It is a strange feeling, resurrection. I feel it first in my chest, with the soft but invasive thud thud thudding of my heartbeat. Then I feel it in my eyelids as they twitch and giggle at the dancing light which I refuse to open them to. Next I feel it in my fingers, then my arms, then my stomach until it reaches my legs and a surge of pain throws me violently into wakefulness.

I jerk wildly as my eyelids fly open and the light blinds me. I roll and fall from a small height, a bed perhaps.

"Be calm," a deep voice demands from nearby. "You should not move."

I close my eyes in horror, for this is surely hell after all. I know that voice, a voice which tells me I am far from resurrected after all.

Arms lift me from the ground and place me gently back on the bed. I see now that I am in a small but elegant room. A large ornate window floods me with golden sunlight which I find no pleasure in.

Avallac'h steps back from the bed. He looks the same as the day I last saw him, the day when once again he forced me, barely out of childhood, naked and afraid, into the bedchamber of his King. He surveys me coldly with those familiar aquamarine eyes. The very sight of him makes me want to scream. I have failed. I am back in Tir Na Lia once again, a prisoner of the Aen Elle. They will never let me die.

I try to pull myself up but cry out with the pain of it.

Avallac'h whispers in the Elder speech and I find myself completely unable to move. My body goes numb, even from the pain.

"You must be calm," he says, still keeping his distance. "I am trying to help you."

But I've heard those words from this elf before. He will have a prized place for me in his laboratory if he cannot find a willing elf to fuck me this time. I try desperately to lash out again and again and again. In my fear, I can feel a power dwelling deep inside of me, growing with every second. I hold it, nurse it, urging it to burst from me and free me from this prison. He must feel it too because there is a sudden flash of light and then, once more, there is nothing.

Everything is covered in a shimmering midst. "Undress," says the old elven King as I lie on his bed. My fingers shake as I unbutton my clothes. Sweat beads upon my skin. I don't want this, I think. Please don't make me. I don't want to. But he reaches out his hand and lies it on my naked hip.

I am much hazier when I come to a second time, like I am waking from a very peaceful sleep. Avallac'h's voice drifts inside my head. You are safe from Eredin here. I have taken us to a world unreachable to him… for now.

I open my eyes to the same room as before. Avallac'h sits at a small table, papers laid out in front of him, but his eyes are firmly fixed on me.

"Where am I?" I croak, my throat dry and raspy. I look down and see that I am dressed in shorts from the waist down. Someone has changed me. There is a healing balm on my leg, covering the wound from Eredin's blade. The rest of the flesh is a sickening yellow colour, no doubt the effect of a curse.

"I will reveal all once you are strong enough, Zireael. But for now, you must heal."

I look around for my weapon, for a knife, for anything but the room is unusually sparse. I know that I am too weak to travel from here. He knows it too. I try to keep my voice steady when I speak, to hide that I am afraid.

"I am safe from Eredin? To hear that from your lips is to jump from one fire into another."

He smiles, although it does not reach his eyes. "If I wished you harm, you would have felt it already. I am here to help you."

"Do you think I have such a short memory?" I spit. A familiar fire festers inside me, even in my weakened state. I pull myself up, despite my body's screams to stop. "I've had enough help from you to last me a lifetime. I warn you, I am not the same girl you led into your palace once before. You will not find me such an easy prisoner this time."

He stands and sighs, turns away from me towards the window. "I had hoped you would not have such an emotional reaction."

"I don't give a damn about what you hoped."

"You're not a prisoner here," he says. His tone is exasperated. "You can leave if you wish. Although you'll struggle to get far without my help healing that wound."

I don't look down at my leg. I already know he's right. For all I have learnt about inflicting wounds, I know little about healing them.

"And I suppose you'll want something in return. Do you have another King for me to fuck?" My words like venom and I'm pleased to see him flinch, however slight. He is not so far above me that I cannot take at least that. "If that's your wish then you had better kill me now, because I'll wrap my hands around the throat of any elf you put in my bed."

He pauses as a tiny blue bird lands on the windowsill. He holds out his gloved hand and it hops gently onto his palm. It's magic, I think. No creature would go willingly into the grip of such a being. "So quick to speak before you think," he says calmly, making my outburst feel suddenly childish. "But then, it is a trait of your kind." The little bird chirps and with a flick of his hand, he sends it fluttering back out into the sky. "I pulled you from Eredin's clutches. I brought you here. I am the only thing keeping you from falling back into the hands of the Aen Elle."

"The hands of your people." I say it like an insult.

"My people, yes". A realisation begins to dawn on me.

"You've betrayed your King?" I say in disbelief, unable to control my curiosity. Avallac'h, a traitor? Avallac'h, who did so many evils in the name of the Aen Elle? He takes me for a fool. It must be a trick.

He turns to face me. He is expressionless, as always, but something unfamiliar burns in those eyes.

"Eredin is no King of mine."

I wet my lips eagerly. My heart thumps heavy in my chest. We are playing a game and against all my common sense, I am excited to play.

"You have turned on your own kind? I do not believe it."
"It's true. I give you my word."

I laugh humourlessly. "An elf once told me that the Aen Saevherne have their own code and that every other line of it is that the ends justifying the means. Your word is worthless."

The corner of his mouth twitches a little. "Then you are advised by an elf who speaks of things he does not know."

"I think Eredin knows a great deal." It surprises him, as I'd hoped it would.

"We have much to discuss when you are strong. For now, it is enough to say that fate has brought us together. It has aligned our desires and you should not be so quick to turn away one who wishes to help you, one who would keep you from Eredin at all costs."

I settle back down against my pillow, my mind whirling. I cannot think clearly. I hear him turn away from me again and I let the silence settle between us. When I finally speak, my voice does not waiver."I remember everything, Avallac'h. I remember it all." He stays silent. "When you have told me of the events that led you here, I will decide my actions for myself. But know, there is a price to be paid for the history between us, a price to be paid in blood."