A Game of Chess by Lilith

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Fanwork Notes

We shall pretend that there is chess in Arda if only because I haven't the imagination to create another game.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

A series of outtakes from an AU about Sauron’s sojourn in Númenor in which Sauron is a lady (of sorts).

Major Characters: Amandil, Anárion, Ar-Pharazôn, Elendil, Isildur, Sauron, Tar-Míriel

Major Relationships:

Genre: Alternate Universe

Challenges:

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Mature Themes
Chapters: 2 Word Count: 4, 014
Posted on 22 August 2019 Updated on 3 November 2019

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The king is sleepless.

Chapter 2

The games continue.

Comments

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She's back!

She's back! 

Oh! I love the point of view in this one. Interesting to ponder the shift from captive to something more.

Favorite lines:

"A pursuit suitable for a lady of Numenor," he had written on the note he'd included with needle, thread and material.

She'd laughed. The only stitches she knew were the careful lines of rivets binding sheets of armor, whether on man, beast or machine.  

So she is careful to devote her full attention to each problem, aware that proof of the trust she does not possess earns her hours outside her rooms and additional freedoms. Pharazon may not trust her. He may never trust her. But she may yet prove herself to be indispensable.

Good stuff. Hope that you will be inspired to give us a little more.

There is this Thing in fandom, where you click on something out of curiosity just before bed and find the fic you didn't know you were looking for. This is -- I don't have the right words, but god I can see him and the settings, and I can see and feel her.  I even hear her voice. 

I know this is never a comfortable request/demand, but honestyly I would love to read more. Like maybe a novel? Anyhow, thank you for sharing.

Hi!  I've been trying to respond to both of these lovely comments, but it's been a very long time and I must be forgotting something I need to do for it to work.  Thank you both for reading and commenting.  I do hope there's more of these two playing games with the universe.  

It is possible his vision was a warning. I would say that she is very comfortable with night (and day) terrors.  At this point, she lives in nightmares.   But I would also say that she is an extraordinarily unreliable narrator and confidant.

Author's Response:

It is possible his vision was a warning. I would say that she is very comfortable with night (and day) terrors.  At this point, she lives in nightmares.   But I would also say that she is an extraordinarily unreliable narrator and confidant.

“But she came to save him, and I was bested by a lovestuck girl and a hound.”

She settled back into her chair and frowned, and then she moved her castle forward. “That still smarts, and I cannot say I agreed with her decisions.”

I do love this. Almost she is laughing at herself, though it will never not bother her. I read the chapter on DW but it was late and I wanted to come back and read it a second time. The look at life, destiny, predestiny, free choice... nice. That two-sided duel, on the board and in the way they felt out each other's soft points with words, built so well. I kept waiting for one of them to get careless - no, I was waiting for her to get careless, say one word too many, but she counts her words, doesn't she? And the dream made me shiver because - well, we know.

She is most definitely laughing at herself but she isn't about to let that defeat go, even if it would be wise to do so.

Yes, almost everything she says is very intentional; her one tender area, that ill-fated relationship (partnership/friendship/haven't yet found the correct term) with Celebrimbor, might be the one place she might slip, but it seems to be that she might have learned that displays of vulnerability can be very tactical.  Show the limp, exaggerate it even and your opponent might underestimate your strength and resolve.   Pharazôn could very well be susceptible to a display of humanity, after all.