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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
"Super uncomfortable," Carlo agrees with a long-suffering sigh that sounds neither long nor suffering, but it seems like the right thing to do. "But!" he adds. "It did make everyone start to run, which is how we got these cool clothes and our breakfast." Because why only admit to one crime when good luck comes in threes, right?
And no one had gotten hurt (probably) or in trouble (hopefully) and they'd found their way home to their fathers without any further chaos, so really, everyone should just be telling them how good a job they'd done at getting big and navigating the boardwalk. And if they don't, not to worry, because Carlo will definitely self-congratulate the both of them.
In the meantime, though, it seems as though they are finally heading back into The Northaven, and the boy watches the flat, dark twins as they follow and then as Remi gestures to his father's shadow. It all seems very reasonable until, inevitably, his eyes drift to the nothing where the Bastion's passenger is nowhere to be found.
Halting at the threshold to point even while his feet continue to carry him into the houseboat, Carlo's voice nevertheless echoes back out in a, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOURS?"
Calan nods along with Carlo’s explanation, bright and pleased, because when listed in the proper order—cannon, clothes, breakfast—the morning sounds less like trouble and more like a very efficient route home. Nobody had told them there was a wrong way to get big, find food, and dress themselves, and if there was, Calan thinks that should probably have been on a sign too.
He follows Carlo inside with the yellow slicker brushing around his ankles, one hand still lifted a little for balance and the other reaching back once to check that the flat dark boy is still coming. It is. Good. That makes four of them, or possibly six, depending on whether dads count theirs separately, which seems like the sort of thing worth working out later when there is less cold air involved.
Then Carlo stops; Calan bumps into him at once, not hard enough to fall but hard enough to make the hood slip over one eye again. He shoves it back, blinking first at Carlo, then at where his brother points, and it takes him a second to understand the problem because Remi is there, clearly there, with feet and legs and everything else a person is meant to have.
Except.
Calan’s eyes widen as he looks at Remi’s feet, then at Ronin’s shadow, then down at his own, where the dark boy remains obediently attached. His mouth opens with the careful horror of someone discovering that one of the morning’s rules has already been broken by an adult. "Did the noise scare it?" he asks, voice dropping as though shadows might be listening from under the furniture. "We can help you look for it!"
I can imagine in horrifying detail, yes, Ronin confirms through the bond, finally allowing himself a ridiculous and giddy smile when the boys go ahead to walk through the door. I'll add it to the list of my apologies, not to worry. Though I am curious to know whether she will decide to put them in jail. As a Flora-esque warning not to pull the cord no matter what they think the signs say if nothing else.
He thinks they're finally going to be shut away in The Northaven - which, Ronin will realise very soon, is vastly smaller than it seemed when their twins were more like extensions of themselves than little people in their own right - when shadowgate promptly lands at their feet, and he gazes at Remi's lack of shadow with exaggerated surprise.
"Maybe," he says gravely, entirely willing to play along with this because it has been a hard morning and he's already halfway to hysteria anyway. "Come on, I'll help to look as well. You should try the cupboards in the kitchen - it's where I was looking for the two of you. Maybe your dad's shadow snuck in while the doors were open."
Ushering his lemon and lime twins into the houseboat, Ronin is sure he'll be exhausted by this later, but for now at least, their boys are home. Safe and fed too, evidently, if not anything like when they'd left.
What good are hands if there's nothing that they hold
Well, I cannot wait to see if your prediction is true, Remi murmurs silently, the thought edged with the sort of helpless amusement that only really has room to exist because the boys are alive and well. He snickers under his breath despite himself, the sound tucked safely behind Ronin’s shoulder as the lemon and lime slickers shuffle over the threshold and bring half the beach in with them.
When Carlo points at the empty place where Remi’s shadow ought to be, the Bastion has to bite the inside of his cheek hard enough to keep from giving the game away. Of all the things he had braced for this morning, including panic, grief, divine meddling, and the possibility of Ronin fainting on the deck, being accused of shadow negligence by his infant son had not been on his bingo card. Still, he turns a suitably solemn look down toward the floor, then over to the twins, nodding with grave consideration as though this is, in fact, a very serious domestic emergency.
"I bet if you ask nicely, Sugar and Oria will help you look," he says, because if there is one thing more than likely to occupy two nine-year-olds, it is recruiting magical creatures into a search party for something that does not exist.
He closes the door behind them and sends a pulse of unfettered affection toward Ronin through the bond, warm and ridiculous and trembling still from the relief beneath it. Then, with a soft whistle beneath his breath, Remi calls for Sugar and Oria. "There are some boys here who would like your help." With that, and because he is either very wise or very close to losing his mind, Remi leaves the newly appointed search party to their work and slips into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
~FIN
And what good are hearts if you bury them all alone?
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
