Stone cold

Maea

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

"Yes," Maea nodded, glad that she didn't have to spell it out för him. "I was born here, actually. As Abandoned. But some things happened, I was Ascended and then - " Trailing off, she regretted bringing up her story right away. Such a jumbled mess riddled with her own shameful choices, how could she explain in a way that made sense? "Never mind. It's not important." Counting on her fingers, then again. "I am... almost thirty, now." Give or take; though she had lost some years here and there, so actual years did not describe her lived experience accurately. She felt both older and younger than her years. Maybe that made them irrelevant.

Hearing that there wasn't a manhunt for Ancients was relief enough for Maea to straighten up. A faint smile ghosted past and some deep tension unlocked in the spine, making it easier to breathe. Curling up where Danta sprawled out, she nevertheless made herself more comfortable with arms draped loosely about the knees, made warm by the borrowed coat and thawing up gradually as the journey went on.

"Not needing to run and hide whenever I leave the region will be new," she admitted. "But I am glad. And grateful, too. Could you tell me more about Dygra? The Voice used to call the Ascended 'family' too... I never really felt it, though." With one exeption; but Amun had been filling the part of a brother long before Maea Ascended. It was not the same.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh