Melkor had given Sauron a fortress of his own, Angamando beside the Western Sea. And I was made messenger between the two strongholds, Utumno and Angamando, and so I was privy to all of Melkor's secrets. There were other messengers, spirits who had felt my deathly kiss and become vampires under my thrall - but none of them had wings. They were fit to deliver the less important commands to regiment captains, under my stern supervision. None of my underlings was a woman - most female spirits I saw in the realm of Melkor were captives, slaves whose bodies were at anyone's use. I suspected that a few valaraukar I knew might be female, but one can never be quite certain with valaraukar.
One night I stood on the battlement of a tower Angamando, having just delivered a message to Sauron himself. Suddenly I noticed something that made my heart tremble within me. One by one seven new stars bloomed to shine in the northern sky. The shape they formed was a sickle. And somehow that shape seemed very threatening. I realized there was an enchantment, a message in the stars, a warning that all creatures of Moringotto could read. And I had become his creature. I inspected the sky and saw several other new stars also ablaze.
'Doom! The Valar have sent a challenge! Doom is upon us!' I shrieked as I flew down, circling around the tower and through a window into Sauron's great hall.
'A challenge?' He asked, wary, no doubt wondering who had brought the message and was he still alive.
'A challenge written in stars on the sky itself!'
I was worried, then, for I felt ignorant now of so much. Something had changed, but what was it? Then we had the news. I heard it from Melkor himself; I was the one who told Sauron. Melkor's servants had found the Children of Iluvatar far in the East, and he now summoned his most cunning servants to capture as many of them as we could, to put fear in their hearts and scatter them into the night.
I was among those Sauron sent. I don't know if that was his intention, but we were told to proceed as fast as we could - so that although Melkor had sent the troop from Utumno much earlier, I passed them all on the journey, one by one. The valaraukar had wings, but they were heavy; their flight was slow. So although I was not the first to meet the Quendi, I was the first to do more than observe them. I took off my armour and sword, and hid them. Then I spoke the spell that turned my wings into a dark cloak. I walked among the Quendi with a shape that resembled one of them. I was beautiful. All I had to do was seduce the males, one by one, to a walk with me into the shadows. The first one I drank dry by accident. These creatures were so weak, so easy to kill, nothing like the spirits and mighty animals that were my usual prey. With the next ones I was more careful. I noticed that my bite made them lose their will and personality - this also was something that does not happen to spirits. I had perhaps thirty captives before the elves began to shun me. By this time my comrades had also arrived, so I told my captives to follow me and marched them to Utumno like a herd of brainless animals.
How my master was proud of me that day! But Melkor did not send me to Cuiviénen again - instead he used me to work with some of those that were brought to him whole in mind, if not body.
Their voices I will never forget - how could such young creatures have so many words? How could they sing, captured and hungry in darkness, sing to the stars they knew they would never see again? They seemed to quench their thirst by talking about water! Every new pain and fear we gave them, they named, and in the naming seemed to master it. Yet they were weak and almost without magic. Easily scared, easily captured, easily hurt, and easily killed. But the spirit in them, it was from Eru himself! I could taste it in their blood - life, as I would never know it, sweet mortality!
Yes, in my opinion elves are mortal. Their blood is mortal blood, strengthened by food and drink, weakened by thirst and famine, and when they pass on to the halls of Mandos they leave their flesh behind. The likes of myself vanish into nothing when we leave this world; the flesh we wear is no more than a reflection of our true being. When the soul itself vanishes, so does the reflection.
I will write more as soon as I find the time. The next chapter will be about the Battle of Powers... you will also meet a much-changed Fanian. Before that, please review - and tell me, should I involve Eönwë on a personal level in this story or pick someone else? (If you have read my worst fics you know he is my number two favourite Ainurin love interest... number one being bad old Sauron, of course!)