one of the first things they were ever told during training and recruitment was that they needed to be careful around the assets . there were those who could damn near read minds . manipulate emotions . it’s what made him so good , he thinks . what made him so valuable to them . edric has always been good at keeping things under wraps . he has spent a lifetime keeping his thoughts and emotions under wraps . under control . but it’s not until now , when she looks up at him with wide , soulful eyes , when her soft voice skewers him through the heart as if it’s a knife , that he realizes he has to be careful for an entirely different reason . for many reasons . in many ways , it’ll be easier for her to trade one captor for another . he can’t remember if she’s ever known the taste of freedom , but even if she has , it has been so long that the liberty of it might damn near be as suffocating as the chains that she just escaped . edric swallows , considers his words carefully before he regards her with a pinched brow . ❝ i leave that up to you , ❞ he murmurs , giving her a firm nod . ❝ i’m here to escort you as long as you need me to . ❞ and no longer than that , he thinks . as soon as she gives him any indication that she’s ready to be on her own , that she’d rather him go his own way , he’ll be gone . he can promise himself that , he thinks . at the very least , after everything that has been taken from her , he can stand beside her as she finds whatever comes next . edric glances down to where she sits tentatively on the floor , the book resting in her lap as if it’s the most precious of cargo , bar of food between her teeth . ❛ not prisoner . ❜ he signs , the movements of his hand definitive and confident . firm in his conviction .
she can do little else but stare for several moments which, while only lasting mere seconds, feels more as if it were long minutes. the man might as well have signed in an entirely unknown dialect. not prisoner. she mulls it over in her mind...over and over and over. ❛ i have nowhere to be escorted to, ❜ she finally manages to point out. it's done in a dull sort of way, like an absent answer given by shell-shocked lips. how overwhelming a concept freedom is. it might be nice to crawl under the bed just now and make the world small once again. instead, magnolia settles for another small bite from her protein bar. it suddenly seems sickeningly sweet. brows furrow and head tilts downward as she makes an effort to think clearly. usefully.
silence lingers far too long. stillness settles into her sorrowful bones. should it not be exciting? anywhere in the world, the whole earth sprawls before her. it is rather terrifying. an empty chasm hungry to swallow. ❛ no one will miss you? ❜ she suddenly thinks to ask. before lithe hands even finish their movements, she knows the answer. he too is alone.
