Just in case the spells she has already read wasn't clear by the way, there is going to be a lot more magic involved with this story, some of which will be going against what Tolkien established as possible and not possible.

Chapter 5


Since it would obviously be a step too far to bring her creations into the veritable fortress, she left them behind just outside of the treeline, in view but not nearly close enough for worry.

It was a bit of a gamble since for all she knew she'd be attacked the instant she entered, but from how the lead ranger had acted so far, either he was the best actor in the world, or had no intentions of doing such a thing. Of course, that didn't mean that whoever was in command at Amon Lhaw wouldn't order her attacked or captured or something, but in that case, her forces would attempt a retrieval. She held no illusion of being able to successfully attack the place, but maybe the chaos would let her get away?

Just in case, she made sure to observe the daggers all the rangers carried at their hip, that way she could copy one from memory if she got a few moments and use it if she lost her sword. That was one thing she wouldn't part with. Maybe she wouldn't even get a single swing off, but it still gave her a small sense of security. They crossed the cleared area from treeline to wall, the lead ranger hailing the gate-guard and explaining that he had brought someone back to speak to their commander.

It took a few minutes of back and forth, mostly confirming the ranger's identity and presumably hidden triggers that he wasn't being coerced into bringing her along, before the two giant gates swung open. How they opened was unclear, probably some feat of mechanical trickery allowing only a few men to push or pull them open with leverage or something, unless there were hidden scores of men doing the opening using levers hidden beneath the gatehouse?

She stopped her wandering thoughts, instead focused on examining all she could. The buildings within the walls were rather large but had windows that seemed indicative of the number of floors, so she could get a rough scale of the rooms inside. She also observed the guards, most of which were equipped with shield and sword, covered in metal body armour and spiked helmets.

Each of them observed her, but to her surprise only for a moment before going back to their business, professionalism beating their curiosity as to the new arrival. Some did stare of course, but those seemed to be not on duty, their shields missing and swords sheathed. There were also civilians moving around, who were much more obvious in their curiosity, even as they went about their day.

She questioned why civilians were in Amon Lhaw, and was told in turn that it was mostly logistical. With so many people in the outpost, the amount of food and other supplies needing to be brought in meant that it was less than an outpost, more of a miniature city all on its own. They needed dedicated blacksmiths, tailors, tanners, builders, and all manner of other civilian work, especially for a place of that size.

The scale boggled her mind slightly, but when she asked him of Amon Lhaw was the standard size of an outpost, he laughed quite abruptly, before telling her that aside from Amon Lhaw, there was no other, and even Amon Lhaw was fearing severe cut-backs from the king, who believed that the threat of Mordor was the stuff of stories and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. Then again, it had been more than a thousand years since Sauron was defeated, and aside from occasional orc warbands breaching the Black Gate and attempting to attack the free peoples of the land, there was no great threat any more.

It was clear from his tone that the ranger didn't agree with this sentiment, even if he didn't outright say it. They came up to one of the tallest buildings, the rangers that were with them passing on to wherever they were now going. The two guards questioned the lead ranger about who she was and why she was being brought, then allowed them to pass. Apparently the man had sway if all it took was his word to get an unknown admitted.

Though, when they entered, the number of guards within the building was certainly enough to put down any kind of regular assault, so maybe it was just confidence in their defenses? The ranger quickly led them deeper into the building, passing by curious onlookers and coming across a door seemingly like the other. Upon knocking, they were called in, and were met with who she naturally assumed was the commander of Amon Lhaw, from the fact he was wearing much finer clothing than anyone else she had seen. "Ahh, I see you brought the trespasser straight here. Very well, leave us Head Ranger, see to your men."

The ranger gave her a quick glance before departing, leaving her alone with the man, who folded his hands together on his desk and stared at her for a few moments. She was comfortable with the silence, so she merely stood still and watched him back, waiting for him to start the conversation. "When I was told a party of young ents and re-animated skeletons were crossing Emyn Muil, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I'm sure you've already told your story to the Head Ranger, but I'd like to hear the words from you yourself. So please, enlighten me as to what you were doing out there."

Though it was a bit boring relating the same information she had already told the ranger, she did so carefully, making sure she didn't leave anything too important out that she had already spoken, as she no doubt would have her story cross-referenced with the words she had already spoken for signs of discrepancy or deceit. She again left out any information about where she had actually come from, and while it was clear that this man wasn't pleased with her withholding such information, she wasn't about to reveal where her core was located, not to those who still could intend harm upon her.

After she finished speaking, silence reigned for a few moments longer as the man processed everything she had just said. "I see. Are you able to produce another of these skeletons, for demonstrative purposes?" She glanced up at her mana bar, shaking her head. "Oh, and why is this?"

"Right now, I don't have enough energy to produce one. I would need another 7 minutes to have enough energy to perform the act." That seemed to placate him, as he began asking more probing questions. Most were the same as the ranger had asked her, and she repeated her answers evenly and without much hesitation. He tried a few roundabout ways to get her to reveal where she came from, but she was adamant about not revealing a lick of information about that.

When seven minutes passed, as though he had been counting the seconds, he then asked if she was now able to produce a skeleton for him, and if she was able to, then she should do so. Since it was by his direct request, she figured she couldn't be blamed for freaking out some of his soldiers when a skeleton exited the room, and so she made one appear right beside her, amused at the surprised expression on his face.

He wasn't quite so surprised that he did as the ranger did and attempt to touch the skeleton, he took the entire thing in carefully, observing it from behind his desk before turning his attention back to her. "Extraordinary. I am afraid then, that I will have to ask you to remain here for the time being. The King will need to be informed of this." She took a half-step back, shifting her hand towards her sword. "Come now, you couldn't honestly believe that power like this wouldn't need to be exploited by those who could best use it?" Those words made her draw her sword, though rather than try to use it herself she immediately thrust it into the hand of her skeleton.

At the same time, the commander yelled for guards, the two either side of the door they had entered bursting in, their blades drawn and shields poised towards her skeleton. "Surrender now and no harm will befall you. You couldn't possibly escape from Amon Lhaw, not from within its very heart. Besides, you yourself told me you needed time to produce this...'energy', you are likely not able to produce another of these ghouls so quickly." As he spoke, more guards entered the room, attracted by his loud voice and the fact he had just yelled for guards.

Feverishly, she scraped her mind for any possible solution to this problem. There were no windows, this room was roughly in the middle of the building, and to get out she'd have to get past literally dozens if not hundreds of soldiers. Well, this is what trusting the first friendly faces she saw got her. The door was wide open and letting extra light in, so extinguishing the lights in the room would do nothing to aid her, and the door itself was literally body-blocked by guards.

Her forces were just too far away to actually come and assist her, not that they'd likely be able to breach the walls or gate anyway. As far as she could see, they really wasn't any good way to escape. Even if she went for the most ruthless possible plans she could, they were just too many, and she had no idea how much damage her avatar could sustain before she lost control, and that scared her.

What would happen to her if her avatar was destroyed? There was a chance that she would return to her core, safe and sound, but that sounded too convenient. What if she just remained within her avatar until every last piece was destroyed, and disappeared into nothingness? The void scared her more than she realized, returning to it...was unacceptable.

She had no doubt that the commander would follow through with the implied threat either. Her home was a half-days walk away, so it would take vastly too long to bring friendly forces from there to help her, not that they would help. Disgusted that she had gotten tricked and baited so damn easily, she focused on her skeleton, exercising an ability she had known she had in the back of her mind but never used, effectively ripping what she had made into pieces.

The skeleton and the sword it held turned to dust on the spot. She mentally sent all her forces back into the forest, from there ordering them to return home and grab every single marking banner on the way back. At the very least, on the chance that she did return home upon her avatar being destroyed, she wouldn't then have these men following the trail and finding her real self. "So you can see reason. Good. Fetch the Numenor-forged irons, those should be sufficient." His last sentence was addressed to a guard near the back of the group who all now bore arms towards her, who rushed off to fetch these irons. Her mana was barely recovered from making her skeleton, drained further by the destruction of the creation, but it was necessary.

She had no intention of giving these men anything she had created. To that effect she also destroyed the gear she was wearing, seeing no point in retaining it. She wasn't going to destroy her external disguised steel shell of course, but that would be something pretty hard to remove, whereas the equipment she had donned was far easier to remove and study.

The dust pile on the floor was probably still something they could study, but it would hopefully be far less useful. Within a minute, the guard returned, holding a pair of 'irons'. "Place your hands in those, or my men will subdue you." She belatedly did so, having already resigned to simply waiting for an opportunity to escape. She already expected something magical about the irons now clasped around her wrists, and her prediction was correct as her mana began being sapped. The only upside to this?

It wasn't sapping fast enough to beat her regeneration.


"Wot's dat den?"

As the door to her new cell slammed shut, she heard a guttural voice speak, turning her attention towards it to see what she assumed was an orc in the cell next to hers. In the cell beside that one was another presumed orc, who shrugged. "Dunno, some new blood." Their voices were pretty grating to listen to, but she could make each word out pretty clearly. She stared at them both for a few moments, then looked around at the rest of the cells. There were a few men and women, as well as orcs and what she assumed was a dwarf.

Turning to inspect her cell, she hopped onto the wooden bench which she presumed was meant to be a bed, folding her legs and staring forwards. Her creations were still moving away from the area unhindered, and had reached the stony hills of Emyn Muil. In that kind of terrain, she doubted that the rangers could track them without being detected, though she ordered the newest skeleton to remain behind, hidden in the rocks to watch for followers and give warning.

She was already half of the way towards having recovered all of her mana, and with the increase and decreasing number, she assumed maybe 30 minutes before she had a full crystal and could use her mana to try and find a way out. At the end of the dungeon was a window covered with metal bars, and there were two guards sat at a table near the window.

Her current plan was to use Telekinesis to break open the lock on her cell, then do the same on the doors holding the orcs before the guards reached her. Since the orcs would likely leap at the chance of freedom, she would be able to use them attacking the guards to then break more doors open, creating a large enough distraction to pry the window bars apart just a little. Her body was lithe, and from what she could see would be able to slip between the bars if they were just a bit wider.

She turned her attention towards the two vocal orcs, tuning herself into their conversation just for something to listen to whilst waiting for her mana to come back. They were actually planning their own breakout, and she presumed they had to have been speaking a different language since nobody seemed even the slightest bit interested. After a minute or two of listening though, the more knowledgeable of the two orcs took note of the fact she was watching them. "Wot you want den?"

Tilting her head to the side, she responded quietly, her voice the same as before but she hoped this time speaking in the correct language. "I want to escape as well. I can break open the cell doors but I need a way to deal with the guards, which would give me time to break open the window. Can you help?" The two orcs looked between themselves, then back at her.

"You'd 'elp us?" She shrugged. "Arrite, less say you git the doors open, den wot? Dem guards 'ave swords n' shields, we've got our fists. Dey'd gut us, eezy as a fish." She hummed, tapping her chin a few times before pointing her finger out. Turning away from them, she used Synthesis to make two steel swords, draining much of her mana pool in the process.

"You need weapons? Well, how would these do?" Grasping ahold of both swords, she turned around, amused by the surprised look on the orc's faces as she revealed the two swords. "Here. Hide them or something, and when I say go, we can break out. You don't need to kill the guards really, just give me an opening to break the window open and we can try to get away." She passed the swords through the bars of the cell to the orc, careful to not tap the steel against the metal bars and make noise.

She then returned to her seated position, watching as the orc she handed the swords to gave one to the other orc, then they hid both weapons underneath the thin cloth that served for bedding. "Ow'd you do dat den?" The closer orc asked her, and though he said nothing, she didn't doubt that the other orc was now very curious about her. She didn't give a response though, merely focused on testing her Telekinesis.

Just with a few test pulls and pushes of the bars between her and the orc, she knew it was still strong enough to bend metal, and that was being very careful and controlling her strength. If she threw caution to the wind, hopefully she could completely destroy the doors and then from there the metal locking the window up. Maybe patience would be the best option currently, but she didn't want to risk them moving her somewhere more secure, or even worse, alone.

But as she thought about it, she realized she was being foolish. Telekinesis had already proven itself strong, so couldn't she merely crush the heads of the guards she was worried about? She waited though, until her mana was back to full, to try such a thing. When her mana finally topped itself off, she attempted to reach towards the guards, to crush their skulls.

When nothing happened, she tried again, this time focusing on their helmets, and again to no avail. So maybe her Telekinesis couldn't directly affect people or their equipment? But what that didn't stop her from doing was then breaking two small chunks of stone from the floor of her cell, sharpening them both and then angling them towards each guards head.

Before she fired them, she angled them a little further down. Rather than aim at the metal helmets and risk her projectiles not killing or even knocking them out, she would aim for their throats, which were exposed enough as to be hittable with her stones. She would be able to guide them anyway, so even if some of the guards shifted, she could still tilt her stone projectiles to hit their targets. "You two, I'm going to try to take down the guards with a trick. If this works then we'll be able to escape. Be ready to get the hell out of here."

The orcs were clearly dubious of her claim, but they still placed their hands under their bedding, grasping their swords and ready to draw them and fight. Doing a final little adjustment, she drew back the two stones and flung them forwards, immediately adjusting them downwards as they angled up. She nearly hit the cheek-plate of one of their helmets, but the top of the stone skimmed it, sending the tip plunging into the throat of that guard.

The other rock went cleanly into the other guards throat, leaving both dying. Immediately, in case they could somehow raise an alarm, she focused her telekinesis first on her bindings to break them from her wrists, and then immediately again on her door, breaking open the metal around the lock then shoving it open. She now faced a choice. The Head Ranger had told her about orcs, but with the fact these men were all too willing to betray her just to try and steal her power, maybe it was all just lies?

She broke open the locks on the other two doors, then ran down to where the guards lay dead, immediately hopping up onto the table and looking out of the bars. They weren't high at all, the bars were practically on level with the floor. Staring at one bar, she cared little for subtlety as she forced the bar to bend sideways, further than necessary to let the orcs get out as well.

With that done, she grabbed ahold of the ledge and pulled herself up and through the gap, not even needing to turn sideways to fit through. The orcs would have to, they were a lot bigger than her avatar body, but they could fit. She immediately got up, looking around for a way to go. They were still deep within Amon Lhaw, and every second she remained stationary was a second that she could end up being seen. "Good luck." She said as she ran for the nearest gap between buildings, addressing the orc who was halfway out of the window.

She had helped them get out, but the fresh betrayal of men was still too keen on her mind to trust anything else right now. Maybe in the future she could see whether orcs really were as the ranger told her or not, but for right now, her only focus was on escaping. In the gap between the two buildings, she could see there were more gaps directly ahead leading straight to the wall, the only problem was that she could see people and guards walking back and forth. She likely had little time before the dead guards were discovered, the doors and bars being pulled open weren't exactly the quietest of actions.

With a brief realization, she felt irritation well up inside her as she realized how easy escape would actually be. She mimicked the clothing of a passing person, including their wide-brimmed hat which flopped down to heavily conceal her face and made identifying harder, then simply strode out of the gap, straight across and into the next gap along. As long as she kept moving and didn't attract attention by hurrying or acting suspiciously, why would the guards have any reason to focus on her?

She crossed all the way to the wall without being stopped or even looked at oddly a single time, peering left and right. There was a tower with a door and a guard stood beside it, so maybe she could go in there, walk up to the top of the wall, then slip over it and use Telekinesis to...she was an idiot. Surely Telekinesis would let her just lift a stone platform under herself, thus making herself able to fly?

It wouldn't be subtle though, so after creating another stone projectile and assassinating the guard, she carefully peered under the door to check for guards before opening it and then dragging the guards body inside. She ended up having to use Telekinesis to do that though, his corpse was far too heavy for her to reliably pull, but it also gave her another tidbit of information. She couldn't use it on living beings, but the dead were fair game apparently.

Preparing another stone projectile from the wall, she carried it in hand as she walked up the tower, reaching a level with doors on either side. She laid down and peered under one, seeing a guard walking towards her, then stop a little ways away from the door to turn and look outwards, then turning again to walk back the other way. She kept an eye on him whilst she dug out a small circular disk of stone from the floor, large enough for her to sit down upon, then lifted it up and turned it sideways so it'd fit through the door.

When the guard returned and then began leaving again, she slipped through the door with her stone platform in tow, closed the door, turned the stone the correct way up, hopped onto it, and then willed it to head over the wall and dive down steeply. She went right down to being only a few feet above the ground, waiting and counting in her head every second until the guard should have turned and began walking away again, waiting an extra two seconds to be safe. When that was done, she blasted away from the wall, heading out and then left towards the treeline she had come from.

Her mana was already half-drained by the time she reached the trees, but she needed distance, so she rose above the treetops and continued onwards, heading straight towards Emyn Muil. Since there were no obstructions, she travelled as fast as she dared, clearing at least two-thirds of the distance before having to land, her mana almost entirely drained. When she hit the ground she immediately took off running in the same direction. Her hope was that she could reach Emyn Muil as her mana returned to full, where she could hew out another stone platform and fly herself out further, maybe even catching up with her escort. But really, all she wanted to do was get home, where she was safe, and she could begin preparing defences.

Because, if the commander's tone was to be believed, she was a prize far too valuable to let slip away as she had.


As she reached the first hill of Emyn Muil, she channeled the vision of the skeleton that was still waiting nearby.

It had been watching the exact direction the rest of her creations had travelled in, so she angled herself that direction and then set off, the skeleton following behind her. She hadn't made it a sword, but it would suffice as a distraction if need be. They went down the hill and back up the next side, carefully to make sure they were heading in a straight line.

She also had her original escort hold position, sending one of the Colossi up to the highest point of the hill so it'd be easier to see. When her mana was full she broke a platform from the ground large enough for her and the skeleton, mounting it and flying herself through the air. Rising up higher, she peered into the distance, the altitude helping her to see even the distant hills.

Eventually, her eyes caught the sight of banners on the further hills, and she traced them back until she spotted the highest Oak Colossus stood atop the hill, flying down and landing with a third of her mana still intact. She regrouped all her creations together, making a sword to arm the final skeleton and then setting off again. Rather than gathering them, she disintegrated each marker they came across, including the ones her Colossi were carrying, just to make things easier.

She knew it would take at least half a day to get back home, so the sun would be up before they got back, meaning if they were being tracked then their trackers would have a much easier time following them. She had kept an eye down towards where any would-be followers could be located, but didn't see anything. That didn't mean they weren't there of course, she was travelling at a pretty damn fast speed, but she was hopeful that if they were being followed, it wasn't close enough for concern just yet. Besides, when she got home, she had to begin preparing for an inevitable attack, so in the end it didn't matter overly much.

As she knew it would, the sun rose in front of them as they traversed the rocks, which helped them to more easily spot the markers that guided them home. The sun was halfway risen by the time she laid eyes on the lumbering forms of her Colossi and the far smaller skeletons marching around. Forming another stone disk, she left her escort to walk back, flying over and entering her area.

Rather than immediately detach and return to incorporeality, she first went down into the base, finding her original room and sitting her avatar down against the wall, then left herself, immediately feeling a soothing sense as she regained access to another 99,000 mana points. She basked in her form, floating around and making her view do flips and turns, before she regained her focus.

There was time to enjoy that later. For now, she needed to start fortifying her base. It was already decently protected, but against a concerted attack of men, they wouldn't hold up for long. As she began thinking of ways to protect herself, she realized something that had completely slipped her notice. By accident, she yelled out in frustration, having forgotten the implications of her Speechcraft ability and whether it would work in her new form. It was surprisingly cathartic however, so she wasn't too irritated at her own outburst, but she de-activated Speechcraft before she could cause an accident in her anger at herself for forgetting something so important.

She had entirely forgotten that the entire reason she had made her first Soul Crystals was to reach 50,000 mana and expand her base. That fact annoyed her quite significantly, but it was done now, and there was no helping it. She drifted down to the bottom of her base, trying to decide whether she wanted to expand sideways first to see if the downwards cost increased. She decided to expand downwards once for 50,000 mana, then expand outwards and see if the next cost increased with each one. That way she was guaranteed to be able to expand at least three times unless the cost for expansion went up incrementally with each purchase, not just relevant to the claimed area.

Channelling her ability to unlock areas, she focused on the 50,000 cost directly beneath her, a sense of vertigo making her dizzy as half her mana instantly vanished. She pulled on the ground with telekinesis, pleased to see she could now dig downwards. Opening expansion again, she could see that the cost of the next level, roughly two floors of distance downwards, was 100,000 mana.

Turning to the side, she could see that more expansion grids were opened, each one segmented to be two blocks high. Maybe that meant that with every level, the blocks would all stay the same size, new ones appearing with the grids not growing themselves? She purchased one to confirm this, seeing that another three grids appeared, each one now 50,000 mana. The other three grids available to her were still 25,000, so it seemed like it was designed to be an ever-increasing cost.

Depending on how the costs increased, that meant that the next ones sideways could be 75,000 or 100,000. Then 100,000 or 200,000, 125,000 or 400,000, so on and so forth, increasing in one of two likely ways. If it was the incremental one, that'd be vastly easier for her, as she mapped out in her mind the rough area she could claim from that. Each sideways grid was as wide as her base, so why the downwards grids were more expensive from the start was a little odd, though maybe it was because of how going sideways was cheaper, so going down and then sideways would get more space than claiming extra territory on a higher level, where the cost would have increased the further she got from the original claimed base.

None of that mattered though, all she cared about was that she had new territory to claim.


Sooo...that happened.

Maybe she was too fast to trust, but you have to recall that she has no idea how people are going to act, so finding intelligent life she can speak with mitigated some of her worry about them attacking her. Plus, the Head Ranger seemed trustworthy to her. Of course, just because one wolf didn't bite you doesn't mean the pack won't in future to tear you to pieces.

And yeah, kinda forgot to do the whole expansion thing...oops?