I stared at him, at the ancient thing wearing the skin of a tired old man, and I did not kneel. My legs were shaking, my body still aching from the pressure he had applied, but I did not kneel.
"You are not my master," I said. "Everything that you represent and follow is against everything I believe in. I have watched your body break in front of my eyes. You are a prisoner, and the Soul Flayer is using you; the Sovereign of the Stars is using you. This place is your cage, and you shall not leash me to it."
The Sovereign's laughter stopped, and his face went still. I could see something flicker in his grey eyes. Maybe it could be pain or rage; it was hard for me to know, not against something like a Sovereign.
"You think I do not know?" he growled, and for a moment it was as if what stood before me was not a man but a gigantic beast. "You think I have not known for millennia? I am a Sovereign. I have lived longer than your entire fucking bloodline. I know exactly what I am."
