The Embalmer's Apprentice by

It would have been very satisfying! Dangerous, but satisfying. I'm sure she has very hard little fists. ;)

He's quite childish, yeah. It could be pitiful that he takes such childish joy from hurting Azruhâr, like a schoolyard bully picking on the smaller kids because he knows they can't hurt him back, if it weren't such a deadly serious situation.
Well, not long now until other people start noticing how petty he is.

The painter doesn't dare to have an opinion! Just a regular day at work, nothing to see here, moving on. :/

Turns out Herucalmo has a human side after all! Who would've thought?

I do hope we'll find out more about all that in the next chapter. This one pretty much wrote itself in the wake of the last, but the next is (as yet) not quite clear. I hope I'll figure it out quickly. :D

Thank you for your comment!

Aw, thank you! And hey, your comments have made my day for several days now, so it's only fair. ;)

He certainly feels as if someone has stuck a "Kick me!" note to his back. :/ Unfortunately, the Númenóreans at this point are not above petty bullying.

Herucalmo might get into trouble for letting that slip, but to Azruhâr, it makes such a huge difference. It will be really hard for him not to tell Amraphel.

Oh dear! I hope I'll get it written quickly! This chapter more or less wrote itself in the wake of the trip to the mines, but I am not yet sure where the next chapter is going to go...

It's the show of a lifetime! (Well, a lifetime for the nobles, and three lifetimes for the commoners...) It's got to be spectacular. And of course Telemmaitë has a lot to prove (above all, to himself). Glad you liked the details!

;It would have been very stupid, but at the same time, so tempting! Even if one of the other candidates had succeeded in the end, they still might have "removed" Azruhâr, since he would already have proven that won't stop at speaking out against kings. So yeah, it was definitely good that he kept his silence.

Azruhâr has shown during the coronation that he has a little bit of political understanding (and can keep his thoughts to himself when it counts), so he's ready for further testing as far as Atanacalmo is concerned. Azruhâr can definitely learn a lot from him, but unfortunately Atanacalmo's coaching style is "put them through stress and see how they manage" rather than "teach them first and test them later"... :/

I don't know if Atanacalmo already had a fixed plan in mind when he introduced Azruhâr to Roitaheru, but he certainly felt that it was an opportunity for the future that shouldn't be missed. Keeping Azruhâr out of Eärendur's "spoiling" influence was a bonus, of course! So yup, both is good!

Telemmaitë has been played by his uncle for a long time, but his obsession with Azruhâr makes it even more easy. The trouble is that he is actually quite insecure and not (as his father observed) the brightest, which is precisely why he gets so irrationally obsessed with an otherwise insignificant guy in the first place. Meanwhile, Atanacalmo has to be careful not to overdo it, since he's also starting to see value in Azruhâr beyond his use as a chess piece...

Eärendur isn't on Atanacalmo's level as far as political machinations, but that's mostly because he prefers straightforward methods to manipulation, not because he can't see through (some of) them. Their friendship is so important - I won't tire of hearing it! :)

He's certainly setting up his power base and making himself known as someone who understands the "little people", isn't he? At the same time, Azruhâr doesn't want to be too visible in the public eye, so although he might prefer to be given some credit, it's better for him to stay behind the scenes.

The nobles surely realised that Azruhâr is the king's favourite whipping boy, just as Alcarmaitë intended. The common folk, however, may interpret the situation very differently - to them, it certainly looks like he's an important figure, which is very much not what the king wants!

He knew that the king wasn't going to attend, though he probably didn't tell Herucalmo so Herucalmo's surprise would be genuine. I don't think he knew about the planned arrest, because otherwise he'd have tried to prevent it. Atanacalmo has zero time to investigate imaginary crimes (and would laugh at the idea that goodly Eärendur would plot treason) - he's too busy eliminating real threats - and he probably would have seen how badly this could backfire. Since Azruhâr is unaware of it, we don't see it in the story, but Atanacalmo will later be furious about the king's (and Vanatirmo's) shenanigans, partly because it was really stupid and partly because he's absolutely shocked that the king made such a dramatic plan entirely without consulting him!

It did. Eärendur meant well, but he touched a very sore spot. :/

If Azruhâr hadn't realised that "preliminary questioning" was not a nice thing, that certainly brought the message across. :(

He doesn't realise how much he has grown since the beginning of the story, does he? And he doesn't realise that the people in the stories are not real (or if they're historical figures, that the stories and plays don't depict the suffering accurately), and that it's impossible to measure up to them.

I felt very bad writing this chapter and tried to scrap it more than once, I think. But that was the road the story wanted to take. :/

Unfortunately, they're not. Groups are like that way too often. :/

Roitaheru isn't worried about the teaching; he assumes that Azruhâr knows his craft and will find it easy to teach others in it. He's just sceptical whether Azruhâr will be able to keep his apprentices under control all by himself, since he isn't exactly an authoritative fellow and they're bound to be rebellious (after all, they're prisoners! bad people!). Things may be less clear-cut than that...

Thank you for reading!

They did not expect it at all. They are probably fairly used to the threat of torture being sufficient without actually having to go through with it, or with people confessing fairly early. So while Azruhâr feels weak because he screamed, the councillors rather think "Wait, is he hero material?!"

Glad you "enjoyed" the trial! It was hard to keep it going smoothly.

He will definitely need time to heal in more than just body (and some scars will never fully heal).

Heh! Lord Ciryamacil has no time for beating about the bush. I hope he survives.

It's hard to write him like this, too. Sometimes it bleeds over. But it wouldn't make sense to let him put it behind him too quickly, so we'll have to plough through... :/

Yes, the conflict between these two investments is now almost untenable. That's probably part of why he arranges for Azruhâr's stay in Umbar: so he has his hands and head free for his main plan. He doesn't actually want Azruhâr to come to harm, but he clearly can't help openly or he'd risk losing his power over the king. So it's definitely hard to keep his game going at this time.

Alcarmaitë certainly deserves it.
It helps Azruhâr in that people are no longer indifferent towards his fate, but at the same time, it makes him what he never wanted to be - an actual threat to the king...

It didn't belong to Atanacalmo (or his family), except in the abstract sense that all property in the capital ultimately belongs to the royal family. But the well-off family who used to live there in the past probably had a guildmaster or other important figure in their ranks, so Atanacalmo and Ancalimon must have visited the house on a couple of courtesy calls back when they were young princes in training. Perhaps they even had a friend there. And Atanacalmo may later have visited in his function as Lord of Arminalêth, too.

The king has to think that Azruhâr is going to be unhappy for it to work. The old queen and Lord Atanacalmo probably managed to explain to him that he has to stop persecuting Azruhâr for his own good, and that sending him to Umbar is an excellent way of punishing him (exile!) that looks palatable to most people (a great opportunity!), but in order to really convince him, he's got to feel that Azruhâr is going to be miserable. :/

Thank you so much! I'll have to write faster, huh? (That probably won't work, so I'm not promising anything.) <3

I'm not allowed to tell you! ;) But you are right, he definitely has plans... if Azruhar proves worthy. To some extent, Azruhar is an interesting experiment. He does things and makes decisions that he should, based on all the prejudices against lowly paupers, be incapable of. So now Atanacalmo is curious just how far he can make it. Besides, he might still be useful.

To be fair, those are rumours, and they might not be true. But I wouldn't be surprised if they are. :/

It's sad - and unwise. But there we are. I didn't want Vanimelde to just be some empty-headed party girl, so I wanted to give her a (somewhat) better reason for keeping out of politics. Perhaps, also, her father's example have her a healthy distaste for politics. Right now, at any rate, she is repairing the reputation of the royal house simply because she is doing beautiful things and being pleasant and accessible...

Yes, he realised that both these things might happen. But the King wouldn't arrange the sinking of a ship with his future son-in-law aboard... and Herucalmo (whether he likes it or not) can have an eye on our depressive embalmer, too.

At that time, he didn't want his old life back, but he couldn't get out of his agreement with the King. So he did start with the betrayal (getting into Azruhar's household to spy on him) and then changed and wanted to be loyal, but he was trapped. Poor man indeed! :(

Azruhar's risk-assesment is not always accurate at this point (fortunately)!

Yes, it's a whole new experience for him, and it will be interesting to see how he adjusts to it.

Well, that is a service that you wouldn't expect from the staff at a grand house in Númenor, so Azruhar wouldn't have expected it here, either. How can you ask that of the servants? They can't really say no! He is naive in that way. :/

Yes, the way the Umbarians are treated reminds him a lot of the paupers back at home. Details may differ, but on the whole, he can relate to them more easily than to the elite.

There is definitely going to be more Darîm, as Azruhar needs someone to help him choose his embalmers and to interpret between them!

Roitaheru is not fully aware of what happened in Azruhar's past, but he realises that he needs some pushing to understand his new role/ status. Indeed, there's a strong sense of 'us vs. them' - which is good for Azruhar as it erases (not entirely, but almost) the difference between him and the other Númenóreans, but hard on the Umbarians.

His sense of self-preservation isn't always the best - especially not now. But it impressed Roitaheru  (almost d probably Gohenor, too).

He might be jealous - I can't rule it out. Herucalmo's feelings on the whole matter are complicated.

Laurilyo does his best, in his way. He could certainly help Azruhar to relax a little and to thinks of other things than work or home!

I'm sure Târik will answer the letter... eventually! :D

I felt it was necessary to Show (or remind) Azruhar that life in Umbar isn't all hot baths and nightly bazaars, but I was shocked myself by how dark this ended up being.

Herucalmo meant no harm, but he has no ideal what it looks like for Azruhar. To him, the difference between the two was so obvious that he genuinely can't grasp that Azruhar wouldn't see it.

He has picked up a lot of useful skills along the road, hasn't he.

And wow, you did it! I'm in awe and very, very flattered that you took the time to comment on every single chapter during your re-read. Thank you so much for your thoughts and encouragement. I'm so happy to hear that the second read was as good (or even better) - I went into this without knowing where it would take me and haven't yet found the time for Edition the earlier parts, so I'm a bit worried they no longer fit together properly. So it's a huge relief if it worked for you - both times! Again, than you!

Hey thai! Lovely to see you again! I've been busy (hence the long wait) but managed to squeeze out a new chapter at last. How are you?

We will see! They have a few interests in common, but they're also from very different backgrounds.

Yeah, "what could possibly go wrong" is hardly a safe basis for a military campaign, is it? But of course we know that Herucalmo has to survive so he can later usurp Tar-Vanimelde's throne. ;)

I'm very happy I got him into a position where he could realise it. He believes a lot of things unthinkingly, but this is a first step towards understanding that his "betters" can be wrong. :D

Thank you for your lovely comment! I hope the next chapter won't take a whole month to write.

They certainly know the terrain best. And of course, they might be better prepared than the lords give them credit for. We will see... (I'm trying to be subtle! ;))

He's completely out of his depth, as usual! So he has to stick to what he knows and hope for the best!

I do hope I'll be able to keep Azruhâr out of it! On the one hand, it's tempting to send him into battle, but on the other hand, I'm not sure it would really work. We'll find out!

Both Darîm and Arandur will appear more often in the future, I'm sure. Darîm actually profits quite a bit from the colonizers, being the only representative of his people, but he might still chafe under the disrespect he's receiving! Can't be easy to be there as spokesman when none of the other councillors are particularly interested in listening...

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Like most (or all?) colonists, the Númenóreans feel so superior that sensitivity feels unnecessary; after all, the other culture is inferior and doesn't need to be respected. (Except for some harmless customs - and anything that benefits the colonists themselves, of course!) Not an easy place for Azruhâr to be, in spite of his sudden rise in the social hierarchy. We'll see how he manages to adapt to that.
The letters should be coming soon, I hope!

As always, thank you for your comment!

No rest for the wicked, or even for the decent!

It would be nice. They'll have a lot of common ground; let's hope they can build something on it.
Thank you for your thoughts!