Oh, you say you have to fall apart to really be someone
Maea shrugged helplessly. "Perhaps it is. I... don't remember much of that time, to be honest. Just impressions, and very jumbled ones at that." If she'd ever made a choice, it had been between changing or fading into oblivion, and she hardly saw that as a choice at all. Though she wished it had remained more vivid in her memory. "I remember fear, and running blindly for a place that wasn't burning or crumbling. Then a dreadful hunger with a streak of madness... and then my limbs were turning to stone, until everything went dark. Next thing I know, I'm lying in a burned out pyre in the woods, and years have passed and the world is nothing like I remember it."
No impressions or strange recollections lingered of Dygra. It was certainly not enough to count as a proper encounter, nor enough to describe the goddess. For all Maea knew she could have promised her soul and more just to stay alive - and maybe that was what happened. Since she didn't recall, it really didn't matter at the moment.
Of far more weight was what she did with this second chance she had been granted, and so she listened with rapt attention as Tal offered his own view of the new goddess, and her children. There would always be a part of her that wished to argue with people when they told her something wasn't as bad as she thought - old habits died hard - but she had to admit that it was soothing to have it reaffirmed that there was no enmity against the Ancient. 'Extra hangry' and 'oddly bloodthirsty' made the itch under her skin seem like personality traits rather than monstrous inclinations. Like a tendency to brawl when drinking beer, or an unfortunate preference for the color red.
Above all, he pointed out that she had a choice. Simple as that; yet the pale faced woman found her eyes stinging as her chest cramped with relief. She could choose - of course she could! Why, why why did she not realize that before, why was it always through the words of others that she found permission to do things? It had been the same thing with her magic - so wound up, so tightly restrained, until Sunjata had pointed out that it was her gift, to do with as she pleased.
Emotion paraded across her face as she processed this, overwhelmed enough that she almost didn't catch the shift in topic. She actually laughed at the way Danta was described. A huffed chuckle of pure amusement followed by a grin that was a little sharp and a lot lopsided, but genuine enough.
"Weird and creepy, huh. If that's the worst of it, I think it'll be alright. He was the one who pulled me from the stone... It's good to know I'm not indebted to a raving lunatic."
Rising when Tal did, Maea offered him what water remained in the skin. "Thank you, for listening to all that. I didn't really mean to heap my troubles on you." It was becoming a bad habit, honestly.
No impressions or strange recollections lingered of Dygra. It was certainly not enough to count as a proper encounter, nor enough to describe the goddess. For all Maea knew she could have promised her soul and more just to stay alive - and maybe that was what happened. Since she didn't recall, it really didn't matter at the moment.
Of far more weight was what she did with this second chance she had been granted, and so she listened with rapt attention as Tal offered his own view of the new goddess, and her children. There would always be a part of her that wished to argue with people when they told her something wasn't as bad as she thought - old habits died hard - but she had to admit that it was soothing to have it reaffirmed that there was no enmity against the Ancient. 'Extra hangry' and 'oddly bloodthirsty' made the itch under her skin seem like personality traits rather than monstrous inclinations. Like a tendency to brawl when drinking beer, or an unfortunate preference for the color red.
Above all, he pointed out that she had a choice. Simple as that; yet the pale faced woman found her eyes stinging as her chest cramped with relief. She could choose - of course she could! Why, why why did she not realize that before, why was it always through the words of others that she found permission to do things? It had been the same thing with her magic - so wound up, so tightly restrained, until Sunjata had pointed out that it was her gift, to do with as she pleased.
Emotion paraded across her face as she processed this, overwhelmed enough that she almost didn't catch the shift in topic. She actually laughed at the way Danta was described. A huffed chuckle of pure amusement followed by a grin that was a little sharp and a lot lopsided, but genuine enough.
"Weird and creepy, huh. If that's the worst of it, I think it'll be alright. He was the one who pulled me from the stone... It's good to know I'm not indebted to a raving lunatic."
Rising when Tal did, Maea offered him what water remained in the skin. "Thank you, for listening to all that. I didn't really mean to heap my troubles on you." It was becoming a bad habit, honestly.
