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The blood in my veins turned into ice. "I—I can't do it," I protested stupidly.

"Surely you can. Through practice."

"I can't," I continued to insist. I saw how he'd stolen Lord Weilsterhein's Affinity away. If I were to do as he said, my coming back here would be all for naught. Elise's sacrifices would all be in vain, and Aschein would be doomed.

Lord Himmel narrowed his eyes at me. "Do it," he hissed, all pretence at cordiality gone.

"No."

"I command you to do it."

My right arm jerked. It moved towards my pouch of its own accord, and at once I knew what he was doing to me. The blood oath. A sickening feeling gnawed at my stomach.

I fought the compulsion, struggling to regain control of my own limbs. It worked for a while, but eventually my fingers wormed their way to the insides of my pouch. As I felt them close around wood, I began to panic.

I began to sing.

I was only half-conscious of what I was doing. I didn't even know what the tune sounded like, only that it was granting me strength, allowing me to resist the power of the blood oath. Don't do it, I told myself. You only pledged that you would go into Lord Himmel's service. You didn't say that you would give up everything for him!

The words seemed to reinvigorate me, and I sensed my spell growing stronger. Lord Himmel snarled and stepped forward to slap me on the cheek. I went sprawling on the floor, yet I didn't feel anything. My spell was numbing the pain.

Then I could move my arms again.

With a gasp, I dropped the song. Too abruptly—the weight of uncontrolled magic crashed onto me, and I was suddenly out of breath and weak and shaking. I retched onto the floor.

I felt, rather than saw Lord Himmel's sneer of distaste. He grabbed my hair and yanked me upwards, ignoring my yelps. "It seems that I've made a mistake of underestimating you. I'd never thought that I would repeat the error of Lord Weilsterhein," he said, more to himself than me. "No matter. Will you do as I say?" he demanded, directed towards me this time.

You never said that you would give up everything for him. "No," I said aloud.

A pure animalistic rage rooted itself in his eyes. "Will you do as I say?"

"No."

With a cry of frustration, he released me. I crashed onto the floor with a shriek. This time, no magic cushioned the blow, and my whole body was screaming with agony. I barely held back my tears.

He bent down so that his face was level with mine. "I don't know how you're doing it, darling Klaudia," he said, "but you should know that you can't resist a blood oath forever."

He stood up and closed his eyes. I felt magic radiating from him, as though it were thousands of spindly fingers reaching outwards and trying to snag someone. Meanwhile, I pushed myself up onto my feet. I felt like fire was raging through my bad leg, the result of being dropped onto the floor hard. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes.

A few moments later, the door creaked open. I turned around, and there was Elise. My eyes widened in slight surprise. Had she been outside this whole time, ready to step in at Lord Himmel's orders?

"Take her to the chambers," he told Elise. "She'll stay there until she finally learns obedience."

Elise walked towards me and took me by the elbow. "Will do, Markus," she replied in monotone.

I gave her a side glance. Her expression was stoic, and it contained no trace of the woman from yesterday. Without another word, she yanked me and led me out of the room. She didn't slow down to accommodate my disability, dragging me along the hallways and paying no heed to my whimpers of pain.

When we walked—or stumbled, for me—down a flight of stairs swallowed by darkness, fear seized my heart. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to calm myself. At least I had my flute, I reminded myself.

Then we reached the bottom. Before me was a long, narrow corridor, dimly lit by steinliohts. Flickering shadows jumped at me from every corner, and the air was acrid, tasting of blood and metal. The scuttles of vermin echoed eerily about the crevices; I could make out plenty of dungeon cell doors, resembling lycanthropes' fangs ready to close themselves around my throat. Shudders snaked down my spine; my footsteps suddenly seemed heavy.

Elise was apparently oblivious to my tension. We descended further into the darkness. Only after a few minutes did we stop. She sang a few words, and a cell door with rusty hinges screeched open. Automatically, I stepped into the cell.

It was cramped; no decent human being would ever want to live in this space. I squinted, making out a small, hard-looking bed, a dirty basin and a pot. There were no windows. No way to allow some fresh air to come in. I gulped and bravely took another step forward.

The door closed behind me. "I'm sorry," I heard Elise whisper. I didn't turn around to face her—I couldn't.

She was evidently expecting an answer. I didn't give it to her. After a few minutes, I finally heard her footsteps echoing into the distance.

The air became much harder to breathe. The walls seemed to close in around me. My whole body was numb with shock.

"Liohtia," I said, deciding that if I were to remain here for the rest of my life, I wouldn't do so in such darkness.

But something felt wrong. My Core's response was sluggish, and a ball of light appeared before me only a few seconds later. Even then, I was using a lot of energy to sustain the steinlioht. Eventually, I couldn't bear to be drained of so much magic, and I let the spell go. The light quickly puffed away.

Of course the cells would be meant to entrap sorcerers; of course I wouldn't be able to use magic to my full potential here. What was I thinking?

I flopped myself onto the bed. It was as hard as stone. And there were no blankets for me to curl up under.

I finally released the tears I'd been holding back for so long, and cried myself to sleep.

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