(SE) when the nighttime comes, say yes

MAEA

As the story unfurled from his lips, spilled like bile from a sick man who'd kept it in far too long, she listened with mounting horror. Oh, she'd resented her father for the whipping a great deal, but it had been a one time thing. Never had he been cruel to her, never impatient or demanding even though she'd been a drain on his already scant resources. A weak child who could not work, who was sick often and loathed by many. She'd lost count on all the times she'd heard neighbors mutter under their breath that Ruben ought to simple put her into the woods to let Rae decide if she was worthy of life, and be spared the trouble... but her father had always refused them. So too had her brother, who worked all the harder to pick up her slack. The debt it put her in was her private little curse, one she still tried to pay - to others, now that her kin were dead and gone - but it was all ultimately out of love.

Nothing at all like Sunjata's story.

I am so sorry you had to endure that," she replied. "Did you ever find it? A way to fight back?" She held her arms out for him and would hug him close should he permit it, a quiet offering of sympathy she didn't know if he wanted or would accept. But it was all she had, though it felt woefully inadequate. She recognized the confidence she'd been given, the trust implied with it and wanted to return it in equal measure. Especially as he called the magic a gift. Not the curse she'd come to think of it as.

"Thank you. I will try my best. Though I will probably need someone to teach me... training on my own never got me far."