You're so cold
but you feel alive
She felt his concern and thought it sincere, the sympathy real enough to trust. Perhaps it was because he didn't try to coax her to trust him, like Amun did, or convince her of The Voice's good points the way Sam had begun to, but she found it far easier to relax with Nate than any of the others. His quiet confidence was more similar to Rexanna, in her eyes... and it did help that he offered none of the quiet judgement she was so used to from the Grounders. A person who couldn't work? Who was sick all the time? Not much use for anything, then...
"Thank you," she said, underlying the genuine gratitude with a smile - it looked a little easier now, a touch less stiff. "I appreciate it. Don't know that there is anything you could find that the other healers did not, though? They never could say why I took ill all the time, even after being Healed. Most simply gave up and said it was because I was born weak." She gestured to her complexion, indicating the white skin, the hair and eyes so utterly devoid of color. That the sun was a problem was already obvious, given the constant presence of sunburn and peeling skin on face and hands.
Maea brightened even further when he asked about her work. "I'm a Loreseeker," she boasted, back straightening with pride. "Still working to read and write better, though, and learning about the basics of a number of subjects - flora and fauna, geography and so on. But I hope to start on my own projects soon, so I need to focus on that as much as I possibly can."
She had already been heading down this chosen path during the time he arrived, it seemed. If he had been there to see the Spire fall he might have seen her among those going down into the tower basement, or standing amongst those attempting to lay the foundations of a governing force before Zariah Launceleyn managed to stage her coup. But then again, perhaps he'd been too occupied with getting his bearings in a strange new place to pay attention to those who did not seek him out.
"It is my experience that those who arrive here either adapt to Caido by leaving their past behind, or cling to what once was and forget to live," she remarked.
"Other's still try to change this world to fit to their expectations of what life should be like... but in the long run, those tend to burn themselves out before long. I don't know what's best, in the end. Is it a comfort or a curse to know you can never go back?"
"Thank you," she said, underlying the genuine gratitude with a smile - it looked a little easier now, a touch less stiff. "I appreciate it. Don't know that there is anything you could find that the other healers did not, though? They never could say why I took ill all the time, even after being Healed. Most simply gave up and said it was because I was born weak." She gestured to her complexion, indicating the white skin, the hair and eyes so utterly devoid of color. That the sun was a problem was already obvious, given the constant presence of sunburn and peeling skin on face and hands.
Maea brightened even further when he asked about her work. "I'm a Loreseeker," she boasted, back straightening with pride. "Still working to read and write better, though, and learning about the basics of a number of subjects - flora and fauna, geography and so on. But I hope to start on my own projects soon, so I need to focus on that as much as I possibly can."
She had already been heading down this chosen path during the time he arrived, it seemed. If he had been there to see the Spire fall he might have seen her among those going down into the tower basement, or standing amongst those attempting to lay the foundations of a governing force before Zariah Launceleyn managed to stage her coup. But then again, perhaps he'd been too occupied with getting his bearings in a strange new place to pay attention to those who did not seek him out.
"It is my experience that those who arrive here either adapt to Caido by leaving their past behind, or cling to what once was and forget to live," she remarked.
"Other's still try to change this world to fit to their expectations of what life should be like... but in the long run, those tend to burn themselves out before long. I don't know what's best, in the end. Is it a comfort or a curse to know you can never go back?"
lay your hands on me
one last time
MAEA
