There are friends, there is family, and than there are friends that become family.
At some point, Miwlir becomes tired of all the fighting against Arnor. So she travels.
Her father does not understand, but he allows her to go all the same. He knows she will return when she has found what she is looking for.
She dons the clothes of a human woman, crown tucked away where no one can find it. She travels and travels, and meets a lot of people, sees a lot of places, but she never really knows what she is looking for.
Until she comes upon Maradh one day.
The half balrog/half human has been left for death. The body of what Miwlir supposes is her human mother, already long cold and bled out.
What makes Miwlir save Maradh that day? Makes her heal her wounds? Makes her train her powers, so she can summon fire and allow fire to envelop her body so she can defend herself?
Miwlir is not sure what makes her pity Maradh that day.
Maybe it all comes down to the fact that, even though Miwlir has long changed into a wraith and is somewhat immortal, she remembers what it was like to be human.
To be weak and vulnerable. To be a bastard with no power of her own.
So as Maradh grows stronger day by day, so does their friendship.
She cannot exactly say no when Maradh asks her to help her kill the men that attacked her and her mother. She does not stop her friend from killing the men and their families and she certainly does not stop her friend from burning down the entire village with most of the people still in it.
Miwlir's sword runs red that day, as it has many times before.
Her friend joins her on her travels, and they visit the place Maradh once called home, when her balrog father still lived.
And than it strikes Miwlir, one sunny summer day, as they are traveling through an old forest, it's name long forgotten.
A friend. That is what she was looking for. Someone else to share her burdens, worries and dreams with.
Someone else than her father, someone who understand she is not as completely evil as everyone makes her out to be.
Somewhere along the way, Maradh becomes family.
So when Miwlir finally returns, years later, with Maradh in tow, her father says nothing. But she sees the glint in his eye.
He knows.
What made Miwlir save Maradh that day? What made her make Maradh her second-in-command?
She supposes it is, because underneath it all, she recognized Maradh is just like her.
Underneath it all, they are just the same.