Mairon woke languidly, yawning and stretching, hearing the now customary murmur of "good morning, Mairon," as he did so.

"G'morning," Mairon murmured back, rolling on his side and snaking an arm around the Vala's ribs to give him a hug, muffling another yawn in Námo's chest.

"How did you sleep, little one?" Námo asked through a chuckle at Mairon's behavior.

"Very well," Mairon admitted with a sleepy smile. "I'm somewhat surprised after yesterday, actually. I thought I wouldn't sleep well."

"I am glad that was not the case," Námo said. "Though ensuring you rest peacefully is one of the reasons you are in here with us."

"Only one?" Mairon asked curiously. Námo smiled.

"It is also meant to reassure you of our love, and help you feel more secure," Námo told him. "And besides, we like having you with us. Too many of our Maiar are grown up now, and we do not get to cuddle them nearly as much as we like. You, thankfully, are still young enough to enjoy doing so." Mairon blushed, but he liked hearing such things, even if they were slightly embarrassing. Námo just chuckled at him again.

Mairon lay there, relaxed and secure in Námo's presence, letting his thoughts drift as they would. He found his mind drawn back to the conversation he'd had with Samindë and Qunetalë the day before yesterday. Yesterday had been too full for him to think much about it. He didn't realized that his features had pulled into a thoughtful frown until Námo gently tapped him on the nose.

"What are you thinking about so intently, little one?" the Vala asked.

"What Samindë told me two days ago," Mairon replied. "About what Nyeleccaner said. That he and Aulë feel responsible for what happened to me."

"Ah," Námo said in answer. "And what do you think about that?"

"They aren't responsible," Mairon said, his frown deepening. "Are they?"

"To some degree, they are," Námo said. "However, I can imagine that they might be ascribing more blame to themselves than they deserve, especially Aulë."

"But…it was my choice. I could have done things differently that might have resulted in never joining Morgoth," Mairon pointed out.

"That is true, little one, and you hold some of the blame yourself, though you have suffered for that choice far more than you deserved to," Námo answered. "But Aulë and Nyeleccaner are at fault for the way they treated you, and their actions made it far more likely that you would choose as you did."

"I'm not sure I fully understand," Mairon admitted. Námo thought for a moment.

"You understand about the physical and emotional needs of the Firstborn, how they need food and water, love and kinship in order to survive," Námo asked. Mairon nodded.

"Well, the Ainur, while we cannot die, have similar needs, though they are different between the Valar and the Maiar. Can you guess what a Maia's greatest need is?" Mairon pondered this briefly.

"Feeling safe?" he finally asked tentatively. "We are willing to give up our freedom for that…" But Námo shook his head.

"You are close," the Vala said. "That is the second greatest need a Maia has. But think, little one, if security was your greatest goal, would you have chosen to serve Melkor? He didn't make you feel safe, did he?" Mairon shook his head.

"Your greatest need, Mairon, is to feel loved and wanted," Námo said gently. "And so what Aulë and Nyeleccaner did was leave you emotionally vulnerable, at a time when you really could not afford to be. Melkor used that, did he not?"

"He promised me he would value me as Aulë did not," Mairon whispered, closing his eyes against the pain of the memories. "I wish…I wish I had known what Aulë actually thought…"

"I do too, for your sake, my little one," Námo murmured. "Though if you had, you would still be serving him, and I would never have had the chance to come to love you. I love you too much to regret that, though I do wish it had come about with less pain to you."

"I do have a lot of good in my life now because of what I've gone through," Mairon mused, opening his eyes as the pain receded at this thought. He smiled at his lord. "I do care about Aulë and hope we can repair our relationship, but I'm far closer to you, I think, than I could have ever been to him."

Námo smiled softly, eyes shining, and ran his fingers down the outer curve of Mairon's ear, over the earrings that proclaimed the Maia's allegiance. Mairon's eyes fluttered in pleasure, and he smiled at the Vala. They stayed there for a moment, enjoying one another's presence, then Námo tapped Mairon's nose again.

"What are your plans for today, little one?" the Vala asked. Mairon grinned.

"Olórin has something planned that he's very excited about, but he's not telling me what it is," the Maia informed Námo. "He says we'll be gone until the evening. After that…I don't know yet." Mairon paused, and the topic of his conversation with Námo sparked an interesting idea.

"Actually…" he said slowly, "Nyeleccaner did invite me back to the forges. I want to make something for Istamírë, to thank her for how kind she's been to me." Námo nodded.

"I can see if tonight works for Nyeleccaner and Aulë, if you'd like," he said. "And Istamírë would treasure such a gift. Did you have something in mind?"

Mairon grinned, and rolled onto his back; raising his hands, he started to Sing. He quickly created an illusion of what he had been thinking of making for the older Maia.

"It's beautiful, Mairon," Námo said sincerely. Mairon couldn't help his delighted grin at the praise he'd received so rarely before serving Námo, as he let the illusion fade.

"Well, I'd better get up, if I'm going to meet Olórin on time," Mairon said, as he clambered out of bed. Námo chuckled and followed him.

All Olórin had told Mairon was to dress to be outdoors all day. He pulled on a simple shirt and breeches, then a pair of knee-high boots. After debating for a moment, he braided his hair to keep it out of his face. Then he thought himself off to Lórien to meet up with Olórin.

"Well, Olórin, what plans have you made that have you so excited?" Mairon asked with an amused smile when he arrived. His brother was dressed much as the younger Maia was, had a pack that Mairon guessed was filled with food, and was waiting for his little brother with an air of barely suppressed excitement. Olórin grinned at his brother's question.

"Well, Mairon," he drawled. "I thought we might take ourselves off to Andor and go exploring for the day." Mairon's jaw dropped.

"Andor?" he asked in shock. Olórin's grin widened.

"It's nearly finished, and the Edain will be arriving soon," he said. "But I thought you might enjoy taking a look before they arrive."

Mairon's delighted grin was answer enough, and Olórin picked up the pack. The brothers then thought themselves off, Olórin assisting Mairon. The younger Maia was able to move about well enough over shorter distances, but he was still too damaged to move over long distances freely. Yet Mairon could tell he was healing, and was pleased that Olórin only had to help him a little bit.

They ended up near the center of the island, the central volcanic cone dominating the landscape. Mairon looked at it with interest.

"That's suitably impressive," he said. "The whole island was built using that?"

"For the most part," Olórin answered. "It was shaped somewhat, but that's where they got the material." Mairon nodded.

"This central part is about 250 miles across," Olórin continued. "I'm told it will make great pasture land, though, to be honest, I don't know what you need for good pasturing."

"Well, this place looks reasonably…pasture-y…To be honest, I don't know what you need for pasture, either," Mairon admitted, amused. "There doesn't seem to be much to explore, though."

"Well, the peninsulas were what I was thinking of exploring," Olórin said with a grin. "The north and the southwest have great cliffs." Mairon returned Olórin's smile at this, and the brothers set off, exploring the great sea cliffs, searching for hidden crevices and caves. Mairon knew the geology was wrong for caves, but it was fun regardless. They spent all morning at this, thinking themselves from place to place occasionally, but more often trying to climb around with the limitations of incarnates. There was only one time that Olórin actually fell off, and had to quickly disincarnate before he met a rather messy death on the rocks below. They became slightly less daring after this, as Mairon knew that if the same fate befell him, he would not be able to save himself in time.

The brothers ate lunch in the southeast peninsula, among the beginnings of a great forest. The people of Yavanna and Oromë had obviously been busy, and many small saplings reached up for the light. Even the tallest only reached around twenty feet high.

"This place is obviously not finished yet," Mairon commented. Olórin shrugged.

"You can't exactly hurry the pace of growth of thousands of trees," he pointed out. "Well, I suppose you could, but what's the point? They may speed things along closer to where the Edain are expected to land and first settle, but they won't for the whole island. As far as I am aware, all they are still doing is deciding if there are any more animals they wish to introduce to the island." Mairon shrugged.

"Well, hopefully the Edain won't need more wood than what the mature forests can provide," he said dryly. "Though I suppose the trees can be grown after they arrive, but they might find that rather disconcerting." Olórin snorted.

"Probably," he said.

After the brothers finished eating, they spent the hottest part of the day exploring the great reedy pools and marshland that lay between the two southern prominences. Then they took themselves off to the eastern and western spurs, which they both agreed were less interesting, though the western did have what Mairon thought to be some nice cliffs, and the beginnings of another forest.

Finally, in the late afternoon, both Mairon and Olórin were suitably dirty, hungry, and satisfied with their exploring, and they returned to Valinor. Olórin had to assist Mairon more than he had on the trip to the island, but Mairon told himself that was only to be expected, as he was more tired after exploring all day than he had been when he first woke up.

When he got back to Mandos, Istamírë let him know that they had heard back from Nyeleccaner that it was fine for Mairon to come to the forges that evening. So after he cleaned up a bit and ate, Mairon took himself off to Aulë's forges. Nyeleccaner was at the entrance, waiting for him.

"Nyeleccaner," Mairon said in greeting.

"Mairon," Nyeleccaner replied with a welcoming nod, and a small, polite smile. Mairon's own smile was brilliant and excited. Once, he would have tried to hide those emotions, as he knew the older Maia disapproved. But now, he didn't care. He was excited, and he didn't care who knew about it.

But either the older Maia had softened as the Ages wore on, or he approved of excitement in children, for his smile grew, just a bit. Mairon told himself that speculation on why that was would be pointless, and he really didn't care.

"Do you know what it is you would like to make tonight?" Nyeleccaner asked the younger Maia, who nodded.

"I'd like to make a hair clip for Istamírë," he said. "She wears them all the time to keep her hair out of her face, and I think it would make a good thank you present for all the work she's done on my behalf."

Nyeleccaner nodded, his expression shading just slightly towards approving. Mairon wondered if his approval had always been there, as he knew that before his time with Morgoth he wouldn't have been able to catch it. But he was better at reading people now, and able to easily tell all the very subtle emotions this Maia was expressing. That thought that he might have missed the approval he'd desperately sought made him sad, though, so Mairon resolutely ignored it. He was going to get to make beautiful things again, and that was a happy notion. So he raised his hands, and quickly worked the same illusion he had for Námo that morning, showing Nyeleccaner what he was planning to make. Nyeleccaner nodded as Mairon explained what materials he was planning to construct it out of, and what tools he would need.

"We have all of those, easily accessible," Nyeleccaner informed the younger Maia, and then led the way to begin collecting them. Mairon was amused to find that very little had changed about where things were stored in the forges. It was both comforting, and somewhat disorienting. It was a comfort to realize that some things had stayed the same, yet at the same time, it made Mairon explicitly aware that he was the one thing in these workshops that had drastically changed.

But when the materials were all collected, and Mairon began to work, all of that slid away. Nyeleccaner began to work on a project of his own, companionably close, and when their projects allowed, the two Maiar talked about alloys and forging techniques, and the things that they had discovered and learned. There was something soul-deep right about this for Mairon, who sank into it and the connection it offered to his past. It was not as powerful as when Námo had claimed him from Morgoth in that strange vision, soul-scape, thing during which Mairon still wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but like then, this was saying he was back, that the darkness had ended and that he had been reclaimed.

Yet this was better than it had been. The last time he'd been in these forges, he'd been scared, and confused, and lost. Now he was not. Mairon felt that thought was significant somehow, but musing on philosophy while forging was not the best idea, not if he wanted what he was making to actually turn out properly. So Mairon laid his musings on the matter aside for later, and focused again on the delicate creation under his fingers, and on his conversation with Nyeleccaner. The older Maia was delighted to learn that Mairon had reverse engineered galvorn, (technically, Nyeleccaner had said Aulë would be delighted, but Mairon felt the older Maia was excited too) and Mairon promised that he would come soon and teach both Nyeleccaner and Aulë how to create the alloy. Mairon was a little surprised that they hadn't done so themselves, but then he realized that probably none of Maeglin and Eöl's craft had been brought across the sea, even that little amount that had survived the destruction of Beleriand.

Eventually, though, Mairon finished his work, and Nyeleccaner left off his own project to come and look.

"Very well done," Nyeleccaner said, which brought Mairon's head whipping around in surprise, because when had this Maia started praising people? Nyeleccaner caught the younger Maia's surprise, and gave him a rueful smile, and a small pat to the shoulder. That, at least, was more in keeping with what Mairon remembered of the older Maia.

"Would you like a case for it?" Nyeleccaner asked, and Mairon nodded.

"Yes, thank you," he replied, and Nyeleccaner nodded in return.

"I shall have to go fetch it," he said. "I will only be a few minutes." Mairon nodded again, and Nyeleccaner left. Mairon carefully set the hair clip down on the work bench, and wandered into the main section of the forges. There were so many memories here, so many memories he'd been able to keep, since they were technical in nature. He realized with some sadness that probably the bulk of the memories he still had were created here, or in places like it. Lost in the bittersweet past, he never noticed the stealthy footsteps creeping closer.

Suddenly, a blank darkness dropped across all of Mairon's senses. For a brief panicked second, all the Maia could think about was the void. But then, a tiny bit of sense returned, telling him he knew what this was. Someone—or several someones—were forcing this on him, effectively blinding and deafening him. Not that it was that much better than the void, Mairon realized in the next instant, as a fist slammed into his lower back, propelling him forward, only to be met with another one, which caught him in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

As Mairon crumpled to the floor, disoriented and frightened and in pain, he reacted on instinct rather than rational thought. He completely forgot that Námo had told him to fight back and defend himself. He acted instead on Ages of instinct that told him to curl up, protect himself as best he could, and wait for it to end. It was like a strange nightmare to the Maia, as the blankness prevented him from being able to anticipate a blow. They simply came out of nowhere, and vanished again just as abruptly. Mairon curled tighter, and prayed that this would not last long.

His silent plea was answered, as abruptly, the blows stopped, and then a second later, the blankness ended, and he could hear Nyeleccaner's slightly confused "Mairon?"

"Here," the younger Maia weakly gasped, and suddenly there were running footsteps. Mairon flinched, but it was just Nyeleccaner, who knelt by his side, eyes wide with surprise and concern. With the strange detachment that came with being badly injured, Mairon thought that this was probably the most emotion he'd seen the older Maia display. Nyeleccaner raised his head, and Mairon could feel the powerful mental shout, and realized Nyeleccaner had just called for their lords.

"Help me sit up," Mairon weakly gasped. Nyeleccaner turned his attention back to him with a frown.

"You're injured," he said. "It would be better if you laid still."

"Námo's coming, he'll be frightened I'm hurt worse than I am if I'm lying down," Mairon argued. "Help me sit up." Nyeleccaner's frown deepened, but he did as the younger Maia bid. Mairon gritted his teeth against the pain, but could not help a strangled cry.

"Mairon, your ribs…" Nyeleccaner said, freezing.

"They're broken," Mairon gasped. He knew the sensation a little too well.

"Then you need to lay down," Nyeleccaner insisted, and started to lay him back.

"No!" Mairon protested, clinging to the older Maia's arm. It was to this scene that the Valar arrived, Námo instantly going to his knees next to his injured child, taking him from Nyeleccaner and lying him back.

"Lay still, little one," Námo ordered. Mairon didn't argue this time, he merely grabbed onto his lord's hand, and worked on breathing through his pain. Nyeleccaner got to his feet and went to his own lord, who was looking on in concern.

"I'm sorry, my lord," he said quietly. "I left him alone for a few minutes to go fetch him a case for the hair clip he'd created. Whoever did this took advantage of my absence."

"It's not your fault, Nyeleccaner," Aulë assured him.

"I'm fine," Mairon said from his position on the floor, though the reassurance he was trying to offer fell rather flat, as he was still gasping in pain.

"No, you are not 'fine', Mairon," Námo murmured wryly, as he gently smoothed back the Maia's dark hair. Estë appeared in time to hear that last sentence.

"No, you are not," she said as she slipped a hand to the back of Mairon's neck to get a quick read on Mairon's injuries. Mairon couldn't help but flinch, and Estë looked at him in concern.

"Well, let's get you a little closer to being fine, all right child?" she said gently. She held a small dosing cup to his lips. "Drink this."

Mairon complied, and then tried to relax as best he could, closing his eyes and clinging to Námo's hand as Estë began to work. Meanwhile, Nyeleccaner went and fetched the case he'd dropped when he'd realized Mairon was injured, and placed the hair clip inside it. Returning, he handed it to Aulë, who opened it. The clip was in the form of a butterfly, and constructed with a delicacy that the Vala had always associated with the youngest of the Maiar he had taught. Despite his concern, Aulë smiled softly at the stunning work.

"Is it damaged?" Mairon asked weakly from the floor.

"No, it's still flawless," Aulë assured him, coming to kneel beside him, though making sure to stay out of Estë's way. "Are you keeping it, or is it a gift?"

"I was planning to give it to Istamírë," Mairon responded. He seemed to be trying to distract himself.

"May I see it?" Námo asked, and Aulë handed it over.

"It's beautiful, Mairon," Námo said sincerely. "Istamírë will love it." Mairon smiled at that, but then winced and cried out softly as Estë began to work on his ribs. He instinctively turned towards Námo, who quickly set the hair clip down, and took Mairon's hands, soothing him. Watching, Aulë felt a dull, deep ache, but knew that he had let Mairon slip away from him. Perhaps he couldn't have protected the young Maia from Melkor, but Aulë hadn't even really tried. At least now Mairon had someone he trusted and loved: and Aulë knew he was lucky that Mairon still wanted to have a relationship with him at all.

Slowly, Mairon relaxed as both Estë's healing and the pain draught took hold, and his eyes slipped closed, though he never fully let go of Námo. By the time Estë was finished, Mairon was asleep, and Námo scooped him into his arms to take him home. Aulë grabbed the case containing the hair clip from the floor, gently placing it on the sleeping Maia's stomach, since Námo didn't have a hand free to carry it. Námo wryly smiled his thanks.

"I'll try to find out what happened," Aulë told the other Vala, his voice soft out of deference to the sleeping Mairon. Námo nodded grimly.

"We will need to discuss this in council, but I'm not leaving Mairon until I know he's alright with that," Námo said. It was Aulë's turn to nod grimly.

"Hopefully by then, we will have some answers," he said.

"May it be so," Námo murmured, his eyes worried.

Well this time, if you're fainting in shock, it's probably because it only took me four months to update, rather than over a year. ;) As always, this chapter owes a considerable amount to the irreplaceable Crackers, who not only provided the Beta edit, but who's lovely story, Postliminium, provided the feels that fed the muse enough to get the second half of this chapter written. As always, please review!