The two armies still faced each other on the coast of Middle-Earth somewhere between Pelargir and Umbar, and the news still had not reached the Isle of Numenor itself. At some point, the new King and Queen would return to Armenelos in Numenor for their formal coronation and wedding, but - everyone was sure - the uneasy truce needed to set better first.

It wasn't yet two weeks after their betrothal that Tar-Míriel and Ar-Pharazôn were walking by the seashore. Pharazôn had proposed it, for a place midway between their armies; Míriel had gladly accepted. After all, it was usual to go courting before getting married. And they did want to to know each other better.

After some talk about their armies, and about Pharazôn's previous visits to Numenor, they fell silent for a minute. Míriel paused to listen to the waves thumping on the shore. "Osse is beautiful today," she said.

Pharazôn grunted. "And to think we thwarted his schemes, and the Music of the World, and all that. No war, but peace. We're reigning together."

Míriel shook her head. "I don't think that way. We don't know what the Music is. It moves at its own tempo, regardless of what we might do. And if the Valar are planning something - we don't know that either."

Pharazôn looked at her with surprise. "Your father never would've said that."

"I'm not my father."

After a moment, Pharazôn gave one brief nod. "Then let's see what the tempo is from here, as we rule."

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Urgathoa

eat-breed-do-not-die

That's better!

Now he just needs to keep that state of mind for the rest of the hour, and keep praying.

war-on-the-powers

Now that he's gotten a positive-feeling response, he finds it much easier to keep praying.

His thoughts keep straying back to war on one hand, and immortality on the other. If Asmodeus can put him in a place where he'll find victory in war... though getting that from Asmodeus would probably involve getting on the other side of the war, and he doesn't know what that would mean. And if the gift of immortality is on offer... he definitely yearns for it.

More immediately, though, he definitely wants some magic. Even more specifically, a language spell. And if there's other useful magic he doesn't know about that won't hurt him or people he isn't meaning to hurt, he'll happily accept that too.

Urgathoa

eat-breed-do-not-die

Then he can have two spells for understanding people for ten minutes! And a spell for making himself twice as tall and eight times as heavy for one minute. He can also, separately, make himself much stronger or deal a little bit more damage for a few seconds.

(Technically he can also do all these things for other people instead, but why would you do things for other people?)

war-on-the-powers

Oh, sometimes doing things for other people can be useful - you can get them to do things for you!

Hmm, he didn't use a sun necklace, or his own star emblem, like Wanda did with her shellfish... The closest thing to an emblem of Morgoth that he can think of is a dragon, or a black square, but even so those wouldn't be emblems of Asmodeus. Is he getting any sense there? It's not like he's going to show it to everyone, but it might be useful.

Golarion

the-word-for-world-is-golarion

The beetle that was crawling up his leg has reached his chest while he prayed, and nestles there fat and contented. It fans its wings for a few moments to cool itself, making a slight noise.

Pharazon might be getting more of a sense of being watched than is normal for insects.

war-on-the-powers

Oh, a beetle.

Like Manwe has eagles, Asmodeus has beetles? Maybe?

... Now he shouldn't go telling anyone about beetles, of course, because presumably the people around here know Asmodeus likes beetles, and perhaps Miriel's heard it already. But he should definitely go using his new spell and... maybe not tell anyone who it comes from.

war-on-the-powers

... If that's something he can get by without saying.

Well, he might as well ask; presumably Asmodeus has dealt with this question before? "Do you have any suggestions about working in secret like that?"

Urgathoa

eat-breed-do-not-die