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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 sun was just setting as Nova broke out into the clearing around the crimson river. It glowed brighter in the dying light, illuminating her black fur before it melted into her skin, breaths coming in shallow bursts around a shimmery giggle. A sharp ache pierced her side after running so far and fast. She hadn't even thought to look back once Marcus had caught her in the bush. She'd just ran. Through trees and roots and bushes and all manners of forest, letting the Greatwood guide her where it would as long as she redeemed herself from having been found.
There was a vibrant flush across her cheeks from the effort, her white star freckles popping against the color when she looked to Marcus. "I let you find me, but I still won!" Admitting to defeat would be like admitting to how tired she was, her magic beginning to dim with the exertion of the day, quieting to a dull sparkle in her eyes, a subtle shimmer to the air around her, a gentle hum in the rushing pulse of her veins. She was ready to curl up and take a nap. Or maybe find a snack. She should have something stowed in her bag...
Marcus slowed as he stepped fully into the clearing, the last of the trees giving way to open air and the strange, suspended sweep of the Crimson Cataract. For a moment he just stood there, hands on his sidees, panting. The river hung in defiance above the ground, a slow, impossible loop of water drifting in the air. It moved with an unhurried certainty, endlessly circling back into itself, glowing a deep crimson that caught the fading sunlight and turned it into something almost molten.
Nova’s voice cut through the quiet, bright and breathless in contrast to the stillness around them. He turned toward her, catching the flush in her cheeks, the faint shimmer still clinging to the edges of her magic as it faded under exhaustion. The grin she wore didn’t quite hide how tired she was, even if she clearly had no intention of admitting it. “You ‘let’ me find you,” Marcus laughed, a smirk tugging at his mouth as his cerulean gaze scanned her up and down before settling on her brilliant eyes. “Right. That’s what happened.”
He stepped closer to the edge of the clearing, eyes tracking the crimson water as it looped endlessly overhead. There was something unsettlingly peaceful about it, like the whole place had decided to ignore how wrong it was. “We ended up somewhere good to stop, at least,” he added more softly, rolling his shoulders as he finally came fully to a halt beside her. “You look like you’re about to collapse.” He winked.
The flush of her cheeks hid the blush that tried to rise when he laughed at her. She was strangely conscious of the way his eyes scanned from her sparkly shoes to her pink encantado sweater dress to her blonde and purple hair, but it didn't distract her from the sarcasm in his voice and Nova stuck to her belief - no matter how unsupported the claim. "It is! You never would have found me otherwise!" Still, there was a smile on her face, matching Marcus's with a confident gleam.
She looked out to the river as he stepped next to her, face illuminated in the dying light of day and the glowing red of the Crimson Cataract. It was pretty at least. She liked it enough not to be upset with where they'd ended up, and she wouldn't mind taking a break here, maybe a nap or a snack. It has her head nodding, a quiet contentment forming before Marcus went and ruined it.
Her mouth opened in silent indignation as her gaze snapped to Marcus - who had the audacity to claim she looked tired enough to collapse then wink at her. "I. Do. Not." She stretched herself so that every inch of her height stood as tall and proud as it could, chin raising to display the stubborn purse of her lips as she clenched her hands. "I'll prove it! I'll beat you again! Right now!" But she didn't even stomp her foot, the energy to do so feeling far off, far more bark than bite right now.
Marcus watched her try to make herself taller, as if sheer determination could undo the fact that she was very clearly running on fumes. The stubborn set of her shoulders, the way she lifted her chin like it was a challenge to the entire world, drew a quiet, reluctant laugh out of him. It wasn’t mocking. Though, he didn’t point out the obvious. Not this time.
Instead, his gaze drifted back to the Crimson Cataract, the river suspended in the air above them. Marcus shifted his weight, rolling his shoulders again. “You don’t have to prove everything all the time,” he said after a moment, voice light, but without his earier sarcasm. His eyes flicked toward her. “Especially not to me.” The red glow of the river caught on her hair when she moved, turning the strands into something almost unreal for a moment. Marcus found himself watching it a second longer than necessary before forcing his attention back to the river.
When she looked like that, all bright-eyed even when she was clearly exhausted, still ready to charge headfirst into another impossible challenge, it was difficult not to feel something loosen in his chest. Impossible to hide the heat and color in his ears and cheeks. He crouched near the edge of the clearing, picking up a small stone and turning it between his fingers before flicking his wrist to see if he could skip the stone on the impossible river.
Nova watched him as he shifted, noting the way the sarcasm fell away, eyes trading between the red river and her. She tilted her head to look at him more closely, some of the fight and indignation softening to open curiosity. "Then how will people know how awesome and strong I am?" She didn't comment on his specification that she didn't need to prove herself to him, although her eyes seemed to ask the question. What made him any different?
Marcus was fun and easy to talk to and she liked hanging out with him, but he wasn't like her siblings. They were the other parts of her. They were the other stars in her constellation, formed together, as one, then raised together, as one. It gave them the ability to know just how incredible she was without her needing to say or do anything. How were other people supposed to know that unless she showed them?
Her eyes followed as he threw a rock towards the river, glittering with clear delight when it skipped once then plopped into the water only to drift to the bottom and fall out the other side onto the ground with a thunk. She giggled, retrieving her own rock and throwing it into the currents. The effort was slightly labored although her breath had calmed, the rock plopping into the river without skipping like Marcus's had. It was slightly annoying, but she chose to enjoy the way the rock twisted and sun through the Crimson Cataract and back onto the dirt ground.
Marcus watched her throw the stone, his attention lingering less on the rock itself and more on the delight that immediately followed when it vanished into the crimson current. The giggle that escaped her carried easily across the clearing, bright against the steady murmur of the floating river. He found himself smiling because there was something infectious about her enthusiasm, something that made even the strangest corners of the Greatwood feel a little less intimidating. Turning another stone over between his fingers, he glanced sideways at her and shook his head faintly. “I think people figure it out pretty quickly,” he said. “The awesome part, anyway.”
He tossed the stone upward once and caught it again, watching the crimson light reflect off its damp surface. “You’re not exactly subtle.” There was teasing in the remark, but no bite to it. His gaze drifted back toward her for a moment, taking in the way the fading sunlight and red glow of the river tangled together in her hair. Even exhausted, she seemed incapable of being anything less than vibrant. “Most people don’t run headfirst into mysterious magic pools, race across half the Greatwood, and then insist they’re completely fine afterward.”
A quiet laugh escaped him as he flicked his next stone into the floating river. It skipped once, twice, before disappearing beneath the crimson surface. Marcus followed its path until it dropped out the underside of the current and struck the ground below. Then he settled back on his hands, beside Nova, watching stones tumble through an impossible river.
She leaned into his smile, embracing the compliment with sparkling eyes and a quiet intensity. "You think?" Ignoring the fact that he didn't include the 'strong' part in his assessment, she liked to hear that she exuded exactly what she intended to. People needed to know how amazing she was.
Her lips curled into a mischievous grin when he reported that she wasn't 'subtle,' a shimmering giggle escaping as she reached for another rock of her own. She inspected it before letting it plop back onto the ground at her feet, too tired to bother with throwing it again. "You didn't let me get in the pools," she teased, remembering distinctly how he blocked her path. She was still tempted to go back and see what truly lay beneath the surface but settled for lifting her chin stubbornly into the air, huffing a haughty breath. "And I am fine." The gleam in her eyes dared him to say otherwise.
The way she flopped down next to him in the grass might have told a different story, the motion anything but elegant as gravity pulled her into its clutches. The impact was punctuated with a growl of her stomach, and Nova groaned as she leaned back. "Just a little hungry."
Had he been in any other company, he may have snorted when she immediately seized on the compliment. But he was unsurprised by how readily she accepted it. If anything, he suspected she would have been more suspicious if he hadn't agreed with her assessment of herself. When she reminded him that he had not let her get in the pools, he wanted to argue about how he was scared he would never see her again. Argue how her mother would skin him alive despite any love she had for his father. Instead, he tipped his head back to watch the impossible river looping overhead, listening to the steady rush of crimson water. When his gaze drifted back toward her, it was just in time to watch her dramatically flop into the grass beside him. TThen her stomach growled.
The moment she admitted she was hungry, Marcus was already pushing himself to his feet. He brushed bits of grass and dirt from his pants, eyes automatically tracking toward the surrounding treeline. Hunting was as natural to him as breathing. Problem identified, solution found. “If you're hungry, I'll find something.” His gaze swept the forest edge, listening for movement beyond the clearing. “Rabbit, maybe. Or whatever the Greatwood decides to give us.” A smile softened his features as he glanced back down at her, reassuring. With that, he turned toward the trees, still smiling to himself as he started searching for tracks.
She hadn't expected her whiny admission to prompt any action, just speaking it aloud as she debated reaching into her bag for a snack. However, Marcus appeared to take it as a challenge, and when he sprung to his feet with a light in his eyes, Nova just blinked. For a moment, he towered over her, outlined in the red of the river, brimming with enthusiasm and excitement that she appreciated with an artist's eye.
He was very nice to look at. Dark hair, blue eyes, a sincere smile. There was a ruggedness to him after running through the forest with her, but his years of hunting seemed to make the exertion and exhaustion second nature, the rumple of his clothes and ruffling of his hair fitting him more than any glitter she might have put on him.
Before she could tell him she had plenty of food for the both of them, Marcus wandered off towards the forest, and not wanting to ruin his fun, she didn't call out. Instead, she leaned back farther into the grass, her eyes drifting up towards the stars that were starting to wink into the night sky. The gravity of laying down pulled at her eyelids, a yawn interrupting her admiration of her mother's domain.
By the time Marcus was returning, Nova had drifted to sleep. A soft, delicate snore accented her breath every few seconds, her mouth laying partially open as if she might leap into another monologue about pretty things at any moment. She'd curled onto her side at some point, tucking her legs up towards her so that her pink sweater dress covered more.
