The Adventures of OM&P: Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen
In which Porter gains an army

“Wonderful,” Melkor said. He smiled and narrowed his eyes. “Let’s begin your tour at once, shall we?” He opened the cage.
“We must complete the change of authority before Sauron gets back,” he said. “Come, Porter. Your destiny awaits.”
Porter followed him to the back of the laboratory. There were things haphazardly piled against every wall. He saw nothing that even remotely resembled a key.
“So annoying,” Melkor muttered, as he began to poke around in the mess. “I told them where to put it. Those servants of Sauron’s have no sense of organization.”
Porter stood patiently for a while, shifting from one foot to the other with his hands in his pockets. He glanced around the room for a while, staring at everything. The strange muddled feeling in his head was beginning to clear, just a bit.
Melkor was still muttering under his breath, digging through piles of junk, and getting very hot and bothered. Porter briefly considered helping him search, but since he had no idea what they were looking for he decided to sit down instead.
“Aha!” Melkor exclaimed. “Finally! I’ve found it!”
He pulled a strange contraption out from under a tall stack of spare parts. His prize looked like nothing in particular. It appeared to be a collection of scrap metal welded roughly into a sort of barrel shape.
“That’s it?” Porter asked doubtfully.
“Yes,” Melkor answered absently, running his hands over the barrel’s surface. “Aha,” he whispered to himself. Porter heard a click, and then the front of the barrel opened.
Inside it was full of gears and wires and smoked glass. A mirror was embedded into the metal.
“What’s this?” Porter asked.
“This, dear Porter, is the key to your destiny,” Melkor said. “I built this beauty myself.”
“It’s very nice,” Porter said, “But what is it?”
“I call it The Authority,” Melkor said. “I am very, very powerful, Porter. I am the lord of all darkness and death. But- even with all my power- I cannot control armies by myself. I created this device to do that for me. I control it, it controls my servants. Quite simple, really, when it comes down to it.”
“But it’s here,” Porter said, “And you brainwashed the bears and cows in a very distant cave. How’d you do that without this machine?”
“I have a mobile device,” Melkor said, “I don’t use this one very often. It’s the main controller, and I really only need it for my larger forces. The smaller fortresses of my domain- like The Pines of Spain- are controlled perfectly well with the smaller one.”
Porter nodded thoughtfully.
“But enough chatter!” Melkor said. “It is time!”
“Time for what?” Porter asked.
“Time to give to you what is Sauron’s, of course,” Melkor answered. He picked up a flask of blue liquid. Porter recognized it as the one Melkor had taken from his old lab in The Pines of Spain.
Melkor poured about a tablespoon and a half into a rusty funnel at the barrel’s top. It slid slowly down into the machinery. Porter watched its progress through the clear plastic tubing.
One by one, tiny blue lights began to appear around the mirror. Melkor pulled a chair closer to the device.
“Have a seat, Porter,” he said.
Porter moved slowly, dizzily towards the chair and sat. His own face stared back at him from the mirror. The last light flickered on, and the icy ring around the mirror was completed. It flared brighter and brighter. Porter shut his eyes against the light.
“Perfect,” Melkor said.
Porter opened his eyes again, blinking, seeing spots. “Am I done?” he asked.
“Go and see,” Melkor said, motioning towards the door.
Porter opened it. As he stepped out, every head turned. The servants along the hallway saluted him.
“All hail Master Porter,” they said in unison.
There were perhaps a dozen servants visible in the hallway, but the sound of voices echoed throughout the entire fortress. Porter heard his name repeated by a thousand tongues, bounce off a thousand walls, and for the first time he realized just how much power he had. Not only were these few dozen soldiers his to command, he was also in control over the unseen hundreds beyond the walls.
“All hail Master Porter,” they said again, and the sound of their thousand voices was surprisingly sweet.

END of CHAPTER THIRTEEN

~ by The Theory on March 10, 2014.