I felt the elevator’s ascent before I heard its grinding moans. There were vibrations from the mana crystals in the mechanism that turned the elevator’s gears, and I waited for it to arrive at my floor before opening my eyes. It was time, then. I might only have one chance, but I didn’t think I could wait any longer, not after what had happened. Phaedra had broken whatever forced peace there had been between us.

The way I was chained made it impossible to sit up, so I lay there waiting as the doors at last opened, and my least favorite demoness walked in. I tilted my head so I could look at her, and gifted her a cold smile. “I was wondering when you would return to me, High Priestess,” I said. The words tasted like acid. Part of me felt shame for saying them, even in deceit. I had to remind myself I was only playing a game. And the stakes were high.

Phaedra, too, seemed momentarily surprised by my acknowledgment of her usurped title. But she recovered quickly, smiling and dipping her head forward, a funny gesture of respect to someone who was currently chained to a bed by all four limbs. “Dark One, I thought I should let you rest after the earlier excitement, as you appeared fatigued.”

She seemed almost smug about it. She’d been down in the dungeon, hadn’t she? What had she done? No way I could ask her that directly. “I suppose you chose correctly. Did you learn much from our experiment, Phaedra?”

She raised one of her dark green eyebrows, and approached the side of the bed. She placed a hand upon the sheets, near my leg, and I forced myself not too move. “I’m must admit, I’m surprised you asked.”

“As I said to you earlier,” I said with entirely genuine annoyance, “I wish to know the truth of my existence. If anyone can give me the answers I seek, it’s you.”

She nodded hesitantly, as if uncertain. Perhaps she saw through my facade. Perhaps I was saying too much of what she wanted to hear. But I was still setting the bait. I would have to be patient.

“Very well,” Phaedra said at last. “Desdemona was able to draw enough energy from you to overload my measurement apparatus. I can only say it would have been enough to power the entire city, every elevator and streetlight, even the tramway…  For a little while, at least.”

Dreadthorn had a tram? I suppose I hadn’t seen much traffic on the roads, but I’d never even considered the possibility. This place continued to surprise me.

“Excellent,” I said. “And the nature of the transfer itself? Did you divine its mechanism?”

Her eyes fell, and she shook her head. “As the experiment was aborted prematurely due to the actions of the former High Priestess, I didn’t gather enough data to—”

“Ah, too bad,” I said, but something in the casual, relaxed way I said it made her stop speaking at once. I almost had her hooked. “I’d expected you to learn more than I did. Perhaps I held you in too high esteem.”

“What?” she said, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Tell me, godling. Need I remind you I hold Desdemona’s fate in my hands? Any information you possess is mine.”

I smiled at her. “Of course, of course. I’d never go against our deal, Phaedra.” I cleared my throat and took a moment before continuing. The pause was staged. “I realized it instantly. Not so difficult for one who can see magic with their own eye. While you were limited by your equipment, I watched the energy pass between us. It all became quite clear to me—both the mechanism of the transfer and how it is performed.”

Her eyes, now, had widened slightly. There was an anticipation in the air. This was it. I damn near had her. “Continue,” she said, after my pause lengthened.

“A bond between our Wills. A shimmering thread, or a chain of blinding light—it depends how you look at it, and whether it’s being drawn upon.”

She nodded, and her eyes took on a distant look, as if she was still digesting this. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.  It seemed clear that your Will was feeding her own.  But a thread?  As if your souls were bound together.”

“Do you doubt my perception, or my power? You should know, Phaedra, that you’ve misjudged me.”

“Have I?”

“It’s true that my memories have been taken from me, and my powers have waned since my last visit to this world. But I do see the opportunity in that. The necessity of strong allies—chosen champions—to carry out my Will.” I fixed my eyes upon her. “You wish to be one of them? I know how to bestow my gift upon you now. But there is one requirement.”

She sat on the bed next to me gently, and her lips curved into the beginnings of a smile. “Yes?” she asked. Her eyes looked happier than I had ever seen. As long as I kept feeding her the lies she wanted, I would have her. Of course, as soon as she realized the truth, I would be doomed.

“To forge a bond between two souls is no trifle. We must be in accord. We must have trust and faith in each other.”

“I…” She looked uncertain now. After all, I was still her prisoner. How much trust could there be?

“Well, that’s the cost of my bond, Phaedra. I suppose we must be in love, at least a little.”

She looked at me like it was the strangest thing she had ever heard. “And how do you propose we accomplish that?”

I smiled at her. “Tell me something first, High Priestess. Has Shatterbone woken up yet?”

She flinched as I said it, confirming what I’d basically already known. If he’d been in any condition to do so, I couldn’t imagine Shatterbone not coming up here to gloat. The fact I hadn’t seen him yet meant he wasn’t fit to be seen.

When she didn’t answer my question, I continued. “Was your plan to keep me tied up in here forever?”

“You hardly left me an alternative, godling,” she said through a scowl.  “Shatterbone is still recovering, you’re not wrong about that, but he will awaken quite soon.  Don’t think that my position is weak.  It isn’t.”

“I have never thought that once.  But you did have an alternative path, you know.  You didn’t need to betray me.  I would have given you what you wanted, if you had asked.”

“What are you saying?”

“High Priestess.  It would have been yours, if you’d been patient.”

“But… You loved her.”

“Of course I ‘loved’ her,” I said, almost mockingly. “She was the strongest pyromancer I had ever seen. The most destructive sorceress in my arsenal, a true artist. But you… Oh, Phaedra, you realized the truth—”

Phaedra shook her head and stepped away from the bed.  For a moment I worried I was going to lose her.  “What are you talking about?”

And then in her eyes I saw it, the light of greed, Phaedra’s desires as clearly etched on her soul as Mona’s fire.  And at last, I could read her.  “What use is one weapon, no matter how powerful, compared to a whole arsenal?  I was only testing you, Phaedra.  Mona was my first, but not the last, or the only.”  I smiled wide, until my fangs glinted in the light.  Perhaps I had gone too far now, but I continued on, each word a stab in my heart—”I wanted to see who was worthy of the power I must bestow.”

“This was all … part of your plan?”

I looked into her eyes.  “I won’t lie, not this, of course.”  I rattled my chains to emphasize the point.  “Not this, but you.  You were always on my list of contenders.  I merely thought I had more time…”

“Your list?”

I remembered the list of names they had given me, on the day Shatterbone and Phaedra had overthrown me.  “Of course I had a list of my own, Phaedra.  I was always planning to recruit a number of champions.  I had planned to bestow my gift on others besides Desdemona Fell, you know.  I hardly had a choice, considering the current state of my powers.  But instead of being patient, you decided to follow Ignak, and you cost me the greatest pyromancer I have ever known.  With my Will, she would have burned Sun-Domia’s army to ash.”

Which hardly even seemed like a lie, I thought.  If only I’d thought of that explanation sooner, perhaps I could have convinced the Generals that I was being practical spending all my time with Mona and not that I had become compromised.  But the truth was, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.  Sooner or later they would have tested me, and I would have failed their test.

All I could do now was adapt, and press on.

Because I had found Phaedra’s weakness.  She looked, for the first time, uncertain. I almost had the green witch, I thought. This time I had an advantage over her—I was going to tell a vain woman exactly what she desperately wished to hear.  “Thankfully, Phaedra, now I have you.”  I beckoned her towards me, and she stepped forward tentatively, then sat on the bed again.  I reached forward with a chained hand and ran a claw along her face gently.  My stomach curled a bit, and my other hand tensed as if it wished to grab her by the throat.  But I kept my head.  “I’ve been watching you very carefully. You’ll be my most powerful bond. I’m sure of it.”

She grinned at me, and smirked.  “I knew you’d recognize my potential, Dark One.”  A flush had crept into her cheeks.  Flattery would get me everywhere with her, apparently.

“I have seen it, Phaedra.  You managed to take over Dreadthorn singlehandedly, did you not?”

Her smile widened.  “I suppose I did, didn’t I?”

She’d had a lot of help, of course.  But I could tell there was no limit to her ego.  She wanted to believe she had done it all by herself.  “Shatterbone is out of commission, isn’t he?  Still in recovery?”

“I…  He was badly wounded, my Lord.”

“Is your soul ready, Phaedra?”

“My soul?”  She seemed surprised for a moment.

“I think I can find a way back for us, a way for you and I to forge the connection you seek.  But I propose a deal.”

“You’re hardly in any position to be making deals, godling.”  She scowled again, but there was still that hint of desire in her eyes.  And she hadn’t moved away this time.

“I think you’ll like this one, Phaedra.  It’s quite simple.  I’ll give you the power you desire, and I’ll let you run the tower as you see fit.  You’ve proven quite adept at it.  In return, let me out of these chains.  Allow me some measure of freedom, as your partner.  Sooner or later, others in the tower will wish to see me.  To know my authority has not been … usurped.  You can’t keep me here forever.  Surely, by now, you know that.”

“I…  I suppose not.  And General Ignak?”

“You can keep him as he is, can’t you?”  I was only guessing now, but as I spoke, I saw the truth of it, in the mischief that filled her eyes.  “You already have been, you demon.”  I said it with a smile of approval, and she grinned back at me, the nervousness dissipating from her. “Keeping him on the edge between life and death, because if he wakes up, you’ll have to play second fiddle again.  But if he dies, you would lose power.  You are balanced on the edge of a knife, Phaedra.”

“I…  You’re very observant, my Lord.”  A flush had entered her cheeks.

“I can see the truth of your Will.  Your desires are as clear to me as anyone’s.”  It wasn’t entirely true, of course.  Many people were still quite hard for me to read, and I’d never even seen her betrayal coming.  “For us to forge a connection, to bind the power of my Will to yours, first I must understand you.”  You, who destroyed the love of my two lives.  “Then my power can be yours.”  I’ll destroy you, too.

She shook her head, a last token moment of resistance.  Her Will still looked hungry, tendrils of energy reaching towards me like tiny grasping hands.  “You’ll forgive me if I feel this is too good to be true.”

I smiled at her, placed my hand under her chin and lifted her face gently, leaning forward as far as my chains would allow, meeting her gaze with my own.  “Dear Phaedra…  What choice do I have?  You’ve effectively limited my options.  This deal that is too good for you is the only one you’ve left open to me.  But it is a good deal.  For both of us.”

She smiled at me, her fangs showing.  This was it.  I had her.

“So…” she ventured, and her hand reached down to my wrist, to where the shackle bound me to the bed.  Her claws passed over it.  I could tell she was thinking about releasing me.  I was so close, I could taste freedom.  I kept my face impassive.  If I appeared too smug, now, too victorious, it would ruin everything.  I would only get one chance at this.  I watched her as she bit her lip.  “How do we … begin?”

I grinned at her, and tugged on my wrist gently.  “How do you think, Phaedra?”