He did not startle at the hoarse voice from the dark. He might not have expected an answer from the Ancient goddess herself but he had knelt before a shrine to make his request and more than gods were known to listen to such prayers.
Hadama raised his head slowly, bowed shoulders straightening before he turned to face the ghost of a woman. Small fires bloomed around her, flowers that burned and sparked and revealed a face he had not expected to see again. The light was ruddy and warm, painting the pale canvas of her hair and skin in a false glow of health - or of fever. He watched her approach soundlessly, not moving to rise as he considered the horned and tailed woman who may as well have stepped out of his memories as from the crevice in the Cathedral.
His silence stretched, his expression stoic and inscrutable as he studied the woman who wore Maea's face, and finally he tilted his head in a slow nod of greeting. Cautious. Not, perhaps, entirely trusting the evidence of his eyes. Not in this place, and given his recent prayer. "Maea. Thalassa said that you were... gone. We thought that you might be dead." And whatever else they had thought or felt he kept to himself for the moment. At least until he knew more about who - or what - he was speaking with.
Hadama raised his head slowly, bowed shoulders straightening before he turned to face the ghost of a woman. Small fires bloomed around her, flowers that burned and sparked and revealed a face he had not expected to see again. The light was ruddy and warm, painting the pale canvas of her hair and skin in a false glow of health - or of fever. He watched her approach soundlessly, not moving to rise as he considered the horned and tailed woman who may as well have stepped out of his memories as from the crevice in the Cathedral.
His silence stretched, his expression stoic and inscrutable as he studied the woman who wore Maea's face, and finally he tilted his head in a slow nod of greeting. Cautious. Not, perhaps, entirely trusting the evidence of his eyes. Not in this place, and given his recent prayer. "Maea. Thalassa said that you were... gone. We thought that you might be dead." And whatever else they had thought or felt he kept to himself for the moment. At least until he knew more about who - or what - he was speaking with.
