Bringing Trouble to Barad-dur by Aiwen

In the Den of the Enemy

Celebrimbor stopped and stared at the big door in front of them. It was guarded, but the man simply stared right through him.

"Judging by the big red eye on the door, this is probably Sauron's quarters," Gil-galad said. "It can't be his throne room because we've already seen that."

"I guess we'd better go in, then," said Celebrimbor slowly. He thought himself through the door. Warm sunlight greeted him, almost blinding after the dimness in the rest of the tower. They were in a nicely furnished living room, complete with silver teapot and porcelain cups set out on a table of exotic wood. Sauron himself was not visible, for which Celebrimbor was glad. Of course, he'd have to face him eventually... but at least this time Sauron couldn't hurt him.

Gil-galad appeared through the door and looked around with an astonished expression on his face. "I'd expected something darker and more gloomy," he said. "Are you sure this is his? Could it be a room for important guests instead?"

"It doesn't look all that different from his home in Ost-in-Edhil," said Celebrimbor. "Although given all that he's done and that has happened to him since, I am a bit surprised too. Perhaps this is a public living room for receiving guests? Why don't we see what's beyond that door?"

They floated across the room and through the closed door, which led through a very thick wall of stone and an outer sheath of iron onto a balcony. Celebrimbor looked down. The tower was so high that it was like looking off the edge of a great cliff.

How does it stand up? thought Celebrimbor. He craned his neck, trying to get a better look at the structure, before realizing that he didn't need to stay on the balcony at all. He thought himself through the railings so he could get a better perspective. Behind him, he heard Gil-galad yelp in horror and then start laughing.

As he floated through the air, Celebrimbor got his first good look at Mordor. Brown haze clouded the sky, there was no visible green anywhere close, and that great volcanic cone in the distance left tortured bare rock everywhere close to it. What a hideous, desolate place.

About thirty feet away from the tower, Celebrimbor turned and looked back. He still couldn't get a decent perspective on it - it was just too big. He extended his other senses, trying to figure out how something that tall kept from collapsing under its own weight.

There were lines of force all through it, acting almost as a reinforcing mesh that helped hold the tower up. The Master Ring, Celebrimbor thought. But he doesn't have it now, and the mesh doesn't smell entirely right for that anyway. The Master Ring is involved, especially at the bottom, but something else is holding the top part up. The Dwarf Rings? Probably. "I hate seeing him misuse my work that way," said Celebrimbor softly. The Rings are light. Maybe I can get hold of them and undo this... but I am not supposed to kill innocents. Knocking down his tower definitely would. What a shame. Doing that would definitely distract Sauron.

But if I can steal and hide the rings I will.

He floated back to the balcony. "Good to see you back on solid ground," said Gil-galad. "I was a little worried you'd float away on the wind out there."

"It just goes right through me," said Celebrimbor. "We should definitely take the dwarf Rings and hide them."

"Sauron has them?" asked Gil-galad.

"Yes, and he's using them. Unfortunately, I can't use them to bring the top part of the tower down because it would exceed our mandate, but I bet if we stole them it would drive him frantic - and therefore everyone else in Barad-dur as well."

"Yes, I'd imagine it would." Gil-galad smiled crookedly. "And if we hid them in the personal belongings of one of his allies we might be able to create a major breach in his war effort. If he's using them, though, wouldn't that mean he's wearing them? How will we get them away from him?"

"You're right. But if he ever removes them we will get them off him. He probably takes them off when he has a bath."

"The great... naked Sauron. Just what I didn't want to see."

"If you're scared, I can deal with it."

"I died fighting him in battle, I can certainly handle seeing him starkers if I have to. It's just not something that one seeks out. He's quite hideous enough in full armor."

"Sauron, hideous? Except when he was being an owl, he was excessively good looking."

"He lost the ability to take beautiful forms when Eru drowned Numenor. I doubt he's become any less hideous since the last time I saw him."

"I suppose not. Well, I'll deal with that when it happens." They thought themselves through the door and back into the living room where they stopped in shock. It was no longer empty.