Toss a coin, make a wish

M  A   E    A I talked to God to no avail Said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time." And heard a great deal more, Maea thought to herself, taken aback at finding herself faced with the (in)famous first Queen of the Hollowed Grounds. So this was the person who had gotten the jump on her own plans... interesting. Aborting her own plans to flee the scene, Maea looked the woman over again, more closely this time. Oozing confidence, boasting of her own reknown and ability, the Launceleyn was audacious in a way Maea had never seen before. As much as it rankled her to hear that tone, it also impressed her. There was no doubt in her mind that Zariah believed herself capable of pretty much anything she set her mind to, and for someone who constantly doubted herself and her own place in the order of things, it was blinding, dazzling, awe inspiring. Unsure whether she was responding to some kind of veiled taunt or challenge, Maea reached again for the water. It sung to her, whispered and pulled as she gathered it up from the path beyond, from walls and ceilings, as far away as she could reach. She brought it together to see how much she could hold, what she could really manage - she'd never tried to test the limits before - and found to her own surprise that it was rather a lot. Pooling around her feet was a sizeable puddle, and it was hardly any effort to make it swirl around her, rising up in a mimicry of the fire serpent Zariah had wielded before. If it was smaller in size than hers had been, it was due more to the lack of water in the surroundings. "And you would teach me, if I accepted your offer? I could help build your school... but I'm not sure I would like to move to Halo. The Hollowed Ground is my home." Always had been. And as far as Maea knew, it always would be.