[You said they want me back.]

[--Right. Fair. That's not why I wanted to know but you have no reason to believe that.]

[And even if you don't want it they might make you.]

[...They couldn't make me.]

[What would happen if they tried to?]

[Depends on how they tried to, I guess. But they don't have any actual legal authority over us, and if they tried to use physical force, well, Emily can move pieces of metal a lot bigger than her sculptures.]

[Okay.] It's pretty obvious that she's still confused.

[I'm not sure what inferential gap I'm failing to cover.]

[...legal authority?]

[Ah. Well. Places like that...have way more control over their inhabitants than is okay, but since I'm not one, if they tell me to do something and I tell them no they aren't actually allowed to try to make me do it anyway.]

That sounds fake. Like, really, really fake.

...Well it's true. And even if it weren't they could still trivially overpower them. 

Mm. [Maybe later.]

[No pressure or anything.]

She curls back up.

Yeah okay. Back to her book for the moment. 

Sure.

Edie continues reading. 

Eventually she gets up to go to the library. She does not know much about how involuntary commitment of minors to mental hospitals usually goes. She needs to do some research. 

Denice relaxes a little, but only a little, when she leaves.

Mm.

Emily extracts some scrap metal from a drawer and starts idly molding it like clay.

After a few minutes, Denice rolls over to watch.

Emily continues this, meditatively, for a few minutes before starting to sculpt an actual shape.

It's not obvious what it is, at first, just a sort of uneven y shape, but as she progresses and the details develop she uses her hands less and less and it becomes more apparent what it's supposed to be; apparently some kind of tree. 

That's neat.