trust is not easy to come by in this world, especially for people like them. she does not expect it to be given away freely. earning it will be the only way forward. but if she had to learn anything, it’s patience. while there is a sense of urgency about this whole situation, she won’t pressure delphine. she isn’t going to back her into a corner or try to plead with her. all she can do is offer her truth and trust she can discern it for herself.
giving the other woman time to process, magnolia sits quietly while she speaks. there’s a tightening in her jaw at the mention of aldous. she would love nothing more than to get her hands on the man. he would be easy to kill. he is a man of study, not action. men like him are such easy and deserving targets. but this is about delphine. ❝ he won’t. ❞ her voice is firm, hands signing to emphasize. ❛ when i tell you i won’t allow him to hurt you, know that i only say it because i can keep that promise. ❜ she has had far too many broken oaths in her life to be willing to offer empty words. gaze remains settled with delphine for a moment longer. then she tilts her head down, carefully beginning to roll back the sleeves on her sweater.
truth. the kind she does not give out indiscriminately.
she presents her left arm first, forearm turned up to reveal the rectangle scarring. ❛ when i was eighteen, i woke up in a lab. this was one of the first things they took from me. cut off two square inches of my skin just to have the samples for study. ❜ when her hands finish their movements, she turns her right forearm out. though concealed beneath the ink tattooed into her flesh, snakes wrapping around her arm, the scars can still be seen if one looks close enough. ❝ one. year…trap—trapped. ❞ running an index along the bigger laceration, wrist to elbow. ❝ tried to. die. ❞ she briefly touches the shorter scar before she signs again ❛ fourteen years. they took pretty much everything from me. until i had enough. cut out the tracker they put in me like i was an animal and i ran. ❜
her head shakes slowly ❛ i’m not running anymore. i’m here because i didn’t deserve that. and neither do you. or any of them. ❜
A jolt runs through her at the sight of that first scar. Delphine wants to reach out and touch it. Before she can think too hard on that impulse, Magnolia is signing again, pulling back her other sleeve and revealing more. Revealing how she tried to die. So Delphine rubs gently at her own wrists beneath the table instead, trying to ease the phantom ache flaring back to life at such a tangible reminder. It’s been a long time since she’d hurt herself like that, long before any of this mess, but she would be lying if she said the urge had never returned beneath Leekie’s thumb.
She isn’t sure if she believes anyone can keep her safe from Aldous, not any more, but... Scars like that can’t be faked. Not easily, at least. If this is a ruse, it’s a convincing one.
And she doesn’t want it to be one. Especially with Magnolia looking at her like that, open and protective all at once, bearing her past for Delphine to see. Saying she can help, that Delphine’s been seen in return, that she doesn’t have to live like this forever.
So she takes a breath, and takes a leap.
“You said you’re here for me. Then what about them?” Delphine presses, brows furrowed. “I’m only still on this side of a cage because Aldous wants me. My mind, or my body, or both.” If she has to guess, it’s likely the latter that truly keeps her from being picked apart on a lab table - but that isn’t a thought she likes to dwell on for long. “Otherwise, I’m no different. And I know them. That’s exactly what got me into trouble to begin with. Maybe I should have kept my head down and never intervened, but... Why only me? What happens to them if I go with you?” Can she really leave them at the mercy of Aldous’ whims, just to save her own skin?
(Then again, is she really of any use to them locked away in her own cage, gilded in comparison as it may be?)
