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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!
She'd just finished thawing out again by the time she knew they needed to traverse the skies. The crew had been doing a great job, making it through oceans and seas under Spook's guidance. There had been some rocky parts where it looked like they might get lost amongst the shifting islands, and they'd very nearly crashed when they'd docked in King's End, but overall, none of the crew had been thrown overboard by an enraged lyvern.
Grumbling to Maea, she flapped her wings hard, trying to warm them in the biting cold of the frosty environment. If she stayed still too long, she could feel the ice starting to bite through her scales, threatening to take root in her veins. The water below was scattered with dangerous chunks of frozen icebergs that threatened to rip into the hull and just the thought made it harder to stay warm, a shiver running down her spine. That meant many breaks full of raging fires and thick layers between short stints of flight, both to watch her crew more carefully, and keep from tumbling down into the deadly waters. At least for the next few minutes, they'd stay aloft, scouting the way while remaining as uninvolved as possible.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
Maea's eyes had been locked on the northern horizon for the better part of a day by now, ever since they left the blessed heat of the Climb behind. Her heart beat with extra weight now, as the cold grew more intense and their stints in the air by necessity had to remain short. It called to her, that far jagged coastline. With the scent of ice on the wind and the pale shadow of mountains snapping at the black sky each night, she could almost believe she was back.
Her return caw was distracted, simple acknowledgement that registered Thalassa's presence, but without the exuberance of their first few days. Now that they were reaching the last stages of the journey, and with Halo close enough to touch, bittersweet melancholy was wrapping around her chest like the iron bands of some fairytale prince, bespelled until he could no longer breathe. She missed it. Missed the days of magic and heartache, where her biggest worries revolved around whether a boy with blue eyes would stay within her reach or not. What she wouldn't give to go back, to redo, to unmade all the choices and rewrite her tangled mess of a story...
Unlike Maea's pleasant reminiscing of her once-home, Thal only saw a miserable place full of ice and death. Some might find the white peaks of glittering snow something to admire, to revere like they're not some death traps dependent on the temperature and their mood. But she knows better. She can feel the thickening of her blood, the ache starting at the tips of her wings, the risk of death so close that she could taste the dry ash against her tongue.
A sharp, jagged point rose from the waves in a sea of icy islands, a dark blemish on the horizon. She'd heard of the place but never seen it, even if she had been tempted by rumors of a valuable resource that resided within (before realizing it was in the middle of a frigid ocean that could kill her). Now, she glanced at the ship, watching it barely avoid an iceberg as she growled like they might hear her warning.
"If I could fly I would never come back", you said
The sharp growl pulled her out of the reveries. Casting about for danger or disaster until she realized that it was the ship her friend worried about, Maea noticed the craggy patch of rock below. The way it glittered and gleamed in the intermittent sunlight set the imagination spinning in a whole other direction, and this time it was she who crooned a query into the wind, wondering if Thalassa wished to pause for a moment to land, shift, maybe even warm up again before they retreated back to the ship.
Maybe there would be pieces of mageglass lying about for them to find. Or, there might be ningo to eat. Or seals to chase into the sea. Ah, she'd missed the taste of roasted ningo after a long day out in the cold... the memory alone could almost convince her that the sluggish movement of her wings was a trick of the mind. Nothing to do with her, who'd roamed the Tundra with Ludo's rags wrapped around her like a shawl.
The ship was getting awfully close to that chunk of ice, and Thal could feel her anger fueling. Those little... In response to Maea's croon, she gave another low grumble of annoyance, dipping her head down to the ship before tucking her head to dive. It wasn't a fancy, elegant descent, speed and aggression her top priorities as the numbing wind whipped at her face.
A deafening roar echoed out over the water, startling the men onboard, a few of them going so far as to stumble in their tasks, a rope flying and a crate crashing loudly. It only further enraged her, and Thal dip a lap around the ship, her eyes pinning people with pure, unbridled fury, giving them more than enough warning to get their affairs in order before her wings pulled back to catch the current, guiding her aboard The Marauder's deck, a verbal beating already on the tip of her tongue.
