Now, as before, he'd done his utmost to escape, to live, to hold to his promise. Now, as before, he'd failed. The eluvian he'd passed a moment ago flared to life, and Emithas had tried to run, but how can anyone hope to outrun his past?
The wards yet keep her out, but their degradation is enough for this, it would seem. Her power, cold and corrupted and all too familiar, takes hold of him, snatches Emithas off his feet, yanks him through the eluvian.
He had not kept to his promise.
Colder, still, is the grip of helplessness he'd thought to have long left behind. @theodosiani is speaking at him, he knows, but he can make little sense of it, not through his panic. Her grasp on him, now physical, a vise, shakes Emithas, and that is enough for what she says next to reach him.
"For now, I will have your obedience."
She expects some manner of rebellion, he thinks. He hopes, and he is all too willing to grant it. "For now," Emithas agrees.