Dark Star Chapter Five: Proposal

Chapter Five: Proposal1

Sauron spent much of the first two weeks inside the tent with Ast-ra, learning the Eastlanders’ language for the most part. He found it a strange language, full of loose, fluid syllables like his favored Quenya, but far harsher than any Elvish language, and yet not as harsh as Morgoth’s Black Speech or any Orkish dialect. Many of the pronunciations were almost exactly the same as his native Valarin, and some of the words were very similar, but most of them were altogether alien. 2

His knowledge of the language grew rapidly, more rapidly than Ast-ra apparently expected, because about one week after he’d come to the East, there’d been a torrential rainstorm which had caught Sauron and Herinya by surprise and had forced them to take shelter in Ast-ra’s tent. Sauron had dried himself off in a few minutes with a simple surge of heat through his body, but Ast-ra and Herinya had needed to build a fire in order to dry off. No matter how they arranged the fire and no matter what spell Ast-ra cast, the wet wood refused to light. Sauron watched their attempts to light the fire while he was drying off, and as soon as the heat disappated, he reached out to them and touched Herinya’s hand, saying “Tzwikeri dunutiţu’khi kako. I can do that.” With that, he touched the pile of wood, which burst into flame instantly. Herinya had been sufficiently delighted, and Ast-ra had looked at him without sitting down.3

“Tzwikefu t’rakh-ţu’khi t’ritzjude tzolu? You can speak our language now?” she asked him, her hands on her hips.4

Sauron had shrugged at her. “T’etzjur, t’ra ti, Ast-ra. Badly, but yes, Ast-ra.”5

Learning their language had also meant learning more than a little about the Eastlanders’ culture. Ast-ra only dropped hints about her people’s past in their language lessons, but Herinya took upon herself after that day in the tent to teach him everything else about them. Her people had been among the majority of Men who had listened to Melkor and joined him against the Elves, although some Men had never fallen to Melkor and had traveled southward to be free of him. However, Herinya’s ancestors had not seen Melkor’s evil until well after he had led them North and West to Angband. Once there, they saw the horrors that he had made of the Elves and some others of his monstrosities and had asked to leave. But Melkor had just laughed. “You have made your choice, and that was to come with me, and now you have no choice. You and your people will stay here and serve me for all time, and no one—not your fellow Men, not the Elves, not the Valar, not even Eru himself—will lift a finger to help you,” he had said, and had gone on with his dinner.6

Sauron started at that. He remembered that little speech, and he remembered feeling vaguely sorry for the Men who’d asked, whoever they were. He also remembered what had happened next: the Men persisted in their request to leave Angband, and Melkor had ignored them for the most part. But when they had gotten in the way of the next course, he’d ordered them all rounded up and brought before him. Once that was done, he’d given half of them to various of his creatures, another fourth to be subjected to various torments, while the remaining fourth to be forced into his orc-breeding experiments. Unfortunately for Melkor, he’d put Sauron in charge of delivering them to their varied destinations…and Sauron had had no intention of following through on his orders. He’d led them through the pathways of Angband, up and down and all around the fortress on what was essentially a wild goose chase, and once the others who had been assigned to the task along with him had gotten bored with keeping up, he’d led the captives cum escapees down to a secret pathway near the forges, a pathway which led to the surface, a pathway which had seen a lot of use before then. “Go through there, and you will come out on an ice plain some leagues north of here. There will be a cabin near the exit; go in, and you’ll find all the supplies you’ll need to make it over the ice plain. There will be a map in there, as well. I’ll follow if I can. Now hurry!”7

He hadn’t been able to follow them. Melkor had become suspicious of his too-long absence, and had sent some balrogs and one small fire drake to look for them. They had come upon Sauron and the escapees just as the last group was entering the tunnel. Sauron had had to fight them, and the tunnel had closed while he was still holding them off. He’d been able to sense them when they entered his cabin: every one of them had made it safely through the tunnel. He’d lost all contact after that, partially because Morgoth had tortured him for his actions. It wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been, but then, Melkor had been preoccupied with his latest experiment at the time, involving the creation of ice drakes. But he had also permanently sealed the tunnel and demolished the cabin on the ice.8

And now Herinya was telling him the rest of the story: most of them had made it safely over the ice plain, thanks to deo-tzj’di E-hrrule, as they had named Sauron, and had eventually made their way south and east to where they now were. Their ancestors had apparently thought it a decent place to stay, as it was too far from anywhere to be well-known, and it was highly suited for farming. “That explains why their language is the way it is…they would have been exposed to Quenya, Black Speech, and more than a few Orkish dialects while in Angband, and I know I shouted at Morgoth in Valarin on more than one occasion, so they may have been exposed to that as well, so it follows that there are traces of each in the language…” he mused silently.9

Herinya also told him that once they had arrived here, they had forsook Morgoth forever, and had turned back to Eru, whom they now recognized as the True King, following that up with an explanation of every custom they had. Including one on the harvest celebration that Sauron had inadvertently wandered into.10

It quickly became clear that Herinya had fallen in love with Sauron, to both Ast-ra and Sauron himself. When Sauron realized this, he found that he loved her as well. But he was afraid of loving her, because he knew that such a love could never end well: he was a Maia, a creature of undying power and strength and magic; but she was only a mortal, doomed to death. They would only ever be able to have a short time together on the earth, but it would be a time when they both would be happy, perhaps the happiest they would ever be in their lives.11

“I’ll give it a chance. Everything will work out for the best,” he thought one day after realizing their mutual love.12

Herinya began to spend a long time explaining the marriage customs of her people. According to custom, when two people—any two people—realized that they loved each other, one of them would give the other something that he or she held dear. Usually, it was the man who did this. Then, if the other person accepted, they would go to Ast-ra and ask if Eru would sanctify the marriage. More often than not, he would, and the couple would take vows to each protect the other, and Ast-ra would give them Eru’s blessing, and there would be a celebration like to the Harvest Festival, and the two would be married.13

Sauron was fairly certain that Herinya was hinting at something. “What do I hold dear? I brought nothing back with me from Angband, except…”14

The lightstone.15

Sauron took it out and studied it. It was perfectly innocent this time, just a stone that gave off a soft white light and scattered rainbows across the rocks. “It is rough, and unset, nothing fancy. But it is the only thing I have that might be acceptable as a vow-gift. And besides, it is appropriate: it mirrors the heart of the one who gives it.”16

Vow-gifts were almost never given in public, as it meant that the one who gave it was fickle, or that he or she did not think the marriage would last. So the next time he and Herinya were out alone, fetching water from the sacred pool for Ast-ra’s scrying mirror, Sauron “accidentally” tripped over a root, landing on one knee.17

Herinya laughed at his sheepish expression. Sauron made a kneeling bow, covering for his taking the lightstone out of his jacket, and making Herinya laugh all the harder. She stopped when she saw his sober expression as he came up again. “Herinya…” he started. Then he realized that he didn’t remember the traditional phrase for this occasion. So he remained silent as he presented the lightstone to Herinya, his eyes pleading with her to accept it.18

“Ti. Ti! Yes. Yes!” she cried out joyfully, embracing him fiercely. He hugged her back, just as fiercely. She released him first, then she came back and kissed him passionately. He was too surprised to react at first, and she took off running back to Ast-ra before he could return it properly. He stared after her for a few moments, then he glanced into the pool, seeing his reflection for the first time in he didn’t know how long.19

He saw a man, a little over five feet tall, with shoulder-length hair the color of a raven’s wing which never did seem to tangle. His skin was a deep bronze from having been so long in the sun, his body well-muscled and lithe from years upon years of fighting and forgework. His eyes were somewhat strange: they were deeply set into his face, and they were a dark sort of goldish-silver. They held hope. Hope for the future, hope that it would not be as dark as he feared. Hope that he would be able to spend a few happy years with the woman he loved.20

She came running back to him, her long black hair flying loose in the gentle western wind, a broad smile set on her face, her teeth flashing white in the sun. When she reached him, she kissed him again, and this time he was ready for her. Her lips were soft and yielding, tasting sweeter than honey. Sauron felt something blossom inside his chest. He didn’t realize what it was for several seconds, and then he remembered: he had felt this way long, long ago, before he had fallen to Morgoth’s darkness.21

The feeling was pure, unfettered, unconstrained love for another.