Maea
give me shelter, or show me heart
Gifts for the house and gifts for her had to be different, right? And gifts were different from favors; so much smaller, easier to swallow and appreciate. "I'll... yeah, I'll think about it," Maea promised, with surprisingly little protest. "Honestly, I have so little that I hardly know what I need. Yet since I have a house, what else could I even ask for? You know what I mean?" She who had owned only the clothes on her body until so very recently, had made herself forget about the trappings of comfort. What more would she need, if she had clothes and food, a bed to sleep in and a roof over her head? Was it perhaps less a question of need, and all about want?
Because that was a completely different matter.
And it came down to want, now, whether she stayed or left. Torchline was becoming less about finding shelter and more a question of opportunity, of satisfying other needs than the purely physical ones.
"I...don't know," Maea admitted softly. Pulling her fingers through the water to feel the current slip across her skin, she gazed past Liam, lavender eyes watching some imaginary landscape where all things were far more malleable and shifting than this hard reality. "I don't dislike the Greatwood. The fae are interesting, the woods are lovely, and it has everything I need. What makes me hesitate... is the Void. Mainly the void. In part the weather, too, if less now that I can stoke a fire on chilly Deepfrost days. And in the Greatwood, I would... need to make up a whole new role for myself..? Without leadership to speak of, with the wilderness so close, it might be difficult to ever move past a state of surviving. And what I was looking for in Torchline was more about thriving."
And there was the matter of Flora. Maea had every intention of completing her end of the bargain, but her reasons for doing so had muddied, growing less clear with every passing day. Refocusing on Liam, if all the choice was about picking a cranky queen or a friendly soldier to surround herself with, it wouldn't be a choice at all.
Because that was a completely different matter.
And it came down to want, now, whether she stayed or left. Torchline was becoming less about finding shelter and more a question of opportunity, of satisfying other needs than the purely physical ones.
"I...don't know," Maea admitted softly. Pulling her fingers through the water to feel the current slip across her skin, she gazed past Liam, lavender eyes watching some imaginary landscape where all things were far more malleable and shifting than this hard reality. "I don't dislike the Greatwood. The fae are interesting, the woods are lovely, and it has everything I need. What makes me hesitate... is the Void. Mainly the void. In part the weather, too, if less now that I can stoke a fire on chilly Deepfrost days. And in the Greatwood, I would... need to make up a whole new role for myself..? Without leadership to speak of, with the wilderness so close, it might be difficult to ever move past a state of surviving. And what I was looking for in Torchline was more about thriving."
And there was the matter of Flora. Maea had every intention of completing her end of the bargain, but her reasons for doing so had muddied, growing less clear with every passing day. Refocusing on Liam, if all the choice was about picking a cranky queen or a friendly soldier to surround herself with, it wouldn't be a choice at all.
watch me fall apart
and I'll be yours to keep
and I'll be yours to keep
