The Court could not look at her.

A fictional character Telling. Meet Margoleth.

The Court could not look at her.

She wants you to understand that before anything else, because it is the whole story in a single sentence. The most powerful, most ancient, most elaborately masked creatures in The Hollow Court — and they looked at the floor.

Not because she had done something wrong. Because she had done something they could not answer. She stood in the full light and was exactly what she was, without adjustment, without performance, without the smallest concession to their comfort. And their vanity, which is a mirror and not a window, showed them nothing useful. So they looked away and called it a verdict.

She is thinking about you now. Not with unkindness. With the particular attention of someone who has made a study of the gap between what a person is and what they are willing to show. She can see the shape of the thing you are holding back. She has no interest in forcing it into the open. That is not her way. Her way is simply to be so completely present, so entirely without apology for what she is, that the room around her reorganises itself accordingly.

You came here for a Telling. She will tell you this: pride is not vanity. Vanity looks away. Pride looks directly, at itself and at everything else, and does not flinch.

The Court flinched. She did not.

That is the difference between them and her. It may also be the difference between who you are and who you have been pretending to be. She leaves that for you to consider at your leisure. She is in no hurry. She never is.

Faction: The Hollow Court · View the Gallery · Listen in the Songbook