[SE] Oh, Valley of Plenty

Maea Big dreamers shoot for open skies Nodding her agreement, Maea did not linger on the topic. She'd never known her mother, nor her maternal grandparents, but the stories her father told were not kind. In the end, it had been Maea's own birth that killed Neema, and for all that she'd never known her, it was still a loss keenly felt. All the more now that she had no true blood relations left that mattered. Petting Haai, she listened with some wonder to Sunjata's description of his home. Few outlanders seemed inclined to speak of their old worlds, in her experience and this was a rare treat. She tried to imagine any place where tradition might hold stronger sway than the Grounds, but failed; she knew nothing else, had never seen other cultures or lived anywhere but here. "I don't think this place is much different," she mused. "We naturals can be a stubborn lot. Many of the changes in recent years have been hard earned and still rankle with many, though they've stopped being so vocal about it. It just about came to blows, once, when one group tried to make the barrier come down, and the other tried to stop them. "Not because they didn't want out, mind you, but... if the gods put it up, it was believed that it ought to stay that way." Personally she was still torn. Freedom was a beautiful thing, but what would it cost the world in the end? Now that the Voice was free to act upon it again, and the borders ever expanded as the portals were discovered... It could end in so many ways and few were outcomes Maea liked to think about.