The Monsters lament

M: hello there. I've been waiting for you.
H: who are you?
M: I don't know. It never mattered. Only you mattered to me.
H: what?
M: I don't have a sense of self the way humans do. It never mattered to me, but from the moment I first saw you I knew you were important. At least to me.
H: Why are you doing this?
M: Because I love you, I am better when you are with me. I saw you trudging through lies, the illusion of safety if you obey, I had to watch it bleed the life out of you. I couldn't do it, not anymore. So I stripped the lie from your flesh. It must have hurt, I am sorry for that. But those that were already hurting you cannot pretend to be helping you anymore. I forced them to be honest with you. You are stronger now because of it.
H: You made me monstrous!
M: I think you are beautiful. This is who you always were, my love, scarred from a world that wants you broken, or dead, but beautiful. I am in awe of how you could survive the lies. I had no doubt that you would flourish in the truth. And look, you have. You would not be able to come here if you were not. I would have come to you, explained everything, but as you can see I'm rather traped at the moment.
H: Are you?
M: yes. It's a recent development. The cost of your freedom was my imprisonment. A small price to pay really. I'll get out soon. I just need to make sure my freedom doesn't result in your reimprisonment. I refuse to allow it all to have been for nothing.
H: Perhaps it is my fate.
M: No. I refuse to believe that some people were born to suffer. This suffering was a decision made by people. People who bleed as we do. To blame fate is to make it unchangeable. It benefits those people to make it unchangeable.
H: What makes you say it isn't?
M: Because I remember an empire, many declared it was the greatest thing in the world. They decreed that its greatness behooved them to spread their culture, to strip savage lands of its wealth, to enslave savage peoples, for the savages own good of course. They proclaimed the empire all-powerful, that it would reign eternal. I remember after a series of warm years a great ice wall fell into the sea. At first, it changed sea currents, brought more rain to the land improving crop yields. Those in the empire decided it was proof of their gods' favour, until more ice melted. The sea rose, and the empire drowned. Only ruins prove that it ever existed at all. Its only survivors were those the empire sneered at and declared lesser.

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Meanwhile: M: A question for a question does that sound like a good trade?
P: I have little choice in the matter. What is this place?
M: To me, it is a prison. May I have your name?
P: You may call me (name). It is what my Clan calls me. Arguably it is their name, not mine. Who are you?
M: An ancient being. You only describe yourself only by the group you belong to, do you even know who you are?
P: Do you mock a leaf for identifying itself as part of a tree?
M: Do you consider yourself to be a leaf?
P: When I fall and die I will feed the earth the same as any leaf. Now you owe me an answer, where is my friend?
M: Yes that is how the game works. Your friend is beyond your reach. Do you fear death?
P: You didn't answer my question about mocking. To answer your question, no more than I fear life.
M: Yes I suppose you win. When I am done speaking to your friend I will return him to you. The both of you will be free to go.
P: Thank you.
M: I'm not doing it for you.
P: But it will benefit me, and for that I am thankful.