Sun Mote Copse The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

She could feel Wraen's concern but didn't comment on it, just nodded with agreement when she said she could give support if needed.  Maia didn't understand how she could sound so calm... she felt like she could explode into a billion shards in a minute.  She was grateful for it, but it made her feel like right now, she needed to be stronger too.  The other two didn't need to know.  She filled the conversation like Maia tended to do normally, but she didn't have much of a response.  Right, Epic was going to be here, and he was gonna know something was off and think she was a huge buzzkill and not want to be friends anymore.  We'll have to show them how it's done, She finally came up with, giving Wraen her best encouraging smile.

If it had been anyone else, Maia might have tried to use this to garner attention, but this was too big a hurt for that.  So when Eljay showed up and introduced himself, she managed a small smile and returned it.  That's me.  I'm Maia.  Nice to meet you.  Now they just needed one more for the story circle to be complete.