She looked up, her slate-gray eyes piercing straight through him.
"In order to safely extract the ambient toxin from my body without killing us both," Elara continued clinically, "the siphon required absolute psychological and physical surrender. The partner's core had to completely submit to mine. There could be no resistance. No pride. No self-preservation."
Elara closed the file.
"They do not call themselves slaves because they lack self-respect, Julian," she stated, the heavy, terrifying weight of the Empress Regent filling the room. "They call themselves slaves because absolute submission was the functional requirement to keep me alive. They wore the chains willingly so that I would not hemorrhage. It was not a humiliation. It was a tactical, survival-based necessity."
Julian stared at her, the silence stretching between them.
