Light from Shadows

Prologue

"Come on Iltani, let's run!" Mîrrómen whispered to his twin sister. "Why should we, brother?" The female elfling asked. "Our fathers do not mistreat us, we are safe here." "For how long?" Mîrrómen hissed harshly. "They treat the full blooded elves most cruelly! Did you forget we are half elven?"

Iltani shut her slitted eyes. "No," she whispered quietly. "I have not forgotten." Then you know we must leave!" "When?" "Tonight, after the evening meal. Leave everything but your travel clothes." Mîrrómen instructed. "It will make it easier to travel."

"Yes brother." Iltani said coolly. Mîrrómen's face softened. "I promise you, Iltani," he whispered gently. "Once we get to safety, you can call all the shots." She nodded, and they went, hand in hand, back to their nursery.

After a few hours of quiet play in their nursery, an orc entered the room. "Your fathers require your presence during the evening meal." It said gruffly. The elflings sat down their toys and followed it to the dining hall, where their fathers were waiting at the table.

"Ah!" Morgoth said joyously as the children approached the dinner table. "Here are our sweet children! What have you been doing, my darling ones?" "We built a kingdom with our blocks!" Iltani exclaimed happily as she clambered into Sauron's lap.

"Did you, precious?" Sauron asked as he cuddled her. "What else did you do?" "Iltani and I had a war between my toys and her toys and I won!" Mîrrómen crowed as Morgoth placed him in his lap. "Good! You'll be a great warrior one day!" Morgoth praised his son, before starting to feed his son the rotten meat from the table.

Mîrrómen suppressed a shudder and managed to eat something without gagging. He glanced over at Iltani. Sauron was smiling down at her with a loving gleam in his eyes as he fed Iltani some raised wheat bread. Sauron's hand ran gently through his daughter's hair as she ate.

Mîrrómen managed a few more bites before pushing the rancid meat away. Morgoth tsked at him and said. "You need to start eating more if you want to grow as tall as Ada." Before he finished off the rotten flesh his son could hardly stomach. Mîrrómen could feel his stomach start cramping as the food reached his tummy, but he dared not reveal it to anyone.

Sauron continued to dote on his child, feeding her the tastiest tidbits from the table and cooing praise to her. Mîrrómen quickly realized why his sister had no wish to leave. She felt she was loved and protected. Mîrrómen conceded this was probably true now, but if she crossed them, they might turn on her.

After Iltani started pushing away the food Sauron offered, Morgoth declared it was their bedtime and placed his son on the floor. Sauron gently kissed the top of his daughter's head before setting her on the floor and bidding her good night. The elves who looked after them entered the room and, after bowing before the dark lord, took the elflings to their chambers.

Once the nurses had bathed and dressed the children, they tucked them into bed and left the large room. For a time, all was silent. Then Mîrrómen sat up in bad. "It is time, Iltani." He whispered, his sister rose from her bed. "Let us take Nana's headband, the one with the eight-pointed star... it would prove our relation to the elves." Iltani whispered back.

"Yes," said her her half-brother. "That's a good plan... though why Morgoth married Fëanor's only daughter when he hates Fëanor is beyond me." This they changed noiselessly into their travel clothes and used a rope they had made to lower themselves to the ground from the window.

"Do you have the headband?" Iltani asked as her brother removed the rope. "Yes, hidden in my robe." He whispered back. "Did you convince an animal to take us to the elves territory?"

"Yes, my old friend Tau, the white lion" "then let us be off." And using the shadows that Morgoth loved so much, the twins vanished into the night. Later, if you had closely to the west of Angband, you could faintly see a silvery shape bounding away.

The next morning Morgoth and Sauron sat at the breakfast table and summoned their children. But the orc they sent to fetch them took some time to return. When he did so he looked very pale and neither elfling was with him. "What mischief have our little angels gotten into this time?" Morgoth asked the trembling orc.

"My lord," the orc stammered out. "The young prince and princess are missing." "What?" Sauron breathed in a mix of horror and disbelief. "Someone must have stolen them!" Morgoth exclaimed angrily as he sprang from his chair. "Send out search parties at once! If those elves abandon them in the woods they'll never survive!"

"I'll send out all my wolves at once!" Sauron said as he rushed for the door. "They are the best trackers in all of Arda." "Send out the orcs as well," Morgoth ordered him. "Those elves are cruel enough to abandon children of their own kind in the woods! Who knows what they'll do to our little angels!"

As his trusted lieutenant left the room, Morgoth threw his crown on the floor and gave a scream of rage. It was so loud the children heard it from twenty miles away. "Run, Tau, run!" Mîrrómen cried in fear to the white lion. Tau extended his claws and dug them deep into the earth as he ran twice as fast as before.

"Take us by the safest route, not the quickest!" Iltani gasped as she gripped the mane of the gentle lion tightly. Tau turned from the straight road and dashed deeper into the wooded marshland. As the white lion disappeared, the sound of the dark Vala's rage faded into the night...