Bella's heart pounds in her chest with such furious elation it feels like she might die. Her insides are filling up with lightning and the hot fury of Poseidon's solar winds; all the rush of drinking and her fever dreams that followed but without her mind following after and tumbling down into terror. Her tail curls, and the spark sends shivers down her spine.

Her eyes go wide. Her breath catches in a strange sort of half-laugh; it pulls her lips up until they're quivering, it bares her fangs in the full glory of their sharpness and wickedness, it sets her eyes afire with a horrible blaze of lust. The shadow that crawls over her face transforms her from a servant to a queen, and from a queen into a monster before it seeps down inside of her and curls up around the warmth of her hammering heart. [i]This[/i] is power. This is what means. This what it's like to hold it. 

It takes all of her concentration and focus to swallow her delirious giggles before they swim up out of her and ruin her life forever. She takes a deep breath and allows herself another shiver of pleasure before she raises her hand to cut Lorventi off.

"No," she purrs, "Not just yet. I want to see how many screws these things still have in right. They're broken as shit, obviously, but that doesn't make them useless. They must have been waiting for so long! Poor, stupid things: you still know this planet's secrets, don't you? Go on, tell me. Show me."

She smiles encouragingly at the prostrating machines, the way she remembers the Empress doing sometimes. Those were the moments where the resemblance between Her Majesty and Redana was the most intense. So warm and comforting, so eager to see her succeed. But the Empress could flash her smile whenever she wished it: she'd even done it after watching Bella's final flogging, in the moment just after making her a Praetor. And it had still worked. That, too, was power. Bella's expression darkens as she turns to Lorventi.

"Don't wear your arm out, Captain. Even if these creepy little dolls don't need to be scrapped, there's a Ceronian mutt and an even bigger bitch pretending she's your equal just waiting to taste your talents today. You'll have your fill of glory, so show me more patience. Aren't your kind all about that?"