Mael-Gûl, 42/? - Night on Caradhras, Part I

[crowdaughter]

by Aislynn Crowdaughter
Rating: NC-17 - strictly adult only!!!
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, Boromir/Legolas, Gimli/Legolas, Others/Legolas
Disclaimer: The universe I play in is not mine. J.R.R. Tolkien owns the characters, safe a few original characters in side roles. Peter Jackson owns the Movies. I borrow their creations without permission. I make no money out of this.
Summary: Completely AU. Legolas slave fic. Mirkwood is a subjected realm and must give hostages to the other Elven realms as slaves. Legolas is the slave of Aragorn, who is a sadist. And to keep Legolas loyal to the Ranger, he is bound by a cruel spell: the Mael-Gûl
Warnings: Slash, m/m, BDSM, torture, toys, d/s, *very* graphic descriptions; abuse both physical and sexual. Non-con and debatable consent. Special warnings for this chapter: none. Please heed the warnings!

all previously posted chapters can be found here


by Aislynn Crowdaughter
Betareader: many thanks to Surreysmum, who polished this and made it so much better! She relentlessly weeded out bad grammar, clumsy phrasing and unfitting modern slang, and polished some sentences to the point where readers could hopefully understand them. Thank you!!! All still remaining errors are solely my own.
Rating: NC-17 - strictly adult only!!!
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, Boromir/Legolas, Gimli/Legolas, Others/Legolas
Summary: Completely AU. Legolas slave fic. Mirkwood is a subjected realm and must give hostages to the other Elven realms as slaves. Legolas is the slave of Aragorn, who is a sadist. And to keep Legolas loyal to the Ranger, he is bound by a cruel spell: the Mael-Gûl
Feedback: Is what I live for!
Disclaimer: Not mine. J.R.R. Tolkien owns the characters, safe a few original characters in side roles. Peter Jackson owns the Movies. I make no money out of this. This story was inspired by BlueGolds story “Bound”, which can be found here: http://lotr.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=10373
I use similar plot ideas here with her permission.
The idea of the Mael-Gûl, or Rhach e-Maelangwedh (Lust-Spell, Curse of Lustchain) however is entirely mine.
Warnings: Slash, m/m, BDSM, torture, toys, d/s, *very* graphic descriptions; abuse both physical and sexual. Non-con and debatable consent. Special warnings for this chapter: none.

For all other Disclaimers, Author's notes and warnings, please see Intro Post!

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XLII. Night on Caradhras, Part I

Aragorn was somewhat astonished when he found himself approached by his slave long before his watch was over. The Elf seemed edgy, but determined.

“Please, My Lord,” he said, “'Tis much too cold for you to stand alone far from the fire. Let me relieve you.”

Hesitantly, Aragorn turned to him and gave him a questioning look. “I agreed last evening to take the first watch tonight,” he reminded his slave mildly, “Boromir is right in this. And you need your rest as much as anybody else, Little Leaf.”

He cast a concerned look at the tired, tight face of his Elf. Last night when they returned to the camp Legolas was nearly dreaming on his feet. And if Aragorn recalled correctly, the Elf had not found peaceful dreams afterwards, either.

Legolas looked down, then he met his master's gaze again. “I doubt that anyone of us will find much rest, tonight,” he said, “and sleep may bring the danger of freezing. But nonetheless I am much more resistant to the cold than you. Please, My Lord, let me take over. You are in need of the warmth of the fire more than I.”

Aragorn looked at him and narrowed his eyes. He could tell that his slave was hiding something; something was troubling the Elf's mind. But he knew he would probably not get an answer if he asked, at least not willingly; and right now, he was loath to force the matter. And in truth, Legolas' reasoning was right, although normally Aragorn would not have skirted his duty willingly. But he had other reasons to wish for an early relief from his watch.

There were some questions he wanted to ask the wizard. And he would prefer it if Legolas did not hear that conversation.

So, after a moment, he nodded and briefly touched his slave's arm.

“All right,” he said quietly. “You may take over now. But remind me that I owe you for this.”

Legolas just nodded and gave him a bow.

Troubled and concerned, but determined not to lose his opportunity, Aragorn decided to let it lie for now.

He gave Legolas a last, quick pat on the shoulder and stepped around him to walk the few paces to the fire, leaving the Elf staring motionlessly out into the night.

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Gandalf looked up when Aragorn settled beside him near the fire. His brows knitted.

“Your watch is over already?” he asked with some disapproval.

Aragorn just shrugged. “Legolas relieved me,” he said simply. “He insisted.” Then he added in Silvain: “I would have words with you.”

Gandalf watched him under his bushy brows and assessed him long and carefully. Finally he moved to get a more comfortable position. He took out his pipe.

“It took you long enough to seek my counsel, son of Arathorn,” he drawled in the same language, “especially since I assume this is not about the way our company should take on the morrow.”

Aragorn held his gaze. “No, it is not,” he said. “I need to talk to you about my Elf.”

Gandalf's eyes seemed to pierce through him. “I thought so,” he said. “What is it that you wish to ask of me? You have seemed pretty determined so far to hand him around, involving everyone else, .but never seeking my counsel.”

Aragorn flinched. But then, he squared his shoulders and countered the gaze of the wizard with one of his own.

“Do you really mean to tell me,” he challenged, “you didn't know Legolas was under the Mael-Gûl?”

Gandalf's face crumbled and lost some of the sharp expression.

“I knew of course he was a Mirkwood-hostage,” he said, “and that he was under the spell. The event when Elrond put him under it was infamous enough, after all! But I thought that he was only bound to Elrond, and maybe his sons, and that the bond wasn't wound very tightly, so it needed renewal only every few decades. I thought Elrond had given him into your care, to serve you between the... feeding of the spell, and would renew the spell himself, as he does with quite a few Mirkwood hostages. And that this was the reason why you and Legolas returned to Rivendell at least every few decades.”

He bowed his head and concentrated on his pipe. “I truly did not realize that he was bound to you.” Grimacing, he added: “Apparently, I have been a fool. And worse, a blind and deaf fool, at that.”

Aragorn stared at him sceptically. “You want me to believe...” he began.

Gandalf looked up at him again and caught him with his gaze.

“What do you wish to hear?” he asked sharply. “You always treated him more as your comrade than your slave, at least when the three of us were together. I knew of course that the two of you were lovers. But Legolas seemed quite happy while he was with you. I simply thought that the Mirkwood prince had been very lucky that Elrond decided to give him into your care.”

Aragorn flinched again. He could not withstand the wizard's gaze any longer and looked away. Gandalf wondered at the sudden pain on the Ranger's face.

“And so thought he, at the start,” Aragorn said tonelessly, “and so thought I.” It seemed as if he wanted to say more, but he merely stopped speaking. He took a deep breath.

Gandalf still stared at him. “You mean to tell me, son of Arathorn, that you agreed to bind the one you loved with so tightly a bond?” he asked carefully and with an underlying sharpness, “even if you knew that it would endanger your lover's life whenever you were merely delayed in feeding the curse you helped to lay on him?!”

For a moment, Aragorn's face was sad and forlorn. Then it turned grim.

“I was a fool,” he admitted. “At that time, we were very much in love. We shared each other every chance we got. What bad could there be if that would also serve to feed the spell? What harm could come of it?”

He shook his head. “I claim no excuse for my foolishness, except that I was very young and did not think with my head alone. And when I learned what I had done, it was too late.” He stopped.

Gandalf prepared his pipe. Slowly and thoughtfully, he said: “I think, he still loved you, you know. At least until you decided to share him with whoever asked for him the other night.”

Aragorn flinched anew. “I deserved that,” he said after a moment, grimly. Then, finally, he looked up again and met Gandalf's gaze.

“I did not mean to speak to you about deeds in the past,” he confessed. “I mean to ask you if there's any way you know or can conceive to break this accursed spell?”

Gandalf raised his brows. He stared back at the Dunadan in apparent surprise.

“You would do that?” he asked, “If there was a chance? You would have me set him free, even if it meant that he might choose to leave you?”

Aragorn grimaced again. He looked miserable. Still, he managed to say with quiet determination: “Yes. I would have you do it even then. I...” He stopped. He looked down and swallowed, hard. Finally, he looked up again and met Gandalf's gaze.

“Legolas is very dear to me. I... I want him to be happy. Even if that means that he may seek his happiness elsewhere and leave me. I would have him free to choose again, if it can be done.”

Gandalf looked at him shrewdly. “And you think he would leave you if he had the choice?” he asked.

Aragorn had to look away again. “How could he not?” he asked, then he trailed off. Finally, after a long pause, he admitted: “I would be happy beyond measure if he would choose to stay with me, but I fear that will not happen. He has been my slave for far too long. I... do not think he would... want to be bound to me... if he was free to go.”

Finally, he looked back at the wizard. “Anyway, he needs to be free to have the choice. So, will you look into it? Will you try to find a way?”

Gandalf looked back at him, appraising and deep in thought. 'So you are not completely lost yet, king-of-men' he thought. 'Well, well, well. Isn't that interesting. It seems that there is still some hope left here for men. And you are so sure that if he was freed your Elf would run away. The Mirkwood prince might yet surprise you. Still...'

Aloud he said: “I will. Although we will have to tread with care, since we can't risk stirring the wrath of the two Elven realms too soon; this must be done in secrecy, until we can hope to tread more openly. But do not raise your hopes too high,” he warned at Aragorn's intent expression, “From all I know about that spell, it was conceived with the help of one of the great Rings. It may well be that it can't be unmade as long as their power lasts. Maybe this very Quest we undertake will be our best hope to see the curse broken.”

Aragorn perked up. “How so?”

Gandalf leaned forward, took a splint from the fire and lit his pipe.

“Well, you see,” he said, “the wise are not completely sure what will happen to the Three when the One is unmade. But most think that the power of the Three will fade, and all their works will come undone. It may not vanish all at once; it may take decades or even centuries for their works to unravel. But in the end, all that the Three enforced, may fade. So, if the spell was made with the help of one of the Three, then once the One is unmade it will probably begin to fade and lose its power.”

Aragorn let out a long breath. “So if we succeed in this Quest, Legolas and all his people will be free?” he asked.

Gandalf shook his head. “I warned you not to raise your hopes too high,” he said. “I hope so, yes, but we don't know for sure. And in any case we don't know how fast it will happen. As I said, it may take decades or even centuries for the last tendrils of that evil curse to fade completely.”

The hope in Aragorn's eyes dimmed. “Centuries,” he said slowly. “That would be too slow for Legolas. Unless I could convince him to go to Glorfindel, or choose another Elf to whom the spell could be extended when I die.”

Gandalf looked at him musingly.

“You assume too much,” he warned. “If the curse can indeed be broken, the effect may not be entirely what you hope. It may well be that Legolas, and all the other Elves under the curse, may not survive when the curse is broken.”

Aragorn looked at him startled and alarmed. “But - why?!” he asked, “Why should that happen?”

Gandalf took a puff at his pipe. He looked troubled.

“Well, summarize the effects of the spell for me once more, would you?” he invited.

Aragorn narrowed his eyes. Reluctantly, he said: “It makes the... victim dependent on the attentions of his master. The victim has to be... taken regularly, or he will fall ill and die.”

Gandalf grimaced, face laced in sorrow. “Yes, and that is bad enough,” he said, “and yet that is not all, is it?”

Aragorn looked at him, brows drawn.

Gandalf took a few more puffs of his pipe. “You know, of course, what usually happens if an Elf is forced to endure a physical union?” he asked, “Against the victim's will and own desire?”

Aragorn made a face again. “Rape, you mean,” he said. “Yes, of course. An Elf who is raped will die, except under the spell. The spell prevents it.”

His eyes widened in sudden understanding.

Gandalf looked at him, waiting.

Aragorn stared back at him. He paled. “The spell prevents an Elf from dying of grief, of rape or a disturbed bond...” he quoted what he once had been told by Elrond. He trailed off. “You cannot mean...”

Gandalf shrugged. “The spell prevents the Elves subjected to the curse from dying from an enforced union, he said, “but to cast the spell, the victim must be taken by force by the one who cast it. And the very essence of the spell means that that abuse must be repeated again and again. So, when the spell is broken, I deem there is a distinct possibility that most Elves who were subjected to it will simply fade.”

For a moment, Aragorn stared back at him, dumbfounded. Then he shook his head.

“No,” he said, “I do not think so. Legolas is strong. If there was any chance that he would die of grief, or of the rape, it would have been shortly after he was enslaved. But that was decades in the past. Since then, he has not been raped again, at least not while he was in my care and I did not have to share him with my brothers. He will survive, I am sure of it.”

He thought a moment.

“And a lot of the other Elves under the spell will survive, too, I think,” he concluded, but then he trailed off and did not explain himself further.

Gandalf looked back at the man he had long thought of as the 'Hope of men'.

“What you, Gimli and Boromir did to Legolas just a few nights ago does not count as forced?” he asked.

Aragorn looked away. “I don't think that this will kill him,” he said. “And anyway, if we succeed, by whatever means, that night will have taken place weeks in the past. It will not kill him.”

He was clearly convinced and reassured by his own reasoning.

Gandalf sighed. “Just do not blame me if it does not turn out the way you hope,” he warned. “And there is still a distinct possibility that Legolas will choose to go to Mandos if he has a choice.”

Aragorn bit his lips. “I know,” he said. “But I don't think he will.”

Gandalf looked at him thoughtfully.

“I hope you are right, son of Arathorn,” he said, “though for many Elves under that evil curse the way through Mandos may mean the way to healing. But answer me this. Even if all your hopes come true and the spell can indeed be broken, and Legolas survives and chooses to stay, what then? You will still have to marry eventually. You need an heir. You cannot bond to Legolas. And he might well die of grief then, anyway.”

Aragorn looked back at him, completely startled.

“I doubt that Legolas, if he had but the choice, would choose to stay,” he finally said very carefully. Again, there was pain in his voice, and Gandalf wondered at the source. “But if he did, I would be very happy, and I would hold him dear and cherish him to the end of my days.”

There was an odd kind of desperate hope as he said the latter. Still, his voice was laced with pain.

Yet his answer left Gandalf puzzled. “What about Arwen?” he asked.

Aragorn let out a deep breath. “I let Arwen go,” he confessed. “I broke our betrothal before we departed for the Quest. Elrond demanded it of me. Arwen will pass over the sea and be safe from pain and harm there.”

There was deep pain in his voice and face, and Gandalf looked at him with sympathy.

'So, you acted on your feelings rather than on what foresight told you was the right thing to do, Elrond Halfelven' he thought. 'Where else did you try to avert fate? And will it help, I wonder?'

Still this did not answer his question. So he asked simply: “And if she chose to stay?”

Aragorn's face lit up at the prospect. Then he narrowed his eyes.

“If Arwen stayed, and Legolas chose to stay, too, I am sure we can find an arrangement together. And if she is gone, and I find another wife, the same was true for her. But I do not see what this question has to do with anything.”

Gandalf's face darkened. “You would subject Elrond's daughter, or a noble lady of Gondor or Rohan, to this humiliation - to suffer you to have a lover on the side? You would break the laws of the Valar that easily, son of Arathorn?!”

For a moment, he seemed greater than his earthly form, and there was a hint of power surrounding him.

But Aragorn held his gaze, and he, too, seemed greater for a moment, the royal blood of Númenor shining through him.

“Never will I believe,” he said quietly and sharply, “that you or the Valar would deny a whole people's chance at freedom just because those people won't fit into the laws afterwards. But should I see myself be forced to break the laws of the Valar in this one point, and take what may count as two consorts instead of one, so be it. I will never deny Legolas. I once swore this to his father. And I will never let him go, unless it were his own choice. The Valar have tolerated the casting of that spell, and the enslavement of the Mirkwood Elves, so I think they are bound to tolerate a bit of untidiness once the spell is broken.”

Gandalf's eyes flashed with anger. The surge of power surrounding him became more apparent for a moment, and the other members of the Fellowship, who had not followed the conversation since it was held in Silvain, flinched and started.

“Take care of what you speak, son of Arathorn,” the wizard said sharply, “and do not tempt the powers you may yet need. If any of your hopes should come to pass, and if our mission succeeds, it will be only due to the grace of the Valar!”

Aragorn held his gaze. “I am aware of that,” he said. “Still - do you mean to tell me, that you would make the attempt to break that spell dependent on how I choose to conduct my love life?”

Gandalf stared at him for another moment, then the power surrounding him seemed to disappear as if it had never been, and he seemed again the familiar old man with whom the Fellowship had traveled so long.

Aragorn, too, seemed to change back to the weathered, grim man they knew.

Gandalf let his shoulders slump a bit. “Of course not,” he said, “still, you had better take care not to anger the Valar, son of Arathorn. Something tells me that you will dearly need their help before this quest is over.”

He sighed and took another pull at his pipe, but it had gone out. So he leaned forward and got a new splint from the fire to light it again. “Anyway, “ he said, “of course I will try. None of us knows what the future may hold. We will see what it will bring us.”

He took a few puffs at his lightened pipe, then he looked up again. “Your request honors you. Just do not be too grieved if the outcome is not what you hope for. There are greater forces at work in this world, with greater wisdom than we may fathom, and some ends that may seem sad for us may indeed prove to be for the better. And anyway, it isn't sure yet that I will succeed. You realize, of course, that others before me have already tried to break that spell, and none have yet succeeded.”

Aragorn looked at him expectantly, but Gandalf just shook his head. He merely added: “So do not set your hopes too high. I may yet fail.”

Aragorn let out a deep breath. “All I ask is that you try,” he said. “And I will always be in your debt if you do.”

Gandalf looked at him, musingly. “Very well,” he finally said. “Now go and relieve that Elf of his watch, will you? Even the Eldar are not immune to the cold, and you both need your rest. I will take the last watch for the night myself.” When Aragorn seemed to hesitate, he made a shooing motion.

Obediently. Aragorn gave a little bow and rose. Standing, he bowed his head another time to the old wizard, revently and deeply. “Thank you, Gandalf” he said in Westron, “I am in your debt.”

And with that he turned and walked away.

Gandalf stared after him, deep in thought. 'So you are not completely lost yet, Dúnadan,' he mused, 'but you are far along the road to darkness. The laws of the Valar mean little to you compared to your own heart. I wonder if that will prove your downfall, or if it will indeed be your salvation. But in any case, I greatly fear for your heart before the end.'

And for the rest of the night, he smoked on and would say no more.

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-- TBC --

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