Blood pain fear fear fear magic magic hurts pain...Swearing viciously, Severus fought to claw his way out of the morass of fear that lay in the Crebain's memories. Merlin, how could they have been hiding such pain? Their undisciplined, animalistic minds were difficult to navigate – only the fact that they were Severus' familiars allowed Severus to eventually steady the flow of memories and start sorting them out.
And when he finally realized what he was seeing...Severus felt pain all over again. This time, however, it was pain for his familiars.
Baby crows, ignorant and inquisitive, until Sauron's forces caged them. Baby crows, taken by Sauron, crying with pain behind unyielding bars. Little crows, caged from freedom, molded and twisted to fit Sauron's goals. Little crows, no longer just normal crows, cursed with the name of Crebain. Little Crebain, now spurned by own kin, gifted to Saruman and forced into servitude. Forced to spy, forced to breed, forced to die knowing that their young would be similarly enslaved and exploited.
"Merlin," Severus whispered, swallowing down his bile. No wonder they're so intelligent. They aren't normal crows at all. They're the products of a Dark Lord's experiments. Gently, he caressed their feathers, trying to reassure them of his affection. Trying to reassure them that his hatred, all his hatred was for their creator. Allying with the Dark is no longer an option. I will take vengeance upon the Dark Lord. That is a promise to you, my Crebain.
But, the Crebain had more to show him. As he sifted through their more recent memories, Severus grew alarmed by what he saw. The Crebain hadn't bumped into my shield accidentally. They'd been sent to investigate when Saruman felt a burst of power emanating from that area – Oh Merlin he must have been sensing whatever magic which was powering my arrival to this world. No wonder we've had to ward off so many Orc attacks – he must have notified Sauron. Or perhaps Sauron sensed it too – damn it exactly how many people know I'm here?
Standing up, Severus began to pace around the clearing, thinking hard. I've attracted the attention of a Dark Lord with great magic and even greater armies. Now that they're aware of me, I can no longer bank on using the element of surprise. However, all that they know of me is probably secondhand knowledge – and now that their spies are gone, it should be some time before they can build up another spy network again...
No. The Crebain's thoughts, filled with sadness, broke through his planning. No. Not gone. Gently, they offered up to him their last, pertinent memories. And Severus' heart burned, burned as he saw dozens more flocks of crows caged in the dark tower they called nest, burned as he watched them periodically sent out, to fly free for a few, precious moments to spy, only to return to their prison when their task was done.
And finally, he realized why they'd shared their memories with him that day.
Slowly, he knelt down to where the Crebain had huddled together for comfort. "I see." His voice was quiet, even as he steeled himself, knowing instinctively that whatever he was about to do would be...distasteful. But then, when had that ever deterred him? "What would you have me do?"
The Crebain gave him a long, measuring look. One full of fear, but tinged with faint hope. They'd been testing me all this while. Probably since the day we first met, Severus suddenly realized, but with a surprising lack of anger. And why should he be angry? For a task involving their kin, they were right to be cautious. If their chosen savior was to fail them, it would only lead to punishment and pain – two things which he was all too familiar with, when his own savior had opted not to free him.
Then again, if Albus had not offered me the path of redemption instead, I would not be who I am now. When all is said and done, I...am grateful, Albus. However, the Crebain are not me. They never chose to be enslaved to the Dark. I will not leave them to Sauron.
Again, he repeated, but with stronger determination, "What would you have me do?"
And finally, finally, the Crebain seemed to reach a decision. Nestling up to Severus, they showed him what they wanted him to do. And Severus...began to plan.
Saruman's back screeched in protest as he straightened up, finally done with viewing the memories of the Crebain sent to spy on Gandalf. Wincing, his temper rose as he thought of the scene he'd just been watching – Gandalf drinking with the Hobbits yet again. It was positively undignified, not to mention irresponsible, for Gandalf to shirk his duties once more. I would never act so foolishly, he thought with a self-righteous anger, I would never waste so much of my time on inferior beings like Hobbits!
He had to wonder, though – did Gandalf have an ulterior motive for all his shenanigans? Did he have a new duty that the Vala had kept secret from Saruman? Even now, Gandalf might be gloating, thinking that he'd fooled Saruman. The old Maia moved unconsciously to the memories again, longing to replay them and analyze exactly what Gandalf was up to. But no, this might be all within Gandalf's plot to take Saruman's place – to make him unproductive, to tempt him into neglecting his own duties.
Saruman's paranoia rose with that thought. Spinning around, he stalked to his study in a fine temper. He barely noticed the little Craban patiently waiting at the study window as he entered and flung himself into his chair, so preoccupied was he with his rage. Lying to me! Making a fool of me! I'll show you all. I'll be the first to find the Ring and defeat Sauron. I'll show you all that I'm wiser and more capable than Gandalf!
Eventually, Saruman began to calm down. Turning his head, he beckoned at the Craban with a peremptory finger. The little animal flew over meekly. Perhaps it was anxious not to set Saruman off again? Saruman snorted at the foolish thought - it was just a dumb, inferior bird, incapable of analyzing actions that deeply. What would it know about anything? The Crebain weren't even loyal servants – why, just the other day an entire flock of them had disappeared!
Saruman's annoyance at that memory caused him to be exceptionally vicious when extracting the Craban's own memories. Oblivious to the little bird's pain, he continued to rage. I should never have accepted these birds from Sauron. He's probably gloating, thinking that he's ingratiated himself to me by presenting me with his spoiled goods. Pah! I wager that the strange magical explosion in Lossarnach has something to do with him. That useless flock I'd sent out to investigate is probably back to serving Sauron again. I should show him that he can't fool me! I should...
What Saruman was planning to do would never be known, for it was at that moment that Severus chose to launch his mental attack on the Crebain's slave bonds.
Damn and blast. I loathe charging into a situation so unprepared. This is so utterly Gryffindorish. However, Severus had very little choice. He'd already waited a few days before acting upon his plan, as he was determined not to go into the fight magically exhausted. Waiting further would be counterproductive, as every day wasted heightened the chances of the Crebain's old master using his remaining Crebain against Severus.
So, in the period leading up to his attack, he'd made his preparations very carefully. Earlier that day, he'd began to feign illness, forcing the warriors to stop their travels much earlier than they usually did. Using hand signals and some simple foreign words that he'd already learnt from the warriors, he communicated his wish to not be disturbed that night, in order to facilitate his recovery. The warriors, already very much used to his antisocial behavior, had agreed thoughtlessly.
Lying down with his back to the warriors, Severus thought back to all that he'd learnt so far about the slave links. Seemingly, Sauron had, in an attempt to make the Crebain even more efficient spies, once tried to create links between the Crebain themselves. The intended effect would be that a Craban, after gathering whatever information that Sauron wanted, wouldn't need to waste time flying back to Sauron before disclosing it to him. Instead, it could just send its knowledge via the links to a Craban near Sauron, thus improving the information transfer rate tremendously.
To Sauron's great disappointment, however, the links he created were always warped and useless. Mostly, they were weak and flickering, and so, utterly unsuitable for information transfer. And in certain special cases, the links were instead too strong, leading to the creation of tightly-knit flocks like the one Severus had. Such flocks were so tightly bonded that they could never function when far from each other. This had been the reason why Severus had gained the whole flock as his familiars – their minds were too interconnected by Sauron's experiments, and so, when Severus had formed a link with one Craban, it had mutated into a link with all of them.
The warped links, however, had frustrated Sauron's ambition to create a wide-ranging spy network. Eventually, he'd deemed the Crebain as failed experiments and gifted them to Saruman.
Which is his loss, and my gain. Truly an oversight on your part, Dark Lord. Severus smiled grimly at the Crebain, which crooned softly back. The links which Sauron had thought so useless was now going to be Severus' ticket into success.
Beady black eyes watched him in anticipation, as he closed his eyes, and slowly immersed his mind into their link. And through it, he searched – and eventually found the weak, flickering link that held them bound to the rest of their brethren. From there, it was ridiculously easy to search further, uncover the slave bonds that held them subservient to Saruman – and to finally find the thick bond which was Saruman's link to them all.
First goal accomplished. Good. Now, down to the hard work. Taking a deep breath, Severus began to slowly, carefully, chip away at Saruman's bond.
And of course, of course, that was the moment in which his plans went up in flames.
Ahhhh! What...what...? Saruman was nearly blinded by the agony coursing through his mind. By...the...Vala...something's...ripping out of my mind...Oh Vala...it hurts...what's happening...?
Digging his fingers into his scalp in a subconscious attempt to scrape the pain out, Saruman tried to breathe and think calmly. Attack...someone's...attacking me...Gandalf? He couldn't...have known yet...focus...focus...throw him...out...hurt him...
Severus gasped silently as pain pulsed through his link with the Crebain. Damn. He detected me so quickly? That slave bond must be more entrenched than I thought. Clenching his teeth, Severus ignored the pain and changed his strategy into a full-frontal assault. Mentally setting up a shield to protect the Crebain still bonded to Saruman, he began to hack away at the slave bond with great enthusiasm.
This had the delightful effect of lessening the pain he had to contend with, as Saruman became less concerned about killing his attackers and more concerned with whether his head was going to explode. Smirking smugly, Severus focused back on his task.
Severus never realized, as he waged his little battle against the bond, that a very different, but equally dangerous battle was starting up near his body too.