Maia stared at the ground in frustration. Of course, she didn't have to stare at the ground; as one of the Maiar, she wasn't entirely a physical form. She just wasn't willing to risk having Melkor discover the secrets from her; she worried that the shock of such a discovery would destroy all chances of her Master returning.
Frustration was a very annoyingly human emotion. She could not accustom herself to being powerless, and she could think of very little that would improve her standing. All Maia did now was wait for the human forms of the Valar to fall asleep and search the land to discover the workings of Tulkas and the other Maiar.
Usually, she sensed little to nothing from any of them; all were masquerading as humans just as she was. But today, she noticed an unusually large grouping of the other Maiar. If her senses could be trusted, all of them would be gathered together for a meeting.
Maia hissed in annoyance. She knew the disappearance of the two most important Valar would not go unnoticed, especially not when it seemed that the Valar were finally all being gathered together, but she had hoped that the Maiar would simply go about with their usual useless deliberation. None of the other Maiar ever served any purpose without their masters leading them.
If the Maiar were finally acting against her, she needed a better plan and defense than just herself and her Master, who knew nothing of the present proceedings. Though she hated the idea and doubted that this plan would improve her standing with her Master, she knew she had to gather the other Maiar who had ever allied themselves with Melkor. Of course, she would start only with the most controllable, like Thuringwethil. Using Mairon as the first recruit for their own army would simply not make any sense.
Less than an hour later, Maia had slipped out of the house, found Thuringwethil's home in a rocky cave up a mountain, and was talking to the estranged Maia. Finding her had been all too easy; convincing her to come out and let go of her old grudges would be harder.
"Why should I come with you? The last time you talked me into coming out of hiding to serve our Master he demoted me to the messenger and herald of his servant. Why should this time be any different?" Thuringwethil asked.
Maia briefly thanked the forces controlling her that human outward signs of emotion did not afflict her as she grew annoyed with Thuringwethil's mulishness. "That was over three thousand years ago. Our Master has need of you now, and yet you choose to ignore him because long ago, you could were most useful as a herald. Let go of your foolish grudge."
"I'll not be going anywhere unless Master himself comes here and orders me too."
"You will come with me because unless you do, Master may never again be able to give an order."
Thuringwethil barked a short laugh that completely betrayed her inner madness, "And they always said I was melodramatic. Be serious, and maybe I'll still not consider going."
"You will come with me because our Master needs help. Cease this ridiculousness at once, and let us move to a place where you are more than an eccentricity to scare random schoolchildren."
"And what is this? Needs my help? A pretty turn of phrase never meant for my ears in many an eon. And I have very good ears, you know," she said, brushing wild, matted hair behind her ears to reveal their bat-like shape.
Maya, cursing her inability to flatter all those excepting her only master, was growing really incredibly annoyed with Thuringwethil. A servant should do exactly as they are told, when they are told to do so. Pride and anger at old wounds were going to ruin everything she had worked for, and she could think of no better response than to glare down Thuringwethil and make her feel the impatience pouring forth from her eyes.
"Well?" the vampire asked, "Aren't you going to explain? Tell me!"
"You will be told when, and only when, you come with me to once again serve the Master you are beholden to."
"Oh ho," Thuringwethil laughed, "Devious little you, always with your cunning plot to make sure everything best served Master. Clever you, counting on my poor ego to lead me to coming with you, just to be needed again. Well, what if I am happy here?" she shouted.
Maia, grateful she didn't gnash her teeth like most humans, growled back out at Thuringwethil, "You have one last opportunity to come with me voluntarily. After that will be the pain, and after that, I will take you to where you need to be, one piece at a time."
"I always hated you," Thuringwethil pouted, "No sense of fun or individuality. Filthy communist."
"I'm no communist, and you have spent far too much time living in a realm in which you don't belong."
"You can go die in the miserable, cold, dark pit where you belong," she said ferally, spreading large bat wings behind her, "Which way do we go?"
After getting over her initial crankiness, Thuringwethil proved to be just as useful as Maia predicted she would be. She spied on the activities of the other Valar (who disappeared completely half-way through the week), stole food to keep the almost human guests from starving (though Maia wondered if starving them would awake them to their true identities faster to tell Master who he was), and actually managed to give some helpful suggestions regarding how they would reawaken their own Master. The mats in her hair started coming out, and she looked more like the fearsome vampire she had been born. Obviously, they couldn't let her be seen by their master for fear of what this obviously inhuman creature would do to his weak human mental state, and all of their conferences took place during the night, in a place that had been shifted from the fabric of reality, to prevent unwanted guests.
Towards the end of this week, Thuringwethil approached Maia with an obvious mental battle raging across her face in full bloom. Maia steeled herself to ask what Thuringwethil wanted from her; early in the week, she had noticed that whenever Thuringwethil argued with herself, bad things inevitably followed.
"What is it?" she asked.
Thuringwethil went through several complex facial changes before responding, "We cannot just leave Master as he is."
"No. I am trying to provoke the Others in to realizing themselves to help him discover himself."
"Yes, but how fast is that working?"
"What else do you propose I do?" Maia asked, annoyed by Thuringwethil in general.
"You know more than any that I don't want to do this, but we need Sauron."
"Mairon? What do you need with him?"
"Much as we may hate to admit it, he has always been Master's favorite servant. Perhaps the sight of him, if only in his more human form, will bring back the master we are missing."
Maia hated to admit, but she had been considering the very idea Thuringwethil had proposed. She feared that Mairon's desire to have power of his own would lead him to try to control her Master, but he had always loved him and served him loyally before he went to the Void. The only course of action open to her now was to call for his help if she ever wanted to truly speak with her Master again.
"Fine," Maia said to Thuringwethil, "We will call him in. But it must be agreed that you and I both shall keep aware at all times to prevent the possibility of a betrayal. I fear Mairon may have grown accustomed to power after all his time on his own in Mordor."
"Agreed. Though, he has never become so accustomed to power that he would betray the Master. This I know," Thuringwethil said in such a way that Maia worried she would have to spend more time monitoring Thuringwethil, to make sure she didn't relapse into her old ways.
Maia and Thuringwethil agreed that it had better be Maia who fetched Mairon because of the possibility that if he saw Thuringwethil, he would think he was being offered to have absolute power again. However, Maia had no idea if Mairon had even managed to escape the void yet, and if he had, she still didn't know where to find him. She refused to ask Thuringwethil for she still considered herself to be the better of the vampire messenger, and she also doubted that she would even know.
If a long forgotten demi-godly servant to the most powerful, fallen god ever to live was looking for a formerly powerful lord and commander, where would she look?
Obviously, the first place she checked was in what the humans called Hawaii, inside an active volcano.
Of course Mairon was there. He was just too predictable. As a fire spirit, he naturally would find the fieriest place he could and submerge himself in it.
Maia looked down at Sauron, expecting the mighty lord he had once been and saw only a pitiful creature. Though tall, it was thin with childlike proportions. Its hair looked patchy and poorly cut, like random chunks had been burnt away by fire, and its eyes were red, weepy orbs with sad yellow centers. Maia remembered how Thuringwethil had looked when she first found her and remarked on how losing power after having had it hurt far more than never having power. It was just the reason why she chose to eternally serve.
"How far you have fallen," she said to him.
"Ha," Mairon sneered, "You think I have looked the part of a warlord for all of eternity? I am no unaging maia, forever untouched by the fabric of time. The curse of the creatures of fire is to change as a flame does, not to stagnate forever into eternity like you."
"Impetuous fool. You brought this upon yourself when you put too much power into one creation and let it be destroyed by a Halfling race of men."
"True as that may be, I am no weakling. You may have had longer to recover from The Fall, but I exist with more power than you could hope to gain through any means."
"You were no weakling. Now, you are a barely recovering wraith who needs more help than all the service he even has to offer."
"Only a great fool would think that even a weakling would choose not to serve his Master when the time came that help was needed."
"But only a still greater fool would seize power immediately after his Master fell and attempt to control the world while his fellow servants searched for their once powerful Master."
Mairon smiled, "Let us not play such games anymore, child. Clearly, we both need equal amounts of help. Me, to gather strength to leave this restful, comfortable place, and you, for the only thing to ever stir your passions: our Master."
"Your tongue remains as clever as your creations, but I wonder about your mind. Do you know why I need you?" Maia tested him.
Mairon smiled at her with all his yellow teeth. Revealing his abilities had never been his way, but he said, "The Master has come back. You foolishly sought him out, expecting him to be ready to reconquer the world, and he didn't know who you were. You want me to make him remember."
"Fine. I need your help. Cease your gloating and help if you want to be more than this wasted thing," she said, surprised he could guess so easily, "Do you have the strength to get up, or do you need my help?" she sneered, hoping to recover some forgotten dignity.
Mairon looked her straight in the eyes and stood. He didn't stand in the way humans stood, where they merely raised themselves to their feet. He stood in the way only a fallen vala or maia could stand. As he rose, fire engulfed his entire body, and his wasted form became once more the body of an ancient power. Thin, weak body became well built; patchy, dull hair became a true fire, raging behind his head; weeping, yellow eyes became the eyes of fire he had once been known for. Mairon once more looked like a power to be reckoned with.
Of course, after all his theatrics, he also swayed like a drunkard about to pass out. Only he would take energy he needed to even exist and waste it on something like that.
"Most intelligent maia would appear in a more diluted human form if they were going to go to the lands of the men," Maia said.
"Most maia are also, by their nature, powerless cowards, but if you wish me to drop to your level, I will do as you say," he said, fading into a more human visage with hair that was just red and curly rather than actual flames. He would never say such a thing, but he looked relieved to have to spend less energy upholding his appearance.
Maia spared a brief moment to cherish his moment of weakness, and the two of them left.
Mairon did not adapt to life with their fallen Master as Thuringwethil did. Most likely, it was because he served no real purpose other than to befriend their Master and bring him back. This meant much of his time while the Master slept was spent doing nothing. He looked as though he might explode from boredom when one day, it seemed as though his purpose had been served.
Melkor was starting to remember who he was.
So I wrote a chaper.
Oh yeah. Be proud.
Like every other chapter I've posted, I meant to have had this posted a long time ago, but I didn't. So that's that. I'm really trying to mend my ways. I swear I am.
On the matter of excuses: Still having laptop issues. This time the space bar broke and the entire keyboard had to be replaced. Then I went to England for a week on a school trip and didn't take my laptop with me. Then, like most other human beings under the age of twenty-two(ish), school happened, and things like homework got in the way. Then I seemed to think it would be a good idea to watch all of season one of Game of Thrones in one day (which is really no excuse for not writing).
On the matter of names: Sauron is still Sauron, but Maia calls him Mairon because that's just how she knows him. Everybody else calls or will call him Sauron. Mairon is like one of those childhood nicknames that you think you have forgotten and then there's that one person who still calls you by it. Also, I started this story using Melkor instead of Morgoth, and unless I change my mind (which may or may not happen for plot), it's going to stay that way.
On the matter of review: The most common review I get can be summarized as "Please update before I whither and crumble to dust." The second most common review I've noticed can be summarized as "Use the other maia... Sauron...Thurinwethil...Gothmogs...Balrogs...maia. ..(stop using inapropriate ellipses)...(stop using inapropriate grammar-related vocabulary). Well, I have heard your pleas. This chapter is dedicated to all thirty of my reviews. May they one day be joined by many more.
On the matter of writing: I had a lot of fun writing for Sauron. I had no idea that was going to happen.
On the matter of copyright infringement and identity theft: This isn't mine because I'm not Tolkien. Don't steal the identities of dead British writers so you can post stories written with their characters on fanfiction sites.
If you actually read this entire note, I both applaud and love you.