Hey everyone! I did not want to make y'all wait too long for another update, though I am not entirely content with this chapter right now. I may go back and change some of the dialogue. Also, thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews! I love reading them and its super encouraging!
I let out a hiss of air at the impact of hitting the next step. How many steps were there until I finally arrived and why did it have to pitch black in this stairwell? It was taking me extra time to feel around my surroundings each time and slide off of one step to the next. Fortunately I was able to avoid using the bottom of my feet by sliding, but every time I went down a stair I could feel it in my back. It was exacerbating the pre-existing pain. It was getting warmer and warmer the farther the closer I got.
Hopefully it would not get too much warmer because I would not sleep well if I was sweating and hot. I grunted again at the next step. This was so unnecessary, he already punished me multiple times today and even made me watch Maitimo getting brutalized for what I did. I rest my forehead on the wall, but it was too warm to provide much relief. The sooner I managed to get down this accursed stair well, the sooner I would be done with this pain of movement.
With a grunt I moved off of my resting place and continued down the stairs at my turtle pace trying to decrease the impact as much as I possibly could. Is that light? I must be getting really close. With renewed energy I forced myself to keep going down. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the light and I could start to make out cracks and the slightly curvature of the stairs. The curving is probably why the light doesn't reach all of the stairs in the middle. Finally just something flat 4 more stairs away. Victory at last! I made it. I leaned back for a moment, but then opened my eyes to look around.
This is not a living space, this a damn cavern. Why is the ceiling so far up? He's tall, but not that tall. I looked from one side to another. It was unnecessarily big for anyone. I think a hundred people could easily fit in this room. A lot of it was just space too. I could some furniture all the way across the room, but it was far.
"We will only stay here a century or two. Until you become strong enough to withstand the heat of lava flowing nearby." I nearly jumped putting my hand over my heart and looking up at Gothmog. How did I not notice him off to the side?
I forced back questions thinking back to when he told me the injections were going to stop our fragile mortality and terrified of being punished for speaking out of turn.
"What an ungraceful way to come down a staircase Airawende. Should I carry you across the rest of the way?" He said almost tauntingly. I felt my heart rate increasing with fear. I really don't understand him and his behavior. Do I answer this or do I not and did he expect me to walk down the stairs after ripping them apart. I couldn't help the slight scowl that fell across my features, but he looked amused rather than angry. I gave him a sulky look before glaring silently at the floor.
My hands flailed out at the unexpected movement as he lifted me up similarly to how he had carried me in the hallways. I caught my balance on his shoulder gripping his clothes tightly. He certainly walks faster than me and not just because my feet are injured. I think I could be trying to run fast and be at similar pace to this apparently easy walk. It did not feel quite so far anymore.
I wanted to see if I could ask him questions. He didn't seem to be in a dangerous mood, but he was an unpredictable entity and I had run out of my allowed three. However, I can't risk more punishment. I think I will in pain from this for many months if the last time it happened is any indication.
The furniture was much larger than it looked from where the stairs were, but in comparison to the cavern, tiny. This must not be where he normally lives if he wants us to leave it eventually. And for lava. That will be a good day. I can jump in and die quickly. I do not care to believe what he says about being able to endure it. Some things human bodies cannot adapt to. Living with him is one of them. Is this all there is to his stuff?
"You look confused Airawende. Ask." He set me down gently on the bed that was pushed up against the corner of the cavern. I bit my lip thinking about the best way to phrase my question.
"Is there another room somewhere?" I asked looking for some kind of door or entry way along the wall.
"of course not. I am not so steeped in my corporal form as Mairon. I need not things and or want useless luxuries." He answered sounding almost scornful of Mairon's habits.
"I don't understand. Corporal form? You don't need things?" his answer raised even more questions. I shook my head from side to side attempting to quell the rising headache and daze of information.
"Airawende, so young and naive. You have been here for two years and still fail even basic comprehension of what I am" He patted my cheek almost fondly "I need not sleep or fare in my other forms yet I am bound by the laws of the body from that which I inhabit and in this one I require them minimally." What the hell is this guy talking about?
"you mean when you, when you,…when you" I forced myself to take a deep breath and speak normally "when you were that fire thing in the hallway?"
"My preferred corporal form, but not my native state of being" he said waving a dismissive hand. Does he change forms often? Everything he says just complicates my understanding even more. I would grab a blanket and it wrap it around myself from this bed for comfort if it wasn't so accursedly hot in here.
"Is this not where you normally stay" I asked trying to force a conversation change into less murky waters and still very confused about the lava comment.
"I stay wherever I want to stay, but I have a room similar in style to some of the other Maiar, but it is less cluttered with useless papers and items of no import. For now we will stay here until your body is adapted to heat. I've requested Mairon begin to inject the blood of some of mine own brethren over others, yet he tells me no overnight change." He reached over and pulled some of my hair in his hand inspecting it. He really liked it for whatever bizarre mechanisms are at work in his mind.
"Why do you want to change us?" I whimpered thinking about how badly the first injection had hurt.
"You and Haldamire are both fools. I suppose your youth gives some explanation for the lack of understanding your eventual death as a mortal and failing to appreciate this gift. Or do you think to escape me?" He said releasing the strands of hair he had and sliding a hand in my hair to the back of my head forcing it back sharply. It didn't sound like he wanted an answer and it took a lot of willpower not to cry out at the pain.
I grabbed his arm with one my hands and tried to push it back slightly as he forced my head even farther back. He let go suddenly and I slumped back on the bed until I was lying down. He was just staring at me from where he was off to the side of the bed.
"You're tired Airawende. And useless like that. Go to sleep" he said with an inscrutable expression. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply a couple times before reopening them. He was still looking impassively down at me. He couldn't really expect me to be able to sleep with him watching me or being in the same room. With extreme slowness and discomfort and I sat up and scooted back until I felt the cushions. I laid down awkwardly making eye contact with him the entire time wondering if he was going to leave. I want a blanket even it makes me sweat. I forced myself to sit up again and with excruciatingly slowness managed to get under one. He was still watching me. I rolled over and stared at the opposite wall. This was going to be a long night. Why couldn't I have my own room? Why did he live with lava? Why does he prefer that nightmare form and what his original form? So many questions spinning around my mind and with him observing me then I will definitely sleep little.