When he came that time, I was sure he would take it out on me good and proper. I was so sure he would. But then, he did something to my head and he took me away, to this strange place, only the creator knows where it was, perhaps at the end of the world or even beyond, and then he took off my chains and pushed me through a door that closed soundlessly behind me.

Directly in front, there was a big bed.

And on the bed was my lady, asleep, with Cyno.

I turned around to see where he was but I couldn’t see him anywhere and I had no idea what had just happened, what this was all about or what was going on.

She was sleeping and I didn’t want to wake her up. For a time I just stood and was so damn happy that she was there, and breathing, and didn’t look hurt or anything.

Then I sneaked around and found the washroom and drank water and cleared myself up as best as I could. Then I waited.

It was already getting dark when Cyno woke up and that woke her up, too.

She couldn’t believe it either to see me sitting there and hugged me and cried.

She had a strange kind of tethers on her arms but they were soft and I managed to get them off soon enough. Cyno was scared at first, but I guess he was like myself just so happy to be with her, he didn’t really care about anything else, either.

We talked for a long time and we all got to be hungry. Eventually, I tried the doors and found them open. She rushed right past me, flying out into the corridor, tried some of the other doors, and Cyno and I followed her through those rooms and into a central area where some plants were growing but there was no way out.

She ran all around and hit her hands against the big glass wall all around and cried and screamed. I guess she must have thought she could have gotten out when the door to her room was open.

I got hold of her and held her close until she stopped crying and got her to sit down on a bench amongst the plants, Cyno holding her hand and looking scared to death.

Then I found a hole in the glass wall, square, and in it sat some food in a basket that looked like glass but was weird and kind of wobbly.

We ate and she got to be calmer.

That night I slept on the floor at the foot of the bed, which was a great improvement on that cell he put me in.

The next day was much the same, there was absolutely no-one to be seen. There was food again in the hole in the wall and that was it.

He didn’t come and nothing happened.

We talked a lot at first and then didn’t anymore. We found some books and some strange machines in some of the rooms, and paper for writing on. I can’t write so that didn’t excite me much but Cyno was happy about it because he didn’t know what to do with himself without the magic or the other children.

He was making marks on the paper and that left us alone for the first time and I kissed her. She didn’t struggle much at all and there was no magic here to come to her aid. I think she hated him by then too much to care anyway and she just melted into me. Then Cyno came running in to show us what he’d done and I could have strangled him.

It was another three excruciating days before she finally send the kid to sleep in the room across the passageway.

And then she cried all the way through. I kept asking her if she wanted me to stop but each time, she’d kiss me again and pull me to her again but wouldn’t stop crying. It was the strangest coupling I have ever known. But she lay with me again when the dawn broke, and again the nights that followed and eventually, she stopped crying and was the sweetest, finest love I’ve ever known.

After that, I really didn’t care at all anymore if I would die of old age here in this prison.

Whatever she wanted, whatever she needed, whatever I could give her, she could have it all.

I have never known such a love.