Chapter 16 Melkor

Melkor's deadly gaze bored its way into the god's souls. Melkor's shadow expanded around the room drowning the light into an eternal night. 

 As Melkor walked face to face with the wind goddess his enormous form dwarfed the almighty being, making her appear like a mouse taking on a bear. 

"I have heard much about you gods. Your daughter married Durran here, giving up her immortality for love. And I must say I can relate to such anger. But I must confess I have no business about what goes on between another's parenting." 

The sea goddess squirmed under the giant's gaze, she walked back to the safety of her husband who stood before the head table. 

Melkors never broke his gaze on the goddess. "But it is my business when two gods come into the hall I'm dining in and fear for their daughter's safety simply because they are untrusting of me." 

Melkor's form turned to nothing but shadow as he sank into the ground where he was standing to rise from the ground in front of the two gods.

"So why don't we have a talk like the adults we are?" Melkor's voice took on a sinister tone as his blood-red eyes took on a wicked glow, "Or should I say, The gods we are?" 

The sea god gripped his staff with rage. The waves of the ocean crashed into the bay of the keep, and the winds whipped and cracked around gods. And just as the winds began to scream and roar, it all came to a calm. 

As the winds fell silent the only noise that could be heard was Durran griping the ends of his seat as he watched the confrontation with fear and concern. 

With the power of a tidal wave behind his swing, the sea god swung his great spear at the great towering figure that stood before him.

But with the great effort behind the sea god's swing, Melkor used little to no effort to catch the spear, and as it landed in his palm, a great current of winds blew back all those that were around them. 

"Quite the powerful swing Sea god. But you inhabit a mortal body, not your true form, and I wouldn't need mine to even defeat you. This form is more than enough."

The sea god tried pulling away from the enormous figure before him he couldn't wrench his spear free. 

The wind goddess was not idle though. As her husband struggled the wind goddess gathered the wind around her and shot a great maelstrom of power at Melkor. 

with a quick swish of his other hand, Melkor swatted the attack away like a fly. 

The tables and chairs had gone flying across the room at the deflection.

The men in the great hall had all armed themselves with their bronze swords, arrows drawn and ready waiting for the word of their lord. 

"You'll have to do better than that little fly if you wish to even scratch me."

"Enough!" 

Melkor turned his head assuming it had been Durran wanting this argument to come to an end, but how wrong Melkor was. 

Melkor's gaze landed on something he had only seen in his wife Aina. A great fury of a goddess whose family had been threatened. 

Elenei stood with a great power emanating from her very form. Her hair flowed magically with the wind, and her voice was like a thunderclap, her eyes changed to a deep blue that was as deep as the depths itself. 

"Release him! I don't know who you are foul demon, but you shall not return to these halls, or be slain by some of the greatest powers the world can offer. What grievances my family has with my husband is ours and ours alone. Should you ever harm those I call kin, I will personally hunt you down to the ends of time."

Melkor's gaze never wavered under the furious lady of Storms End. But he released his vice-like grip on the Sea God's spear.

"I can see why you married her Durran, she reminds me much of my own wife. I must commend you little Elenei, but I must warn you." Melkor's tone took on a dark shift. His shadow shifted as something enormous rose out of it. Two orange eyes of fire stared down Elenei as she slowly sank into her chair in fear. "I am not so easily threatened."

Brandon intervened before things got nasty

"Your grace, I think it would be wise if we discuss things in a more PRIVATE setting, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess we could discuss things in a more... civilized fashion, wouldn't you two agree." 

Melkor asked the two gods that just earlier had attacked him.

The two gods were frozen before the great beast that stood above Melkor, they had never felt such malevolent power before. Of course, Melkor had not released his true power, and they believed he was a minor god, but now, they had no idea what he was. 

The two gods reluctantly followed Brandon and Durran to a more private room

.... 

Six figures sat within Durrans council chambers. 

The chamber was decorated with regalia befit for a king. The walls were covered in Durrans personal heraldry, while great antlers of deer, and elk mounted the walls. Hunting spears and swords hung next to the prey they slayed across the walls. 

Little light shined from outside the walls as the winds raged, and the thunder roared. 

At the center of the room sat a round table with a chair greater than the others. In it sat Durran himself, anger and fear both clouding his mind. 

To Durrans's left sat his wife Elenei, she had recalled her power and now sat with her husband with a reassuring on his shoulder. 

Directly sitting next to her were Elenei's parents, shooting dangerous glares at those who sat across from them.

Melkor and Brandon sat directly across from the family. Melkor taunted the family with a smug smirk with mischief in his eyes. 

Directly behind Melkor stood a darkened man cloaked in light wear. His eyes were a fiery orange that constantly scanned for danger. His face was adorned with a deep scowl as he stood alert and ready for any battle to come for him. On his neck, he tried to hide the massive dog bite that most certainly would of ended even the toughest of men. 

The sea god decided now was the best time to find answers. 

"Durran, for today I shall put my grievances with you aside, now tell me why you let him into your halls." 

The sea god pointed at Melkor as he questioned the Storm king for answers.

Durran clenched his fists as he rose and stared down the Storm god. 

"How DARE you question me in My halls about My guests! If I remember correctly you were never invited. You seem to think my wife is in danger when there was no danger to be in the first place until you two twats decided to appear unannounced."

Durran could feel the glare from his wife from behind him, but he cared not for the ire of his wife but the safety of her life that her parents had put her in. 

"Answer them. Please, my love, if not for them, do it for me. I wish to know who that man is."Elenei begged her husband for the answers she knew her husband had been hiding from her the entire night since Brandon and Melkor had arrived. 

"I think it better that I explain Durran." Brandon had spoken up, knowing should Durran tell them the truth, he would leave out some of the more important parts, Durran had not conquered the Storm Lands with diplomacy, but with brauns and muscles.

"I think I should be the one to tell, after all, I am the one being talked about." Melkor had not told Brandon of his father and needed to know if the two he had met today knew any of his father.

"I guess I should start from the beginning. My name is Melkor, and I am a banished god, sent here by my father, Eru Iluvitar, with my daughter, and wife." Melkor's smirk never left his face as he watched the two gods' eyes widen.

"And it seems my father's name is familiar." 

Elenei looked at Melkor with widened eyes, mouth agape. Her parents were just as surprised but were able to gather themselves faster than their daughter. 

The sea god stood up, his face was visibly pale but hid the fear within his voice better than most. 

"I've heard tale from my father of those banished here, they were powerful gods, punished for their crimes. Your like him, my father, he was banished by whom he called Eru for his crimes in his home. Me and my sister had thought it but a tale to explain where he comes from, but it seems we were wrong." 

"Who is your father and your sister? What parts of these lands do they inhabit?" Melkor needed to know how many more gods were in these lands. 

"My sister sits next to me." The sea god gestured to his wife. visible surprise and slight revulsion crossed Melkor's face. 

"You married your sister?"

The sea god nodded "I did, an arrangement made by our father."

Melkor looked ready to end the god's lives then and there but chose not to, or sour relationships with the Storm King's wife. "Your father, where does his domain lie."

"My father has remained in the sea on the other side of the continent. His domain though reaches all the ends of this world. He has dwelled here for thousands of years, long before we were born. He knows more of these lands than any other aside from the Old Gods." 

"What has your father told you about the land he was once from?" Melkor asked

"Our Father spoke little of the one named Eru, other than the usual curse of his name, but told us much of the land he was once from. It was a realm of humans just like this one, worshiping him as a great god who twisted their minds, and would give them gifts should they please him." 

"Did he give a reason behind his banishment?"

"He wrought great catastrophe onto the lands other gods had protected. His siblings were scattered or destroyed, and he was the last one of his family that remained. He did not speak of who brought his downfall but suspected it was the humans themselves."

"And his name?"

"In another world, he was called Triton, but the humans in these lands call him by another name."

Brandon interrupted the gods questioning each other. "I know his name, those who live on the ocean call him not by a name but a title."

The sea god nodded

"The drowned God."