m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down
smiling down
No scowling, no sighs, no cold silences... and if he was disappointed that it was the wrong white-haired person to shadow his doorstep then Maea didn't notice. She relaxed and offered him the basket with a slight smile; delicious aromas of baked apples wafted up from benath the cover of the towel, and the neck of a bottle poked through, sloshing with a pretty golden liquid.
She was not Amalia, couldn't work miracles with bread and pastries like the Chandrakant girl, but Maea did know her way around a kitchen well enough to produce something edible. And her brother's apple cider had been famously good.
"A peace offering" she said, "and a proposition. I wanted to talk some more about the Council, without a bunch of clever-mouthed people around to add their opinions."
Maea was not about to give up just because the first discussion had not gone over well. Rory may have sworn off a seat at her table but that didn't mean he had nothing to contribute. On the contrary, she wanted to hear all the things that were wrong, so that they could be fixed.