Even through the fear of he could feel the anger rise. Both were deeper than he’d ever felt before. It was enough to make his eyes roll back for a second. He shrieked, making a sound he didn’t even know humans could make. And it didn’t stop there. It was as if the woman in front of him was flashing red. One second he wanted to rip her throat out. The next he wanted to run away from everything she had told him. Everything she was.

He couldn’t even tell how long it went on for. The hate. The terror. Occasionally he’d come closer to the surface. The roiling emotions only boiling with his own instead of overwhelming them.

Then his vision would clear enough to see her smiling mocking him and she’d speak a few words before he was again drowning below the surface of cognizant thought.

"You did this to me! What did you do?!"

She sat there, still smiling. "I already explained, my little stormcrow. And I know you to be a good listener. So listen closely now." She sat back, appraising him seriously "It was neither kindness nor cruelty. It was curiosity. To that end… I will teach you how to survive but no further. To do so might taint your mind. So I will draw back the veil from the vaulted night. And then, my little stormcrow, you must prove your philosophy. And if you succeed..."

She smiled. And the terror of it overwhelmed him.