They had been led down from Morgoth's chambers through many twisted blackened tunnels unlit by any warmth or comfort. The air grew bitterer with every step down the road, several Elves began to choke on the fumes. This was much to the amusement of their guards.

Finally a pause to rest in their weariness, was this a mercy? This brief hope was quickly extinguished and one by one the Firstborn were imprisoned in lonely stone tombs. There were no windows in the doors for them to at least tell the hours. The only air to enter seeped in through the cracks where the door fitted badly, it was unbearable hot, they could not breathe, they could not see, they could not move. They found that if they bent down to the very edge of the doors they could whisper to one another for comfort in this dark hellish nightmare where they found themselves.

"Faewin? Faewin are you there?"

"I am." The leader of the elves sounded tired and distant.

"Have they fed you?"

"Not for three days, I think, I can't see the light in here."

"They won't let you die. The fiend up there will see to that."

"Don't get angry over it, there is nothing you or I can do."

"There is though we can resist this. He's trying to use us for evil. We can resist."

Faewin did not reply. The whispers of the elves pleading with him to speak fell upon deaf ears. In his cell the darkness was slowly encroaching and as it took it's strangling hold he began to lose all sense of the good in the world above. After many weeks his soul seemed about to burst and in one final effort to save itself it sang.

"Darkness, darkness let me out of the darkness. I want to see the silver river to walk under the starlight once more."

The song was unknown to any of the imprisoned Elves and yet it embodied the longing they all felt for freedom and an end to the physical and emotional darkness that pressed remorselessly upon them. Morgoth watched all this from his chambers high above the stone cells. A smile found the lips of the Dark Lord and he began preparations for the longest part of his plans.

Besides each others frightened whispers there was but one sound the captured elves heard. The click and thud of their cells being unlocked when the guards had the inclination to feed them. It was always the same "Click" the heavy bolt would be drawn back. "Thud" the door would be pulled open and the food deposited. The sounds would then reverse themselves and the hours drag on once more.

The blonde elf so determined at the start was still holding onto hope of escape. He sat hour after hour day after day in his cell trying to calm the raging beast rising inside him. He would not, he could not give in. He had seen the stars and the trees. He was going to see them again. The familiar sounds of clicks and thuds began to work their way along the row of cells. He was jolted out of his meditative state and awaited the food, which would soon quell the painful hunger pangs wracking his frail form.

"Click, thud...the food was pushed through the narrow gap...thud." Breathlessly the Elf awaited the click which should have followed. He waited and waited, hours seemed to pass. There was no sound. Had the guards done the unthinkable?

He pushed gingerly at the heavy wooden door. It moved! The heavy grating of wood on stone echoed up the passageway he did not stop. This was it, freedom! One final push and the door was fully open, he crawled out on all fours. His legs were horribly cramped after the many weeks of confinement and his eyes watered at even the dim light cast by the eerie green lamps. He stood slowly testing his legs. He found that after a few moments their strength began to return. His whole body quivering with joy he pulled open the locks binding his friends.

"Amba, ama! A silma elin!"

At his cry the elves rallied around him and began the weary climb back up to the star-lit lands they loved. Their breath hitched in their throats. Their limbs became like lead weights to be dragged with supreme effort. Still they kept climbing; the keenest ears among them could hear the stars song calling to them. The blonde elf led them, calling to Iluvatar in his heart he chose the secret paths that would lead them to the surface. Above them Morgoth gazed into the dark crystal orb and smiled a mirthless smile.

"I smell the wind! I hear the stars!" Faewin cried as he hurried forth urging the exhausted elves onwards. A hundred yards in front of them they glimpsed a silver shaft of light piercing the gloom. With shouts of joy they rushed up the steep slope towards it. As they reached it they threw themselves into the pure circle of light and gazed transfixed at the beauty of the night sky spread out above.

"SLAM!"

The beauty of the stars disappeared in one fell swoop as the doors to the skies fell shut. The songs of rejoicing ceased abruptly and the elves stumbled in the dark listening and waiting for any indication of what was happening. A sinister low sound began to rumble down the stairs to the above. As it grew closer and louder they realised that it was a laugh, a low cruel laugh. Morgoth came into view.

"So little first born you thought you were about to escape?"

Silence. A deep painful silence more heart rending than the most sorrowful poem that had ever been written or was ever to be written.

"You will never see the stars again Elves. You are dead to the Valar, you are mine to do with as I wish."

"We are dead to no one...we."

The blonde elf had tried to speak once more but was struck to the ground hard.

"I have had enough of leaving you to your own devices. It's time I made you of some use to me."

There was a movement from the prone elf. Morgoth turned on him savagely wielding his staff of power. When the elf regained consciousness he was back in his cell.