Maia

Maia
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Outskirts of Meletis, Theros
Lifetime	Mending Era
Parents	Unnamed father and mother
Relatives	Kadmos (brother)

Maia is a human on the plane of Theros. She is the daughter of a smith who became a Returned.

History

Maia's father had been buried on a hill, where her mother planted asphodel flowers. But her father's favorite flower was asters, and his smithy was where he had spent his time, so Maia brought those flowers there. When she closed her eyes, she saw the forge as it had been, before the fire had burned it down. It had been filled with tools and smoke and the clang of the hammer. Charms bearing prayers to Purphoros hung on the walls, imploring the god of the forge to fill the place with the passion for things being made.

The smithy was ruined now, its roof collapsed, but she left the flowers there, and each time she came back, the old flowers were gone. She said a quick prayer to Erebos, god of the dead, and hurried out of the forge. She made her way back to their little house on the outskirts of Meletis, where her mother and her four-year-old brother Kadmos waited for her.

A week later, she returned to the smithy, only to hear the clanging of a hammer. She snuck inside, and there she saw her father as a Returned, hammering aimlessly on a frayed sword. She called to him, and he turned to look at her but made no move. His face was covered by a golden mask, but its features were recognizable as her father's. Maia carefully stepped over and put the asters on the anvil, and he raised his hammer again, flattening the flowers on the dull sword. She ran from the forge in terror, but he did not follow her.

Four days, later, Maia talked with her mentor Pylia about the Returned, and she explained that although the dead sometimes left the Underworld physically, their souls and their loves are left behind, their bodies holding only mechanical memories with no real connection to the life they had left behind. They would often gather in places like Asphodel or Odunos, living sad, empty lives, sometimes streaked with anger or violence.

On the way home, Maia saw that several hoplites had surrounded her father's forge. Their Captain told her a Returned had been seen in the area, and they had been sent to kill it, but the forge was empty. Maia ran, looking for her father for a long time until she found him wandering through the brush, hammer still in hand. She stopped him, and he gently wiped a tear from her face, but when she asked if he remembered her, he sadly shook his head. Maia noticed the asphodel flowers around her, and she picked one up, giving it to her Returned father. She bid him go to the place of the same name, the city of Asphodel, the city of the Returned, to maybe find some measure of meaning there. He turned to follow her pointing finger and walked, hammer in one hand, flowers in the other, away from the ruined forge. To Asphodel.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Asphodel	Kelly Digges	2013-12-11	Theros	Theros	Maia, Purphoros, Erebos, Kadmos, Pylia