Jyx’s eyes shot open and he looked up at an inverted obelisk embedded in the ceiling. His lungs screamed for air and he opened his mouth, wheezing and gulping in equal measure. Steady hands slid beneath him and sat him up. He recognised the slab, and the empty cages on the walls. He recognised the mother-of-pearl sigils in the black marble floor, and the formidable ginger Wolfkin, impassive several feet away. He recognised Eufame.
“Welcome back, Jyx.”
“Wha—”
“Welcome back to the House of the Long Dead.” The pale necromancer general leaned over him. The memory of the last time he’d seen this room jolted in his mind.
“You killed me.”
“Technically, I removed your soul from your body and ushered it along to the World Beyond. I didn’t actually touch your mortal frame itself, which is what I’d need to do to kill you.” Eufame peered into his face, her sharp nose just inches from his. She smelled of violets and alchemical powder and Jyx shuddered.
“Wha—”
“Oh do try to be a little more interesting, Jyx. I separated your soul from your body, and for a few moments they existed simultaneously in different realms, and all you can say is ‘Wha’?”
“Moments?” Jyx felt he’d been gone for years.
“Exactly two minutes, by my count.” Eufame made a show of consulting her wrist but Jyx didn’t remember her wearing a watch. Time still felt sticky, and he tried to keep still until the nausea subsided.
“Was that my punishment?” he asked.
“Part of it.”
“Part of it?”
“Jyx, it will take a little more than a simple body-soul separation to earn my forgiveness, and the prince won’t exactly be satisfied, either. The sooner you realise that, the better.”
Eufame turned away and walked towards one of the cages. She unhooked it from the wall and the Wolfkin helped her lift it down. It met the marble floor with a resounding clang. Jyx winced, his senses still tender from their excursion into the World Beyond.
“What’s that for?” he asked.
“I did tell you that you’d been condemned to the Perpetual Death. I’ve had a communication from the prince while you were gone, and he was pleased with the idea. Of course, he has no actual idea what it entails, but at least he hasn’t ordered an execution.”
“Why do you need a cage?”
Eufame and the Wolfkin brought it closer. Jyx saw it was large enough to hold him if he sat cross-legged on its solid iron floor. A menacing smile crept across Eufame’s face, and Jyx darted a glance at the door. He tried to wiggle his toes to test the strength in his legs, but he couldn’t even muster a twitch. Running was out of the question.
“I’m sure even you’re not stupid enough to think that I have nothing better to do than stand here to recall your soul every time I send you into the World Beyond.”
“Every time you send me?”
“That’s the point of the Perpetual Death. You die and you come back, again and again.” Eufame drew a sigil above the lock, and the cage door sprang open. Jyx gulped.
“Can’t you just tell the prince you’re doing this? He’s not going to check, is he?”
“I’m going to ignore that, Jyx. Don’t forget, your little stunt might have ruined the procession as I planned, but it also damaged some of my irreplaceable possessions, and forced me to scrap some valuable alchemical work.”
Eufame and the Wolfkin each seized one of Jyx’s arms, and hauled him from the slab. Jyx wanted to lash out with his feet, to cause some kind of scene, but his limbs refused to obey his commands. He hung from their hands until they forced him into the cage. The Wolfkin arranged his legs into a crossed position, and slammed the door shut.
“You’re going to experience the World Beyond a lot more, Jyx. I promise you that,” said Eufame.
The Wolfkin hoisted the cage onto its back and carried it across the chamber to an empty alcove. The cage slid inside, surrounding Jyx on three sides with solid black marble.
“Forever?”
“Well…probably not. So it might be worthwhile for you make mental notes while you’re there.”
The Wolfkin left the chamber. Eufame stood in the centre beside the slab, and produced a small silver globe from inside her sleeve. She balanced it on its pointed tip on the slab, and set it spinning. Sparks scattered across the marble and sounds issued from the globe. Jyx winced as he recognised Eufame’s awful profane chant. White light sparked from the tip of the obelisk as the recorded chant grew louder. Jyx pushed to the front of the cage and looked up; for the first time, he noticed strips of metal running from the tip of the obelisk up to the ceiling, and around the walls to the alcoves.
The necromancer general’s globe let out a primal scream and the energy raced down the metal strip to Jyx’s alcove. It made contact with the iron cage, and enveloped Jyx’s hands, still wrapped around the bars. Jyx’s scream joined that of Eufame’s as, for the second time that day, he ceased to exist.