"I used to think it was," she admitted softly instead. Now? Now Aurelie didn't know what she thought. She didn't think it was right, but she didn't think it was wholly wrong, either. Didn’t being here keep them just a little safer? Or at least keep others safe from them. Not all diableries were dangerous, but enough were. How did you know? How did you live with not knowing? She wanted to ask, suddenly--what about...? The words stuck in her throat, she was so afraid of the answer. Whatever it might be.
Aurelie let all her breath out in one tired rush. She slouched back against the bench, not noticing until she did so how tightly she'd held her spine. Each joint let go in sequence until she was comfortably molded up against the cold iron lattice. The press of it against her back was solid, comforting. Absently she picked at a little flake of the paint. Chips stuck under her nails where she hadn’t quite bitten them to the quick.
"I wish I could say that too," Aurelie agreed. There was something exhausting hearing it from someone else's mouth. That constant refrain in the back of her mind seemed to wear her down when it was shaped into sounds in the air. Aremu was older than her and had seen more of the world than she ever would besides; if he agreed with her, it must be truer than she'd hoped.
But didn't she know this, when even her own sister wouldn't hear it? Ana, the only person in all the world who loved her, and Aurelie knew that she would see her as a broken child forever. No matter what Professor Moore did or didn't find inside them. Aurelie sighed again. Let it go, move on. There was no point in dwelling on it for long.
"They're good with k-kofi, too, I think. The cookies. I'm not sure, but... they should be. If I... remember correctly. What that's like." The change of subject was abrupt and without grace. Aurelie just didn't know what else to say on the matter, and she wasn't inclined to figure it out. Cookie pairings were at least in her field of expertise. She looked at Aremu and smiled a lopsided little smile..