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**Mae Albert** (born 301) is a figure of the C9 universe, recorded as homo sapiens (cavernous adaptation / hematic variant), one of the young people who formed the House of Confidence on Aerogaea 347n. She came out of the red desert and subterranean systems.
Mae is recorded for echolocation (sonar navigation). Her skin is photosensitive dermis. Pale. Sensitive to harsh UV light (hence the cloak and the caves), but highly resistant to damp and cold underground climates. Her metabolism can switch fuel sources. In critical states, consuming or manipulating blood triggers an adrenal and strength spike. Pointy. Not cosmetic — they act as parabolic dishes, twitching independently to triangulate the source of a noise.
The record follows her across 3 periods of life, from year 330 onward. In the last of them she is recorded as shelter keeper.
Mae appears in 6 of the 19 chapters written so far, beginning with The Glass House, chapter 6[1].
## Early life
**Mae Albert** (born 301) is a figure of the C9 universe, the guide who brought the House of Confidence through the cave systems beneath the Great Plateau, and the keeper of the deep shelters afterwards. She navigates by echolocation. She has no eyes and never has had them; her face is smooth where they would be.
Mae Albert was born in year 301. She was 29 years old in 330, the year the Klak Grove was destroyed. She is wife of Rad Albert. The records give her origin as the red desert / subterranean systems. Her development is recorded as symbiotic pairing (reliance on ian/family for physical protection while she provides navigation). Her standing at this time was savior of the lost / pilot of ian. Physically, mysterious, hidden under her cloak. Her voice is "silvery" and calm. She is the lifeline for Chrys and Marcus in the dark. What defines her in this period is ian (the bovirlia). The record notes a bond of absolute trust. Ian is an underground bovirlia — enormous, bioluminescent, native to the cave systems beneath the plateau. He hovers on his four round inflators, his thorax holes cycling in a slow rhythm. Mae rides on the broad flat of his back, navigating, while his glow provides the only light. She treats him like a beloved partner.
She is married to [[life/rad-albert|Rad Albert]], and their son is [[life/matthew-albert|Matthew Albert]]. She was twenty-nine in year 330, when the Klak Grove fell and the survivors came down into her caves. [[life/samantha-grace-albert-nakayama|Samantha Grace Albert-Nakayama]] is her niece by marriage.
## Tactical support (336–349)
## Early life
Her standing at this time was tactical support / wife of Rad albert. Physically, she becomes more combat-active. Her "Blood Empowerment" is used more frequently to protect the House of Confidence during the raids. What defines her in this period is sam albert. Sam is Rad's niece — her parent is Rad's sibling. Mae is her aunt by marriage. She is eleven years younger than Rad. Mae likely serves as a steadying presence for her, and they share the Albert genetic markers (fangs, the tendency toward ferocity under pressure).
Mae was born in year 301 in the Red Desert and the subterranean systems under it, and is adapted to them: tall, pale, built for reception rather than force. Her dermis is photosensitive and she keeps out of hard light, and she is at ease in damp and cold that would drive most people up. Her hearing does the work her eyes would. She wears her silver hair long and often across her face, her ears move when she listens, and the fangs show when she smiles.
## Later years (350 onward)
Asked how long her way of moving through the dark took her to learn, she said it took a while, and then, when that was not enough of an answer, that she was small and the world was loud.
Her standing at this time was shelter keeper / archive guard. Physically, her silver hair is now white. She rarely leaves the deep caves, preferring the silence. Her hearing is so acute she can hear visitors arriving from miles away. What defines her in this period is teaching them how to see without eyes.
## Ian
## Abilities
She travels on Ian, an underground bovirlia native to the cave systems: wider across than three people standing shoulder to shoulder, hovering a foot off the floor on four round inflators, the holes in his thorax cycling in the patient rhythm that means calm. The glow comes from inside the inflators and does not reach the walls. Mae rides the broad flat of his back with both hands on the ridge of his housing, and the bond between them is one of complete trust[1].
The mechanism on record is echolocation (sonar navigation).
## Through the caves
The record notes underground Bovirlia. Bioluminescent — blue-green glow from within the inflators, dim but reliable in total darkness. Enormous — wider than three people shoulder to shoulder. Mae rides on his back, navigating by echolocation. Ian responds to her shifts in weight and her clicks. He does not act independently in combat but will move away from threats she signals. The effect answers to sound generation. She cannot "see" in total silence. She needs a "Ping" (often generated by Ian or a footstep) to map the room. The cost of it is sensory overload & silence blindness. Loud, chaotic environments (explosions/cities) blind her. She cannot filter the echoes, resulting in vertigo. In a sound-dampened room, she is effectively blind.
She led the group down in the dark with a tongue click, deliberate and precisely aimed, at a wall seven feet ahead, then another at a different angle, and the House followed the light and the sound with their hands on walls where walls were available[1].
### Novice
She reads more than distance. She knew a lever had been pulled recently because the dust was disturbed[1]. When she went still, the stillness was itself the warning, and the footsteps came a moment later through the lattice of the upper shelves, trying not to sound like footsteps and failing only slightly[1]. She clicked once at the ceiling, found one long crack running from the east wall to the centre, and did not say what she was thinking[1].
The record notes passive Listening. She can hear things approaching. Needs a loud noise to map a room.
At the abandoned settlement she said there was not one soul in it, then went still in the way she goes still when she is reading the air, which is not smell and which she has never satisfactorily explained, and pointed at a small house between two larger ones: that one, three of us, everyone else on guard[2]. She found the trapdoor under the carpet, its handle folded flat into the wood, and opened it on a smell that arrives at the back of the throat and stays[2].
### Mastery
Afterwards she crouched over the ash and put the creature at five orders, maybe six, and said it was worth celebrating, and noted that the shift it had performed was not available below Order Two[2].
The record notes active Ping. She uses Ian (or her own voice/tech) to send pulses that reveal "Travelers several kilometers ahead." She can detect invisible enemies (like the shifting insect) by their density/heartbeat.
She has felt the cold three times, the one that is not temperature: the heartbeat too slow, the breath too shallow, iceberry hour arriving in the chest like something that had been planning to arrive and finally chose its moment. Each time it cost her something[2].
### Decline/Shift
## Physiology
As her hearing fades with age, she leans into the Blood Empowerment to sustain her vitality and combat ability.
Mae maps by sound. Passive listening tells her what is approaching; an active ping, sent with her voice, with a tool, or through Ian, returns the shape of what is ahead, out to travellers several kilometres off. Density and heartbeat register, so a thing that has made itself invisible is not hidden from her.
## Character
Her physiology is hematic as well as cavernous, and the Albert line runs through it: the fangs, and the turn toward ferocity under pressure that she shares with her husband's family. As her hearing dims with age she leans on the blood side of it to hold her vitality and her reach.
Mae does not experience time as others do: standard / synesthetic. She processes sound speed (343 m/s) as spatial data. She sees the delay between a ping and its echo, constructing a 3D wireframe of the world in total darkness. Audio. Her ears are constantly filtering background noise (wind, heartbeat) to isolate specific frequencies (footsteps, breathing). Topographical. She connects sound to geography. A hollow echo means cavern ahead; a dull thud means quicksand.
## Later years
Early in life she held to a lie about herself: "I am safer in the dark where no one can see me.". Later she came to hold the opposite: "The dark is not a cage; it is a canvas. And I hold the brush." As a young woman, her voice was whisper-quiet, silvery, melodic. "Stay close, the walls are hungry." In her prime it became professional, curt, tactical. "Ping at 300 meters. The record notes prepare for contact.". In old age it turned raspy, affectionate (to Ian), full of secrets.
In the years after the plateau she became combat-active in the raids rather than only a guide, and stood as steady ground for the younger Alberts. In age her silver goes white, she rarely leaves the deep caves and prefers the silence there, and she can hear visitors coming from miles out. What she teaches the children is how to see without eyes.
## Family
She is married to [[life/rad-albert|Rad Albert]].
Mae is married to [[life/rad-albert|Rad Albert]]. Their son is [[life/matthew-albert|Matthew Albert]]. [[life/samantha-grace-albert-nakayama|Samantha Grace Albert-Nakayama]] is her niece by marriage.
## Appearances
Mae is present in 6 of the 19 chapters written so far.
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-6-the-arena|The Glass House, chapter 6]][1]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-8-the-cave-and-the-guide|The Glass House, chapter 8]] — Mae's body went still, which was its own kind of warning — Mae being still was its own warning.[2]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-9-raymond|The Glass House, chapter 9]][3]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-10-the-hunter-s-ground|The Glass House, chapter 10]] — Above him Sam was already at the crown, reaching down for Mae's hand.[4]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-12-the-new-normal|The Glass House, chapter 12]] — Four hundred kilometers south, Rad Albert found Chrys's temperature professionally unacceptable.[5]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-17-the-explosion|The Glass House, chapter 17]][6]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-8-the-cave-and-the-guide|The Glass House, chapter 8]]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-9-raymond|The Glass House, chapter 9]]
- [[pages/glass-house-chapter-10-the-hunter-s-ground|The Glass House, chapter 10]]
## See also
- [[life/rad-albert|Rad Albert]]
- [[life/matthew-albert|Matthew Albert]]
## References
1. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-6-the-arena|The Glass House, chapter 6]]
2. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-8-the-cave-and-the-guide|The Glass House, chapter 8]]
3. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-9-raymond|The Glass House, chapter 9]]
4. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-10-the-hunter-s-ground|The Glass House, chapter 10]]
5. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-12-the-new-normal|The Glass House, chapter 12]]
6. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-17-the-explosion|The Glass House, chapter 17]]
1. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-8-the-cave-and-the-guide|The Glass House, chapter 8]]
2. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-10-the-hunter-s-ground|The Glass House, chapter 10]]