Thanks for the reviews, everyone!
I
think we all know by now that I do not own the Tolkien characters, and if
anyone wants the Fairy Ringwraith, they can have her.
Also, the ring-verse is copyright J. R. R. Tolkien.
The Game of the Gods, 12
Morgoth set his Sue in the middle of the board with an air of triumph.
"There."
Varda looked. She looked again. Her eyes narrowed. "What in the name of
Nienna is that?"
Morgoth started to answer, then frowned at her. "Why Nienna?"
"She's always crying over this or that strange thing, and trying to bring
it home to Mandos," said Varda absently, eyes locked on the Sue.
"What is that?"
"I told you that this was a Sue I don't have to resurrect," said
Morgoth. "Because Fëanor can't kill her," he added loudly.
"Boo," said a voice at his ear.
Morgoth jumped and glanced over his shoulder. Of course, there was no one
there.
"You only make it all the more fun for him when you do that, you
know," observed Varda. Her voice sounded grave, but the stars of Wilwarin
sparkled.
"You find this funny?" Morgoth asked her in disbelief. "You do
know that you have to catch him and put him back in Mandos."
Varda coughed and hastily tried to resume her calm mask. "Right. Mandos.
Bad Fëanor, very bad."
Morgoth peered into her eyes. Varda looked down at the Sue and raised her brows
expressively.
"And who is this?"
Morgoth smiled and let the story tell itself.
------
"Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the Sky..."
Everyone in Middle-earth knows the verse that begins like that. Most do not
know that there were once two more lines describing the fate of the
Twenty-first Ring:
"One for a Fairy lass to keep for her own,
Until the shadows have swallowed her sigh."
This is the story of that Fairy, who became a Ringwraith, and the One Ring.
------
Morgoth looked up to see Varda with her head in her arms. He grinned. Now
we're getting somewhere.
"Yes?" he asked sweetly.
"You can't just make up Fairies," said Varda, looking up. "Or a
Twenty-first Ring."
"It's cheating, of course," Morgoth acknowledged. "On the other
hand, we could have Fëanor and his brand of cheating back."
Varda gritted her teeth. Morgoth could see her weighing the options, and
finally deciding that the fairy Ringwraith annoyed her less than Fëanor's
interruptions.
"Go on," said Varda.
Morgoth nodded.
-----
Lassellee stood watching the road that wound beneath her, up which the
Ringbearer would soon be coming. She could feel the call of the One Ring,
pulling at her, tugging her towards it and then towards Sauron. She resisted.
Lassellee was unique among the Ringwraiths. While the others had once been
mortal Kings, she had been Queen of the Fairies. Sauron had offered her the
Twenty-first Ring, the Ring of Earth, and Lassellee had accepted it without
hesitation to help her defeat a Fairy who would usurp her throne, not knowing
it would bind her forever to his service.
But because she had been born a Fairy, there were some differences between her
and the other Ringwraiths. She could be out in sunlight with no trouble, since
the Fairies were children of the sunlight, and she likewise suffered no
problems of sight such as afflicted the other Riders. Though she rode a
beautiful white horse, she didn't need it to see for her.
She also could go invisible whenever she wanted, as well as appearing as a
beautiful, luminous lady in a cloud of light. And her large, delicate butterfly
wings would support her in the air. She didn't have the Ringwraiths' aura of
terror, either, meaning that she could pass unseen through villages that the
Nine would rouse to screaming fear.
Best of all, guarded in Lassellee's heart like a secret, was the ultimate
treasure: a bit of her uncorrupted by the Twenty-first Ring. She still had a
good corner in her heart, and she thought she could use it to rebel against
Sauron.
------
"You can't do that," Varda complained.
Morgoth looked up. He had expected this, but oh, the words were sweeter than
the shrieks of Elves becoming Orcs to his ears. "Can't do what?"
"Make her that way. If no one can sense her and no one can see her, how am
I supposed to kill her?"
"What's the matter?" crooned Morgoth. "Is your precious reality
failing you?"
"Where is she?" Varda asked with a sigh.
"Above the road to Bruinen."
"Oh."
Morgoth frowned. Varda had just sat back and was looking lazily at him. He
emphasized, "Fairy Ringwraith. No one can see her or sense her unless she
wants to be seen. And she has a bit of uncorrupted heart left."
"Yes, I did hear you."
Morgoth stared at her, shrugged, and then sent the Sue into play.
-----
And here came the Nine, charging after the white Elf-horse that bore the
hobbit. Lassellee smiled in contempt. She could see a little way into the
future-
-----
"Not far enough, apparently," said Varda.
Morgoth started and glared at her. "Will you stop that? If you were going
to kill her, she would know. She can too see a little way into the
future."
"Yes, but you don't know how she's going to die, so she can't know. Her
faculties are limited by your own, which means they are most painfully limited
indeed."
Morgoth sat back and scowled, trying to think of some way that Lassellee could
die when no one could see her, and her horse would probably be mistaken for
another Elf-horse.
He still couldn't think of any, so he said, "I'm playing her."
"As you will," said Varda, with a little sigh that couldn't hide her
grin.
Morgoth sent Lassellee into play, contenting himself with the thought that
Varda was probably bluffing.
-----
The black horses would drown in the River, Lassellee knew. The Ringbearer would
be safe once he got to the other side.
Which meant that she would just have to reach him before then.
Lassellee smiled and touched her heels to the flanks of her white mare,
Windfoot. Windfoot snorted softly and leaped down the hill, running marvelously
fast. Lassellee gently beat her own wings to urge Windfoot along.
In seconds they skimmed past the black horses, and then Lassellee knew she
would be able to reach Frodo. There were just a few people standing in her way:
hobbits, and a human, and an Elf. She went invisible, and they saw only a white
horse galloping towards them. Of course, in the Unseen Lassellee couldn't see
them either, but she knew they were there and she could just ride around them.
Then she suddenly saw a blaze in front of her, and realized the Elf had
appeared again, somehow following her into the Unseen. With a frown, Lassellee
shifted back to the Seen. Even if they could see her, they couldn't harm her.
But the Elf was there, too. Lassellee realized with a shock of fear that he was
blazing in both worlds, and that he had a sword in his hand that flared with a
similar light.
Words in the tongue of the Noldorin Elves cut at her ears like swords.
"Back to the Shadow that you came from, Dark One."
Lassellee only ever felt the sword slam into her. She was caught between Seen
and Unseen, and, wailing, felt her being dissolve as Glorfindel's sword cleft
her in twain.
-----
Morgoth kicked a table leg.
"Now, now, Morgoth, don't sulk," said Varda as soothingly as she
could. "I'm sure that someday you'll come up with a Sue that does manage
to take into account certain features of Middle-earth, including Elflords who
live in the Seen and Unseen at once."
Morgoth stuck his lower lip out. "This isn't fun anymore," he whined.
"Do you want to stop playing?"
Morgoth almost said yes, and then thought about it. If he said yes, it was a
long walk back to the Void.
And Fëanor was out there somewhere, with a big long sharp sword and a temper to
match.
"No," he whimpered.
Varda grinned at him. "Then choose your next piece."
Morgoth went back to rooting in the "Difficult" box.
"Boo," said a voice at his ear.
Morgoth didn't turn around this time, assuming it was just some silly trick,
probably of Tulkas's.
Then the sword poked him in the shoulder, and he turned around just in time see
Fëanor running away.
Morgoth growled at that and reached to the very, very back of the box.
He would show Fëanor.
Honestly, why do people make Fairies up? It's not as if they really add anything to Middle-earth.