Star paused to let that sink in, then said, “A Doll has no ability to communicate or move unless we, like this one did, submit to encasement within a Doll body. Failure to submit to the process results in the dissipation of the self. We refer to ourselves without names to distance ourselves from the painful memories of what we were.”

Kordas had laced his fingers tight, and suddenly realized Star’s explanation had made him clench them until they ached. “What are you inside, then?”

“I am a vrondi.”

He staggered back a little in shock. Because he knew exactly what a vrondi was. They were ubiquitous little Air Elementals, perfectly harmless . . . but how and why was this one bound up in a doll of canvas and wood?

Wait, wait, don’t take anything here at face value, he reminded himself, and cautiously invoked mage-sight.

Sure enough. Under mage-sight, the two ethereal blue eyes of a vrondi, the only parts of one you usually ever saw, blinked at him out of the canvas face. There was absolutely no way to counterfeit that.

“How?” he managed to say, as Beltran looked from him to Rose and back again, thoroughly bewildered. Poor Beltran. I’ll have to explain all this to him in a moment.

“The Emperor’s mages were concerned about the dangers of Abyssal magic, and began looking for means to harness Elemental magic instead,” said Rose. “By unhappy accident, a way was found to attract, catch, and contain us. After much more experimentation, the method was found of binding us to these bodies.” The Doll pulled its tabard aside, and showed him a buttoned seam down the middle of its sexless, blank torso. It slowly unbuttoned that seam and pulled it slightly apart. Within the cavity revealed was a blue, faintly glowing, round object that looked a bit like a Spitter pellet, only larger. It buttoned itself back up again, and dropped the tabard back in place. “That is this one. That is where this one is confined. That is where . . . I am confined.”

“Does it . . . hurt?” He couldn’t imagine it didn’t hurt. This was an Air Elemental; to be confined to something physical must be like—being drowned.

“It is uncomfortable,” Star said. “But disobedience is excruciating.”

He passed his hand over his eyes, wincing in sympathy. “Can I release you—no, wait, I can’t, can I?”

“It would be exceedingly dangerous for you to attempt that, my Lord,” said Star. “And I would likely just be caught and confined again. We cannot escape the Trap. It draws all vrondi to it, like a vortex. The only escape is dissipation . . . death.”

Death? “Wait—what?” he said again. “You can die?” He had no idea that Elementals could die! This was . . . horrid.