What do you get when two ruthless assassins raise their daughter travelling through the wildest reaches of Caido? Take one look at Theea and you'll get a pretty good idea. Cheerful and tenacious in equal measure, and curious beyond all else, she began her journey on a mission to find those her mother once called family. And find them she did, soon rubbing elbows with demigods, leaders and even ghosts from the past. Her determination is resolute, her thirst for knowledge unmatched. We can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her!
Congratulations, Theea!
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!
No trip home would be complete without a visit to Safrin and the Celestine - and no, his brief stop alongside Kaisel doesn't count. He'd been little more than a bystander then, a prop to make his cousin look better in his patroness' eyes. Not that he minded, not at all, but his goddess deserves so much more than a cursory visit. She deserves the entirety of his devotion, commands it, and who is Koa to do aught but oblige?
So the next day he returns to the shrine, except this time alone. Okay, not entirely - Pip is there as well, her summer coat coming sleek and smooth as the last of the spring chill melts away. She carries in her maw a wicker basket; now she sets it beside the shrine, rummaging through its contents with small, deft claws. It takes her a few seconds to find the thing she seeks, but eventually she fishes it out from among the other trinkets and baubles: a lovely, moss-green agate that she'd found in the Stonesong and polished until it glistened in even the faintest light.
Koa watches with pride and fondness as his little dragon sets the treasure gingerly on Safrin's shrine. "Very good," he murmurs when she scurries back to where he kneels down, fingers scratching indulgently between her inky horns. He doesn't know if it has any real value, but to Pipsqueak it is priceless, and that makes it a marvelous gift in the Dragoon's eyes.
For his part the young man hasn't brought an offering so much as a vibe. The shrine is lovely any time of day, all vibrant flowers and rippling water that reflects the skies above. But now as the sun dips beyond the horizon, one altar glows beyond the rest. Koa has spent the last half hour surrounding Safrin's effigy with candles of every shape and size: firelight flickers from water-borne votives and aromatic beeswax and hanging lanterns and silver stands. Kneeling among the incandescence, Koa feels smugly pleased. This is a fitting stage for his goddess to shine on. "I've completed your tasks, Safrin," the young man announces, bronze face aglow in the fading light as he looks hopefully to the space where he anticipates the goddess will appear.
- Experience something heavier than expected (interpretation up to you) - talking about relationships/trauma with Zavien: cup with dirt in it
- Complete a training thread while physically weighed down - [Training] budding strength
- Complete a thread where he uses gravity to his advantage - Sledding with Deimos: quiet air is worth some discussion
- Complete a thread where gravity is a disadvantage - Climbing out of a well: beneath the brine
If possible I would like to spend 1650 MP to get his ring at mastered level out the gate, please <3
When you punish a person for dreaming his dream
Don't expect him to thank or forgive you
The shrine lit not with firelight but starlight as Safrin descended—no fanfare, no thunderous arrival. Just a hush, a stillness that pressed tenderly against the garden's twilight air, and then she was there, standing among the constellation of candles Koa had so painstakingly arranged. Their flames flickered and bent toward her like flowers chasing the sun.
Before a word could leave his mouth, Safrin closed the space between them. She swept Koa into a fierce, undeniable hug, holding him tight against her as if he were something precious, something luminous she refused to let go of. "You did so well," she murmured against his ear, her voice thick with a pride that was fierce and unyielding. "I'm so proud of you, my bright boy."
She pulled away, but only just enough to look at him properly, her hands cradling either side of his face for a moment longer before finally releasing him. Her smile lingered like starlight on the cusp of dawn—fond, indulgent, radiant.
With a graceful flick of her wrist, she summoned a thread of pure brilliance into existence between them. It spun out of the night air like silk drawn from the heart of the cosmos itself, folding and weaving until it condensed into something denser, darker, deeper. It shimmered strangely—black as the void yet edged with faint silver glimmers, like a piece of the universe forged into tangible form. The object, shaped roughly like a curved blade or talon, seemed to pulse faintly, heavier than anything so small had a right to be, almost like a shard of gravity itself had been caught and crystallized.
Safrin held it out to him in both hands, the object hovering lightly above her palms. "Made of starlight, tempered by your devotion," she said, her voice warm with pride. "It will strike with the weight of the heavens—and because you've been working so hard, my darling, it carries a little extra punch for you as well."
Koa has received
Gravitine Band (Mastered) | A ring made out of dark starlight that inflicts gravity damage on a successful hit.
Safrin appears as she always does, stitched in starlight with a mantle of beauty that takes his breath away. Breath he needs for earnest flattery, which dances at the tip of his tongue.
But then Safrin does something Koa can't have expected: she sweeps him into her embrace, wrapping him in starlight and safety and love. His eyes fly open in shock and wonder; he flails, briefly, like a drunken chicken, totally at a loss for what to do with his hands. Does he hug her back? Would that be terribly impertinent?
Something fragile snaps within him, the tightly wound thread that's been keeping him upright unspooled by her skillful, silken touch. Fuck it, Koa's hugging a goddess. You only live once, and Koa really, really needs this right now. The returning hug is both fierce and tender, his muscular arms wrapping firmly around her, anchoring him in her light. It's everything that he's ever wanted, what he's craved and sought within work and women, friends and family, and never quite managed to find.
But right here, right now, in his goddess' arms? Koa feels like he's where he's meant to be.
It lasts forever and less than a breath, and then she's pulled back far enough to cup his face in her hands. Awe and adoration cascade openly over the Dragoon's face, making him all the more handsome for the lack of any guile. There are tears of pride and happiness in Koa's eyes as he breaks into a brilliant smile. "Thank you, Safrin," he murmurs softly, a slight hiccup in his boyish voice
Finally Safrin releases him to pluck a strand of starlight, and for a moment of spiraling eternity Koa has no idea what's going on - not until she holds out her hands to reveal a glittering treasure hovering within. It's devastatingly beautiful, black as the darkest sky at midnight and shimmering with stars, and Koa can sense the might of it, the power all but humming from within. "It's incredible," he breathes, reaching for it, his hand pausing just above the precious onyx band.
Koa's copper eyes flick back up to meet Safrin's, an almost shy smile on his handsome face. "Will... will you put it on me, My Lady?" The electric band already glitters on his middle finger, but the rest are waiting and free.
When you punish a person for dreaming his dream
Don't expect him to thank or forgive you
The light between them pulsed gently, echoing the rhythm of Koa’s heart—loud and open and utterly sincere. Before she even looked to the ring in her hands, Safrin stepped forward and drew him into her arms once more, one hand smoothing through his curls, the other curled lightly at his back. "My sweet boy," she whispered, her voice like velvet starlight pressed close to his ear. "You always try so hard to be brave. Always shouldering more than you need to." She rocked him gently for a moment, cradling him not as a soldier, not as a man, but as hers—a piece of the sky she had chosen and claimed.
Only after that did she draw back enough to let the onyx ring shimmer into her palms. Her eyes never left his face. It was not often one of her own looked at her like that—with awe, yes, but not with the kind of raw, unguarded trust that stripped away the need for pretense. For once, there was no need to remind him of what he owed her. No lecture. No tease. Just this: the bright, blushing centre of a boy's devotion offered freely in her hands.
"Koa.." she hummed his name, her smile softening into something quieter. More intimate. "Of course I will."
With the reverence of a coronation, Safrin stepped closer. Her hand lifted the onyx ring, now gleaming with a liquid sheen like the surface of a dark sea under moonlight. Stars flickered faintly within it, drifting just beneath the surface like a thousand little secrets waiting to be revealed. Carefully, she took his hand in hers—so much bigger, so much rougher—and with a gentle press, she slid the ring onto his middle finger.
As the band settled into place, it fused not with his skin, but with his gravity. The pull of it settled into his bones, ancient and heavy and divine. A quiet, invisible promise: that when he struck, the world would feel it. That this, too, was her will. "There," she said, her fingers lingering over his knuckles before drawing them toward her lips to press a starlight kiss against the back of his kuckles.
There are many things that people see when they look at Safrin, many she has been to the world - and to him. She has been his goddess, his patron, the object of his desire and his devotion, the source of shelter in the storm. She has been his guiding light and his harbor, rarefied and real. And now as she wraps him in his arms, holding him against her chest like he's the most precious thing in her universal world, Koa again feels his view of her shifting as his heart rotates a kaleidoscope. A feeling of warmth and safety and being loved suffuses him, so fierce and bright he nearly chokes.
It's the way he used to feel in his mother's arms, before the war ripped her away.
The feeling only grows that much brighter as she slips the ring onto his finger, its power and divinity humming as it conforms and settles to become a part of him. "Wow," he breathes, unable to conjure more intelligent words. Though the depth of his gratitude and awe and pride plays like a symphony in his voice and face. "This is... wow."
A brush of deep maroon paints his ears as she presses her lips against his knuckles; he straightens, copper eyes glittering in the light of flames and stars, a knight before his magnificent queen. "I'll never take it off," Koa vows with confidence emboldened by youth, chin raised resolutely as he meets her gaze. "Thank you - for your faith in me, and your favor. I will make you proud, Safrin." Proud enough so that one day, when history accounts her strongest warriors - the Ronins and Hadamas and Deimos' of the world - the name Koa Carpenter will shine among them, emblazoned like a constellation in the silver stars.
When you punish a person for dreaming his dream
Don't expect him to thank or forgive you
Safrin watched him glow—not with magic, but with purpose. With that fierce, blinding belief that only the young possess, the kind that could topple empires or raise them from ash. Her thumb lingered against his knuckles for a moment longer, the afterglow of her kiss still warm against his skin.
"I know you will," she murmured, her voice rich with certainty—not just hope, not even faith, but the knowledge that came from having seen it already written in the stars.
She stepped back slowly, letting the space between them fill with starlight and promise, with the echo of devotion still humming in the air like the last note of a song. "And I will be with you every step of the way," she said softly, her gaze gleaming like a comet’s trail, sharp with beauty and burning with command.
One hand lifted, and with it, a gentle drift of constellation dust swirled around him. Not quite a blessing—he already had that. More of a benediction. A reminder that she was always watching, always listening. Always ready to lift him higher, should he only keep climbing. Then, with a shimmer of silk and stars, she vanished once more—leaving only the ring, the glow of candlelight, and the quiet, overwhelming weight of her pride in the boy who had chosen to rise.
