"They choose it," she says, mildly, and what's in between the lines there says more: while they aren't strictly forced to go there, the ones there often feel like they have no other choice, or that it's the best of their other, more terrible options. That's a bit more nuance than she's capable of expressing through words, even if she understands it on an intellectual level. She empathises with that so much, it makes her skin crawl.

The branding itself is barbaric enough. It's not just magic they use; it's often an iron or a knife.