THE END OF DAYS
Prologue:
Melkor's
Servant
The universe
was very old.
These many had
learnt through faith in their gods or studies by science were an
incontrovertible fact, immutable by existence itself. Time was the one constant
in the universe. Laws of physics while incapable of changing could be made
flexible, energy could be diverted and space was curved but time? Time knew no
master, it functioned on a straight line, a linear passage that began and ended
at two separate points.
In his time as
Lord of Mordor and minion of Morgoth, Sauron had learnt many truths about the
world that not even the Valar were aware. Truths that
would make their belief in the assurance of their vaunted positions shake like
the foundations of a demolished building. He knew that there were rules to
which even Eru were bound, rules written by a power
that no one could understand, save the creator himself. There was a cycle to
things, a beginning and an end that had to be observed even though Eru was supreme in all things. It was a law he would not
break and indeed had never broken, not since the first themes of the Ainur had been sung, since Ea had been crafted out of the
void.
He had been
confined in his prison of flesh, left helpless by a cruel trick of fate that
left him trapped within a cage he knew he would never penetrate. His mind,
dulled by the defeat at the hands of his enemies, had for a time slumbered in
the void, trying desperately to reform the fragments of his powerful psyche. In
time, his mind returned to its former self but this achievement did not alter
the fact that he was confined within his physical body with no hope of escape.
He lay trapped in this mire of limbo, not knowing anything of the world beyond,
not able to affect it in anyway, a situation that was wholly unacceptable and
yet inescapable.
He had one
visitor during his first months in this private hell. The child who was
representative of the soul that had become the bane of his existence and had
always ensured to play a part in his downfall throughout the ages. She would
come to his cage and look within, watching with her silent eyes, daring him to
escape. He would scream of her and threaten her with torments she could not
imagine but it frightened her little for he was a tiger with no teeth. She came
to him regularly, watching and saying little during her brief visits.
After a time,
he began to think that perhaps he would never escape from the confines of his
mortal form, that he would be doomed to live within its casing for as long as
the heart continue to beat inside David Saeran's
chest. The possibility frustrated them him and filled him with black despair.
He began to conceive that perhaps his time was done that the dreams of a
glorious dark age was a dead to the world as he was. It was during the blackest
moment of his despair that Sauron; former lord of Mordor remembered one vitally
important thing. His mind may have been locked away from the physical world but
Shadow world, which had provided him so much strength, was still open to him.
He found
himself revisiting the realm he had not seen since the Third Age, the place
that had been home to him when One Ring had been lost. Slowly, he used its dark
power to nourish his own strength, though not enough to call attention to himself
but he knew the Valar were ever watchful. In his
outcast state, he planned how he might return, how he would vanquish his former
master's brethren once and for all. The spells and wizardry required to
accomplish such dark magic was within his knowledge but he lacked the real
power to make any of it a reality.
He found
himself wandering the pathways in the shadow realm, searching for a way to
escape his unearthly confinement, to see what was beyond his injured shell. He
found nothing. The Valar had been exceedingly
thorough in ensuring that the dark dimension remained contained. Thus he was
forced to find alternate means of escape and it was a matter of pure chance
that he found a place where they had been recently, their power resonated
through the cold, offering him a trail to follow. His mind moved carried by
currents of force, patterns of energy that could not be measured by any science
known to exist. He did not know how far he traveled in this nexus, only that it
was very distant away from the waking world.
It could have been at the edge of all things or at the beginning of it. The
place Sauron found himself had no name. It reeked of desolation and seemed like
a void that was meant to house the greatest evils of all. The part of him that
was David Saeran, thought hell might be an apt description even if there was no
fire or brimstone. The most terrifying thing in the world is nothingness and
when Sauron arrived in this place, with its plunging darkness, it was the first
time in his existence that he felt real fear. The Void at least sat at the edge
of Ea and though he had been trapped in it, he could still see Ea in the
distance, offering comfort of what still existed.
In this place,
there was nothing. He would have fled if he had not sensed a tendril of
something familiar, clawing at him, beckoning to come forth. He had followed
that tendril until its radiation had become a vast globe of power, filling the
darkness with awesome fiery light. He saw it swirling about an orb of
unimaginable power, orbiting like a lonely sun. He marveled at its energy, felt
it whispering to him like a lover and as he approached, the wave of familiarity
becoming stronger, more potent.
I knew you
would find me.
The voice was
soft and as disembodied as his own. He heard it through a great noise and
realized that he was hearing it through flame. It took him a moment to realize
that it was emanating from inside the orb, piercing the fiery layer to reach
him.
"Melkor?"
Master,' the voice repeated
itself. You forget your self.
"Forgive
me," Sauron replied acidly. "I thought the Valar
destroyed you.
They do not
have the stomach for such finality but they have found a way to imprison me
nonetheless.
"How?
"
The orb you
see before you is the sum of my power, they have encased me a prison of created
from my own essence. I cannot breach it.
"This is
you Master?"
If he had eyes
he would have gaped at overwhelming force before him. This was the sum of Melkor's unleashed power, the one not tainted by a physical
body or held in check by the Valar. In this place,
the Ainur were as they had been when Illuvutar dreamed the first themes of the Great Music and
fashioned the children he would called the Valar from
each note. In this place, Melkor was as close to his
former glory as he could ever be, when he was capable of creating mountains and
balrogs with a simple thought. All the darkness of
the world had come to being when Melkor was at his
most potent.
I called you
here, my childe, my greatest disciple because only you have the strength to free
me. Do this and we will rule as we have never ruled.
"How can I
do that?" Sauron asked cautiously. His present situation was precarious
enough without risking himself on some foolish venture for a creature he would
again have to bow before like a supplicant.
The power
must be drawn away from me, siphoned if you will so a breach can be formed.
Through this weakening I will come forth. I summoned you here because your will
was always greater than all others. You can do this Sauron, you can free me.
"How can I
absorb this? " he asked, "I am not Valar."
My power
does not recognize what master wields it, it only knows the instruction. The Ainur are little more than orbs of energy given life by
sentience. My prison binds me and no matter how I try I cannot make the
crossing. It must be weakened from beyond, to allow my sentience to escape.
Once I am freed of it, I shall take what is mine.
"How
interesting," Sauron said as his form approached the orb.
He had no skin but
he could feel its heat, could feel its incredible power emanating like the
blast from a hot furnace. It beckoned him, the full measure of Melkor's power, to do as his former master had asked. He
thought of the First Age when he had truly known power, when he was Morgoth's
fearsome lieutenant. The failures of the futures ages had seemed so distant
then, so improbable. He thought he had risen above that, risen above the petty
efforts of mortals lesser than he when he had returned to the world and yet he
was still here, in this place about to become a servant again.
Not this time.
Sauron opened
his senses, freed himself of all barriers and let the power that needed someone
strong enough to take it, bleed into him, slow aching tendrils of amber snaking
around his incorporeal self. The orb began to dim from its fiery, reddish glow,
diminishing as more and more energy became drawn to his indomitable will,
connecting to him because he simply wanted it enough. It found kinship with a
mind that was at last equal to its awesome might.
That is it,
my disciple, Melkor's voice said exuberantly. It is
working!
It is indeed, Sauron thought but for all the different reasons.
The orb began
to diminish and he could feel his own life force burgeoning, growing with a
surge of power he had never dared to dream was possible. However, it did not
come to him without price. If he had limbs, he would have felt each to be
roasting alive, as if every cell in his non-existent body was imploding. He
bore it bravely, refused to cry out as he absorbed every particle of energy
that had been the crown of Melkor's power His mind
began to open, doors swinging open, bringing clarity and understanding that
made what came before seem limited and blinding. No more half measures, no more
fear that the Valar would stop him. He had failed
before because he lacked the power to carry out the ambitions of his intellect.
Such was no longer the case.
What are you
doing? Melkor demanded. You are drawing too much!
"No I am
not," Sauron answered the wayward child of Eru,
"I am drawing it all."
NO! It is
mine! You will cease immediately!
"Or
what?" Sauron challenged. "You still do not understand the elegance
of the Valar's trap do you? They did not simply
encase you in a shell of your own power, they disconnected you. You are
separate from what you were. You cannot breach it because you are no longer
connected to it but you have shown me how to absorb that excess energy and for
that I am eternally grateful. So my former master, I will give you a reward and
deliver you from this hell."
The orbs were
shrinking like a dying star, its amber light fading away fast. In the core of
his dwindling cell of energy, Melkor was finding the
walls closing in on him.
You cannot
do this! I am your master!
"My
master?" Sauron hissed. "All you have ever been was a means to an
end. You allowed me to escape the grasp of that provincial laborer Aule. For a time you amused me Lord Melkor,"
the title escaped him with content, "we shared the same passion for
destruction but then you became obsessed with a jewel and were willing to throw
it all away. I must confess I was myself ensnared by a bauble but no more, this
time I will destroy them all and I will not be satisfied with just the elves
and the weakling humans. The Valar will never chain
me as they chained you. I will not make your mistakes and I will shown none any
mercy."
You would
not dare strike at the Valar! Eru
would never stand for it!
"Eru? " Sauron laughed. "Where he has been all
these years? You may be a dilettante but you are not a fool. Eru is off travelling the universe, recreating new Petrie
dishes for his experiments on morality and evil. He has not cared about Arda
since you decided to turn it into a demon's playground. Why do you think he
banished the others from the Timeless Halls? He needed someone to manage this
experiment while he went off to begin another. He will not interfere because he
simply does not care."
You cannot
have any more!
Melkor wailed helplessly through the darkness as the orb all but vanished around
him and had reformed around the presence that was Sauron. It burned bright
around his former servant; a glow so radiant that it almost threatened to
penetrate the black nothingness that he was coming to realize would be his
grave.
Sauron approached Melkor when he had taken all his
power and looked upon the failed god whose ambition was never equal to his
power, who could have it all but became obsessed with the Silmarils
and ruined everything because of his need for it. Finally after so many aeons, Melkor would know who
truly ruled his kingdom while he sat upon its throne like the figurehead that
he was.
I
underestimated you, the whimpering pathetic voice said.
"By quite
a bit I imagine, " Sauron answered, "but do not underestimate me now.
I said you will be rewarded and rewarded you shall be. "
The sentience
that was Melkor cringed in fear. You cannot kill
me, it said desperately. I am Ainur.
"You were Ainur," Sauron answered as
he christened his newfound powers by an appropriate act of murder. "But now
you are nothing."
Clenching a
fist of energy around the tiny morsel of Melkor's
remaining self, Sauron crushed all that was left of
his master in a final scream of agony.
"And
I," Sauron said as he turned his attention back to the world of flesh and
blood, "am going to be everything."