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Character of the Season
From Attuned to Ascended to Ancient, Kiada Njovu-Reyes has been reborn several times throughout her short life, but her fighting spirit has never once been diminished. With beauty, grace and a quick wit, Kiada is the whole package wrapped in an infectious smile. Recent endeavours have found her in the heart of the Hollowed Grounds, aiding the region and bettering it for her new Ancient kin, and whatever she does next, we know it's sure to pack a punch.
Congratulations, Kiada!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Searching on his own seemed all the more futile too, but she didn’t say it. If it gave him purpose, and potentially information on Sohalia’s whereabouts, so be it – though she hoped, for his sake and the former Heart’s, that something would crop up, rather than fizzle out, fade, and disappear. She couldn’t recall a time like this, with leaders potentially abducted, and the result – but she’d have to consult the archives and collegium to be entirely certain. Morever was the damage being done to Sohalia; whether it was physical, or psychological, and the sooner she was found, the better.
His disagreement caused her brows to narrow, flinching imperceptibly and looking away. “I’m not going to think like that,” where everything and everyone was so easily and readily replaced. Then what was the point and purpose of her role? Of any of them? If she were to start thinking down that route, Lena would be losing key components of herself. “And I will do my best not to.” She wasn’t a constant figure everywhere; she often went under the radar, keeping busy and resolved to her duties. But as for what Harper could do? She wasn’t certain. “I need to meet with some other citizens and see what they know. Any information you can find on the void or Dahlia…” which they were all striving to do. “I just don’t know how we’re supposed to be rid of her.”
The mission she can think up for him is equally futile, and perhaps it's a kindness that neither of them points it out, biting their tongues and turning their cheeks. Alas, where does that leave them? More waiting. More pacing. More searching. Shadows of people waiting for tides to turn that they may not be strong enough to weather.
"I wish I had the purpose you do," he says instead. Envious in the way where he sees her standing above him, radiant, and far from the kind that instills contempt in one's heart. Harper still has not found it even after abandoning his post and vanishing into the wilds. Had it all been for nothing? A fool's errand? Is this the same, a story repeating itself endlessly in the footnotes of his own story?
"I don't know. She's too dangerous to face head-on, but I worry our waiting will only allow her to gather more strength." He would suggest that abandoning the region in large numbers would leave her with the name of a ruler and little else, but clearly he can't convince her to leave, so how can he convince anyone else? "We're left with so little we can do." He wants to apologize but bites it back. It's ridiculous to think he could help her any more than her fellows. He has no power, no answers, and certainly no regional affiliation. He stares down at his knees and wonders what he's even doing here.
Futile it might’ve been, but the Caretaker hated to think of simply being inept and standing on nothing but her own laurels and heartache. One sliver of the right information could mean an opportunity, a chance, that none of them held before – and with Sohalia gone, there were so many other jagged pieces.
Her brows furrowed at his statement, eyes narrowing and no longer clinging with salt. She brushed at her cheeks and buried her hands further into the soil, reaching below the loam and plucking at the roots of the weeds until they came up with her fingers, deft, arranged neatly beside her to feed to some animals later. And all the while she stewed, quietly, not in rage or animosity, but in something like irritation; it was difficult to name when she’d felt it so infrequently. “Of course you have a purpose,” they all did. His family? His friends? His loved ones?
Leaving it at that, her dirt-stained hands persisted, picking away at the unseen wounds. “But we’re not strong enough to do anything but bide our time or seek alternatives.” Whatever those happened to be – at the present moment she was trying not to fall apart into the reels of failure. Perhaps another journey to the Feverlands, to see how bad it had become, and how much worse off they could get. “Something is better than nothing,” she recited, much like a mantra. “Where are you staying now?”
Harper merely tips his chin, otherwise silent. Her insight is…well, he doesn’t wish to call it naive because he envies it, but it’s completely incorrect. “I don’t. But I appreciate you think so.” His family had dwindled to two, and his boys are self-sufficient. Attempting to be there in Jude’s life again is a selfish goal, but the only one he has aside from searching for Sohalia. And if he did not act on either of those, they wouldn’t change the course of either life - or his own - in any meaningful way. He had reveled in that vast emptiness for a time, but now it feels like a chore to even keep his body moving or alive. But these are burdens he won’t place on her. Her kindness is something to bask in for a moment and then depart from.
“Something is better than nothing,” he parrots back in agreement, though it rings hollow in his chest if not his voice. Idly brushing a stray bit of grass off his thigh, Harper shrugs. “Nowhere really. If you need to contact me, the best place to try is the House of Midnight.” It’s the least he can offer, though he isn’t sure what need she’ll ever have of him. Bringing himself onto one knee in preparation to leave, Harper touches the very ends of his fingertips to her knee in a brief touch before pulling himself to his feet. “If you need any help whatsoever, or if you have any news to share, please don’t hesitate to write me. I’ll be praying for your safety - for everyone’s.” Sohalia, Stormbreak and Caido at large…it may not mean much given he’s lost his way on the path of faith too, but at the end of the day it is all Harper can offer. Paltry measures meant for better men.
