Return of the Witch King
Chapter 8
"A bad ring? Perhaps for a dragon. For ordinary mortals, it is a different matter," the Witch King objected. The beginning of his journey was never far from his mind, easier to remember compared to later days that began blending together with their similarity.
He has been but a young warlock, on Durdalion, an outpost of Numenor, when a confrontation with the renegade Eldar elves destroyed his home, and made him fully experience his utter weakness. All of his best spells, battering uselessly against the elven magical shields.
Oh, the ring has made a difference. After a few lessons from it, he could summon the beast of Durdalion, a prototype perhaps of the later fell beasts. The ring taught him how to summon it, to befriend it, to send it against the elves and to protect it against their best spells. So efficient, so simple, but only because it had the forbidden lore to grant him.
For a dragon, an increase in power may have been insignificant, but he was allowed his vengeance on the elves, and never again had to fear them. To him, that was worth...everything.
"But since you feel strongly about it, you don't have to bother yourself with the ring. Besides, I now see it lacking in potency anyway. It is as well, it probably taught me all it could. As for the Orc boy, it would be beneficial if he could recover enough to talk again.
I would not object to several alternatives. If the content of his mental activity can be translated or projected onto the Palantir stone in my possession, we would know what to do next.
No, I am not surprised my Master never attempted to summon you. Your magnificence is obvious, your reluctance to serve him, understandable. Could you have withstood the might of his own master? I do not think so. I cannot think of any relatively mortal creature who would, however high their order of existence may be.
Do you think it i possible that Melkor was the one who gave you flesh? Then it would be all the more poetic if we strike against him now. Bards of Middle Earth might start singing our praises in their songs then," the Witch King idly considered. not at all deterred by the display of draconic wrath.
Smaug intentionally only focused on part of what the Witch King of Angmar said, leaving the implications of the rest to ponder at his leisure. "The ring is just as bad for anyone, only it's damage to each is different, and dragons are far wiser than others so can understand what lesser folk ignore. We are so great we are not blinded by the prospect or promise of being made greater while indeed we are only diminished. Bring the Orc child to me and I will see if I can heal him at all. It is not my strongest ability but it serves me well enough," he said, extremely modestly put for a dragon. Just at the present moment his mind was elsewhere and he already knew how great he was.
Dispersing the magical shield around them, the Witch King summoned the Orc captain Trom. "Bring the child Ralag here, place him carefully right next to the entrance," the Nazgul lord commanded. He could once again appreciate the magnitude of the Udun's gift which allowed him to become visible at will, while retaining his dark powers otherwise.
As the enormous Trom ponderously walked towards Grandma Tog's tent where the Orc child was being treated, the Witch King thoughtfully regarded his companion. "Many of us are said to have sustained damage already. Those steeped in the ways of the Dark, those whose spirit is according to the propaganda of the other side, is but a pale reflection of our essence.
And yet, if the proximity and exposure to the ring changed me and others in some fashion, I accept the change. If I am being mad inimical to this world, to my very essence, then at least I also got longevity, and arcane powers. The opportunity to rule and conquer, the exert my will on the world, and to have incredible spells done.
I have lived through the ages, I have led armies to battle, I have opposed great powers. For a dragon such things may be guaranteed, but for us mortals, even of the Numenorian stock, this is the kind of promise that may just be almost worth one's soul," The Nazgul excitedly explained.
"Perhaps but you were not making the choices or truly giving the commands. It was your leader. He controlled all of you. Was all that you speak of worth your will not being your own," Smaug asked. For of all the wrong doings such trinkets could do to a being's soul, that was perhaps the worst for the dragon to contemplate.
The Nazgul slowly nodded in acknowledgment. "It is true. I have often felt compelled at a later stage to follow orders that...did not always make the best of sense. Several times I could have resolved a simple matter that I was prevented to resolve. I was forced to be outsmarted by a mere hobbit, of all things, no offense intended, Maester Smeagol.
It galled me at times, it pulled on me, the greatest of rings. I have devised some spells to make its pull less pressing, but only managed to forestall my submission and never to prevent it. It was all getting to be unnecessary humiliating. You are correct about that part. If that has been the sum total of my experience, I would not be the first to extol its virtue.
But the days I am remembering fondly are from a different time. Before my dark overlord assumed his true dark shape. When he was still deceiving the elves, and treating with Numenorians in his capacity as the Giver of Gifts, Annatar.
I wonder sometimes, if that form was so convincing, because it contained some of his better traits. For when a battle stripped him off the form, he has changed. Only then he decided to wage multiple wars, and the great Ring, that was the source of my power, my solace, my refuge, changed with Sauron, into an unbearable burden.
My early days were filled with delights, with the study of lore, with my own will being gratified. With my knowledge expanding, my abilities growing to match it. Most importantly, those were the days when I felt completely in control. My self perception may have been inaccurate but I felt like I could overpower almost anybody, and that was the very feeling I have been craving before my acceptance of the ring and my debt to my master.
What took place afterwards, what the alliance of the elves and humans took away from my Master, I am still not sure it was part of his original design. He was forced to change and thus had to redefine the terms of the servitude. And while you are correct that they were not pleasant, the earlier years, I am still grateful for. After all, they made me into what I am now," The Witch King of Angmar proudly concluded.
"In truth, your words do force me to do something which I have never even contemplated doing before," Smaug rumbled. "I have viewed this situation from the perspective of a mortal as you say, and in this I understand your lack of caution toward such a ring considering all the benefits it has bestowed unto you. Perhaps for lesser mortals this is worth it. Dragons would view such a thing differently. And yes I do believe it changed your master greatly. Where is he by the way," he asked carefully.