He awoke with a jerk.
The news still shook him. The sorrow still hugged him. The pain was still real. It had been a while, yet he still felt the loss as if it yesterday.
"Gwathcelebor..."
She felt the absence of someone he missed. Someone near and dear. His brother. Inside the Gondorian tent, he still gripped the sleeping mat's blankets. He could remember the like a moving song, and he could feel the horror of the man explaining.
"My condolences, Helegnimdor. Your brother was killed on the field of battle."
He had asked, poked, prodded. Ran around looking for any survivors of that attack. There were so few. He finally came across a soldiers who explained,
"When the general stepped onto the battlefield, it was over. She fought like an animal..."
"Their general was, uh, I believe Aglarari. She introduced herself as Aglarari the Rancorous... She chilled me to the bone."
"There were so few survivors. That Black Numenorean general was smart..."
"Another count of a Black Numenoreans ruining our lives, huh?"
He clenched his fists, grinding his teeth, "Aglarari..."
He spat the name, spit flying onto the blankets beneath. As he seethed in loneliness, he closed his eyes. He was still unable to find her, even when the siege against the remains of Sauron's forces was in action. He sighed, bitter tears flooding his eyes.
"I will find you," He rasped, "I will find you and destroy you the way you destroyed my life, Aglarari. You took my brother, I will take your life."
---
"Mommy? Where did you go?"
Eira stepped in from using the outhouse. Again. This pregnancy was determined to kill her some days. She looked down to Briar and smiled, "I needed more chalk."
Dammon walked into the front room, the kitten Pebble sleeping over the back of his neck. "Momma? Why are you eating chalk?"
Eira was about to explain why when Dammon continued, "I was talking to other kids. They said their moms ate weird stuff when pregnant. One girl said her mom ate chocolate pudding and pickles."
Briar, who had been toddling around, paused just to make disgusted noises at that, then he ran screaming into his bedroom to play with toys.
Eira placed her hand on her forehead, "It's just to get rid of heartburn, Dammon. I'm fine. Don't listen to rumors."
She then pulled off her cloak and hung it up. Walking past the flowerbed she was desperately trying to save, she wandered into the kitchen and pulled out some stuff. She placed apples, honeycomb, and tons of bread on the plate. Oh, so much bread. As she devoured the bread between nibbling the honey comb, Dammon raised an eyebrow.
"Micah said his mom ate bread and noodles as if her life depended on it."
Eira shoved an entire loaf of hearty seeded wheat into her mouth, "Don't wo-y bou' it."
As she finished off her final loaf of bread, Dammon tugged at Eira's coat, "Momma, daddy's sleeping in the bedroom but I want to ask him something."
Eira glugged down a jug of milk before responding, "If he's sleeping, it can wait."
"Okay." Dammon skipped off the join Briar in their bedroom.
Eira was scouring through the pantry even more. She needed more! Eventually though, she saw something that shocked her. The fire poker was shoved behind a series of crates. It reminded her...
"Make me proud, Aglarari"
"The only way for you become a proper torturer, child, is to experience it yourself."
Eira's hand shook as it hovered over the fire poker. Phantom pain soared through her body. She looked her hand from the poker to her thigh. She gripped it, tears flooding her eyes as she remembered. She had the Eye if Sauron branded onto her thigh not once, but four times.
She was shaking. She had found herself being tortured again after that first one. Captured by rival Black Numenoreans, tortured even further in her own father's abode for disobeying an order. Yet, that first time had always been the worst for her.
She rolled her tongue to the back of her teeth, feeling where her missing mueller tooth was. She always ate with the other side of her mouth. That was far from the only scarring she received that day...
Tears flooded her eyes. She was tightly gripping her thigh now, as if she felt it burning again.
"Ughmph..."
"Mommy?"
Eira blinked out of her memories. She looked down to see tiny Briar tugging at her dress, "Mommy sad! I help!"
The tears in her eyes doubled. She scooped up Briar and held him tight, a sob bulging her back. "Oh... honey, you are."
Briar seemed confused a bit, but he hugged his adoptive mother back as she clung to him.
These boys. Oh, these boys. They were her lifesavers. When the past attached her, oh so frequently, they were here to save her. They were here to remind her that it was all behind her now.
She closed her eyes, smiling. She was safe at last...
...
"... Mommy, I go down now?"
---
General Helegnimdor, accompanied by two scouts stared up at the cloaked figure. Dressed in dark armor of poor condition, he remained hooded and cloaked. His crossbow had been raised in shock over seeing them, but now he was at ease. Odd, for a Black Numenorean. He looked down at him from the Gorgoroth boulders.
"I still want to live," He told him, lowering his crossbow, "I owe no allegiance to Mordor anymore. Both it and my father's kingdom are fallen."
The general spat, "It is ruled by another now. Your brother?"
The hooded man looked down. In the cruel smoke of the waistline, he responded, "Aglarbor? Yeah, that was, is, my brother..."
Helegnimdor stared for a moment, wondering if he detected sorrow in that tone. He shook his head, Mordor's men felt no sorrow. Only rage. He still looked up from the barren ground, "He must have exiled you from the domain. A battle took place between you two and he won, didn't he?"
Beneath the cloak, the man winced, "All true. I have no allegiance to them, or Mordor, or anyone. It's just me now."
The general's hand hoovered over his sword sheath, "What a sad existence. Come down, and I can put you out of your misery."
The hooded Moredain lifted his gloved hands, his crossbow bouncing off his waist by its leather straps. "Or, you can let me go in exchange for information. You want to destroy that fortress, don't you?"
Helegnimdor narrowed his eyes. Was this Black Numenorean truly willing to negotiate? But they were never to be trusted! Never! One had killed his brother, after all. And revenge for that still chanted in his mind. Yet... That was it. Aglarari was Aglarzor's spawn, and Aglarbor and this young man were as well. Realizing that this was indeed an opportunity, not just for a smoother siege but for his own goals, he let his hand fall from the hilt.
"Start talking."
The cloaked figure scoffed, "I would like to, but what do you want to know? Fortifications? Where the Stone Watchers are posted? How the guard shifts-"
"-There another spawn of your father as well. A female. Aglarari. Where is she in all of this?"
The scouts turned to him in alarm that that was the first question. It seemed like even the Black Numenorean was surprised, with how he tilted his head.
"Oh, her? Aglarari was a defective. She abandoned Mordor several years ago and started a new life in the Bree-lands." He lowered his head, scrapping his feet on the boulder. Pebbles crumbled and fell down. "Then again, now I am defective as well. I should not be one to talk. Father just always spoke so poorly of her..."
Helegnimdor was indeed surprised by this. She had just... ran away from Mordor? Moved on? To lands of the Free People's she had fought and killed? That made no sense! Still, he clung to this information desperately, longingly. He was one step closer to his goal.
"Okay," Helegnimdor said, "Now, about fortifications. We are still unable to get past those outer walls and towers. Our siege machines are unable to traverse the rocky landscape surrounding the fortress, and those archers are actually pretty good."
A hint of a smile crossed the new informant's face, "Numenorean archers. You cannot trust orcs with anything. And yes, the outer fortifications were purposefully placed in such a way that siege machines will not fit. It was a genius setup, the Gondorians who built it long ago knew what they were doing. But, Mordor was able to take it from Gondor. Now, you may be able to take it back. Listen..."
