Stone cold

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

Some surprise, Maea thought and looked askance at Danta. Not everyday the piñata produces sullen killjoys who didn't know how to roll along with whatever game he was playing. Objectively he seemed like a butterfly, the kind of person who attracted people and problems in equal measure. Perhaps she should be flattered at his obvious enjoyment of the situation, but it was hard to get anything past the weight of uncertainty in her gut.

When he reached for her horns the woman froze in place, tensing so she wouldn't flinch away. The touch was tolerated, barely, and she quickly looked away again, gnawing at her inner cheek to keep the objections from spilling out.
"Fair enough... that would make you a lot older than me." But wasn't that just another reason to make distinctions? She was a fraud, always keeping herself apart from the goings on of others. Oh the irony, spending so long praying for the approval of gods only to shy away from them when she finally got it.

The price had been so very high that most of the allure had gone out of it.

".. what're things like, now?" she asked eventually, in an attempt to steer the conversation away from herself. "Are Ancient... accepted? Or shunned, like the Ascended were?" The cart rattled along, bumping uncomfortably over potholes in the road.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh