I placed the tea cup back on the saucer, then sat back as I processed what I had seen and been told. The leather of my glove creaked as I flexed one hand, staring at the back of it, eyes flat as I thought. Even the condensed version was a dark series of events, and one that while not the same, sounded and felt familiar. Someone taken and changed into something other, by people who probably intended to use her for their own purposes.
I slowly pulled one glove off, revealing the hatch work of red lines that ran across my skin. I picked up the teacup again and swirled the brew around, staring into it.
"One would think that people doing things that belong in dime novel horrors would be a rare occurrence. While I don't have a similar hunger to yours or your... Kin's, I'm still finding out things about what was done to me. These lines are some kind of, symbiotic things that have been forcibly bonded with me. I don't know what else isn't human anymore, I haven't examined myself, and those who did it didn't survive the process. I do know they twisted my magical affinity away from whatever it would have been initially, pushing a predilection for blood magic upon me. I don't know if I'll ever get that back or not, or if that's all I have now." I frowned and sat the cup back down without drinking. I had originally thought no one else like me existed - but that twisted thing that had been in the Church gave lie to that. Was I similar to that? Was there a relation between it and I, like between Madison and her 'children'?
This was also the first time I had voluntarily told someone of my blood magic without being forced into revealing it in some way. While I hadn't regretted telling Rainee or Stare about it in the end, I still hadn't been intending to at first. But... Madison had told me what was done to her, sharing information she did not need to, and I could only respond in kind.
