"If that's what you choose to believe."  Most of what he said was a little true, a little not.  It wouldn't benefit her much to correct every little thing he said.  He was struggling and babbling anyway.  She inhaled sharply, with him rattling off this misconception and that.  The surface creatures were woefully out of date, it seemed.  "The only piece of advice I will give you is this.  Forget everything you thought you knew about this place."  It [i]was[/i] in her best interest for him to be at least a little calm, if only for ease in moving him around and to irritate her less.  Sometimes they just didn't stop screaming, and when she wasn't actually doing anything to facilitate screaming, it was just annoying.

"Put the gauntlets on him," she ordered.  The slender thing beside his chair picked something up from a small wooden chest on the floor.  They resembled mittens crafted of leather, but stiff.  The slender creature silently grabbed his right hand and slipped the first one on.  His fingers would no longer be able to move independently of one another, but they weren't particularly uncomfortable.  Any discomfort might have come from how tight the guard was pulling them around his wrists.

All the while, Lilith rose from her throne and took a few steps forward, crossing her arms with a stern frown.  Perhaps she looked frightening, but this part truly was just business.  There were things the empress did benefit from him knowing.  "Listen.  This is how everything is going to work.  If you choose to believe all your surface legends, you probably think I'm about to spear you on an iron spit, but that's not how I do things.  I bear you no ill will.  I have nothing to gain from torturing you for the sake of pleasure.  I will torture you if you irritate me.  If you irritate me, you will be treated as a prisoner.  If you behave yourself, you will be treated as a guest.  How much pain you endure is completely in your hands."  She glanced down at his hands, now secured in leather, and snickered at her own joke.  "Do I make myself completely clear?"