Circe was not naïve enough to miss what was happening. The cave was doing the exact same thing Dena had tried to do earlier. It was in the way both of them offered her their propositions, presented them like choices, yet leaving no real room for refusal. Neither of them had intended to give her a real choice at all.
They were trying to force her hand, pushing her into compliance by whatever means necessary. Unlike with Dena, however, Circe could see no path of escape from this situation without giving in. She could not fight the cave itself. She had already tried to defy it when she killed Dena, and that single act had landed her squarely in the predicament she now faced.
"What does binding my magic with yours entail?" she asked at last. If she was going to go along with this, she needed to know exactly what she was stepping into.
