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Desiring the Downfall  by Larner

B2MEM Day 2:

“Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.  It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”  Aragorn to Eomer, TTT, Book 3, p. 37 Nook edition.

 

The Sacrifice Turned

          “You must prove your faithfulness to the Lord of Darkness by slaying a Man in his honor upon the altar in the Red Temple,” the emissary from the Dark Ones told An’Sohrabi when he followed his late brother onto the Throne of Harad.

          It was not the new Farozi’s wish to do such a thing, for in his heart he followed the very old ways, and he did not believe that the Death Eater was indeed the same as Osiri, finding him more closely aligned with Seti, Lord of Evil and Betrayal.

          But Mordor had ruled Harad for far too many years, and any Farozi who did not appear to worship its Dark Lord tended to fall to—accidents.  An’Sohrabi had seen his father led into depravity by Mordor’s emissaries, and was certain that his brother had been assassinated on their order.  He had no wish to see his son and grandsons dragged into the evil ways that the Death Eater preferred, wishing to spare them the degradation that Mordor encouraged.  So, he would pretend to play their game.

          He chose his victim for the altar—one who had been caught in the act of raping a woman, and who had tools with him indicating that once he had forced his will upon her he intended to do much more, reducing her to a bloody mockery of the vibrant being she had been before her luck had betrayed her into his power.  A search of the Man’s dwelling place indicated that she was far from his first victim—there was evidence that he had killed at least seventeen before her, three of which he admitted to.  When questioned about the rest he had merely leered.

          The Man was not yet of middle age, his body still fair to look upon.  He came from a wealthy family and certainly had not needed to slink about the city to find unwary women and girls returning from the local wells to their homes as this one did.  Few looking upon him would realize just how depraved his soul was.  An’Sohrabi had no wish to worship the one named Sauron by those in the northern lands, but he knew that it was his duty to execute those who posed such danger to his people as this.  So, he had the Man’s tongue removed that he not betray himself as the foul thing he was, and gave him into the hands of the Death Eater’s priests for preparation.  And in his heart he did not offer him to Sauron, but begged that the Man’s blood should wash away the fear he had raised in the populace of Thetos.  He doubted that in the end this one’s death would work much to the benefit of the Death Eater, and rejoiced that this should be so.





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