when gazing into an abyss

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

"Sounds similar enough to me," she replied, that faint smile lingering. "He seems preoccupied with family these days; perhaps the allure of the bar is not as strong as before."

Falling into step beside Neron, she led the way towards the ruined city, picking a path that would take them past the entrances to the Underground and on towards the Settlement. "It's a big region, and showing it all would take days," she murmured. "What parts have you seen, during those visits?" Though she suspected he had been busy with things beyond taking in the sights, so perhaps it did not matter much.

As a gentle snow began to fall, the young woman drew in a quiet breath and turned her face skywards. Flakes lingered on her cheeks for a while before they melted, a touch so soft it barely registered. Emotion flitted across her face, too fast and complex to interpret.

"I was," she answered quietly, and reached out a hand to catch more of the snow in her palm. Thought of Loren, and the multitudes of magics and attuned shifts he had possessed. Similar, yet opposite to his twin, it seemed. "I don't know how the Voice managed to remove it from me... She told me once it could not be done. It appears the rules are not as set in stone as some claim."

Tilting her head aside so she could study Neron, her mouth pursed thoughtfully. "Why did you do it? Ascend, I mean. Supposedly it's very dangerous, for ones with the spark of magic to attempt it."

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene

"Or perhaps he'll want a drink more than ever," Neron quips, knowing the trials and tribulations of family, even if he'd never had to deal with children in a specific sort of way. They stroll together under the snow of his own making, the Hailstorm considering the Hollowed Grounds and all of its secrets and sights. "I recall the Spire, of course, and a few places around it. You know, I don't believe I have ever been to the Atheneum though." Strange, for a comparatively big reader as Neron is (which, in itself, may surprise some).

Catching snow as well, Neron raises a brow to hear her speak, rolling his shoulders in a puzzled sort of shrug. "Well, she succeeded in bringing back the dead as her children. It isn't so much of a stretch to say she could do something like that, right?" He tilts his head.

Ah, but then it comes to the why of it all. Doesn't it always? "I was entangled with Zariah in a way that made Ascension seem very enticing," he says. "That, and I had made a deal with the Eirachi, promising her my firstborn. If I Ascended, I would never be able to have children to sacrifice to her." It's a very simplified version of it, but it's nonetheless the truth.

Neron

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

She laughed at that, and couldn't disagree. The Flood had always drowned his problems in drink - family or no, she doubted that would ever change. Glad to let the subject drop, Maea tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat and walked in companionable silence as Neron considered. His response saw her nodding thoughtfully.

"Then I'd be happy to show you," she responded earnestly. "What sort of reading do you prefer?" Only the illiterate would have no preference, of that she was firmly convinced.

He had a point. Squinting at the foggy road ahead as if she might glean some answers from the swirling damp, Maea tried to stifle the many if's but's and what if's that suddenly crowded her tongue. Heaping them all on her brother was one thing, but this man was more or less a stranger. She'd rather not make herself out to be more of a brooding whiner than she already had.
"Fair enough," she said instead, light and seemingly unconcerned. "She is a goddess, after all. Miracles are what they do, I suppose."

Listening to the explanation he offered, Maea was quiet for a moment. Absorbing the situation, the sort of trouble he must have been in to make a decision like that.
"Did it work?" she wondered, voice kind and without judgement. "Is it worth it?" Running from problems had a way of ensuring it would trip you up later. She knew it well herself.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene

"That would be very kind of you. Perhaps I shall have to get a library card. Does the Atheneum do those?" Neron chuckles. His reading preferences are hardly a secret, and so he's happy to delve into that with Maea as they walk together. "I am a firm believer that there is nothing better than a dramatic love story," he says with a sigh that tries for airy and emotional. "The more cringe, the more enticing it is to me." And he's probably read everything Halo had to offer.

Happy to drop the strings of conversation about the Voice, Neron instead tilts his head at her other questions, as if trying to decide whether it is worth it. "For the most part," he says slowly. "There are obviously some things I miss. But you can't really argue with living forever, no?"

Neron

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

"What does a 'library card' do?" Waving off the gratitude as the scenery rolled by, Maea absently gazed at the rubble and ruin that rose up around them like dark shapes in the mist. She didn't laugh at his preference, and merely nodded. "My brother liked those too," she recalled fondly. "I always had a preference for adventure tales and legends. The older and more outrageous, the better. I'm sure I can dig up something that's to your liking." If nothing else, Sam might have something tucked away in his bookstore.

Swallowing back the stab of pain at the thought of the book-maker, Maea listened to Neron instead. Nodding her head that she understood the reservations; not everything the Voice had designed them to be felt like an improvement.

"Ask me again in a hundred years or so, if we make it that far," she quipped back with some amusement. "I hardly know what to do with myself now. The idea of eternity - " She shook her head, rattled by a very real shudder. "What would you fill all that time with? Bartending and salacious romance?"

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene

"Oh, it allowed you to check out a certain number of books. The librarian would write down what you had checked out and what date, so there was a record of what was... missing... do you not have library cards for the Atheneum? What do you do if people just walk off with the books?" Call him Loren's twin crazy, but given that his brother had been a librarian for some time, perhaps a little has rubbed off on him.

Nodding his appreciation that she would try to find something suitable for him to read, Neron absently kicks along a bit of rubble, letting the snowfall fade away so he can bury his hands back in his pockets. "Oh, I fully intend to make it that far," he says with a sly smile. As for what he would do? "Yes, actually. That sounds like a fine way to spend the time - I can't recommend it enough, in fact."

Neron

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

It made sense, in a way. Maea pursed her lips thoughtfully, already considering the usefulness of such a system. "Most people I know stay and read in the Atheneum," she replied. "Those who borrow and bring books outside just return them after. It's never been a problem, that I know of. I suppose it's different now with the barrier gone..." More risk of books disappearing beyond easy reach. Not for the first time did it baffle her how different the ways of outsiders could be. "Why would anyone want to steal books? They're already available to everyone."

A soft noise of disappointment escapes her when the snow ceased, though she made no request for him to keep it up. "It does sound very... calm. Peaceful. I really hope it's a future you will find for yourself," she offered, with a kind smile. Somehow, she doubted it was something she could achieve. Too restless, and with the war looming... But she pushed the thought aside.

The road seemed much shorter when walking in company with another. Before long, the Settlement rose up around them, and Maea pointed out some landmarks along the way. The marketplace lay quiet and abandoned in the hazy night, as did the Barracks and the Temple. The Atheneum was wreathed in darkness too, and since neither of them needed light to navigate Maea didn't bother with a lantern as she showed Neron inside.

She watched him quietly as the door swung shut behind them, expectantly waiting to see his reaction to the spectacular building. One could spend a lifetime buried within without running out if reading material... And as he pointed out, he had several to spare.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene

"Oh, I suppose it was a system to keep track of inventory more than to prevent theft. If two people want the same book and it has already been checked out, you would know right away," Neron reasons with a casual shrug of his shoulder. Any more talk about it and he is at risk of really sounding like Loren, though, so the Hailstorm wisely decides to drop that thread of conversation.

Flashing a fanged grin at Maea at the notions of peaceful and calm, it is evident that he only partially agrees with that. "It's what you make it," he says. "I imagine it can get quite dramatic and interesting, witht he right people involved."

Taking note of the landmarks, the marketplace, the Barracks, Neron continues to build his mental map of the Grounds as the Atheneum draws near, and he slips in through the door with a murmur of thanks which echoes along the arched ceiling. Steel blue eyes widen a fraction, his steps slowing so he might take in the building properly.

"You would never have expected this in a place like the Grounds, would you?" he says softly, feeling suddenly quite at home.

Neron

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

Maea made a note to press the man for more detailed information on these cards some other time, when the guild was up and running. For now she was content to let the subject drop, as their path took them deeper into the Settlement.

Her smile was a warm and affectionate thing where she regarded Neron. His surprise was natural; even to locals the building was something of a miracle. "It's my favorite spot in all the Grounds," she admitted, quietly so that her voice wouldn't echo so much. "Always made me wonder what the rest would have looked like, if it hadn't been destroyed."

Taking her time so that he would have a chance to properly look around, Maea eventually picked her way among the shelves with a wordless confidence that breathed of familiarity. Eventually reaching a section that she remembered well from the past, she gestured to it.

"With the risk of losing my company for the evening, here you are. This," she pulled out a particular volume and offered it to Neron with glittering eyes, "is a recommendation. From my brother. I never actually read it."

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene

"Well, whoever worked on restoring the place didn't do a bad job," Neron murmurs, his hands comfortably in his pockets as he lets his gaze wander from the architecture to the tall shelves, the rows of books, the smell of old paper. There is none of that comfortable familiarity in his steps as he meanders after Maea, his fingers slipping out of his coat to dance along the spines of various books, until she draws them to a halt.

"Hm...? Oh, thank you," he says, accepting the tome and turning it over in his hands. He hasn't read it - and gods isn't that a fresh experience all on its own? - and from flicking through a page or two at random, it seems just his sort of thing. A smirk curls up one side of his mouth, and he nods his head. "Your brother has good taste," he notes. "It seems our running into each other has been a stroke of good luck. I'll see you at the VlamVloed soon, then?"

Neron

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

"That's true. There is still some work to be done, of course; perhaps a task for my Lorekeepers, once everyone has settled in."

It would be an easy thing, to fall into the role of librarian and custodian of this place. And perhaps that was how she would end up spending her days, should they all survive the war. Surrounded by books, comfortably cloistered beneath these soaring arches and emerging only occasionally to mix a drink or two, guide a visitor to new literature and maybe explore a new horizon with Amun.

Maea smiled at Neron even as the vision of a future unfurled, and nodded her gratitude at the compliment. Didn't mention that the brother in question was no longer alive, or that she hoped he heard the praise on the other side of the veil. It was of no consequence.
"Thank you. And I certainly agree; I'm glad that I got this chance to meet you." Recognizing the look of a man who couldn't wait to delve into a new book, she bit back a laugh and inclined her head. "Yes. I'll stop by when I can. Until then, if there's anything... I'm usually here. Have fun."

With a slight wave of a hand in parting, she wandered off among the shelves and left Neron to his reading.


{FIN}

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on