Thank you so much, Bronx!
I am writing this with the events from that little Melkor/Sauron fic in mind, so worse than being Sauron’s slave is being Melkor’s. I had a little plotbunny about Melkor’s having tried out all his torture technique’s on Sauron first, before using those techniques to turn elves into orcs. Sauron is genuinely surprised that Maglor hasn’t lost that light. His own has been missing for a long time.
As to their games. This is going to turn around very slowly, but it will. Sauron already sees it, and he’s already thinking up ways to try and stave it off. But he’s going to fail in that. He does need Maglor, and it shifts the balance of power. Of course, Maglor is going to get quite far before it occurs to him that everything has changed. And while neither of them can afford for Maglor to lose his soul, can Maglor help himself?