Rebellion by Uvatha the Horseman

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The Separation

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The Separation

Mairon pumped the bellows hard. Flames jumped up from the dark red coals. For a moment, he could see the far corners of the workshop. He was working with carbon steel and had to judge its color with great precision, so he'd closed the shutters to block out all light.

He watched the color of the piece as it crept from deep red to orange. When he judged the color to be right, he pulled it out of the fire and laid it on the anvil. He picked up a hammer without having to look for it, and stuck the first blow.

The door opened, and he was momentarily blinded.

"Mairon, Aulë wants to see you in his study."

"I need to finish this first." He struck another half-dozen blows. He would have liked to put the piece back onto the coals and keep working. Instead, he plunged it into the water bucket and waited until it stopped hissing, then put his tools away."

"Mairon, Aulë wanted to see you right away. Get moving."

ooooo

Mairon knocked on the door of Aulë's study and came in.

"Shut the door, please." Aulë told him. "Sit down."

Aulë got right to the point.

"I understand that you came home after curfew yesterday, knee-walking drunk. Would you like to tell me about it?"

No, I wouldn't.

"I left the tavern late yesterday evening, when they closed. I had been drinking, but not excessively."

"Do you have anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"No, not that I can thing of."

"Irmo spoke to me today. He's concerned by the attention you've been paying to one of his Maia. Can you tell me about that?"

No, it's not something I care to discuss.

"Why was he concerned?" asked Mairon.

"She came to him to ask for permission to marry you."

She wants to marry me!

"He told her no. Furthermore, he's forbidden her to see you again. And he sent her away where you won't be able to find her." Aulë looked directly at him. "Don't even try. As of today, I forbid you to see her."

Just kill me now.

"There's one more thing. Look at me. Did you lay with her?"

He lifted his head and looked Aulë right in the eye.

"No."

"He had her examined by a physician."

Oh shit.

"Mairon. You lied to me." His face was as hard as iron.

He immediately recognized the tactical error he just made. It wasn't the deed that was so bad, it was lying about it and getting caught. If he's told the truth, he would have been in trouble, but not that badly. But he'd looked Aulë right in the face and told him a barefaced lie. Aulë looked like he'd just been slapped. The color drained out of Mairon's face as he came to understand the magnitude of the offense he'd just committed.

Mairon opened his mouth, and closed again. Embellishing the original lie a new one wasn't going to make the situation better.

"Let's go to the barn."

What's in the barn? Whenever you've used your belt on me, it's always been in the woodshed.

-o-o-o-o-o-

He stayed in bed for two days. Finally, he decided it would do him good to get up and wash off the dried blood and grime. He walked down the hall to the lavatory, moving like one who is very old. He turned the tap, and when the washtub was full, he put a toe in the hot water and let the towel fall to the floor. He had stripes from neck to ankle.

When he stepped in, and blood mixed with the water, turning it pink. He stepped in and slid down until it reached his neck. It stung, but it still relaxed him. He closed his eyes and breathed the steam, sighing with pleasure.

The door behind him opened. He didn't turn around.

"I heard you were up." said Aulë. "I came to check on you."

Mairon ignored him.

"You've always been my favorite. But recently, you've done things I consider unworthy of you. The sarcasm. The lying. And worse, you're no longer chaste. It's not like you to be delinquent, and I don't want you going any further down that path. But it's so hard to get through to you. The last time I took you to the woodshed, I beat you until my arm ached and you just laughed atme." said Aulë. "Which is why, two days ago, I took you to the barn and horsewhipped you until you fainted."

"I'm tough. I can take it." Mairon said evenly.

"I was hard on you." said Aulë.

No shit.

Aulë assumed Mairon was taking it hard. But actually, he wasn't all that upset. No one else had ever been beaten unconscious before, and the other Maiar talked of nothing else. It made him feel unique and important, which he liked.

"Talk tome." asked Aulë.

"I'll try to say this in the nicest possible way. Would you please go away? I just lost my future wife and all the years we would have had together. I want to be left alone."