[ there's a memory that shakes loose; laura, older, telling him about being made to kill people with her claws, being someone's pet wolf.

mages can hurt you.

very quietly, a few pieces seem to align into place. ]

I won't say they were just dreams. We were ourselves. But I will say that we were pushed places we wouldn't normally go. [ exhales, contemplative. ] Some of us did things we wouldn't recognize. But that doesn't have to say anything about the kind of people we are in the real world.