Oh, wow--you know, I had not even recalled Gandalf's words about Saruman involving a spider's web when I wrote this. I will confess to a smidgeon of vindication that the spider image is also capable of misleading the reader as it did Curumo. 

Re: bucket of plaster. I'm not entirely sure at this point in time! It seemed like a good way to illustrate the contrast between his relationship to Nerdanel and his relatoionship to Maedhros.

Thank you again for letting me use that scene. I was really happy with the direction it caused my own work to take with this story.

Thanks so much for taking time to read this during B2MeM, Erulisse! Glad you liked the spider and crab thing. When I was trying to figure out what had rattled Curumo so much about the palantír, that rather suddenly sprang into my mind.

Now that you mention it, Sauron's success in the fear department is usually rather less equivocal. I suppose people who have cause to hate him personally might have enough spleen to counteract his efforts a bit.

Thanks for reading, Himring!

Thanks very much! =) Curumo is quite dear to me [I say about a character who would shun me for months if he heard me say that in public], so I'm particularly happy when people enjoy my works that feature him. I must add, regarding "so far," that the story has been completed and it does end on this rather grim note, but that's often how I roll.