In the middle of the night I awoke suddenly from the midst of some dream.

Though nebulous, as many often were, it had spoken to me of a truth which I now had no choice but to face.

With complete depth and clarity, I understood in that moment exactly why he had chosen to punish me the way that he had.

I was a half-siren, (a demi-goddess perhaps due to my muted powers), but a siren with great powers none the less. A goddess who had immense sway over the emotions; passion, love, and lust had always been effortless for me to command.

He had ripped from me the very gifts that had always protected me.

I had become the object of lust.

I had given myself over to sensation, becoming a being of pure passion.

As for my emotions? They were no longer my own, but instead, tied relentlessly to the very man who held me now in a gentle grip of ownership.

He was stripping from me, methodically, with complete and total understanding, the very essence of what defined me.

Filled with terror at the realization, I spent the rest of the night staring blindly at the ceiling, my eyes filled with tears that I dared not shed.