[SE] Ignite a wilted rose

"Mm. She has helped us a great deal. I hope Torchline does not forget that," he agreed somberly. His own faith was steadfast and as certain as the tide, but others were not so devoted, he knew. They would blow wherever a favorable wind took them, whether that meant to Ludo's shrine or to Frey's. Especially with Safrin's absence and silence at her own shrines for the past seasons. Her battle for Caido had been a distant thing, unseen by mortal eyes, and had not seemed terribly important to many.

Until now.

And while her failure to defeat the threat from the stars might turn some followers away, Hadama  considered instead that she alone had tried to keep it from even arriving in the first place.

But lofty considerations of religion aside, there was still the question of courtesy, and of learning the kind woman's name. The mermanta inclined his head when he learned it, then raised it again to consider her more carefully in light of the details she provided. "Hmm... it may have been," he admitted readily. "I do not remember it well, but... Yes." Slowly he nodded as Maea's pale appearance sparked a faint ember of memory. "Have you been well?" Since their meeting. Since the War. Since...

Since years and miles and many, many choices had passed between that meeting and this one.