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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!
The wind curled beneath Noah’s wings, each downstroke propelling him higher into the blue. Feathers glinted pale ivory in the morning light, and the steady rhythm of flight was a comfort even though he knew there might be a roiling in Ronin's mind wondering how things were going. This was the first time they had seen each other since Noah's discharge, after all.
Below, the world rolled in green and gold and all shades of the rainbow. Noah’s sharp eyes traced the flicker of flowers as they bloomed. The name of the season was defined here - Flowerbirth. The sea of colors, vibrant and warm and sharp, waved below them and as the shrine rose in the distance, Noah felt a small stirring within him.
Thanks for accompanying me, Noah said across the bond as they flew, we need to collect materials that represent Vi to add to the shrine in Halo.
Above Noah on the thermals, Ronin stretches his wings wide enough that the sunshine can heat them even as the breeze cuts across his scales and reminds him that Deepfrost isn't long behind them. His mind almost sings with the freedom of it - formerly a resident of the Cordillera for a time, the place holds a special sort of nostalgia for the place, and he tilts to bank lazily across the carpet of flowers beneath them.
Vi related materials? he echoes through the bond with a soft rumble of laughter. Did you have anything in mind? I usually bring something representative of all the elements, but I wonder... Sharp, serpentine eyes flick towards the trees flanking the Infinity Fields, and he snorts out a soft breath. If any birds have hatched recently, their eggshells are about as representative of life as you can get.
That's a good thought. I thought about collecting some buds that are just barely beginning to open up, thinking when the shrine was put together and blessed, they would bloom there. He thought that Safrin could bless them to bloom despite the cold in Halo -- that the power of life could overtake the frozen hellscape touched by the Eirachi. Following Ronin's maneuver, Noah tilted his own wings and lowered on a cold gust of wind. Tucking them slightly in to his sides, he started his descent.
I can start collecting those if you want to look for egg shells, or anything else you might think could be a representation of life. His glacier eyes scanned the field as he descended, ears lifting as he got closer to the ground and the howling of the wind subsided. I'm going to stay shifted, maybe to deter any attention from something that would want to pick me off otherwise. He said as his paws and talons made contact with vibrant, de-touched grass. There was a hint of hesitation in his voice at the idea, but Noah knew the creatures that lurked here. He had fought against them in the war on their trek to save Caido, and even as the shining sun betrayed the memories of the torrential rain and shocking thunder of that time, he would never forget.
That's a good idea too, Ronin agrees of the flowerbuds, pulsing quiet encouragement as they start to bank and descend. And alright - I can do that. Actually-- A spark of creativity alights through the bond, and as Noah continues to drop towards the flowers, Ronin angles himself back up. If I'm going to look for eggs, what better to find here of all places than shells from dragons? They are in the Cordillera, after all.
Sounds good to me - always better to be safe than sorry up here. He'd lived here with Remi and they'd grown understandably complacent as the region grew more familiar, more like home, but Ronin doesn't let himself carry that same ease with him now. Noah is right, and there's no telling what might already be sizing them up for a fight.
Roar if you need me! Ronin calls by way of departure, before he's soaring towards the craggy, bordering cliffsides, hoping to find something promising.
Noah moved through the meadow. As the flowers shifted in his wake, the air was thick with their perfume—sweet, dizzying, alive. He acknowledged Ronin’s departure with a pulse over the attuned bond, and lifted his glacier eyes momentarily to watch the celestial dragon fly towards the surrounding cliff sides.
He folded his wings against his sides and then moved his eyes to search the meadow for the buds he’d come to find. Each one he found, he gathered with care, claws precise as a surgeon’s. But his head lifted often, nostrils flaring. Never would he let his guard down in the Cordillera. The tension in his chest coiled like a bowstring, instincts whispering of flight and concealment even as reverence he contninued on his task.
Life thrived here—but so did death, patient and circling.
It isn't long before Ronin is too far away from Noah to be able to pinpoint him through the Attuned bond, but that's probably no bad thing either. Like the other man, he hones his focus on his surroundings and on anything that might be approaching or watching or lying in wait, especially as he reaches the cliffs where all manner of dragon are known to reside.
Recalling, though it was seasons and seasons ago now, finding Spice up here with Remi, the Knight angles himself automatically to the crevices and fissures in the cliff where he knows the mythical lizards like to nest. It takes some time, too - and a bit of coming and going, because a full nest is going to provoke a fight where an empty one might be given more lenience - but eventually he finds what he's looking for.
As such, it isn't a full dragon who returns to Noah, but rather a man with partially shifted dragon's wings, Ronin cradling a few eggshells in his arms. They're truly enormous compared to what a bird might have produced, and perfect for a shrine, he thinks. "Will these work?" He grins.
Noah lifted his head before Ronin spoke, the whisper of wingbeats and familiar presence brushing against the attuned bond like a warm draft. He had made a decent sized pile of buds and flowers and petals, and he stood beside it with wings pressed against his sides as the Knight approached.
The air still hummed with danger. But Ronin’s grin cut through the tension. Noah stepped forward to see the shells. Pale, opalescent, iridescence woven through each curve like veins of sunlight. They’ll do more than work. They’re perfect. These were exactly the sort of thing he wanted for the shrine, materials that acknowledged life’s ferocity as much as its tenderness.
Noah tilted his chin down towards his collection. We can put these inside the shells and then head out, I think.
"Glad you think so - I think I almost lost a finger trying to get away from the cliffs before a fledgling noticed me," Ronin says, chuckling under his breath and glancing down once more to admire the shells. Glancing, then, to the buds and petals Noah has managed to gather, he nods his agreement to the plan to get them back to the safety of Halo. "Sure, I can do that. Hang on..."
Kneeling in the blanket of fragrant flowers - and taking a moment or so, perhaps, just to enjoy it despite the obvious danger - the Knight gathers Noah's collection of flora into the eggshells, which prove large enough to make an all too perfect recepticle for them. "There," he says, rising to his feet and keeping the shrine materials cradled carefully in his arms.
"Lead the way and I'll follow? If we get ambushed by anything I'll keep these safe," he promises, wings already flexing in preparation for the flight away from the Cordillera.
Noah huffed a quiet breath through his nose, something between amusement and sympathy, as Ronin mentioned nearly losing a finger. That would have been difficult to explain to your husband, he murmured across the bond, he probably wouldn’t let us play anymore.
The scent of the flowers curled around them both, sweet enough to make the air feel thick, like breathing through honey. And yet, the cliffs loomed behind them. No place for lingering now that the task was finished.
He crouched beside Ronin as the other man arranged the buds into the wide curve of the eggshells. Noah rose first, then, feathers rippling. He nodded firmly, agreeing with the plan.
Above them, the sky opened wide. Noah launched, wings beating once, twice, and then he was climbing, riding a thermal upward until the wind held him. The air cooled the higher they ascended, the world spreading beneath them into endless greens and the faint shimmer of distant snowcaps. His eyes scanned the horizon in sweeps—searching for the dark flicker of wings too large, for the shadow that meant fire or pursuit.
But no cry split the sky. No shadow broke their path. Only wind and distance and the faint pulse of the whisper of life carried with them, nestled safe in Ronin’s arms.
