Rebellion by Uvatha the Horseman

The Request

The Request

Aulë was sitting in his study. There was a knock on the door, although it was already open.

Aulë looked up and saw Mairon, the most senior of his apprentices, and Aulë's favorite.

"May I come in?" Mairon asked shyly.

That was odd. Mairon was many things: self-assured, industrious, and responsible, but never shy.

"Come in. Have a seat."

Mairon closed the door behind him before slipping into the chair in front of Aulë's desk. Shutting the door; that was unusual, too.

Aulë studied him carefully, trying to assess his mood. Mairon looked nervous, but he was excited and hopeful, too. Aulë had seen the look before, and it always meant the same thing. I've met someone and I want to get married. But Aulë didn't allow his apprentices to marry. He always said no.

Aulë steeled himself for what was sure to be an unpleasant conversation.

"So what's on your mind?" he asked as pleasantly as possible.

"Melkor asked me to join his household. I came to ask your blessing before I gave him my answer."

Aulë leaned back in his chair, surprised.

He knew that Melkor had been sniffing around every household in Ea, trying to find people to join him in his revolt against the Valar. But he never thought Melkor would be able to recruit Mairon, who was just too sensible to be lured away by promises of excitement and power.

"This is very sudden." said Aulë.

"Not really. I've been thinking about it since before the Ainulindalë." he said. "And I don't want you to think I'm leaving you entirely. Lots of Maiar serve two Valar."

Aulë knew Mairon had hero-worshiped Melkor since he'd first heard of him, but Aulë never worried about it much. It wasn't unusual for someone as steady and reliable as Mairon to become infatuated with someone wild and dangerous. But hero-worship usually involved admiration from a distance. Not abandoning a well-ordered life to follow someone on a doomed adventure.

"Well, let's think about this." said Aulë.

"You're First Maia in my household. You're my second-in-command and aide de camp. The others look up to you. If you changed households, you would lose a lot of privileges, things you take for granted now.

"Let's say you became a member of Melkor's household. What would your place be then?

"Melkor already has a First Maia, Gothmog. And let's say he's successful in recruiting Ossë, Ulmo's First Maia. That would make you Third Maia. Unless someone else came in ahead of you, in which case you'd be pushed even lower.

"Also consider this. His original Maiar are all Fire spirits. You're an Earth spirit. You'll be different, and different is usually not good. As a member of the 'wrong' ethnicity, you might mistakenly start to feel like you weren't as good as they were."

"And do you know what kind of people have been accepting Melkor's offers? They're mostly the ones who are always in trouble, who can't follow rules. You like order, but you'd be surrounded by chaos. You'd hate that. And other than Melkor himself, no one in his household is as smart as you are. You'd have no one to talk to."

"There's something else you need to know about Melkor." Aulë chose his words carefully.

"He's not a good person. He uses people. If something happened to you, he'd just replace you with someone else and never think of you again.

"He doesn't care about you."

Mairon listened in silence. Aulë couldn't tell how he was reacting, because his hair covered his face. Then he brushed his cheek, and tried to make it look like he was just pushing back his hair.

"Look, I understand the lure of a charismatic leader and a life that's dangerous and exciting, but that's not your life. Your place is here. I know you're sensible enough to understand."

Mairon's shoulders sagged with disappointment. He nodded and got up to leave.

Aulë watched him go.

That was every bit as bad as telling someone they can't get married.

Aulë sighed. He wasn't looking forward to the next few weeks, the inevitable bad temper and sullen silences, before things got back to normal.