The sound of a slow drip echoes throughout the chamber as a heavy stone door opens. Flickering torchlight illuminates part of the room, revealing a male halfling hanging upside down by his ankle. Blood from multiple wounds runs down his body, collecting at a single point on his head before dripping to the floor. His matted brown hair hangs downward, and he slowly opens one of his eyes to see the Yuan-Ti warden staring back at him.
"I see you're still alive," Zephyrial says, placing the torch in a holder beside her. She inspects his wounds. "Guess I don't have to bring you back this time."
"And here I thought you were finally going to admit you had feelings for me," the halfling says slowly, his swollen face making it hard to speak. "As one-sided as they are."
Zephyrial digs a finger into one of his wounds, causing his body to instinctively writhe, although he makes no sound. She leans in to look at his face. His one non-swollen eye stares back at her, its pupil a pinpoint despite the darkness.
"Still ever the rebel," she says with a smile, removing her finger and bringing it to her mouth. Her snake-like tongue cleans the blood off her finger. "That's why you were chosen, after all... The blood of the rebel who will never yield... Frankly, I was running out of time, and I was so happy to have met you."
"Well, that makes two of us. I'm going to love watching your bitch-ass head be removed from your body," he says calmly. "In fact, I want to mount it in my bedroom just so I have a place to shit close by. Although maybe that would feel too much like home to you, given your family..."
Zephyrial hits him hard in the nose, causing his body to swing and spin.
He coughs and sputters as he groans.
"Mmm, that's right... I know who you are," Shortfist says with a chuckle. He waits until his body swings around again. "Zephyrial the Sewer Snake..."
Before he can say another word, she drives a clawed hand into his abdomen, breaking the skin and causing him to yelp in pain. She quickly steps away and moves to the door, retrieving the torch from its holder.
Shortfist starts panting as more blood runs down his body, his eyes unable to stay open from the shock.
"Don't worry. You'll live long enough to see me become queen now. And then forever watch me as I make your flesh a part of my throne."
She slams the door behind her, leaving him in darkness with the slow sound of blood dripping echoing on the walls. Except now it is mixed with a second drip of tears.
"Brooma... please..."