Dying.
It was a difficult thing to hear, hard to process and even harder to accept. Maea closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as her mind sped with the implications, leaping with unschooled but keen agility from matter to matter that she had taken for granted, but which now suddenly had to be questioned. The low number of humans dwelling within the barrier, dwindling a bit more as every Longnight took its toll. People being born, people dying, yet the population never grew and was constantly set back to the most basic of levels, hampered by lack of fertile ground and hands to work it. The gods, who appeared before some and never before others, who granted small miracles but never did anything to help those who sought a way out.
Unless... the Outlanders were the miracle. The key, the trigger, the way out. Yes. He was right. She could see it, like pieces of a puzzle suddenly forming a picture that made sense. Had it been easier because he had not been blinded by preconceived notions of how things were? Or was there some other reason whyno one, in the hundreds of years since the forming of the barrier, no one had ever thought thus far?
Yet the part Maea had difficulty accepting was the idea of the gods simply leaving them there to perish. It did not matter what seasons they might have, such a thing was cruel and remorseless, and it made a lie of everything she had ever believed. The girl wouldn't, couldn't simply accept that. If true, why did the old gods answer anyone at all, if they were destined to die out anyway? Why bother?
Head spinning, the girl opened her eyes again and gaze at Jigano, dizzy from too many
questions, and possible answers to questions she never wanted to ask. Not ready for it, not prepared for the consequences of the answer she had received, Maea felt a sudden urge to run away. Just turn and leave, and let this silver-haired stranger stay here with his theories and guesses that made too much sense and turned her world on its head as though it was the easiest thing. What did be even know about Caido!? What did be know about this place, about anything!?
What did she even know herself?
Nothing.
"The school sounds like a wonderful idea" she said, very quietly. "Do you think..." It was a bold thing to ask, especially after they just met, but... something about Jigano made her feel as though asking things would never be wrong. "Could you teach me? How to see things clearly, how to find truths... A lifetime of clinging to this world, and I have really learned nothing about it. Then I talk to you for a few minutes and... Please? I don't want to stay ignorant."
It was a difficult thing to hear, hard to process and even harder to accept. Maea closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as her mind sped with the implications, leaping with unschooled but keen agility from matter to matter that she had taken for granted, but which now suddenly had to be questioned. The low number of humans dwelling within the barrier, dwindling a bit more as every Longnight took its toll. People being born, people dying, yet the population never grew and was constantly set back to the most basic of levels, hampered by lack of fertile ground and hands to work it. The gods, who appeared before some and never before others, who granted small miracles but never did anything to help those who sought a way out.
Unless... the Outlanders were the miracle. The key, the trigger, the way out. Yes. He was right. She could see it, like pieces of a puzzle suddenly forming a picture that made sense. Had it been easier because he had not been blinded by preconceived notions of how things were? Or was there some other reason whyno one, in the hundreds of years since the forming of the barrier, no one had ever thought thus far?
Yet the part Maea had difficulty accepting was the idea of the gods simply leaving them there to perish. It did not matter what seasons they might have, such a thing was cruel and remorseless, and it made a lie of everything she had ever believed. The girl wouldn't, couldn't simply accept that. If true, why did the old gods answer anyone at all, if they were destined to die out anyway? Why bother?
Head spinning, the girl opened her eyes again and gaze at Jigano, dizzy from too many
questions, and possible answers to questions she never wanted to ask. Not ready for it, not prepared for the consequences of the answer she had received, Maea felt a sudden urge to run away. Just turn and leave, and let this silver-haired stranger stay here with his theories and guesses that made too much sense and turned her world on its head as though it was the easiest thing. What did be even know about Caido!? What did be know about this place, about anything!?
What did she even know herself?
Nothing.
"The school sounds like a wonderful idea" she said, very quietly. "Do you think..." It was a bold thing to ask, especially after they just met, but... something about Jigano made her feel as though asking things would never be wrong. "Could you teach me? How to see things clearly, how to find truths... A lifetime of clinging to this world, and I have really learned nothing about it. Then I talk to you for a few minutes and... Please? I don't want to stay ignorant."
