Chapter 24:
Irideth would freely admit that she was anxious. Though the list of people she would tell what she was anxious about was decidedly quite short.
She and Irianna had spent most of the night planning Irideth's escape from Barad-dûr, going through their primary plan as well as contingencies. Irianna and her compatriots, Brelyna and Colette, had managed to find or buy enough ingredients to make three doses of the Torpor for Irideth. The khajiit had used the other two they'd made to run tests to make sure it was safe for Irideth to use.
Irideth planned on using one of those doses to run a test of her own, as Irianna had suggested. Irideth was in the realm of a Daedric Prince other than Vaermina, the khajiit had said, thus there was a chance the potion may not work at all. There was also the possibility it wouldn't work as expected and Irideth would be stuck in a coma for several weeks or just plain never wake up at all, but at this point it was a risk the girl was willing to take.
Sauron's admissions yesterday had really thrown her off balance; Irideth was right back to not being certain what to make of the Dark Lord of Mordor. He hadn't shied away from the fact that he was fully capable of forcing her to do whatever he wished of her, had flat out stated he'd attempted to, if not control her mind, at least exercise influence over it.
Yet he had also said he had no desire to hurt her, while maintaining a level of connection to her that she was able to tell he wasn't lying. He had shown her a memory of him watching her family through his seeing stone, seeing things as he had perceived them. If that had been faked, Irideth certainly couldn't tell.
Well, that might not be saying much; it wasn't like she was well studied on the dynamics of psychic links. But he had claimed to have done it primarily for her sake, and she certainly could think of no logical reason Sauron would want to see what her family and her village were doing.
All of this had served to royally unbalance Irideth; she hadn't been certain of where she stood with the Dark Lord before, but now she was positively baffled.
And she didn't feel like just coming out and asking him about it would end well.
"Has the wall done something to mortally offend you?"
Irideth jerked, eyes flying to the door. Sauron stood in the half-open entryway, smiling. He was already dressed, Irideth noticed. Though to be fair she wasn't certain how late she'd slept, but judging by the slant of light coming in through her room's lone window it had been later than usual.
"Apologies for startling you, Irideth, but you didn't answer when I knocked. Are you well?" Sauron asked, gaze becoming searching.
"F-fine," Irideth answered, doing her best to keep from gathering the covers up around her; she'd been sitting up in bed staring at the wall as she attempted to sort out her thoughts. "I'm sorry; I wasn't paying attention."
Sauron chuckled. "Understandable, after last night."
"Did you need anything, my lord?" Irideth asked.
"I was going to ask you to accompany me to my forge later today."
Irideth barely kept herself from staring. First Sauron took her to his personal lab, now his forge, both of which he had been quite adamant she was never to enter when she'd initially been captured…
What was going on here?
"Um… alright," Irideth answered.
Sauron smiled. "Good. I will meet you here after lunch. In the meantime, I have some boxes of codices and scrolls I need you to organize. You know by now how I keep things in the bookshelves, correct?"
"Yes," Irideth answered. "You're not staying?"
"I have other business to attend to; I've told the Nine you'll be working here and one of them will be bringing your food up for you," Sauron said.
"…Thank you," Irideth said after a long pause.
Sauron smiled at her briefly before shutting the door. Irideth heard the main doors open and shut a few moments later.
What was his game?
There was something going on here, Irideth was certain, she just didn't know what it was. Sauron apparently wanted her to trust him, but for what reason the girl couldn't fathom.
Irideth sighed inwardly as she slid her way out of bed and made her way over to the wardrobe to change.
"Not certain how relevant that's going to be, anyway," she muttered to herself.
The books and codices turned out to be mostly historical records and what Irideth surmised to be theories and publications of research about metalwork, mechanics, various magics and architecture. Some of it was in Khuzdûl, the Dwarven language Irideth only had a passing familiarity with thanks to Sauron's interest in some Dwarven works. Others were Elvish, and yet more appeared to be from Numenór or ancient Gondor and Arnor.
The pieces Irideth couldn't make heads or tails of she stacked on the end of Sauron's desk, sorted by language or their suspected place of origin. Most of the rest of them Irideth couldn't read in any detail; though most of the Elvish works were written in Sindarin, her grasp of the language was nowhere near good enough to read texts this technical. Many of the ancient Gondorian texts were the same, though the grammar was familiar enough the girl could read this a bit better than the texts written by Elvish authors.
The pieces with diagrams were the easiest to sort. And the most interesting; though the labeled diagrams she still couldn't read well, Irideth did find herself studying a few of the images more often than not. Some were designs for various mining machines, others for different buildings of varying sizes and shapes. There were mathematical equations and symbols scrawled across them Irideth couldn't understand in the slightest, but altogether they made for curious images.
She'd been involved in studying one such picture when the door suddenly opened, nearly sending her jumping skyward with how badly startled she'd been.
It turned out to be Hoarmurath, carrying a tray of food.
"Sorry; I suppose I should have knocked," the wraith said as he closed the door behind him.
"It's fine; I guess I wasn't paying that much attention," Irideth said, feeling her cheeks color slightly. "I probably wouldn't have heard even if you had."
Hoarmurath laughed as he came over and set the tray down on the desk beside Irideth's piles; it contained a cup of water, a bowl of soup, a slice of bread, some cheese and a plate of vegetables cooked in some sort of cream sauce.
"What is it with everyone around here trying to fatten me up?" Irideth exclaimed.
"You skipped breakfast this morning," Hoarmurath pointed out as he perused the stacks of books and papers.
Fair, Irideth supposed as she set down the scroll she'd been studying.
"What's this?" Hoarmurath asked as Irideth pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the stiffness in her knees.
"The things I couldn't figure out," Irideth answered as she made her way over. "I can't read Khuzdûl at all, I know very little Quenya, and with the rest of them my Sindarin isn't good enough for me to figure out exactly where they should go." She wasn't certain how Sauron had figured out she could read Sindarin, but it was something she'd put out of her mind for the time being.
"Still, you seem to have gotten through a decent portion already," Hoarmurath said, eyeing the two empty boxes and the third half-empty one next to them.
Irideth shrugged, checking the soup. It was still steaming slightly, and it looked to be some kind of potato concoction. It actually smelled quite good, and she would admit she was a bit hungry. "Thank you for bringing this to me."
Hoarmurath waved her off. "Don't mention it. Is there anything else you need?"
"I don't think so."
"All right; I'll be going to rejoin the others, then," Hoarmurath said, heading back toward the door. "Good luck; I certainly don't envy you your task."
"Whaddya mean you don't like filing?" Irideth called as the wraith shut the door. She heard him laughing as he walked down the hall and smiled to herself as she grabbed the spoon and took a sip of the soup.
After a moment's consideration, Irideth took the tray to her room. She wanted to read over Irianna's notes one more time, and tonight… tonight she'd give the Torpor a try.
Irideth had sorted everything she could and had gone back to studying the diagrams in what she couldn't. To her surprise Indur had shown up a little less than an hour after Hoarmurath had to take her tray and dishes back to the kitchens. The wraith had waved off her protests that she could do it herself, saying he was more than happy to have the excuse for some space.
When Irideth questioned him about there being something going on with Khamul and paperwork again, Indur had muttered darkly about something that sounded like 'team meetings' before leaving.
Deciding she would just have to settle for being continually baffled by the intricacies of the Nazgûl's relationships and group dynamic, Irideth had gone back to her own work.
The girl had been so engrossed in her chart studying she didn't notice when Sauron entered. She didn't notice the Dark Lord at all until she realized he was examining the diagram over her shoulder, at which point she had a private, tiny heart attack.
"I would certainly not have thought the dwarves would be interested in charting stars," Sauron said idly, apparently ignoring her alarm.
"Is that what this thing was supposed to do?" Irideth said, looking at the diagram again. She'd thought it was a design for a ballista of some sort, though she had noticed the absence of a launching mechanism.
"Yes. Are you at all familiar with spyglasses?"
"No," Irideth said. "Well, I've heard of them, but all I know is they're supposed to make things far away look close up when you look through them."
"Essentially they use two lenses made of glass to bend and focus light," Sauron said, examining the diagram further. "It looks as though this designer… it appears this originated in Nogrod… came up with the idea of using mirrors instead of lenses. Interesting… it does not appear they ever finalized the design, though."
Irideth, meanwhile, was trying to digest his earlier statement. "Bend and focus light?! How does that work?"
"You've seen how light makes a spoon in a glass of water look bent, yes?" Sauron said, gaze falling to her.
"Yes," Irideth said hesitantly. "I… windows can do the same thing, can't they? Do spyglass… lenses do the same thing?"
"In a way," Sauron said. "Spyglass lenses are curved; that's one reason decent spyglasses are so expensive. The lenses are very difficult to make correctly; the glass has to be ground a specific way, and the plates must be curved properly so they bend the light at the correct angles...,"
What followed was the oddest hour of Irideth's life. Sauron explained to her the basic mechanics of glass bending light and how this was used in spyglasses. He drew a diagram showing a horizontal cross-section of a spyglass, explaining how the large lens collected and bent light and focused it, and how the small lens magnified and focused the light, making things appear larger to the eye.
This served to puzzle Irideth further, and Sauron proceeded to explain how light passed through the cornea, how the lens and the pupil worked to focus light, and the optic nerve that connected the eyes to the brain. This explanation was accompanied by some even more impressive diagrams, leading to Irideth commenting without much thought how the Dark Lord was a rather good artist. Sauron laughed, saying his skill originated in drawing designs for his metalwork in the forge.
"Speaking of which," Sauron said, voice still mirthful, "I believe I have something to show you in my forge."
Irideth would admit to some curiosity about that. Sauron must have noticed, given that he grinned before turning and gesturing for her to follow him.
It took traversing a couple of lifts; Irideth still wasn't all that comfortable with the little moving rooms and used the stairs as often as possible, but she wasn't surprised at it being necessary for this trip. The biggest forges were all at the base of the Tower.
Sauron's personal forge was there as well, apparently, but not as far from the main forges as Irideth would have expected. Maybe there was a heat source or something else he didn't want to miss out on… who knew. Eh, probably the Nazgûl did. Anyone else? Probably not.
And I'm nervous and trying to distract myself again.
Shut up, brain.
It did when Irideth noticed the very large wolf napping by the door to the forge. It raised its head as she and Sauron approached, tail wagging when it noticed its master.
This one was bigger than the creatures Sauron had had watch her that one night, Irideth noted as the Dark Lord greeted it, the wolf standing to meet him. This one was large enough (and toothy enough) Irideth would hate to cross it. She went still as stone when the creature turned its attention to her, sniffing curiously. Its fur was a dark brown, she noted, slightly lighter on its chest and belly. The eyes were a beautiful golden color.
And its nose was getting uncomfortably close to her face.
Irideth leaned back slightly as the wolf proceeded to sniff intently at her face and chest. Sauron laughed.
"This is Indron," Sauron said as the wolf stalked around Irideth's back to complete its sniff-circuit.
"…Thoughtful?" Irideth said, trying very hard to keep the incredulity out of her voice. "His name is Thoughtful?"
Sauron grinned. "Your Sindarin has improved, I see. He is of a breed I developed specifically for use in battle, but he was an anomaly. While the others become quite aggressive very early on, he never did; he never fought with his siblings unless pushed to it. He preferred exploring and would often sit alone and appear to think about whatever he may have just come across. Hence, Indron."
"Yes, I can definitely see where that might've come from," Irideth muttered as Indron, finally finished with his sniffing, came back around to her front and proceeded to stare at her with a slightly cocked head.
Sauron chuckled. "I don't think he's ever seen a human as small as you."
Irideth didn't comment, just kept one eye on the wolf. He seemed perfectly happy to just watch her, though.
Still, Irideth did take a wider path than necessary around him when Sauron pushed open the doors to the forge.
A wave of warm air blew Irideth's hair back as she followed the Maia into the large room beyond, Indron following a few paces behind her. The forge itself, at the far end, was unlit, but the room was illuminated with torches hanging in brackets on columns and on the walls themselves.
Attached to the forge was a large set of billows, which looked to be operated by some complicated mechanism that involved a lot of gears and pulleys. There were shelves and boxes of what Irideth guessed to be various ores on the left side of the forge, with a smelter built right into the wall that looked to have its own mechanical system so one person could work it on their own.
As Irideth followed Sauron further into the room, she noted the multiple worktables and benches spaced throughout the room, some covered in papers, others holding what appeared to be partially completed projects. These consisted mostly of armor and weapons, from what Irideth could see, but there were a fair number of mechanical things, too. One she noticed looked to be a scale-model for… she wasn't sure, but it appeared to be something to do with the design of Barad-dûr's lifts.
There were plenty of armor mannequins and weapon racks, too, along with a few boxes resting on their own tables near the walls. Most of these appeared to be full.
Irideth decided not to look too closely.
Sauron was leading her toward the forge itself. He turned aside shortly before reaching it though, reaching up and taking a small box down from a shelf. He set it down on a nearby workbench and opened it, withdrawing a small dagger in a scabbard.
Then Sauron turned toward her and held it out to her. Irideth had reached up and taken it before she'd fully registered what was going on.
It was light, was the first thing Irideth noted as she studied the black leather scabbard. Far lighter than she would have expected given the size of the blade, though it wasn't large by any means. It also proved quite easy to draw, though Irideth didn't remove it from the sheath fully. The handle was leather-bound, made of a dark metal that had been well-polished.
"The blade is a high-carbon steel alloy; this particular grade works well for edge retention and corrosion resistance. It's also far easier to sharpen than other types of steel used in weapons crafting, though it takes careful heat treatment to make properly," Sauron said.
"It seems very well made, but I'm definitely not the best person to ask about blacksmithing work," Irideth said, glancing up at the Dark Lord as she sheathed the blade again. "But… why are you showing this to me, my lord?"
Sauron smirked. "Isn't it customary among humans to give gifts on one's birthday?"
…What?
Irideth's brain went blank for more than one reason. It… had been her birthday recently, hadn't it? Or at least the time her adoptive family had celebrated as her birthday, as none of them had any idea what day it actually was, so her parents had always celebrated the day the wolves had brought her to them instead.
It was already September, wasn't it?
Also… had Sauron seriously just said this was intended to be a birthday present for her? And, given that this was his personal forge and the comments he'd made about it, it was plain he'd made it himself. That was so many levels of ridiculous Irideth wondered briefly if this was a fever dream of some sort.
"I believe it was made quite clear to both of us you would benefit from some added protection," Sauron said, voice now dead serious.
Irideth swallowed thickly. She certainly didn't need the reminder.
"Thank you, my lord," she said quietly as she held the blade a bit closer to her.
"Another thing, Irideth," Sauron said. Irideth barely kept herself from going rigid at the intensity of his gaze. "If you are ever in such a position again, you are ordered to use the bond to call me. Is that understood?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Good. There's a sparring ring behind the forge that I use to test new weapons; I'm certain the Nazgûl will be more than happy to teach you how to use a dagger effectively. For now, however, I need you to come with me to my office. The bookshelves need cleaning."
Irideth lay in her bed that night, candle lit on the table beside her head, as she stared at the little blue bottle in her hand.
It allows the drinker to travel physical distances in their dreams, Irianna had said. But it only worked for priests of Vaermina, Daedric Prince of Nightmares, or the unaffiliated.
Irideth certainly wasn't affiliated with any of the gods or demons or whatever you may call them of… Skyrim.
Skyrim. Is that where I'm from? Where I was born?
Irianna had said she looked more like an Imperial, a native of the country of Cyrodiil, to the south, and heart of the Empire that was apparently currently at war with a rebel faction in Skyrim.
Irianna was a khajiit, the feline species of Elsweyr, an arid desert country, and one of the so-called 'beast species' of Tamriel. Even odder than a feline-humanoid race, to Irideth's mind, was apparently the fact that the phases of Nirn's moons influenced the breed khajiit were born as. How that worked Irideth seriously wondered, and Irianna didn't know.
Irideth swirled the liquid in the bottle, watching until it became still again. So many odd things… and not all of them otherworldly.
Irideth sat up, uncapped the bottle, and poured the liquid straight to the back of her throat. She swallowed it in one go.
She woke up at the bottom of the steps leading to Sauron's chambers.
Irideth gave herself two weeks. And no, she was not at all panicking about that.
Okay, maybe she was panicking a little bit. And perhaps the most stressful part of all of it was having to act like nothing was going on. If Sauron got even the slightest idea of what she was planning…
Irideth did not want to think about that.
Which was advantageous, she supposed. The Dark Lord was still apparently loathe to let her out of his sight for long; it had been another day after the… forge… thing that he'd let her go anywhere without him, and even then he had her spending most of her days with the Nazgûl.
Sauron had not been wrong about them being able to teach her how to use the dagger he'd given her. Every day Sauron sent her to them they would take her down to the sparring ring in Sauron's forge to teach her different grips and attacks, then have her practice on one of the straw-stuffed dummies in the corner.
Irideth would admit it was more of a workout than she'd expected, but these sessions provided a welcome distraction from her anxieties over the escape plan.
She and Irianna were speaking every night now, making plans and contingencies. Irideth had already started sneaking food out of the kitchens on the now rare occasion she worked down there. She'd snagged a waterskin from the stable the last time she had gone down to visit Sabir. She had torn up some old grain bags from the kitchen pantries and had fashioned them into a makeshift backpack.
Ideally, the potion would get Irideth to the other side of the Black Gate. Irideth had been studying as many illustrations and descriptive passages of the place as she could find, trying to cement the images in her memory. If it didn't, she and Irianna had plotted a likely route she could take through the Ash Mountains; it would take her further north than she would like, but it was also highly unlikely anyone would think to look for her that way.
Irianna had said she would provide some potions and scrolls the night before Irideth planned to leave; potions to regenerate her health, magicka and stamina, as well as some general antidotes and an invisibility potion for emergencies. The scrolls, Irianna said, could be used to cast spells without using your own magicka and were highly useful if you needed to cast a spell you hadn't learned yet. She'd already found a few to help Irideth keep her conjured wolf spirit… conjured, as well as some more powerful healing spells.
"I don't know if I can do this," Irideth said abruptly. Irianna, who had been about to stand, snapped her head around to look at the younger girl. Irideth was kneeling on the floor, staring without seeing at the chalk circle they'd been sitting on, hands fisting the material of her nightgown so hard her knuckles were white.
"What do you mean?" Irianna asked quietly, moving to sit back down.
"I…" Irideth had to swallow before starting again. "What if this doesn't work? What happens if I'm recaptured? It terrifies me every time I even think about it."
There was a pregnant silence for several moments.
"Well, I can't say that's surprising," Irianna said quietly, reaching forward and taking Irideth's hand. "I'd say you were being cocky if you weren't worried."
"And I don't even know what he's using me for," Irideth muttered, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I can't imagine I'm at all important to him, but…"
Here Irideth's eyes fell to the dagger strapped to her side. Despite her mixed feelings about its maker, she kept it with her at all times; it did make her feel safer.
"That was a bit… odd," Irianna said after a quick glance. "I don't know what to make of that, honestly."
"You and everyone else except him."
"Do you think it's worth it, Irideth?"
Irideth gave her sister a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"Well, do you think trying to escape is worth it?" Irianna said. "There's a not-insignificant risk you'll get caught, unfortunately, but realistically, what are your other options? And are they more preferable than your current plan, even with the risks involved?"
Irideth sat silent for a long moment as she pondered the thought.
"I… think it is. If I don't, I'll be stuck in Mordor for the rest of my life, serving who-knows-what purpose for Sauron, whether as some useful token or just a… a pet, of sorts. Either way, I'd… I can't see myself living that life. I feel like I'd wither to nothing, eventually, like the Eldar do," Irideth said. "And all that aside, the thought of never seeing my family, my home again… I want them to know I'm alive. That I'm all right."
Irianna nodded, squeezing Irideth's hand with a smile.
"Then the last thing we need is you losing your nerve," the khajiit said. "We'll do this together, Irideth. We'll get you back home."
Well, the best laid plans of mice and men…
It didn't take long for fate, a sadistic Daedric Prince or just good old-fashioned bad luck to throw one hell of a wrench into the plan.
When Irideth woke, her heart stopped beating for a moment.
She was still in Mordor, that much was obvious.
On the plus side, it looked like she'd at least bypassed the Plateau of Gorgoroth; judging by the encircling ring of mountains and hills, she was in Udûn.
The bad part was she was rather uncomfortably close to Carach Angren.
