Only a lack of light. If he had eyes, they'd be blinded by the brilliance of this blackness.
But he did have eyes. They rolled in their sockets.
His chest hurt. A chest! Why? Something familiar digging at him.
Breathe. In. Out. Yes.
Fingers, legs, arms, a neck. Movement, restricted. Restrained? Injured? Where was he?
Sounds, musical. Lilting familiarly. Tinkling. Tinkling laughter. Laughter.
Mab. Queen. Lover. Empress.
Nemesis.
Her voice. The sounds were her voice, and in the voice were words. Words to hear with ears.
'Awake, Hy Pezho,' she said. He thought that was what she said. 'Awake now and serve your empress as you once feigned to.'
He was tied to a table. Helpless.
A shiver, joyfully afraid.
He pissed himself.
Bliss.
Hy Pezho sat up, testing his new body. It felt different from his old one. Leaner, stronger. He was in a small room, a thaumaturge's workshop. Mab's workshop. What horrors had been wrought here in this very room?
Mab was smiling at him. She wore no glamour, and the sight of her true face chilled even him.
'Clever,' she said. 'You're a clever, clever boy, Hy Pezho.'
'That's what made us such good friends,' he said, trying his voice. His speech was slurred a bit, but only because he hadn't attempted it in so long.
'I should have known that the great Hy Pezho would have found a way to cheat death,' she said.
'So your coterie of thaumaturges have admitted that they can't duplicate my masterpiece?' He chuckled. 'Even with the carefully crafted blueprints I left them? Or are they still plugging away at it?'
'I've killed them all,' she said.
'Ah.'
'And this new body of yours, Hy Pezho, has been built with some protections, so I pray I will not have to kill you as well. Kill you in the true death.'
'I live to serve,' said Hy Pezho. And with horror, he realized that he meant it. He wanted nothing more than to serve her. Would die to serve her.
'What have you done to me?' he said.
'You've been given a great, great honor,' she said. 'I've brought you back not in a frail Fae body, but in the body of my most loyal and faithful and mighty servants.'
Hy Pezho looked down at his arms. Long, thin, strong. No.
No.
'You're Bel Zheret now, Hy Pezho,' said Mab, her tinkling laughter falling on him like sparks. 'Congratulations on your promotion.'
She leaned over him and took his face in her hands.
'Now let's get started building some more of those Einswraths, shall we?'
'Einswrath?' he said, fighting the urge to comply with her every whim.
'That's what they've dubbed your masterpiece,' she said. 'A lovely name, if a bit religious for my tastes.'
Hy Pezho laughed out loud. 'And so much more appropriate than you can possibly know.'
'Do tell.'
Desiring nothing more than to please her, nemesis no longer, Hy Pezho explained exactly how the Einswrath worked. He wasn't sure, but he thought that she-Mab, who had seen everything-grew pale as he spoke.
