Once already the dark Djinn had tried to damage the cloth of her diaphanous gown; it had been his only success, before the magic that gripped them had truly taken hold, and the evidence was still there in that single singed fingerprint by her neck, a shadow of the damage he had done to her upper arms. Now though, the cloth resisted him as surely as she did with the force of will that was her faith in the Lord above.<br/><br/>Where he could not tear away the gown, however, he could move her within it; twisting minutely, she quickly discovered that the unlikely strength of the smokey tendrils was every bit as unbreakable as the cloth upon her form, and slowly but surely she was shifted and bent by them. A little to one side, they tugged her neck backward, and supported her lower back forward and up, dragging her into a gymnastic arch before the Djinn, until she could not see him. Her golden curls puddled upon the floor beneath her head, and she could see the floorboards dimly through the smoke that seemed to carpet the room, and the fireplace to one side, the bed to the other.<br/><br/>"It is not your mercy I would desire," she rasped out, her voice strained by the unnatural position and the pressure of the tendril there. "Only He can truly condemn us or release us from our suffering - he can release you from yours, if only you will stop this and join with me!"<br/><br/><hr/><br/>His shoe was hard and heavy upon her back, making her chitter out a soft, unhappy hiss. Despite his weight, her hands reached out, scratching a slow, shallow set of furrows into the waxy surface of the stage as she tried once more to drag herself forward, toward the tank. She did hate it, and longed desperately to have her ocean back, but even this little bit of water was better than being trapped in the dry.<br/><br/>Abruptly she was flipped, the orange and golden of her scales flashing in the stagelight like a spill of precious stones and glitter, and she stared up at him as best she could. Her breasts rose and fell quickly with the hard, fast breaths that had her gills fluttering upon the side of her neck, and her arms lifted, webbed hands spreading beseechingly. "I don't mean to hurt you, Mr. Paige - I've never wanted that."<br/><br/>One hand fell upon his leg just above the knee, her pretty, cold face twisting with the fighting fear and sorrow and mournful longing for her rightful home... a tear began to well up in her eye, and she blinked quickly, dashing it away; by the time it tumbled from her skin to the floor, it clicked faintly upon the stage, wetness already solidified to tiny diamond bits.