Hurting Tyelpë by elennalore

Drugged against his will

Prompts used: drugged against your will, captivity, secrets, poison.

Read Drugged against his will

Celebrimbor was awoken from a disturbing dream to find Sauron on his side. A glass bottle was rudely pushed against his parched lips.

“Drink,” Sauron commanded, and he obeyed, for he was very thirsty. He gulped down the water without thinking; he was seldom given this much to drink. Only when the bottle must have been half finished, he paused, finally recognising the bitter taste that lingered in his mouth.

“I don’t want to.”

“Drink.”

It was useless to fight, but Celebrimbor did his best anyway, writhing against the ropes which bound him to a heavy chair – a chair that had originally belonged to his study. He shook his head in growing fear until Sauron got a grip of his hair and forced him to stay still as he poured the last of the liquid into Celebrimbor’s mouth. Celebrimbor spat as much as he could, but Sauron’s hand covered his nose, and he needed to take a breath soon. He coughed and swallowed the bitter liquid against his will, already knowing that nothing good would happen after drinking it. Finally, the bottle was taken away. Celebrimbor took a deep breath that ended in a cough. He was allowed a little moment of triumph when he saw from the corner of his eye Sauron drying his wet robe, looking displeased. Annatar had never particularly liked getting wet.

The moment of triumph didn’t last long, though. Celebrimbor already started to feel the effects of the drug – or poison – that Sauron had mixed into water. His mouth was dry, and he wished that Sauron would give him something to drink – even that cursed water. His heart was beating suddenly very fast, either because of fear of what could happen next, or because of the poison in his veins. It was getting hard to keep still. His arms made useless moves as he desperately tried to free from the ropes that tied his arms to the armrests. The room felt too hot. Was it because of Sauron’s presence? Had he brought the fire with him like the last time? But when Celebrimbor tried to look at his captor, his eyes refused to focus.

“I’m sorry you have to go through this, Tyelpë,” Sauron said as he tightened a rope around Celebrimbor’s unclothed body, forcing him back to the upright posture in the chair where he was kept without pause.

“I know you would rather lie down on a bed,” Sauron continued, and it almost sounded like he cared for Celebrimbor’s wellbeing. “But I’m afraid we have to go through the uncomfortable part first. It looks like there is no other way.”

It was getting increasingly difficult to think straight, but Celebrimbor knew that he couldn’t succumb to the incoherence yet; not before he knew what was going on.

“What was it you gave to me?” he mumbled, tongue thick in his mouth. “Was it thornapple? Banewort?”

“You were always such a clever Elf, Tyelpë.”

Sauron leaned closer, a threatening dark shape in a dimly lit room. When was the last time they had had a normal conversation? Celebrimbor was suddenly close to collapse in a fit of hysterical giggling. This place used to be his library.

“I have asked you politely before to tell me the location of the Rings. For some reason I can’t understand, you refuse to tell me that. There should be no secrets between us. You know who I am now. Why do you still keep information from me?”

Celebrimbor tried to answer, but his mouth was too dry. “Water. Give me water.”

“But of course.”

The bitter taste was back. Celebrimbor stopped drinking instinctively and turned his head away, but Sauron forced the bottle back and tilted his head so that he had no choice but to swallow. It was both a relief and horror to drink that foul water.

“Now, tell me where you hid the Rings. You can start with the lesser ones. They were never really important to us, you know that.”

Celebrimbor had lost the sense of time. Had he stayed silent for a duration of a breath, or for a whole day? He feared what would happen if he wouldn’t answer that question, and what would happen when he finally broke. His body had started shaking, and it took some time for him to notice that Sauron kept holding his head steady, tilting it slightly backwards.

“I didn’t think it would be easy, not in your case,” Sauron’s voice whispered somewhere very close. “Remember that I have an antidote with me. I will give it to you as soon as you tell me the location of the Rings. Any Rings. Would that be so difficult? I don’t think it would.”

Sauron didn’t give him the antidote, though. Celebrimbor felt a drop of liquid touch his eye, then another. He squinted with his other eye to see Sauron above him, a pipette in his hand. He held Celebrimbor’s head steady until he had filled Celebrimbor’s both eyes with droplets of probably the same liquid that he had forced him to drink before. What little there was left of Celebrimbor’s sense of sight was now taken from him. Everything went blurry. Sauron snapped his fingers, and a too-bright flame appeared in front of him. The light hurt Celebrimbor’s eyes, and he tried to press them shut, but Sauron’s finger forced one of his eyelids open so that he had to watch the flame. He would have cried, but the tears didn’t come.

“Where are the Rings?” Sauron’s voice asked again, soft and composed as always.

It took some time until Celebrimbor realised that he had started to whimper aloud.

After that, Celebrimbor’s thoughts became mostly hazy and incoherent. He started to writhe in his ropes in panic, his heart pounding inside his ribcage like a trapped animal. He tried to fight the irrational fear that made it impossible to think – and he needed to think to get out of this situation! – but he couldn’t control himself anymore. It wouldn’t take long until he would inadvertently tell Sauron what Sauron wanted to know, and all his efforts would be in vain.

Celebrimbor felt the bottle against his lips once more, and he realised that it was his only way out. This time, he drank the horrible drug willingly, hoping to take more of it than Sauron had thought to give him this time. If Celebrimbor was lucky, he would soon become too incoherent to even speak – and unable to blurt out secrets.

A series of whimpering sounds came from his throat, but no words that would do harm. It wouldn’t take long before his body would collapse from exhaustion; his heart was already beating too fast, and his whole body was convulsing. Sauron became impatient and gave Celebrimbor another dose of the poisoned drink. Again, he drank as much as he could.

Celebrimbor felt himself falling into the abyss. A moment later, he couldn’t remember his name, or what he was supposed to do. It was terrifying. He was lost, completely lost and frightened, and someone kept asking him questions. It was the evil Maia, but his voice was strangely familiar as if the Maia had been dear to him once.

It was a blessed oblivion, but it didn’t last forever. Celebrimbor came to his senses slowly; his thoughts were still hazy and his body heavy – but he could think again, and he remembered where he was at once. The room was cold, making him shiver uncontrollably, and he tried to grope around for a blanket, but of course there was none, and his arms were tied up anyway. He was drooling and a horrible headache hit him as he opened his eyes. Sauron had not left – or if he had, he had come back. His piercing eyes were fixed solely on Celebrimbor.

“What did you do with the Rings?” Sauron asked him.

Hearing those words, Celebrimbor fought not to show his utter relief. It meant that he had succeeded in keeping the information from Sauron, delaying the inevitable. He was exhausted, however, and he feared that he could not last long under interrogation.

Sauron didn’t repeat his question. He currently studied Celebrimbor’s ruined condition with evident distaste, and that gave Celebrimbor an idea.

“I’m filthy,” Celebrimbor said mildly, and it was true. His sweaty hair stuck to his face and neck, and he realised that he had soiled himself. He would have been ashamed in other circumstances.

Sauron wrinkled his nose, a gesture that reminded Celebrimbor of Annatar. They stared at each other.

“I will order you to be cleaned,” Sauron said at last. “I find you repulsive.”

It was a relief, albeit a temporary one, and it was more than Celebrimbor had dared to hope. He let Sauron’s servants untie him and take him away from the room where Sauron would probably manage to break him one day – but not today.