With each year, with each encounter with Maya, we learned new things. How she worked, the rules she was constrained by, and more importantly, how to reduce what she took.
Patterns were important.
Every year, in a specific month, in every city, care is taken to watch for the stone throne.
There were none who could remember it being built.
None who saw it being built.
But once seen, it was clear whose throne it was.
Naturally, there had been hoaxes and forgeries with the propensity of deviance that came from human nature, but for those of us who have encountered Maya, who have had something taken from us... the difference between the throne and fron its imitation is as clear as night and day.
And that was why I was here, to make sure that it was the real deal, as it were.
And if it was.
To bring down the throne.
As long as the Princess Endbringer didn't sit on her throne, her tithe of memories was smaller. Those who chased her forgot minor things. At least, as far as could be determined.
More, she didn't take anything from the humans in the city that she roamed, only the machines.
There was the other side, of course. There always was.
If one disrespected the true throne.
If one sat in it.
She would come.
This we knew.
For I had done just so once, in mockery of her. And she had come, with no warning. Silent as always. And she had looked at me.
And that was the only thing I could remember. Of my sitting there upon her seat, and of her displeasure.
She hadn't taken anything from the city we were in.
Rather, she had taken everything from me.
Excised everything but my memory of my mockery and her displeasure. Consumed my companion's memories, and left but a single memory of whose fault it was.
And left me to my penance as I served humanity and the world where once I mocked them. Objectively, I could see the records of who I was before my folly.
But I could not think the way I had.
I could not conceive the things I had done.
All I could do was everything that he hadn't, couldn't, wouldn't do.
Which was why I was here, looking at the throne, for it was bore the truth of her ownership. The illusion that was the world, transient as mist and light.
Maya would be coming to Brockton Bay once more.
And it would be up to me to make sure that her tithe was lessened.
I raised a single a single arm up, knife in hand, and slashed down.
The throne was sundered along the path I had made, before it collapsed into pebbles and sand.
I tapped the comm earpiece. "Negotiator to Lisa. Confirmation of throne and its destruction. Maya is inbound for Brockton Bay."
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Maya | Game of Thrones
Worm AU