No matter how many times you've done it, waking up in chains is never a pleasant experience. 

Sedgewick groaned and blinked his bleary eyes. He tried rubbing them but the feeling of cold, unmoving metal pulled him up short as he realized his hands were chained securely above his head.

An itching sensation covered his ears from where the blood on them had crusted over. He twisted and looked around, noting that he was still in Bilara's "research" room, but a jolt of pain in the back of his head stifled any attempts at further movement.

"Did you sleep well, Sedgy?"

Sedgewick blinked again as his eyes focused on Bilara. His lips curled into a sneer as he jerked against his bonds.

"Now, now, none of that," she tisked, shaking a finger like a scolding mother.

"Release me, you bloody--"

She was beside him in an instant, her violet eyes piercing into his own. She grabbed a chunk of his red, blood-caked hair and pulled him towards her until they were so close that their noses touched. "I don't think you're in the position to make demands, my little mage. Although--" she started as her eyes darkened. Her hand brushed his matted hair away from his face before stroking a finger along his ear. The other hand slid up his chest and clenched around the thin material of his shirt. "I might be persuaded." The cold tip of her nose touched his ear as she leaned closer. "If you ask nicely."

Bile rose in his throat as he reared back his head and slammed it into her own.

Bilara released him as her eyes once again darkened--this time with anger. A black glow surrounded her hand as she curled her fingers into a fist.

A feral cry escaped his mouth as he twisted against his chains, feeling as if red-hot daggers were piercing every inch of him from the inside out. Blood pounded against his ears as spots flooded his vision.

The pain finally ceased as he slumped against his chains. Sweat coated his brow as he glared defiantly at Bilara. He swallowed before choking out, "Is that it?"

"Actually, it should have rendered you unconscious." She sighed and examined her nails. "But I suppose you're so shut off from your own magic that mine has a hard time affecting it. After all--" She smirked. "I'm not certain anything would be more painful than what you put yourself through earlier."

Rage bubbled up inside of Sedgewick. He reached for his magic, searching for that familiar, comforting--if now painful--thrum of energy that had been with him since boyhood.

And for the first time in his life felt...nothing.

Not a rush of energy nor a stab of pain. Just emptiness. A hollow, all-consuming emptiness that seemed to stretch wider and wider the longer he noticed it.

An icy cold crashed over him as he started shaking uncontrollably. No. NO.

I failed.

His knees collapsed as his chains became the only thing keeping him upright. A thousand thoughts flickered through his panicked brain but chief among them was fear.

He was weak, defenseless, and strung up before a woman who would revel in making him suffer.

Sedgewick's heart palpitated in his chest as his breath became shallow and frantic. Bilara's hand brushed his shoulder, and his eye widened as he noticed a barely-visible glow coating it. He tensed like a cornered animal but was powerless to pull away.

Useless. It was useless. All his centuries of power had been reduced to nothing. He was trapped, trapped and powerless and worthless exactly the way he'd started out as...

"We're the same, you and I," whispered Bilara from behind him, her voice as soft and seductive as a snake. "Both beginning at the bottom, cast aside, mocked, never truly belonging..." She strolled around him, her hand lightly grazing his shoulder. "But we didn't stay that way, did we, darling? No... People like us never do. We proved them wrong. We became respected, admired--" She leaned closer. "Feared."

Sedgewick's mind was like sludge as he formulated a response. "Nothing like you," he finally muttered as if he was speaking to himself.

Bilara laughed. A cold, cruel laugh that made her beautiful face seem horrifying. "Well, perhaps not anymore. You're not really anything anymore. After all, a mage without magic isn't a mage at all. And a mage was all you ever really were..." she finished, her voice taking on a mocking sing-song at the end.

Her word stabbed into to him, taking root and poisoning his mind. Sedgewick grasped for the words to fight back but they refused to come, leaving him to sink deeper into his growing desperation.

Her hand curled under his chin, as her eyes met his. Gone was the look of triumphant superiority, replaced by something that he might have called compassion if it had been anyone else.

"You don't have to stay this way, Sedgewick," she said gently. "You could be great again. Powerful. Unbound by the rules and standards you've limited your genius with."

He should have said something. Done something. Shot back with a clever retort or a defiant sneer. But instead, he stood there and allowed her to continue dripping honey-flavored poison in his strangely open ears.

"I could remove it," Bilara said, her voice smooth as polished stone as her warm breath caressed his cheek.

His head turned to her as if pulled by an invisible force. "What about your accomplice?"

"If he wanted the prize, he should have done his own dirty work." She laughed softly. "It's not as if he didn't have the opportunity."

Sedgewick blinked and stared at her oddly. Something niggled at the back of his mind, telling him that what she had just said was somehow important, but the reason why slipped away once he tried to grasp it.

She cupped his face and smiled softly. "You'd make a wonderful wizard, Sedgewick. Join me, and I could show you what real power looks like."

You wouldn't be useless anymore, a dark, wild part of him thought.

His eyes widened in horror. No! He'd spent centuries fighting black magic. He knew what it did to its users and such a twisted, unnatural force would never be an option for him. No matter how much power it would restore.

So much power. So, so much power...

He twisted against his chains, but Bilara only removed her hands and looked at him calmly, making no move to stop him. His eyes flicked across the room as the reality of his situation began to once again sink in. He could be free of this...

Sedgewick shook his head violently, ignoring the pain it caused him. This wasn't him. What would Eleyna think? What would Feyla?

Whatever you wanted them to. You would be in control.

But that was a thought too far.

Clarity washed over him, accompanied by a blinding rage. His chains bit into his wrist and his feet dug into the stone beneath him as he lunged at his enemy. "STOP MESSING WITH MY HEAD, you bloody, gate-rattled hellspawn!"

Bilara's pale face became even paler as her anger matched his own. The dark glow that he now realized had been covering her hand the entire time strengthened. His chains tightened as he was pulled off the ground.

"How else do you plan on restoring your magic, you ungrateful man?"

"I still have knowledge. Resources. A-allies..." he choked out as the pressure on his wrists tightened.

"Not for long."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Bilara smirked. "If you ever manage to return to Abreyla, I'm afraid you won't find it very welcoming. I don't believe he plans to let your 'spotless reputation' stand much longer."

"WHO?!"

"Not that you'll ever escape. The rescue attempt they're making is pathetic."

Sedgewick stilled. Who would be coming for him? He hadn't been gone long enough for Eleyna to be concerned and the only two people who knew anything about what he was attempting were Beryn and...

No. No, he must be mistaken. She-she never wanted to see him again. Surely she wouldn't...

"Of course, the girl did manage to get quite a ways in before one of my 'apprentice's' spotted her. Not that it will help her very much now."

A vortex of emotions tumbled within Sedgewick. Hope, anger, fear, and...something else he couldn't identify.

He didn't have time to think on it further as suddenly, Bilara slammed his body against a nearby wall.

"Certain you don't want to reconsider?"

"Death would be preferable."

Her sculpted jaw clenched. "Well, that would certainly release you from the curse, now wouldn't it? Not that you'd be able to enjoy it." She stared at him as if he was a particularly interesting bug before smiling an eerie, twisted smile and flicking the tip of his nose. "But I'm afraid that you'll have to tolerate my company a little while longer, darling. Because you are far too much fun to let him or anybody else kill just yet."

A door slammed open as a young, black-haired woman ran into the room. "Mistress!"

"What?" she asked, murder in her voice.

"The intruder! She-she escaped..." The woman froze as she realized the mistake she'd made.

"Of course she did..." Bilara muttered.

Sedgewick breathed a sigh of relief. But before he could thank the Creator or think on it further, a sickening blast rang in his ears.

The young woman clutched her bleeding abdomen as a second blast hit her before she could even attempt to defend herself. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she fell to the ground dead.

"If you want something done right..." Bilara shook her head. "But don't worry, Sedgy. I'll finish with you before I kill your little rescuer."

Please be running away, please be running away, please be running away, he thought, hoping to make it true through sheer force of will. Feyla--and he was almost certain it was Feyla--stood no chance against a sorceress of Bilara's power. Foolish woman! This was exactly why he didn't want her to come. She was supposed to hate him; why couldn't she act like she hated him? She'd be safer if she hated him...

The sorceress released her grip on Sedgewick, allowing him to dangle above the ground. She twisted her wrist, and a ball of purple-and-black magic appeared in her palm as she quickly added layers of complexity to the spell.

Sedgewick's heart stopped as the spell began to take shape. He knew this one. And he really wished he didn't.

"You remember my 'Mutilated Memories' spell, don't you, Sedgy?" she asked, her grin growing wider as she stepped closer.

He kicked his feet in a last-ditch attempt to avoid what he knew was coming. Not this. Please, not this. Pain would be welcomed next to this.

"I have good news for you!" she said with a giddy glee as she raised the spell in front of his face. "I discovered how to make the illusions even more realistic."

Sedgewick braced himself for what was coming. A numb, tingling sensation cover his body as the spell hit. His last thought was a desperate prayer that Feyla had escaped while Bilara was busy with him.

But that too vanished as he was plunged into nightmares.