MAEA
She felt his stillness spread through him at her words, connected as they were by his arm around her shoulders. Maea leaned into the touch, didn't mind it - she didn't mind him at all, that had not changed - and nodded, when he said he wanted to hear.
"We were two groups. One to go up into the Spire, one to go down. I joined the one to venture down... It was a dead end though. We breached a few locks, and someone initiated a fight with a guardian - a huge earth turtle - and forced us to kill it. Then one person jumped into the portal it had been guarding... and in the end, all we got for it was two dead Ascended and a lungful of poison. I made it out, got the others help..." She shrugged. Could still feel the burn of the acid in her lungs, and had to cough just to assure herself it was only a memory.
How fresh they were, these memories. Maea could see them like they had happened only yesterday. It felt like it was only a season ago.
"The other group... the ones who went up. They lost a few people too. But they found it... The Core. And there... The Voice appeared. One of the Ascended sacrificed herself, and caused an explosion that blew the whole top of the Spire open. It... brought the Barrier down." This too tasted bitterly. So many lives lost, and for what?
"A few days later, when I was in the Infirmary... I dragged myself to the shrine, to pray. I didn't call on anyone, didn't ask for her, but The Voice appeared for me. She... basically told me not to interfere with her plans for the future, as if I was any kind of threat. And... when I asked why she didn't try to reach out for my kind, she showed me. Very elaborately. What might happen to an Abandoned should they try to Ascend. She showed me the whole process, what she does to people when she Ascends anyone. And the one who was the subject of these proceedings... was me."
And it had not been pretty, by the look on Maea's face. Her usually pale face had gone quite ashen at the memories, and they too were fresh enough that her hands began to tremble.
"So... please forgive me, if I don't really trust her. I... can't really bring myself to be grateful, or even untroubled, by anything she does."
And perhaps that made her unreasonable, or biased, or just prejudiced, but... It was so hard not to be afraid when she had the image of herself splayed open on a slab burned into her memory. Organs removed, skin meling off her bones as the spark of magic in her soul caused a violent rejection to occur.
"We were two groups. One to go up into the Spire, one to go down. I joined the one to venture down... It was a dead end though. We breached a few locks, and someone initiated a fight with a guardian - a huge earth turtle - and forced us to kill it. Then one person jumped into the portal it had been guarding... and in the end, all we got for it was two dead Ascended and a lungful of poison. I made it out, got the others help..." She shrugged. Could still feel the burn of the acid in her lungs, and had to cough just to assure herself it was only a memory.
How fresh they were, these memories. Maea could see them like they had happened only yesterday. It felt like it was only a season ago.
"The other group... the ones who went up. They lost a few people too. But they found it... The Core. And there... The Voice appeared. One of the Ascended sacrificed herself, and caused an explosion that blew the whole top of the Spire open. It... brought the Barrier down." This too tasted bitterly. So many lives lost, and for what?
"A few days later, when I was in the Infirmary... I dragged myself to the shrine, to pray. I didn't call on anyone, didn't ask for her, but The Voice appeared for me. She... basically told me not to interfere with her plans for the future, as if I was any kind of threat. And... when I asked why she didn't try to reach out for my kind, she showed me. Very elaborately. What might happen to an Abandoned should they try to Ascend. She showed me the whole process, what she does to people when she Ascends anyone. And the one who was the subject of these proceedings... was me."
And it had not been pretty, by the look on Maea's face. Her usually pale face had gone quite ashen at the memories, and they too were fresh enough that her hands began to tremble.
"So... please forgive me, if I don't really trust her. I... can't really bring myself to be grateful, or even untroubled, by anything she does."
And perhaps that made her unreasonable, or biased, or just prejudiced, but... It was so hard not to be afraid when she had the image of herself splayed open on a slab burned into her memory. Organs removed, skin meling off her bones as the spark of magic in her soul caused a violent rejection to occur.
I'm an angel bored like hell
And you're a devil meaning well
And you're a devil meaning well
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
