When she thinks she can see him without crying again, she holds her baby close and walks silently back to Rana's.
The room has been replaced with - something else. She has no idea what this means. She has nobody to ask but Rana. Everything she asks places her further in his debt, of course, but it hardly matters now.
She steps inside.
I don't really know what to do with that. Wolfram & Hart doesn't really give people hugs.
I think maybe it would've been good for her if everyone was chiller about the slavery but - well if so I fucked up at that.
Uh.
I thought you were doing great.
Hm.
"Um, we're not gonna separate you from your person if you really don't want that. I'm not even sure we can, Milliways might object. We just wanna make sure you get to pick for yourself where you live and what you do, you know?"
"She picked me. And I'm doing my best and I don't even - you haven't even said 'that thing you did, that wasn't good enough', you're just saying -"
Everything is hard and confusing and she still feels really terrible about the fact that Rána doesn't love her or anything, actually, obviously, but at least he's not mean, ever. And these people aren't mean, not right now, not obviously, but they're asking her to make decisions that she doesn't have any of the information or security that she would need to make properly, and at least while she's where she is nobody's hurting her.
"I don't - I don't really know what everybody thinks is happening. Or what they want to be happening."
"I want you to talk to Karen. You don't have to decide anything, just - to have talked with a person who has good things to think about. I think we're trying to get your - owner's - permission for that."
"I don't mind if she talks to humans if she wants to. But you're scaring her. And even if she talks to them she should - if there's a problem she should tell me about it so we can fix it, I wouldn't just leave her -"
She comes a little closer, slowly. "Not gonna make you leave. Promise. Just wanna sit over at that table and talk about some stuff."
"Found him in a fairy ring in the forest. Uh, I'm not - I wasn't allowed to go to forests, before I met Rána, I was a concubine of the Emperor of Scandinavia and I wasn't allowed to leave the palace by myself. Um, my son walked towards the ring, and when I caught him there was a fairy in it, and I could see how the people around us were slow, because fairies and people in fairy rings are so fast. And - I told him about the Emperor, and about me, and he said he might be able to help me get my children back, and he seemed nice, and I didn't know whether he'd keep being nice but I figured everything was already bad enough that it was worth trying? And I took the food he gave me and I asked him questions and now I owe him and that means I belong to him. And he has been nice, he's helped me feed the children, and he asks me what I want, and he doesn't want to hurt me, and - it's just so much better than it was before."
"And now you're still a slave, but one who doesn't get, like, hit, or anything, and that seems like a good deal?"
"It's not just that he doesn't hit me. He's - he's really kind, and considerate, all the time, he's - until earlier today I thought - I don't know how much he actually cares about me but he acts like he does, most of the time, enough that - I think I got confused about it, earlier. And that's really the only reason I'm upset right now, which I think it making everybody much more concerned than they should be, if you'd met me yesterday I wouldn't've been - like this."
"...it's important to you, though, right? So maybe it'll, I dunno, help me figure out what's going on."
This is stupid and she shouldn't share any of this information but she doesn't have anyone else to talk to and is not going to have anyone else to talk to until - maybe ever.
"He doesn't love me. That's all."
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