// now I've been crazy, couldn't you tell? //
Folding away the name and the relation and tucking it alongside other names of people to possibly ask this delicate question to, Maea hummed in acknowledgement. The more she learned of Flora's life, the less she understood about her. What had seemed so simple, about a self-absorbed and haughty woman who didn't hesitate to bully others for the fun of it, grew increasingly complex. Maybe she was all those things, but she was also bold, and brave, and the kind of selfless that would fight for her homeland, and suffer through the consequences even as she moved forward. One grueling step at a time. Maea thought that she might have preferred not to know all those things. Resenting someone was easy in comparison to whatever this was; comfortable, because she didn't have to understand any of the motives that drove the young queen. So, so terribly young; what had Maea ever accomplished at that age? Before anything even began, before outlanders and the Voice and the monumental night when the Sparkbird landed on the Temple square, so very long ago.
Rubbing her fingers over the brow, she huffed a weak semblance of a laugh, shaking her head. "I know what it was like for me, to come back and find that everything I'd ever wanted or strived for was out of reach," she replied, gaze turning distant upon recalling those cold, lonely days. "But... that's my experience. Even though I can relate... in the end, you and I are very different people. I suspect the way you felt and what you did is very different from me." Taking a sip of her drink, Maea ran her tongue over the teeth, tasting something bitter that likely had nothing to do with the spices. "For one, you didn't turn your back on everything and give up, right...?"
Rubbing her fingers over the brow, she huffed a weak semblance of a laugh, shaking her head. "I know what it was like for me, to come back and find that everything I'd ever wanted or strived for was out of reach," she replied, gaze turning distant upon recalling those cold, lonely days. "But... that's my experience. Even though I can relate... in the end, you and I are very different people. I suspect the way you felt and what you did is very different from me." Taking a sip of her drink, Maea ran her tongue over the teeth, tasting something bitter that likely had nothing to do with the spices. "For one, you didn't turn your back on everything and give up, right...?"
Maea
// I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell //
