Dawn came. As good as her word, Devyn stayed with Waver throughout the night, sitting and dozing in the opposite bed. When morning arrived, the door opened. She was hardly on her feet before the two guards there were demanding Waver go with them. Mouth set tightly, she roused Waver, and he was no sooner awakened and barely standing that the guards took him from her, their hands on his arms. A third guard kept Devyn from following. "You are needed elsewhere." The tone brooked no argument.

The door closed, leaving the guard and Devyn behind. The other two dragged Waver off.

He was led back down the corridor, back through the winding halls he knew - by color, at least - to go back to the cells. A night's reprieve and no more; he was taken back to one of the interrogation rooms and forced to sit in a chair. Cuffs were placed on his wrists again, the mana immediately stilling in his circuits. A thin cord with living electricity was attached between them. Another band was slipped around his neck, one of the guards - a brusque woman - warning him not to fight them. The cord was threaded through a loop at the front of his new collar, down to the cuffs, closing the circuit in the form of a vile, dangerous pyramid. If he moved his head, his wrists would be tugged, and vice versa.

The guards left him like that, alone in silence, for a time. The insides of the cuffs seemed crueler this time, as if teeth were gnawing into his wrists to sap at his inherent magic, which did not have the time to restore itself from the brutality of the day prior.