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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 Sugartide settles beyond the rise of one of the nearby burial mounds, close enough to be convenient and far enough not to be intrusive, and Flora climbs down into the glare of LongHeat with a woven basket hooked over her arm and Spice circling once before landing neatly against her shoulder. She has dressed for the heat even here—loose shorts, a white t-shirt knotted at her waist, gold glinting lazily against sun-warmed skin—and she takes her time crossing the stretch of meadow between the mounds, sandals brushing through grass that has somehow decided to thrive despite the season.
When she reaches Ronin, she lifts the basket slightly in greeting rather than offering anything as earnest as a wave. "I come bearing bribes," she says lightly before lowering the basket into the grass and pulling out one of the chilled bottles, condensation slick against her fingers before she offers it over without ceremony. Spice shifts, exhaling a small ribbon of cool air against Flora’s collarbone as if to remind the world that LongHeat does not win everything.
"I figured if I was going to bother you about regional stuff you deserved compensation." Her gaze drifts briefly toward the fenced-off area amidst all the flowers. "How's my new sibling doing?"
We need love, But all we want is danger We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer
For his part, Ronin has been indulging in a nap among the flowers while he takes his shift in protecting their new addition. The meadow makes him almost invisible when he lays down properly, but rest assured he can feel any approaching hoofbeats, and he reacts to them with merciless zeal. It isn't hooves that approach this time, though, and as he peels himself into a sitting position, sunglasses askew, skin already tanned from the time outdoors, it's to see a much more welcome visitor.
"It's wrong for a member of your council to accept bribes," he says, grinning and stretching his arms above his head before rolling to his feet. "But since it's you, it would be rude not to accept. Besides, this heat is a killer - thanks, Flora." Accepting the chilled bottle and holding it to the back of his neck, the Knight sighs in relief before glancing over his shoulder at the fenced off area where, if Flora looks closely, a verdant sprout has begun coiling upwards towards the light, all delicate leaves and curling vines.
"I think they're doing well? It's hard to tell what with them being a plant right now," Ronin admits, laughing and reaching out to scritch Spice under the chin affectionately. Sugar is camping out in the treeline nearby where the Taliesins have set up their little campsite, and given that she hasn't immediately made an appearance, Ronin figures she's still napping.
Flora’s laugh rings out bright and easy at that, the sound carrying lightly across the meadow as she tips her head toward him. "I won't tell if you don't," she chuckles, all innocence and sunshine, as though the entire concept of bribery is merely an administrative technicality rather than a cornerstone of Torchline diplomacy.
Her gaze drifts past him toward the fenced patch, and this time she does look closely enough to spot the delicate coil of green pushing toward the light, all tender leaves and determined little curls. "Mateo said they were doing well last I talked to him," she adds, tone casual, though her eyes flash briefly with mischief at how vague the word they was in this context, before she reaches for her own bottle and pops the cap free with a practiced flick. She takes a long pull from it, head tipping back slightly, letting the cold cut cleanly through the heat before lowering it again with a quiet exhale.
"Back home is hot," she says, the word drawn out for emphasis. "But good. Nothing that requires either of you to abandon your agricultural vigil and come running." She shifts her weight, settling more comfortably into the grass, fingers curling around the chilled glass. "I just came to see if you thought it might be a good time to do a bit more regional improvement before the season turns," she continues, glancing at him sidelong. "And whether starting our next RQ now makes sense."
A grin curves slowly across her mouth, sunlight catching in the gold at her fingers. "I've been promising Melita cannons for seasons now, and I imagine she is close to building them herself, so I feel like it's probably time to make good on that, unless you have a better idea."
We need love, But all we want is danger We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer
"Deal." Ronin winks, adjusting his sunglasses so they sit properly on his nose again and uncapping the bottle at last, taking a long and grateful pull from it. "Mm, he did?" The Knight's smile softens at that, and he glances again towards the fenced off sprout. "He's been great," he admits. "He gave us the details of a few gardeners he trusts to keep an eye on them if Remi and I ever need to go anywhere. And he comes up here himself often enough too, to make sure everything is going well."
Things Flora will likely already know, as well as more still, given the bond between them as siblings.
Laughing to hear that Torchline, whilst in the throes of Longheat, is at least behaving as expected (in temperature as well as everything else), Ronin settles beside her in the fragrant grass, leaning back on one hand to listen. "I don't see why not," he says agreeably. "Things seems to be settled across the regions - Stormbreak aside - so now seems like as good a time as any. And for the record," he adds, raising his eyebrows at her over his sunnies, "if anything does happen that requires us to come running, don't you hesitate, okay?"
They might be standing watch over Flora's new sibling(s...) but that doesn't mean their other children have stopped existing, and Ronin is determined to hammer that home now and in the future.
That being said, the suggestion of cannons has him barking out a laugh, nearly choking on another drink from the bottle. "To shoot what?" he wants to know, grinning, but in all honesty there's no real objection in his expression. "You know what they say - better to have it and not need it than the other way around. Give Mel her cannons, why not?"
Flora flashes him a grin so bright it borders on conspiratorial, already storing the information away with the greedy delight of someone who cannot wait to weaponize it gently later. She hums her approval at the mention of gardeners and Mateo’s regular visits, entirely unsurprised and entirely pleased all the same, and sinks down into the grass beside Ronin with an easy familiarity, stretching her legs out in front of her as though Meadowreach is just another council chamber with better scenery.
"That sounds good then," she says of the RQ, nodding once, decisive. At his reminder about calling if she needs them, she angles him a look of exaggerated weariness, lifting her bottle in a small, lazy salute. "Yes, yes. I will channel the cavalry if Torchline so much as gets a tummy ache," she assures him, though the faint curl at the corner of her mouth betrays how much the offer settles somewhere solid and warm in her chest. She takes another drink instead of lingering there, letting the cool bite of it keep her expression level.
At the bark of laughter about cannons, she wrinkles her nose slightly, drawing the word out with theatrical reluctance. "Welllllllllllllll." The humour does not vanish all at once, but it thins. She lowers her gaze to the bottle in her hands and begins picking at the edge of the label with her thumb, peeling it back in careful, uneven strips.
"Before Kai and I started dating," she begins, voice still steady but stripped of its earlier brightness, "he baited Jack into a fight and it nearly left him dead." She does not look up as she says it, focusing instead on the stubborn paper beneath her nail. "Jack didn't take our breakup well, and when I ran into him a few weeks ago and tried to apologize, he did not take that well either." The meadow is still calm around them, flowers swaying lazily, the sprout continuing its quiet, oblivious climb toward the sun.
She exhales softly through her nose, finally lifting her eyes toward Ronin with a smile that is almost convincing if one does not look too closely. "I worry he might just show up one day and decide to take it out on Torchline instead,"[/ay] she says, lightness reintroduced just a fraction too deliberately. "Soooo, cannons."
We need love, But all we want is danger We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer
"Good," Ronin says warmly, however much her assurance might be lip service. As the cavalry in question, he'd likely be more offended if he wasn't channelled in a time of need, the Knight taking a final sip from his drink for the moment and setting it down among the flowers so he can lean back on both hands. It puts him in a perfect position to see the strange trepidation settle over Flora, Ronin sitting up properly again almost immediately, a frown shadowing his expression.
"Well...?" he echoes, patient but quietly serious, and as she explains he listens with all the gravity as if she were telling him about an army on Torchline's borders. When she's finished, he lets out a long sigh, seeming both troubled and thoughtful at the same time. "Well," he repeats, this time with emphasis, "if he does show up with that intention, he's not nearly as smart as everyone in Torchline made him out to be."
He shouldn't take it so lightly, he knows, but he thinks he can afford a certain amount of confidence as a longstanding demigod. "Your father and I live there, and so does Melita. You're a skilled fighter in your own right, with the ability to call even more cavalry in if needed. You've got Torchline's citizens at your beck and call, not to mention all the other ways you've made those islands a force to be reckoned with. If he did show up, he'd be little more than a smudge on the sand before he got a chance to take a shot at anyone."
Smiling, he reaches out to tuck a lock of golden hair back behind her ears. "I'm not saying not to get the cannons by the way - get them. But I don't want you or Kai to worry about someone as inconsequential as Jack Barclay, okay?"
Flora lets him speak without interrupting, her expression still, attentive, though her fingers continue worrying the edge of the bottle’s label until it hangs in ragged strips against the glass. She absorbs the confidence in his voice, the easy certainty that Torchline would swallow Jack whole if he tried anything reckless, and while something in her shoulders eases at the reminder of who stands beside her, there is a stubbornness in the set of her mouth that refuses to dissolve completely.
She glances down at the bottle again, then back up at him with one brow lifting slowly. "Are you telling me that if Jack called Remi on the oops I died hotline, the two of you wouldn't bring him back?" It's delivered with a curl of sass, but her eyes hold his steadily, genuinely waiting for the answer rather than simply performing indignation.
She exhales when the question settles between them, shoulders rising and falling before she looks back down at her hands. "I gave him a revivify feather when we were together," she admits after a moment, voice quieter now, the admission dragged up like something unpleasant from the bottom of a tide pool. "Which means he could do something very stupid at least once without it being permanent, if he wanted to." Another sigh follows, heavier this time, and she tips her head back briefly to look at the relentless LongHeat sky before returning her attention to Ronin. "I know he doesn't normally do stupid things like that," she concedes, the words reluctant but honest; Jack hadn't become King of the underworld by being impulsive and reckless. [asy]"And I know maybe he doesn't care about me as much as I think he does.." She stops herself, pressing her lips together before trying again. "I'd just hate it if my breakup became everyone else’s problem, y'know?"
We need love, But all we want is danger We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer
Ronin raises his eyebrow at that question. He doesn't disrespect Flora by giving her an answer that's all reassurance without substance: no of course I wouldn't, he's a piece of shit! but instead lets the silence hang in the air for a little while, fingers drumming against his bottle. "You reckon he would?" he asks at first. "Reach out to Remi, I mean." From his experience and one awful family dinner, Ronin's impression of the Captain is prideful and arrogant at best.
"That aside, though, if he did? I would, if it was nothing to do with you. But if you or Kai had been involved, I'd want to know details. And I might be inclined to think that there are other people out there who would deserve a second chance more than he did." A long-winded way of saying haha it's complicated, but it's all Ronin's got right now.
His brows furrow now as she speaks about the revivify feather - that's certainly an ace in the hole he'd rather not think about. "Who knows if he even still has it?" he says with a shrug of his shoulders. "And even if he does, doing something stupid will always have consequences. But I know what you mean - and if cannons will make Torchline better equipped for any calamity, not just ones with red sails, you've got my full support."
Flora lets out a short, cool laugh at that, not unkind but edged with realism, and tips her head in a small nod. "If it came down to his pride or being alive," she says, squinting faintly against the sun, "I don't even think Jack is that much of a bastard." The corner of her mouth lifts, but there is no softness in it; Ronin’s complicated answer is more or less what she expected, and if anything it confirms the shape of the thing in her mind, that Jack could make a mess, that there would be deliberation and debate and nuance afterwards, that nothing about him has ever been clean, and that he'd probably make it out alive.
At the mention of the feather, she gives another small shrug. [asy]"If something managed to actually kill him, I doubt it would stay quiet," she says. Someone would have been bragging before they met an untimely end, or some monster's head would be up on a pike for it. There is almost a fondness in that observation, though it is distant, dulled.
The tension ebbs from her posture gradually, replaced by something brighter and more familiar. She wrinkles her nose at the Knight when he offers his support for the cannons and then shifts forward onto her hands and knees through the grass, leaning in to press a quick kiss to his cheek, sun-warmed skin and all. "Thanks for the chat," she says lightly as she straightens again, brushing grass from her knees and adjusting the knot of her shirt with a quick tug. "Melita is going to be so stoked."
She steps back a pace, lifting her bottle in a small salute. "I'll let you get back to gardening duty," she adds, amusement threading easily through her tone now. "Try not to have too much fun."
With a final wave, she turns and begins the walk back across the meadow toward where the Sugartide waits beyond the rise, Spice lifting from her shoulder to circle once overhead before settling again as Flora heads home.
~FIN
We need love, But all we want is danger We team up, Then switch sides like a record changer
