Rhaenys knew that she was taking a huge risk in trying to break the souls of her ancient family free from whatever magic that Sauron held them prisoners with, but if her theory was right and that this action may make Khamûl more willing to listen to her offer of freeing his own soul from the Dark Lord…

"I know that he undoubtedly is going to face some form of divine judgment for his actions as a servant of the Dark Lord, but perhaps that fate may be easier to accept with the knowledge that the souls of his beloved family members is no longer used as a way to keep him under the thumb of Sauron?"

At least, that was what Rhaenys hoped. From the memories of Mara, Khamûl had been a good husband and father. Yes, he had not been perfect, as proved by that he could have some favoritism playing around, but he had never been deliberately cruel towards any of his wives or concubines sans Milce, the Nûmenorian woman who had birthed Tar-Minyatur and never seemed to have realized that it was her own unpleasant personality, constant complaints about everything in her life as the clear unfavorite among the women in the royal harem and her openly revealing her view about Kemet being inferior to her birth Isle far away from the realm ruled by Khamûl.

"Some actions and choices really have long-term consequences that stretch a long way, far beyond imagination…"

That was how reality worked. And if someone did not learn the meaning of "your actions, your words, your choices, they are all your OWN responsibility" and instead kept blaming others for everything and acting like they were the only one going through stuff, they were going to become annoying at best and unbearable at worst.

That said, Rhaenys recalled from the flashbacks where she had found out about her previous life as Princess Mara of Kemet, Khamûl had not been a fool back as a human. There was a reason for why Sauron had aimed to make him a servant though the use of a Ring of Power, and if his success as the second most powerful Ringwrath was anything to suggest, the Dark Lord had chosen his most terrifying servants with great care so he indeed got the best of the best. With how Khamûl had been blessed with magic from birth and been a powerful ruler of a mighty empire of the East, he had been a prime choice.

"Not everything needs to be connected with Sauron, but instead show basic flaws of the Race of Men that can become negative in the longer run. It could very well be that Milce and Tar-Minyatur merely added help to Sauron in ensnaring Khamûl, by giving him a long-lasting reason for hating both the people of Númenor and their descendants in Gondor…"

Now, the question was: would she be able to do this without Sauron somehow sensing it?

~X~X~X~X~X~X

In Minas Tirith, Oberyn and Suleiman were having a rather private conversation about one detail that proved a major difference between their family lines, as the descendants of Mara and Neith, the two surviving daughters of Khamûl whose respective sons had founded the two lines of descendants.

"So, your theory is that the further away your ancestors got from Neith, the less he found a connection to them?"

It was not that Suleiman tried to excuse what Khamûl had done to his family over the generations between himself, his father Selim and Neith, but rather trying to find a reason that could explain some of the behavior.

"Yes. Something like that over time, they all became a faceless mass of people, with very few managing to stand out from the crowd. Think about it, grandchildren and maybe great-grandchildren could pose a more personal connection though Neith, but those who came after that? When she had eventually died? I think the moment of her death, and with the burial of her mortal remains over, was when Khamûl made a clear line of not having any emotional connection to her descendants. Just…like that."

Of course, they did not know if it was true or not, but at the moment, this seemed like the most likely, and rather sad truth. And it was not like any of them felt for trying to ask the Ringwraith about this with everything else going on.

"At least there is some comfort in that Khamûl never looked down on Neith for her being born without the ability to use magic, or that she was not a daughter of his Great Royal Wife Nefertari but rather his second favorite wife Isetnofret," Suleiman admitted in a sad voice as he looked away in the distance, because that with them having the same father but different mothers had never been a problem for Mara and Neith as they grew up.

At the same time in Rhûn, inside the Temple of Shadows:

For anyone who looked, it seemed like Visenya was merely taking a nap or just resting to preserve her own magic. But in reality, she had just seen the same sort of flashback that had revealed to House Martell their true origins from Middle-earth and being descendants of Khamûl though his oldest daughter Mara. Only with the difference that she had also witnessed how Milce had become a conwoman and started the path towards ruining a realm far away from her home island.

"Typical. The Race of Men and their nature as mortals. The actions and choices of a single person ending up affecting so many others that consequences flat out become unpredictable. But that selfish woman really got herself to such a level of unflattering legacy that it is not even funny."

She could not even blame her Master for still hating Milce for her part in the fall of Kemet and his family. Yes, he had not been an ideal husband to her by clearly showing that she was the mother of his openly unfavorite child, but Milce had not exactly helped the situation herself by her own behavior. Even with neither one being willing to admit that things were not alright, it had still caused events that were still affecting the present day.

Not to mention, the existence of Milce also gave a new reveal of why her birth mother Lyanna had been treated far worse than anyone else of the female slaves here in the Temple. With how similar the Stark appearance of pale skin, dark brown hair and grey eyes was to how the Númenóreans had looked, compared to the peoples of the East, it was almost a miracle in itself that Lyanna had managed to survive for more than a few months in the Temple. Then again, Khamûl had rarely been present in the Temple because of various errands and duties for the Dark Lord, instead leaving everyday things to the Consorts to handle while he was away.

"Well, big sister Rhaenys…how do you plan to handle this?" She asked for herself while sitting up, having a strange feeling that her half-sister was once again going to prove just how foolish it was for Westeros to ignore Rhaenys in favor of Aegon as the more dangerous sibling if there was an attempt to restore House Targaryen as the ruling House. And with no clear confirmation that Rhaenys and Aegon actually had died during the years since Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne, their status as the legal children of Rhaegar Targaryen made them far more attractive for secret Targaryen supporters compared to their uncle Viserys and aunt Daenerys, who was living in exile somewhere in Essos but in serious poverty for their birth rank and a lack of useful connections compared to Rhaenys and Aegon.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Picking up her paint brushes and other items she generally used in her paintings, Rhaenys started first with a drawing of her past-life mother, the Great Royal Wife Nefertari. By that choice, Rhaenys hoped to maybe be able to better reach out to Khamûl the next time they would meet in the ongoing war.

"As unlikely as he is to accept being redeemed after all those years of being a servant of the Dark Lord, he may be more willing to listen to my offer of freeing him from Sauron by knowing that the souls of our expanded family no longer are being held as prisoners."

The more the drawing slowly showed Nerfertari as she had looked like when being alive, the more Rhaenys became sure that there was a cracking sound from the magical prison of her soul. In fact, that very sound growing louder as she kept adding colors and details to the portrait of Nerfertari, caused the oldest daughter of Elia almost to wonder that for all his cleverness and power, the Dark Lord could perhaps have similar fatal flaws as mortals often had:

Some form of pride, arrogance and underestimation of his enemies.

If so, his pride in successfully getting Khamûl as one of his most feared servants, would make his arrogance grow and make Sauron disengage from learning about new people that could pose a possible threat later on, and underestimation of his enemies spoke for itself.

"It might explain why he never seems to have bothered with the Hobbits before this War. At first look, they seem like harmless farmers who enjoyed a closed and comfort-loving lifestyle, not something that could pose a threat to anyone else…"

And yet right now in this very moment, two of those Hobbits were on their way to Mordor with the goal of destroying the One Ring. Rhaenys and her family had not dared to try searching for Frodo and Sam though magic, fearing that it would draw Sauron's attention to them, and this was one of the reasons to why House Martell tried to keep the use of the magical portals to a minimum unless the situation really called for it.

Rhaenys hesitated before the last brush stroke that would complete the painting. Suddenly, she dreaded to possibly do the opposite of her plan, and actually cause harm to the soul she intended to free.

"No…"

And then she felt a memory of the motherly love Elia held for her, in the form of how it felt when getting hugged by her mother. For a moment, that mended together with a memory of Nerfertari doing the same with Mara, and it pushed away any remaining doubt.

Never doubt that I will always love you no matter what happens, my dear daughter.

With the painting of Nerfertari complete, Rhaenys focused her magic into the spear she had taken from the underground tomb of Mara and her son Morgan Martell.

"My mother in a past life or the one in my current one…I have never doubted the motherly love I got from you both!"

A bright golden light burst through as the soul of Nefertari was freed from the prison which Sauron had put her into, to ensure that Khamûl would indeed stay loyal to him or risk the souls of his captured family members to suffer for something he did to displeasure the Dark Lord.

Sweet, brave daughter of mine.

That bittersweet but proud smile aimed at her before Nefertari vanished, likely to finally answer the call to the Afterlife which she had been denied for so long since her brutal death. And Rhaenys knew that with this first success, the others would be freed as well.

If Sauron somehow sensed it when Nefertari was freed and began to realize that he may not have something to control Khamûl with anymore…well, that was a problem, true, but sometimes you needed to face danger straight on, in order to deal with it.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Minas Morgul:

It truly was pure coincidence that in this very moment, Khamûl had found out that the trapped souls of his family were missing from the chamber where they normally would be kept and took out his wrath on the orc guards who had failed to catch Quentyn when he had taken the souls with him.

"Fools! Idiots! IMBECILES!"

Killing them slowly and painfully in different ways with his sand as a clear sign of his displeasure over their incompetence, did not help much with his bad mood.

"Haah…haah…haah…worthless creatures…!" he growled, feeling his anger burning as the last orc died from getting his bones crushed and then slammed repeatedly into the stones with great force.

It was faint, but a cracking sound could be heard in the silence. Glaring down, he saw that it was the mysterious crack on the lapis lazuli stone inside his Ring of Power, only that right now, it had grown even bigger than before.

" ...what…is the meaning of this…? "

He was asking with honest confusion over why the crack kept growing, and even more so why Sauron seemed to not even have noticed. Or was the Dark Lord so focused on finding the One Ring and defeating his enemies in the war that everything else seemed less important?

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note: Quick reminder again to avoid confusion: Milce named her son after Elros, the first King of Númenor, because she claimed to be a illegitimate royal child as part of her tricks as a conwoman and refused to admit the truth to Tar-Minyatur because she actually had no blood connections to the royal family of Númenor at all, but instead made use of a unproved rumor of a such child between the Crown Prince and a dismissed mistress

Visenya mentioning how foolish it is for Westeros to ignore Rhaenys in favor of Aegon if there is a attempted Targaryen restoration, is meant as a small nod to canon where Daenerys proves to be a far bigger threat than her brother Viserys, but everyone dismissed her as unimportant right until that she was married to Drogo and therefore suddenly can pose a threat in having children, and then hatches the dragon eggs.

Also, with Rhaenys and Aegon still alive, I think there will be even less support among the Westerosi-based Targaryen loyalists in crowning Viserys or Daenerys as the restored Targaryen ruler, simply because they are the children of Rhaegar, the Crown prince, and therefore is higher up in the Targaryen line of succession. Not to mention, them having a Martell mother in Elia would also make them far more likely to be backed up by their maternal relatives than either Viserys or Daenerys without needing a secret marriage pact