After a while, she brought me out of the gem. She couldn’t keep me in there forever; people would notice I was missing, and she was a stranger. So she developed another plan.

She twisted the spell somehow—I’m not sure how; I don’t think she knew either. She made it so she could see and hear what I did from within the gem, reflected in a facet. And her words would carry back to my ears, as well. So now I was still a prisoner—but the jail was turned inside-out.

Under her orders, I resumed my normal life. I went to school. She needed an expert thaumaturge to undo the spell—and so she ordered me to learn. And suddenly I was no longer able to slack off, to barely scrape by on my homework. I had to become a model student, because I no longer had any choice. My family was impressed at my new dedication.

I think that was what finally did it for me. She was helping me do what I’d never been able to on my own—to make my parents proud of me.

I no longer wanted to resist. I gave myself to her of my own free will.