The reason for Finrod to hire Melkor – Melian knew she preferred that name rather than Morgoth, because the Vala was not her enemy now, and because the better known moniker was coined by Fëanor, for whom she had no love whatsoever – was never explained. However, the Maia understood it to be something akin to mischief... and a desire for some bragging rights by bringing to their own side the one who had been the menace of all – even if he was not supposed to be doing a great amount of the actual fighting, as the campaign was pretty much winding down. Of course, with the, ah, new warlock being as powerful as he was, the decision was also a show of force... sparse as the audience has been by that time. Indeed, the scrying powers of the Thieves' Guilds were showing that only two factions remained, the Red and the Blue, and the latter was very much on its last legs.
But was it the action by Finrod, or whoever was behind this whole game – after discussing it at length, Melian and Melkor were in agreement that it could only have been Ilúvatar himself?
The Maia was frantically reviewing the options, shaken into action by Melkor's appearance. He was not the key either, they both realised, but what of the Silmarils? However, she was greatly disappointed by the Black Vala's tale, however – per his account, when Finrod vanquished him outside Angband (by laying a very clever trap for his forces and destroying them piecemeal, the erstwhile Dark Lord noted with chagrin and admiration mixed in equal proportions), his crown has simply vanished without a trace. Apparently the Silmarils were not to have any role in this version of the story.
"This should be inexplicable, but somehow I knew this was how this realm works: whenever a wielder of an Ultimate Artifact is defeated, the item itself ceases to exist. It is a pity, of course, for what a fine item it was! Adds 4 points to each of the primary stats…" Melkor mused, then snorted and shook his head. "Forgive me, Lady Melian, I am still getting carried away at times. This enchantment, for the lack of a better word, that has been put on us, it is pretty strong even for the likes of us".
She did not bother going to Finrod or Galadriel – or any of the other "heroes" – for counsel. It has been long ago that she had written them off as simple figments of someone's imagination given a semblance of sentience and personality. Melkor was a different case, however, even though it was still strange for her to even consider treating him as anything but a threat. Once she even thought that it was a shame she could not hope to reconcile with him in the real world – and became suitably alarmed about even thinking of this.
Yes, but for that to become pertinent, she had to find a way out into the real world... for starters.
She was shaken out of her reverie again by Melkor's words.
"There may yet be another of these artifacts here, even though no one can know what it is until we unearth it. Is it worth trying, in your opinion?"
Right – digging for the Ultimate Artifact. Melian was already familiar with the concept, of course: tall obelisks of stone scattered across the land carried clues to the location of some kind of item imbued with unimaginable power, she heard. Initially, she dismissed it as another ridiculous piece of the game ensnaring her, and a waste of effort, but after debating the issue with Melkor – who had, by then, unexpectedly become her constant companion – she decided to give it a shot. She closed her eyes and invoked the image of the map she had been giving little heed to, incomplete though it was. Surely enough, it pointed to an already familiar location on the far west side of Anfauglith, next to a water wheel (that was, like all of its kind, a source of weekly taxes) on what passed here for the upper reaches of river Sirion. Using a Town Portal spell – a great tool, she knew, for it allowed any hero to travel almost instantly to any castle of their choice – the Maia found herself in Barad Eithel, moved into position and quickly ordered her troops to start the excavations.
A whole day of the realm's time had passed before she was presented with a magnificent shield, almost pentagonal in shape – yet rounded and tapering off towards the bottom, and decorated with a sort of flag in three colours. She felt it radiate power, but was disappointed nonetheless. The buried artifact has turned out to be the Ultimate Shield, greatly improving the Attack and Defense Skills for her and her army, a helpful inner voice told her... yet it was nothing but another of the items she could use in combat, not any kind of clue as to the whereabouts of anything that might help her break out of this charade. More time wasted, she thought with disgust as she was looking at the dig site, a neat hole in the final swath of green soil at the edge of Melkor's former realm. She reached out to the Vala and grudgingly informed him of her success... that was nothing but distraction in the grand scheme of things. He did not appear surprised, for whichever reason.
"Then, I guess the only way out for both of us is to find and defeat the last of the opposing forces – the faction of Fëanor's sons, even if neither of them is probably even on the battlefield by now, because they have both been vanquished more than once. I have the spell from Angband that allows me to see where the enemy towns and heroes are, and it appears that there is just one of each for the Blue faction by now. They are pretty far away, which is why we haven't found them yet", he said.
Of course, the View All spell – she knew it too, from the magic guild in Angband or some other advanced town, but she forgot about its existence. Somehow, Melkor was better adapted to this simulacrum of a world, she thought, or maybe it was not the real Melkor after all – but he was still much better help than anyone else. With a sigh, she addressed him again.
"Where is it, then?"
"Taur-im-Duinath".
It made sense, as Taur-im-Duinath was a vast swampy forest, with the terrain that was not forthcoming even to the best of the heroes unless they had their Pathfinding skills developed to the maximum. It was crawling with non-aligned creatures, too, which was irritating – even though Finrod has taken a habit of bribing these left and right to bring them into the fold by using diplomacy. There were only two towns in that forest, though it was tempting as a good place to gather resources scattered generously around. Yes, by then none of that was even surprising to Melian – she was taking all of that nonsense for granted, feeling nothing but weary resignation.
"If you don't want that shield, you can by all means give it to me", Melkor added with a hint of humour when they met again near Nan Tathren, preparing to start the final push against the blue player... and towards their own freedom, hopefully.
"By all means do. I would appreciate something to boost the morale, though... Do you have a medal you can spare?"
Note: the 4 "medal" artifacts (Medal of Distinction, Medal of Courage, Medal of Valor, Medal of Honor) give +1 to the troop morale. Interestingly they also existed in the original Heroes of Might and Magic.
Note 2: It took me a while to resume writing this story, so the tone might have changed since the first instalments. I also decided to split it into smaller chapters, so there's more of them still than originally envisioned. One remains to be written, and there's the epilogue which was written at the very start. It will be completed, of course, because I hate to leave anything unfinished.