Disclaimer: I don't own anything, though I wish it was otherwise. Belongs to JRR Tolkien
Quick note; This may be slightly AU and slightly inspired by the events of the first Kingsman film, but most aspects of life in Erid Luin I hope I made a interesting and realistic to the characters brought to life in the Hobbit films especially those which only have a few mentions and lines in the books who are also some of my favourites.
For my little sister who once again is stuck in hospital
Chapter 1 prologue
Nori knew he was in with a bad crowd, but then when was he not. He had entered this particular crime ring on a job and had impressed them so they kept him. He didn't like to think that anyone could keep him but the man in charge, yes man not dwarf, worried him. He stayed; he fought for them and stole for them. He tried once to visit his brothers, well specifically Ori but was tailed, so he led them away. He knew it would hurt Ori that he had been away so long but it would be worth it with the amount he had made. Nori was living under the illusion that he would be able to escape but little did he know that the man in charge was a conjurer.
The man in question had looked into Nori in great detail. He knew of his brothers, yes he hid them well from the others but nothing could be kept from him. He knew of his friends in the mining community in the Blue Mountains. Most importantly he knew of the leniency towards him allowed by the king in exile, and the city guard. The man knew that Noris skills if properly utilised could make him the perfect assassin.
First thing was to dose Nori with a potion; it would make him very susceptible to ideas. They could use this to control him; they could condition him so that certain stimuli sent him into his graceful but deadly fighting. It would have to be done carefully, so they kept him on, trained him up in his knife work. The man laced Noris food with the potion; it was added to anything he drank. It was decided that it would be gold that would trigger the effect, which would make the king in exile one of the few targets. It took months to get it right but then came the final test; the man made it clear to Nori that if he managed to take back a gold necklace from another thief he was free to leave. He planned it of course; he had one of the despised members of his ring take the necklace and settled back to watch the results.
Nori was confident that he could perform this last job, then head home. He missed his brothers though he would never tell them that, he even found himself missing Dwalin chasing him. But one little necklace lay between himself and freedom. He tracked down the thief, who was being really sloppy almost as if he wanted to be found. Then he saw the necklace and felt something he had never felt before the urge to kill for it, he had killed a few in the line of his work but only as a last resort and he always regretted it. But this desire was different; it got stronger the closer he got to the thief. Before he even thought about it his knives were out of his hidden arm bracers and he was slashing and killing not just the thief but others as well. Then suddenly he was aware, he looked round him and was slightly sickened. He had lost the necklace though it must have fallen from his pocket as he fought. He took a deep breath and turned away, no one saw it was him and most of them were thieves. He put it down to too much pent up anger, not being able to go home for the last year.
The man had observed the effect and was very pleased with the results; he dismissed the loss of the necklace as unfortunate and promised Nori that he would not be followed once he had left the city. It was only a matter of time now that he had to wait, he would have that silly little kings life. It also surprised him that Nori had any recollection, and worried him how anyone who had just killed 20 people could just turn away he was not sure what he had unleashed.
Nori hurried out of the town but wouldn't trust the man, he didn't head straight home but for the nearest village where he was planning to lay low, and invest in some new clean clothes it wouldn't do to turn up home covered in blood Dori would get the wrong idea. It was here it happened again, he caught sight of some gold normally he would swipe it and that would be that. This time however he felt the familiar itch yes but a need for the gold, he felt his body subconsciously tense that was wrong he needed to relax. As he approached the target the tenser he got, and when he was about to snatch it well he looked down and found the gold was his and the previous owner was dead. He felt a sudden need to fight to slash and kill, he had never felt this drive before where innocents were involved. The world turned red with killing, his new clothes were drenched in blood and people were screaming. Suddenly rather abruptly he calmed down, and stared at the scene in front of him, he had killed 5 men and injured at least 10 others for what he found that he had lost the gold he had taken. But what sickened him the most was that while killing them he felt exhilarated and the more he fought the more content he became.
Nori ran from the scene, it wouldn't do to get caught near that. He didn't stop till he was several miles away, where he slumped next to a stream. He was feeling ill at what he had done and drained from the energy it had taken. First he dashed off a note to Ori saying he was on his way home, he couldn't wait to see his little brother again. He also couldn't wait to meet up with Bofur, Dis and Gloin as well as the others. Then he set to scrubbing his new clothes clean in the stream.
He made his way home slowly, and experienced 2 more killing frenzies. They unnerved him completely; he hated killing innocents and always avoided gangs where murder was a frequent occurrence. As he approached the Blue Mountains he seemed to calm down, nothing bad had happened at all for two weeks. He walked up to the city gates cheerily greeting Dwalin who had obviously been alerted to his return. He inhaled deeply as he crossed the city boundary; it was great to be home.