The sun rose very nicely in the horizon this morning. In addition, Tar-Palantir found another lead on the project that I've been working on. All in all, things are shaping up to be a very nice day. I'm currently attempting to prove that there are many more things in this world than we had once assumed.
Common theory tells us that there are few races on this world. There are, of course, the Ainur (subdivided into various categories) that are responsible for ruling this world. The are not originally of this world and have large levels of control over it. Most of them serve Manwë Súlimo, but there are a few of them who instead serve Morgoth. Interaction with them is limited, so little beyond what I've described here is known. It is thought that they are few in number (more on this later).
Next come the Firstborn, The Quendi, the elves. They were the first race to actually wake upon this world. They have limited control over this world. A large portion of the elves lives in Valinor and serves Manwë Súlimo. However, many elves also live in Endor and take a more neutral stance. There are no elves who openly serve Morgoth, although they can do so unwittingly or against their will.
According to common theory, the orcs are the descendants of elves that were twisted by Morgoth over many ages and had several selective traits bred into them. Little is known of the orcs aside from the fact that they almost closer resemble humans that elves. In general, they serve Morgoth.
After the orcs are the dwarves. Dwarven myth says that they were created by Aulë, but they originally had no will of their own, for it is not the place of the Ainur to create life. However, Eru took pity on Aulë and granted them free will. However, he caused them to wake after the elves. Dwarves have even further limited control of their environment, and it is mostly restricted to things related to mining and forging.
As a counterbalance to the dwarves, Eru created the Ents. Yavanna saw that the dwarves, created without her knowledge, would come to distrust the natural world. She asked for Eru to give nature someone to watch over itself. In return, Eru caused several trees to awaken and become the Ents and Entwives, shepherds of the forests. They are rarely ever seen, preferring to stay to themselves.
Seeing the Ents, Sauron wished to devise a counter to them. From the orcs, he was able to bred two races of trolls. The first was too weak in the sunlight and not worth the advantage they offered. They spread over the world, although most of them fled to the North. The second were known as the Olog-Hai and became some of Sauron's most effective soldiers.
The next race to emerge, after the ents, were the Secondborn, the Atani, the humans. We were the fourth race to awaken on this world. We have almost no control over the world around us, although according to the elves the world (and the Music of the Ainur) has no control over us. Although many humans serve Manwë Súlimo (or at least, pretend to—most Númenoreans were influenced by Ar-Gimilzôr and do not), many more serve Sauron and Morgoth, and even more serve neither but serve themselves.
There are a few other races, such as the Eagles (excluding the Ainur that have taken the guise of an eagle), the great wolves, and the dragons, but they are not so important as their numbers have decreased in great amounts since they were first created.
However, I have reason to suspect that the Valar attempted to create a few races on their own, and that there are other races that are corrupted similar to how the orcs are corrupted forms of Elves. I will say more after I check out Tar-Palantir's report.
-From the Abridged Journals of Arnuzîr
When Altariel arose there was a light layer of snow on the ground. As usual, Sam was up before her. "Are you ready for what's going on today?" she asked.
Sam nodded. "I sure hope so. I haven't done anything like this in over 40 years. You should eat some breakfast before we go," he instructed.
"All right, I will. You've got Sting?" she inquired.
Sam nodded again. "I've got it right here," he said, pointing to a scabbard. "Do you think it will come in handy?"
"At the very least, it will tell is when orcs are uncomfortably close by. If we're lucky, whatever it is that we are facing might have some sort of vulnerability relating to elvish weapons."
"Oh, that's a clever though."
The rest of their breakfast was eaten in silence. Both Altariel and Sam were to preoccupied by their task to bother making small talk. They ate quickly and packed even faster. They set off through the snow and headed into Carn Dûm.
The ruins only looked even more ominous with their thin blanketing of snow. Altariel knew that there were plenty of things hiding in these ruins, waiting for their chance to pounce. She just wished she knew what she was looking for. Altariel had a feeling that if they looked around for long enough they would find whatever was lurking out here. However, the longer they were in here, the more danger they were in.
Sure enough, as if to prove her words, several orcs ran out from an alley an surrounded Sam and Altariel. The two of them went back to back and they both brandished their weapons. To the orcs, they must have been a comical sight. One of them was a halfling well into his adult. Sam was hardly what one would call in good shape or even remotely agile, and his sword was like a toothpick from the orcs perspective. However, he had a spiritual strength to him that wasn't shown physically, and like most hobbits he fought back hard when things got rough.
Altariel also hardly cut a threatening figure, at first glance. She, while taller than Sam, was still short, even for a woman. She also hardly had the large bulk that many swordsmen did. However, if the orcs had been paying attention, they might have noticed her proper stance and how she held herself with confidence. They might have noticed how her eyes shone with defiance and how her sword was of supreme elven make. But they noticed none of this and made the largest and last mistake of their lives.
Pressed against Sam, Altariel reflected how much she had changed her mind about hobbits. She used to think that they were damn nuisances they weren't worth the effort to protect. However, having met people like Sam she was revising her opinion of them. She know saw more clearly why Gandalf had chosen Frodo to carry the burden of the ring. Even though many enemies with far greater skill surrounded Sam, he still stood bravely.
An orc struck at Altariel and she came alive. She spun and twirled, slashing, striking, dodging and parrying. A whirlwind of elvish steel blew down the orcs one by one, so quickly that they could hardly react. They hadn't expected this kind of threat from Altariel and were more than unprepared for it. Altariel could hear Sam desperately blocking the attacks of another orc in the background. She was prepared to head over to help him, but he was able to slay the orc and move onto the next one, using his small size to his advantage.
More orcs ran out to attack Altariel, but she fought them all off. A bloodlust had overcome her now, and not even a serious wound (if the orcs could actually strike her) would have stopped her at this point. When the orcs stopped coming out, a pile of corpses lay in the disturbed snow. A few had been felled by Sam, but over a score had been slain by her.
Altariel's eyes widened, aware suddenly of what she had done. She had no idea she was this capable with her sword. She couldn't explain it. She felt as though she came alive with the sword in her hand. She felt this way with any sword, but this sword seemed even more compatible than the others.
Sam was clearly even more awestruck than she was. "That was amazing!" he gasped. "You were like one of them heroes out of the stories that Mr. Bilbo always told. I'm so glad we have someone like you to protect us."
Altariel felt a rush of emotion at hearing Sam's words. She was unused to people looking up to her to protect them. Tel and Aula had certainly never acted this way toward her, and Liriel had stopped doing so after she reached her teens. She smiled hesitantly. "Thank you, Sam. I just am really good at-"
She broke off suddenly as she heard a terrifying noise ring out over the city. At first she though it was the scream of some beast, but then she realized that it was laughter. Suddenly, the laughter stopped and a voice—no, more than a voice, it was a terrible thought that was projecting itself all through the ruins—rang out.
COME AND FIND ME IF YOU CAN, ALTARIEL BRANNONION. I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOUR SWORD OR OF YOU. YOU CANNOT STOP ME, FOR I AM UNKILLABLE. I WAS ON THIS WORLD BEFORE YOUR ANCESTORS AND I WILL NOT LEAVE UNTIL YOR DESCENDANTS ARE NOTHING BUT DUST ON THE WIND.
The voice cut off as quickly as it had begun. Altariel jumped backward in shock, clutching her sword reflexively. Sam put a protective hand on her elbow. "Hey, don't worry," he said encouragingly. "Now we know that what we came for is here, and we know that it is not the Witch-king."
Altariel frowned. Sam's words were reassuring, but they weren't entirely what she needed to hear. "What is it?" she wondered aloud.
Sam shrugged. "Who knows?" he said. "What's important is we know it's here and that it can be encountered. We can do this, trust me." He smiled at her bravely.
Altariel took in a shaky breath, trying to reassure herself. "All right," she said, smiling nervously. "Let's go." She strode bravely towards the center, were she assumed her target would be.
Liriel, Pazij, Guband, and Turondo woke up after they had rested sufficiently to reuse their unique powers again. They knew not whether it was day or night, but they didn't really care. Their bodies were following different cycles now that they had left the sun and moon behind. The four of them continued to move forward inside the tunnel, on the alert for a way down and for more members of The Swarm.
At long last, they came to a doorway. Peering inside, they saw a small stairwell that would take them either up or down. However, there was one small problem.
"I hear something walking on those stairs," said Turondo.
Pazij nodded. "I do too. Would you mind investigating, Turondo?"
"Of course not. This should only take a minute." The tall priest strode confidently down the stairwell. He disappeared from sight, and they could only tell that he was there from his loud cursing. He called back towards them, "I could use some back up!" Quickly, they hurried down to join him. They found Turondo ineffectively slashing at two members of The Swarm. They were a variety that they had never met before.
Turondo kept attacking them with his sword, but every cut he made healed almost as soon as he made it. He killed one of them just as the women reached him by cutting off his head. However, the other one took advantage of this and struck against his armor with his sword. Ordinarily, the blow would have done nothing, but the sword must have been made of a special material for it easily rent the armor and cut Turondo.
Guband gasped. "That looks like a ghoul. They rarely ever show up on battlefields, but they usually wreck havoc there when they do. Quickly, Pazij, they are vulnerable to fire!"
Working quickly, Pazij fired a blast of fire at the creature, taking care not to hit Turondo in the process. Sure enough, the ghoul caught fire and began screaming loudly. It was in too much pain to continue attacking Turondo and it dropped its sword. After around 30 seconds, the fire had consumed the entire thing, leaving behind only its sword.
Liriel was chilled by the presence of the creature. She knew that they would come face to face with far more terrifying things while inside the Swazverai. Stories of The Swarm spoke of many horrifying beasts that were said to make up its numbers. While these beasts were rarely seen on the front, Liriel had no doubt that they would encounter them in the very heart of The Swarm. She shuddered to think of whatever was causing the Swarm could be.
Liriel realized that she had lost focus of what Guband was saying. She stopped worrying momentarily and refocused herself. "…We will travel all together from now on, in case one of us needs someone else's support. Turondo, you almost died today because you didn't have time to cast your spells and your sword was ineffective. From now on, at least one of us will help you scout out dangerous areas."
Turondo sighed. "All right, then. I don't want to end up placing you in more danger than you have to be, but it looks as though there's no avoiding it."
"I'd like to add something," said Pazij.
"Go ahead," Guband said pleasantly.
"We need to keep in mind that our strength needs to be conserved. I cannot be blasting magic all day, nor can Guband or Liriel, or even you Turondo. Therefore, I suggest that we ladies arm ourselves." She bent down and picked up the weapons of the fallen ghouls. "Whatever these weapons are made of, it's powerful. Even though most of us have no formal training with them, we should still be able to use them to some effect."
Turondo eyed Pazij dubiously. "I don't know about that. Often, some of the worse damage that happens when my temple goes in raids is from inexperienced members who end up hurting us as much as the enemy. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but that it might be better if you had more training. I mean, even as we speak you're struggling to life the weapon."
"I can do this, and so can the rest of us," Pazij said in a quiet and serious voice. "Plus, if we ever are attacked while resting, having a weapon on hand can't hurt."
Turondo sighed. "Very well. However, you must promise me that you will be extra careful with them."
Guband rolled her eyes. "Stop treating us like we're little children, Turondo." When Turondo didn't back down, she rolled her eyes again and said, "I promise."
"I promise," said Pazij.
All eyes turned toward Liriel, whose thoughts had wandered toward the subject of The Swarm again. She blushed when she realized that everyone was staring at her. "I promise," she muttered.
"Good," said Turondo cheerfully. "Let's be on our way, then."
They were able to descend down a few more levels before the stairwell ended. When they stepped out of the doorframe, they discovered that they were no longer inside a hallway, but were in fact inside a large chamber. Judging by the paintings on the wall, this was once a place of worship, although Telimperion had no idea what religion it was for. There were also several creatures of The Swarm inside the room.
Upon seeing the humans, The Swarm turned and attacked. Turondo was the first to get off a spell. He made his usually hand gesture and roared "Reinintot!" Several beams of light shot out from his hand, disintegrating several of The Swarm. Unfortunately, there were a few that were unaffected.
"Utumno!" swore Turondo. "They must have some sort of resistance to spells!"
"Perhaps you could try the same spell again and see if you weakened their resistance," Liriel suggested.
"I'm afraid I don't have the energy to waste trying that. I'll have to take them out the old-fashioned way," he replied. Then, he raised his sword and charged at the four remaining creatures of The Swarm. Luckily, it appeared that these creatures did not posses regenerative properties like the ghouls, and they were easily defeated.
"I hope we don't encounter anything that has those properties plus more," said Guband. "Without our spells, we only have Turondo."
"And me!" protested Pazij, displaying her new sword for all to see.
"Speaking of which, I wonder why The Swarm here didn't carry any weapons," wondered Liriel.
"Many reports from the battlefield speak of The Swarm either overwhelming soldiers without using weapons, using unarmed martial arts, using some magic to make their opponents part of The Swarm, or some fear effect to drive them off. Not much sword fighting goes on. Since there aren't enough of The Swarm here to overwhelm us and we are protected by Turondo from fear and being turned, they probably intend to fight us unarmed," replied Guband. Liriel nodded. Guband's response made sense.
There were only two ways out of the room besides going back the way that they came. They could proceed directly forward, through a doorway that appeared to lead into a similar room. Their other option was to take a left and go into what appeared to be another hallway.
"I'm tired of hallways," Guband said. "Let's go explore something new."
"I agree, although for different reasons," Turondo added. "I think we are more liable to find more things inside another room than in the hallways."
"But what if we encounter more of The Swarm?" Pazij protested.
"I'm sure we can fight them off. Besides, if we run out of magic after we fight them we can rest in that room; it should be much safer than in the hallway." Seeing that Pazij was almost convinced, he turned to Liriel. "What do you think?"
Liriel ignored him at first. "Where are all the doors?" she asked.
Turondo looked at her in bewilderment, "what?" he asked incredulously.
"Look at all the door frames. They were clearly meant for doors to be in them. Haven't you noticed how we can see into all these rooms because there are no doors there?"
The group fell silent for a moment. Guband was about to respond when Turondo's protection against the presence failed. For a moment, Liriel retained a semblance of lucidity. However, down here the presence was even stronger and they were all soon reduced to gibbering wrecks. The presence felt as though it was gnawing away at their very souls, shredding and wrenching it apart. Their minds felt as though their brains were being consumed by millions of locusts, and their bodies felt flayed and worn.
Seeing what was happening to Pazij, Guband, and Liriel, Turondo felt something inside him grow. Honor and courage welled up inside him, momentarily driving back the presence, giving him enough time to motion and gasp out "Besseshutvordembo!" At once, the presence cleared away, leaving the four of them on the floor of the Swazverai, gasping and recovering from the aftereffects of the trauma.
Turondo was the first to speak. "I apologize," he said. "The closer proximity must have strained the spell beyond its limits. I have recast a stronger version of the spell, though I am afraid it has drained me of my remaining energy."
"Due to this new knowledge and the attack that we all just suffered, I think we should camp here for the night. I think we shall actualize our goals tomorrow. I can just feel it."
Parthekos caught up with Wilazûrûzj in front of a rather spacious tent with an extra layer of canvas on top of it. "Welcome to th' scribin' tent," Wilazûrûzj proudly announced. It wasn't a terribly impressive sight. Inside the tent lay two small desks. Parthekos realized that the desks weren't made of wood like he was used too. No, wood was far too valuable in the desert. These desks were made of glass. Solid glass, somehow blown into that shape from the sand.
There were a few stacks of blank paper on these desks, as well as a couple of books and a few pieces of paper with actual content on them. It looked as though Wilazûrûzj was writing things down and attempting to bind them into books. Another observation of the room revealed that there was a small machine that could be used to bind books.
"Now, I'm sure ya have a few questions about bein' a scribe. I imagine that the first question on your mind might be something along the lines of 'why would the orcs need a scribe.'" Parthekos nodded. This had in fact been the exact question he was about to voice.
"Well, here's somethin' that ya probably already know to start ya out on solid ground." The orc spat suddenly, as though tasting something foul. "Look, I'm gonna have to switch to Orcish. I can't stomach Westron for very long. I assume correctly that you are conversant, right?"
Parthekos nodded. "I know many words and how the grammar works. I studied what little was known of it extensively back in Hyarragash and have learned more in the past few weeks before I came here."
"Good," said Wilazûrûzj, obviously relieved and now speaking in Orcish. "That'll make things much easier. Now, as I was saying, here's somethin' that ya probably already know to start ya out on solid ground. Traditionally, orcs had few scribes. We jus' didn't see 'em as necessary to accomplish what we wanted. All of our tales were passed down through story tellin', and we have no need ta keep ledgers or nothin'.
"Any messages we wanna send, we just find messengers to remember them." Wilazûrûzj tapped his skull. "We are renowned for our excellent memory."
"So, why have scribes now?"
"I was getting' to that; have more patience, human. I told ya I was starting off with something that you would know. Well, here's what ya don't know: Every time after Sauron was defeated, we orcs were always able to set up a vibrant and thriving culture. During the Third Age, for the most part, we left Gondor alone and they left us alone." Wilazûrûzj laughed. "Hell, it was the other humans that dealt more damage to Gondor, not us. Anyways, back to the subject, the orcs had a grand time whenever Sauron wasn't there.
"However, as soon as He became dominant, He crushed our entire culture in order to bring us under His thumb. All of our religions, our traditions, our holidays, even our idea of what proper manners were like, were destroyed and replaced by His culture. Our elders were powerless to stop it cause He had them slaughtered by the Korfulaz."
Parthekos interrupted, "the what?" Realizing his poor manners, he hastily shut his mouth.
Wilazûrûzj eyed him but did not accuse him of rudeness. Instead, he said, "So I see you do not know quite all of our language. Admittedly, it is a word that I wouldn't have expected you to know. It means Ringwraith. Sauron sent then after our elders and storytellers. In under a century He had destroyed most of our culture, leaving us with only the shattered remnants."
"You seem to be doing pretty fine out here," Parthekos pointed out.
Wilazûrûzj shook his head. "This is not what our culture would have been like 300 years ago, before He began interfering with us. The only reason that we know the things that I have just told you is that we captured one of Sauron's lieutenants."
"Sauron had lieutenants?"
"Sure did. Some of them were once ordinary humans, like the Mouth. Others, however, were lesser Maiar that he had managed to bind to his cause. We caught one of the latter."
Parthekos raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You captured a Maiar. Without any elves?"
Wilazûrûzj spit. "Bah, elves! They think that because they were the Firstborn, they know everything. I'll tell you something, human. The elves can defeat Maiar only because of their weapons, they'd be nothing."
Parthekos was still disbelieving. "I don't see any elven swords lying around here."
"Well, first of all, you're assuming that our tribe would have been the specific one to take down the Maia. They could be with some other tribe, you know. Second, we didn't use swords."
"Then how'd you do it? Just answer the question instead of dodging it!"
Wilazûrûzj looked offended. "No need to get all antsy. Was just havin' a polite conversation, 'sall. Since you wanna know so badly, I'll tell ya. Sauron had several ways of controlling his lieutenants. He had given one of his most trusted orc captains, Bulogûhûrga, a gem that would allow him to temporarily "stun" a Maia by briefly powering them down.
"Bulogûhûrga ended up using this gem to capture a Maia and made him reveal what Sauron had done to them. He then convinced roughly a third of the orcs in Mordor to leave it and follow him to live our old lives. They all fled out to here, where we were helped out by the dark elves. I wasn't yet born when this happened, though, so you'll have to take my word for it."
Parthekos nodded. "Thanks for explaining that."
Wilazûrûzj grinned. "No problem. You just need to be a little patient and explanations will come. Now, where were we?"
"You were telling me that you aren't doing fine."
"Yes, exactly! The culture that we have is a combination of what few details we could gleam from the Maia—and let me tell you, it wasn't much—and what the dark elves were able to tell us, which was almost from a millennium ago. The rest, we had to slowly decide for ourselves. Most of what we have here is an entirely new culture. Even the language is different."
"Our elders decided that we would never let that happen again. If someone else tries to wipe out our culture, we want to keep it alive. So, in addition to passing things along by speech, we are recording them to make them harder to destroy."
"So, what's my job?"
"You are going to transcribe various folktales that people around here know. Now, get to work," Wilazûrûzj said, motioning to one of the desks. "One of the elders will be in here shortly to relate a story. I'll be outside, eating."
Parthekos sighed inwardly. Why can't Aulenmir be here? He'd love this kind of work. He'd love all this listening and memorizing and writing. Well, at least I'll have time to work on my sermon for tonight.
The elder stepped into the tent and Parthekos officially began his job. Now he really was a member of the orc tribe, the first ever human to join an eastern one.