Chapter 1 - Melkor's Cell
The Prison Fortress of Mandos, Date Unknown
A Rude Awakening
Sauron opened his eyes. He found himself lying on a narrow bed in a windowless room, with absolutely no idea how he got there.
He sat up. He was wearing the clothes he'd had on when he was captured. They were muddy and ragged, and there were burrs in his hair. He must have been fleeing, evading capture, seeking safety in the wild places. Obviously it hadn't worked.
The Cell
He looked around. The room was long and narrow, divided in half by an iron grating with a small door, more like a hatch, in the middle. He tried it, but found it locked. He tried shape-shifting into something small enough to get through the grating. For the first time in his life, nothing happened.
Beyond the grating, he saw a massive iron door set into the stone wall. He noticed a narrow barred window in the door about the size of a letter slot. A spy hole. He tried to look through it, but couldn't.
He walked to the far side of his cell. There was a hole in the grating, a narrow opening just large enough to allow a food tray to be passed into the cell. Next to it, a water pitcher sat on the floor near a spigot. He tried it, and water ran across the floor to a drain hole a few feet away.
Iron Rings For Chains
Then he saw the row of iron rings in the wall. They looked like attachment points for chains. He looked again and saw a corresponding set mounted in shallow depressions in the floor.
He knew where he was. This was Melkor's old cell, in the sub-basements of the Prison Fortress of Mandos.
Melkor never spoke of the cell where he lay chained for three ages, so Sauron didn't know much about it. But he believed this was it. He sensed the strength of the enchantments laid around it, sealing the cell far more effectively than stone and iron. This was not an ordinary cell. None could escape.
Comfortable Furnishings
He didn't know what it had been like in Melkor's day, but he could imagine The only furnishings in the cell were the rings in the walls and floor that held his chains. Melkor's bed was the cold stone floor, his blankets were the rags he wore, and his plate and fork were his hands, to the limited extent he could use them. The privy was the hole in the floor. He was probably left in darkness most of the time.
The cell had been made more comfortable since then. In addition to the bed, there was a table and chair, and in the far corner, a bucket with a lid. The table was set with a dinner tray and cup. It also held some books, writing paper, quills, and ink. A pair of lamps flanking the iron door provided warm yellow light for the whole room. There were no lamps inside the grating, so the shadows were deeper at his end of the room, but there was still enough light to read by.
On The Sidelines
Sauron didn't think he was being punished, although he wondered why not. The cell was furnished, and the food seemed to be the same as might be served to the guards. Normally the best you could say about prison food was it was nutrition, and usually not enough.
He thought perhaps he was being constrained while something else happened, important enough that someone wanted him kept out of the way. He couldn't imagine what it might be. He wished he had someone to ask.
First Contact
He was sitting on the bed, playing Cat's Cradle with a piece of yarn he pulled loose from the blanket, when he sensed the presence of someone nearby. He looked up and saw the cover plate over the spy hole slide open.
"Hello?" he said.
He walked up to the grating. The cover plate slammed shut.
"Wait! Don't go! Talk to me!" he shouted.
He stood against the grating and stared at the door long after the other person left.
Isolation
Sometime later, he heard the cover plate slide back, but this time, he heard the sound of a key in the lock. He heard a bolt being pushed back, and the door swung open.
He saw a guard, one of Námo's people, come in with a tray. When he guard let go of the door, it swung shut by itself.
The guard walked toward the pass-through in the grating, but stopped when he reached a line on the floor about three feet away from the grating. The guard set the tray on the floor and pushed it towards the pass-through.
"What's your name?" Sauron asked. The man never even looked at him.
The guard turned to go. He knocked on the door. Sauron heard a key turning in the lock, and the door was pushed open by an unseen person on the other side.
"Why am I here? Am I awaiting trial?" Sauron said to his retreating back. It was possible his trial already happened. He wished somebody would tell him.
The guard left, and the door swung shut and locked itself behind him. The cover plate slid closed. Sauron noticed there was no keyhole or handle on this side. People could get locked in here by accident.
Too Dangerous To Approach
He knelt beside the pass-through and reached through the opening. The tray was just out of reach. He changed position and stretched a little further. He managed to snag the edge of the tray with the tips of his fingers, and pulled it in with no problem.
Sauron was outgoing by nature, so the social isolation was hard on him. The next time the guard came close to the grating, he'd reach through it, seize him by the arm, and hang on to him until he said something.
As an experiment, he pushed the tray aside and lay on the floor. He put his arm into the pass-through as far as it would go, all the way up to his shoulder. But no matter how he tried, his fingers fell a few inches short of the line painted on the floor.
All of a sudden, he knew what the line was for. It was to warn the guards to stay back. No matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to touch someone who stayed on the other side of it.