Legolas had collapsed not long after the execution of Calaer, to the sound of cheering as it was done. He barely had time to think how awful this was and that Calaer wasn't as loved as he had thought. Before the world began to spin around him and he fell. He had woken up in his own bed, changed, cleaned, his wound bandaged. He sat up with a groan before he heard a voice. "Easy my son, you are still recovering." Sauron sat in a chair by his bed. He had changed into simpler robes though his form remained the same.
"... Are we going to talk about that?" Legolas mumbled looking him over. "... Wait.. Uru." His eyes widened. Last he had seen her she was being taken away while bleeding badly.
"We can talk about this of course…. As for Uru… there hasn't been any change for better or worse." Sauron replied, watching him with those catlike eyes.
Legolas swallowed and looked away again. "... You are my father? How I… didn't know Ada was a…"
"Magic. It took a long time to come up with a spell that would work and there was something else I had to do in the meantime… Sometimes your Ada is a woman. That is the simplest answer." Sauron explained.
"That… actually helped. " Legolas was actually not that surprised and wasn't sure he wanted to ask for more details. "Did… ada give birth to me then?"
Sauron nodded in confirmation. "Try not to think about it too much. Are you feeling better? You did faint."
"You killed Calaer.." Legolas shuddered at the memory. "... I didn't ask you to."
Sauron appeared to be surprised. "He tried to hurt you. What else was I to do?"
"Arrest him? I… what about the others? Are they?" Legolas faulted.
"The rest are still alive. I thought I'd give you the chance to decide their punishment." Sauron raised his hand to stroke Legolas' hair and he allowed it.
Closing his eyes and leaning into the touch. Legolas found that even in this true form, knowing who Mairon really was, he wasn't afraid of him. "... I… I don't know." He answered. He was angry with them, for Uru not himself. It broke his heart that he might lose who he felt was the only good orc. But he couldn't have them killed, that felt wrong to even think about.
"I can come up with something, perhaps in the arena. The Nauzgul are always bored." Sauron replied, causing Legolas to inhale sharply.
"No! I don't want them to die!" Legolas pulled away looking horrified at the thought of them fighting for their lives against the wraiths. "Banish them, they'll have nowhere to go among elves. Just don't kill them." He hid his face in his hands as he remembered that this was Mordor, and it was finally sinking in that his father was Sauron.
"Very well, it will be done. No harm will come to them and I will let them leave." His fathers voice softened with concen. "I am sorry to have upset you.. I have no love for them when they tried to hurt my son." He paused as Legolas looked back at him. "But I will grant them mercy on your behalf."
"Thank you." Legolas replied, his voice sounding weak even to him. Sauron took his hand and kissed it gently before rising from his chair.
"I will leave you now then, I promise I will check on Uru for you." He said as he left, leaving Legolas alone with his thoughts.
Legolas sighed as he closed his eyes, fighting his upset at this entire situation. He was still so confused and frustrated. This raised so many new questions, ones that were harder to stomach even than the ones he had before. Sauron was his father. Thranduil, his Ada or rather Nana, king of the woodland realm had been presumably fighting to protect his woods and people from his own love. He found it hard to doubt that as he had seen him worn thin after nights spent battling the sickness that had invaded his home. Another thing that bothered him was his memory. Sauron had not taken him back then, he had apparently allowed Nana to come get him. It made him wonder what their agreement had been concerning him. He sighed and looked around the room wishing he had company again, maybe not from Sauron. After he thought about it he realized he wanted Elrond's guidance and comfort, though part of him feared rejection from the elven lords and his kin. Sauron had said he sent off a letter, he imagined it contained the truth that he was his son, that he loved Thranduil. It made Legolas worry more that they would take it badly, perhaps accusing Nana of being a traitor. He could only hope that despite everything Tauriel would defend him.
Legolas never did manage to fall back to sleep after that. And several hours later he decided he did not want to stay laying in his bed and with a soft hiss of pain sat up and got to his feet. He paused by his mirror to look at the wound he noticed then that the cut was located over the bruise he had gained from the Oliphant incident. He figured that his skin must have already been weakened there and Calaer had gotten lucky with his blow. Sighing, he pulled out some clean robes that opened in the front, easier to put on with his injury and went to the front door of the living space to peek out. He would ask his other guards where Uru was. And then where he could find his friends and their fathers, he wanted to thank them for coming to his rescue and distract himself further from the whole prince of mordor thing. He frowned, freezing for a moment before stepping out. "Er… ada?" he said the word carefully frowning at Sauron who was standing in the hall with a strange woman he did not know.
Sauron turned and smiled slightly at him. "Legolas, I thought you were asleep."
"Couldn't I was too worried about Uru and everything else.." He admitted looking over the strange woman and frowning more at her reaction to his words. She looked like an elf, but her skin was almost completely white. Her hair was silver and her eyes glowing yellow. She almost looked like she could be half orc, a thought that disturbed him.
"Well I was waiting until you woke to tell you but." he motioned to the woman who came over and took Legolas in a hug.
"I am here, little master!" She sounded excited and it took Legolas a moment.
"Uru!? How.. you are an elf now?" He was stunned and hugged her back. She was telling the truth he could just tell. It was her but she indeed felt different, whole, and real.
"I do not know myself." She stepped back and looked up thinking. "I saw dark and I did not want to go there, I heard you and I wished to stay. Then I saw white light, it went here." She touched her heart. "And I woke up, with my Lord there looking as surprised as I am, was? But I had changed, I am changed." she finished.
"You are… an elf or half elf now.." Legolas said feeling a rush of gratitude towards Eru, after all no other could have granted such a miracle.
"Half elf I believe." Sauron confirmed and smiled. "She will be a part of our house, I could bestow no less honor upon her." he paused then laughed softly. "For not having favorites, Iluvatar seems quite happy to do such things for you and your nana."
Legolas tilted his head about to ask what he meant before he recalled the painting and realized he must have been the tiny figure of precious metals at some point and pushed that away as another thing to address later. He took Uru's hang again feeling silly but worried she may simply vanish. "Are you ok with this? Being half elf now?" He asked.
Uru looked thoughtful again before nodding. "Yes. I am still.. Uru. Though not an orc."
"Will she still be able to command my guard?" Legolas asked, looking at his Ada.
"Of course, as I said, no one will question her as a member of my house." He said firmly. "But may I say you seem rather eager to have your guard now." he sounded amused And Legolas was embarrassed because he was right. He did want his guard now.
"Well if someone is going to try and kill me again." He replied uneasy now. He had not thought about the attack or how much it had truly disturbed him. Sauron and Uru both looked concerned.
"I will add more guards for now, I promise no more harm will come to you here my son." Sauron said firmly and nodded at his own guard. "You will guard him as you do me." He ordered.
Legolas was impressed at how serious these orcs looked about their new task and relaxed a bit. "And.. I would like to visit my friends and their families. They helped save us. I want them to be rewarded." He watched to see how his request would be handled. And Sauron, his ada smiled.
"As you wish, my morningstar." He leaned forward and kissed his hair. "Go now, they will be glad to see you. Uru knows where they live." He nodded at the guards before walking away down the hall and out of sight.
His friends it turned out lived just outside the fortress, in a small village of large elaborate tents. Legolas had not considered where they lived and was confused by the set up. But then he had heard that many men of the south and east lived in traveling tribes, and figured that this was a remnant of that. And his second thought was that if war ever came to the fortress again they would quickly be able to pack up and leave out of harm's way. It actually made sense given no one had mentioned such settlements in mordor before. They were noticed almost immediately and the humans bowed to him with respect. "Uh you don't have to do that." Legolas said awkwardly.
"You are too kind, Prince Morningstar." one of the women, who he recognized as the twins mother spoke. "Are you here to see our kids?" she asked with a gentle smile.
"I am my lady." he smiled at her, relieved that she did not press it.
"Come, please. They have been so worried about you." She led him and Uru to the largest tent in the center of entered and Legolas did not get a chance to speak before his friends jumped up looking thrilled.
"Legolas!" Naveen grinned at him. "You're up!" He squeezed his shoulder before the girls trapped him between them so they could give him a light hug.
"Yeah I'm up and it's not just me." he grinned at Uru who stood there looking rather shy. His friends looked over at uru and looked as confused as he had been.
"Is that.. Uru? Wasn't she an orc?" Mina looked confused. "Did Lord Suron do this?"
"Um no. It was Eru Iluvatar." Legolas said then remembered they likely didn't know who that was. "He's.. the king of all Valar. The only one who can make true life." he explained. His friends gave him a dubious look but did not question his word. Jaya pulled him towards the table in the center of the tent and they all sat down again.
"So.. how are you liking being the prince of mordor?" Jaya asked with a grin. "I mean it explains a lot but I never thought Lord Sauron would have a kid!"
Legolas groaned into his hand. "Neither did I, this is.. I don't even know where to start! I don't…" he stopped himself and looked around at them and their surroundings. "Nothing I knew was true. I would never have wanted to be his son, to be Mordor's prince."
"What did you know?" Naveen asked.
"Nothing good. Mordor has been a shadow, a place of nightmares for all my life. Full of nothing but fire and death. And he was all of that embodied. Incapable of love and care… but it isn't true. I've seen life, and love. He loves me, I can't ignore it now." Legolas glared down at his hands, shaking slightly as he spoke. His heart felt torn in two, how could he ever go back, to turn his back on the people here and declare them his enemies once again. His friends gave each other looks though they didn't appear to be angry with him over his former beliefs.
"Well… I think he puts forth that to keep us safe. I mean the other humans don't like us. They think we are inferior to them." Jaya said with a small scoff.
"...And I think they are wrong." Legolas admitted. "Sure you have a different culture but it's beautiful and diverse. Like the sylvan elves compared to the noldor and sindar." he leaned back on his hands and sighed. "And as for my.. Adar, I don't know. He scares me still. Because I know what is capable of even if I don't think he will hurt me."
"And I think that is the best way to think about it, I mean we all know what lord Sauron does." Naveen agreed.
"I didn't know there were different types of elves, what are you?" Mina questioned.
"... noldor I think. My grandfather Oropher is Galadriel's cousin on her mothers grandmother was sindarian though, from Doriath." He sighed. "And.. apparently I am half Maia." Admittedly that caused a lot of things to make sense about him. Though the only half maia he knew about existing wasn't around anymore to ask advice from.
"Are you the only one?" Jaya looked curious. "A maia is what Lord Sauron is and the wizards right, like the white one that came to see him a while ago."
Legolas froze again. "The… Sauraman came here? Why?!" He knew they had driven Sauron out of Dol Guldur, but he didn't understand why he would come here. "What happened?"
"I don't know. Just once I think, maybe he was trying to talk about peace?" Jaya replied. "He didn't stay long."
Legolas nodded still uneasy about it and added it to his list of things to ask his Adar. "So none of you knew he had a kid or…"
"Well, I mean there are two thrones. And there were always rumors that he had a wife." Naveen pointed out. "So he probably planned on your mother? Joining him eventually."
"Makes sense, but he won't not willingly at least. He has always defended greenwood, he is its king.. Adar, did say that they both had other duties." He felt bad all over again for Thranduil. What he had given up for their people. But also something of pride, that he had been strong enough to resist the temptation to just give up and let his love have him. After all, he thought, who else could say the same?