Maea
The worst of all blessings
A date. Funny, how such a simple term could sound so enticing. Yesterday she would have interpreted it to mean nothing more than what they always did, roaming and camping and trading points of interest between long hours of companionable silence. After today... even if they didn't do anything differently, it still carried a different meaning, didn't it? Because it would be A Date. "Yeah. I look forward to it already."
Halo, on the other hand, would be more difficult. Shaking her head with a rueful scrunch of her nose, Maea polished off the last bit of pie from the plate. "It's still too cold. Even in Longheat the temperature never rises above freezing. Kiada - another ancient - says she uses an enchanted coat and ring herself with fire and still only manages ten - fifteen minutes before she start to petrify." She set the dish away, before pulling both legs up beneath her and nestled into his side. "Maybe if the majority of the travel was by vessel, like a skyship... it would need to be one of the special Halo ones though. I don't think the regular are insulated enough." So not impossible, just difficult to arrange from outside the region.
Comfortable with being silent and simply savoring his presence, Maea was slow to rise back from her musings. When she did, it was with a gentle hum, as though the recollections had to be raised from some terrible depth. Entombed, sealed and hidden from daylight, lest they grew feet and came back to haunt her. "My mother's name was Mina," she replied softly. "She died soon after giving birth to me - I never met her. My father was Ruben. He was... a complicated man. Upright and one of those gentlemanly figures that can make anyone do something because he's just that charismatic. But he was also strict, and very devout - he would tolerate no insult to the Old Gods, not from anyone. I don't think he exactly blamed me for my mom's death, but he could never quite look me in the eye either. Especially not when I awoke to the magic. Abandoned were not... not shunned in the Grounds the way they were in Stormbreak, but we didn't have much status either. I suppose he was disappointed, that I didn't end up Attuned like my brother."
Reaching up to lace her fingers into Liam's hand by her shoulder, she had to regroup to find the thread of her account again. "My brother - Noah - was a fair bit older than me. It was he and my grandpa that raised me in the important ways. Him and his wife, Lianna, were one of those perfect couples that made everyone around roll their eyes at the sweetness of it. Always in synch, hard working, kind – ah, but their kids were menaces! One girl, Ansi, and two boys. Hieram, and Leon. For the Grounds at that time, we were a big family. Well off, by our standards, though we still went hungry at times like everyone else. It's been... eleven years, now, since they died. The youngest would be fifteen now."
Gods. Fifteen? Almost a man grown, yet all she saw when thinking back was a tousle-haired troll of a boy with missing teeth and dirt on his knees. Always tumbling underfoot, tormenting the dogs with an excess of love like kids were wont to do.
Halo, on the other hand, would be more difficult. Shaking her head with a rueful scrunch of her nose, Maea polished off the last bit of pie from the plate. "It's still too cold. Even in Longheat the temperature never rises above freezing. Kiada - another ancient - says she uses an enchanted coat and ring herself with fire and still only manages ten - fifteen minutes before she start to petrify." She set the dish away, before pulling both legs up beneath her and nestled into his side. "Maybe if the majority of the travel was by vessel, like a skyship... it would need to be one of the special Halo ones though. I don't think the regular are insulated enough." So not impossible, just difficult to arrange from outside the region.
Comfortable with being silent and simply savoring his presence, Maea was slow to rise back from her musings. When she did, it was with a gentle hum, as though the recollections had to be raised from some terrible depth. Entombed, sealed and hidden from daylight, lest they grew feet and came back to haunt her. "My mother's name was Mina," she replied softly. "She died soon after giving birth to me - I never met her. My father was Ruben. He was... a complicated man. Upright and one of those gentlemanly figures that can make anyone do something because he's just that charismatic. But he was also strict, and very devout - he would tolerate no insult to the Old Gods, not from anyone. I don't think he exactly blamed me for my mom's death, but he could never quite look me in the eye either. Especially not when I awoke to the magic. Abandoned were not... not shunned in the Grounds the way they were in Stormbreak, but we didn't have much status either. I suppose he was disappointed, that I didn't end up Attuned like my brother."
Reaching up to lace her fingers into Liam's hand by her shoulder, she had to regroup to find the thread of her account again. "My brother - Noah - was a fair bit older than me. It was he and my grandpa that raised me in the important ways. Him and his wife, Lianna, were one of those perfect couples that made everyone around roll their eyes at the sweetness of it. Always in synch, hard working, kind – ah, but their kids were menaces! One girl, Ansi, and two boys. Hieram, and Leon. For the Grounds at that time, we were a big family. Well off, by our standards, though we still went hungry at times like everyone else. It's been... eleven years, now, since they died. The youngest would be fifteen now."
Gods. Fifteen? Almost a man grown, yet all she saw when thinking back was a tousle-haired troll of a boy with missing teeth and dirt on his knees. Always tumbling underfoot, tormenting the dogs with an excess of love like kids were wont to do.
The most beautiful of curses
Base by Skylark
