From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
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!
Do you see him? Remi thought to Isla, his heart in his throat and the pounding of blood in his ears like a drumbeat of agony in his skull. Part of him hoped the answer was no. The rest of him knew it would be yes.
I do. Isla replied gently, projecting the image of the upturned collar, the skulking gaze, the coppery hair. Remi felt the panicked roar of blood in his ears as he nodded. Gripping her wither for balance, the alchemist slid off of her side but still clutched a fair amount of mane in one hand to tether them together.
Ianto— Remi called out silently, knowing that even with Isla's guidance that the thickening crowd would prevent a blind man from easily navigating to the fox.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla had seen him and Ianto had seen that she had seen him and fuck but when had the prospect of being around people - especially a certain person - ever filled him with anxiety? His hands clenched involuntarily at the mental voice that echoed in his head, Ianto pressing his eyes shut to stop them prickling. Clearing his throat, he very warily approached Remi and the unicorn, breath catching in his throat at the evidence of the damage done.
"I'm here," he all but whispered. "Remi, I..." Swearing in the strange, melodic tongye of the Fae, he shook his head. "This is all my fault. I should have... there's so much that went wrong..."
Instinctively Remi reached a hand out to try and locate the fox in the blackness that was now his worldview. Gently the alchemist shook his head at the sound of the apology, worry writ on his features. "It does not matter." The alchemist replied, his hand still seeking out some part of the fox. "The important thing is that you are alright. Are you? Did she...when she took you, did she hurt you?"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ianto couldn't, as Remi reached for him - and he couldn't not either. So with another whispered curse he closed the distance between himself and the alchemist, taking Remi's hand between his own and pressing his lips to his fingertips. "Yes it does," he said in a voice barely audible, tears pricking the corners of his eyes as he looked the other man over fully.
"I'm fine. She took me with her and made me stay, but she didn't hurt me," he lied, the deception rolling easily off his tongue. Arduinna had hurt him, and healed him, and hurt him again in a cycle that had lasted long enough that Ianto lost all sense of time. "I'm so sorry."
For a long and terrifying moment in the darkness, Remi thought the fox would leave again. He thought he'd be standing there, arm outstretched, only to feel Isla gently nudging him and encouraging him homeward. But as he felt warm fingers around his, and then lips against the pads of them, Remi sighed shakily and took an awkward step forward.
"I am glad for that." Remi breathed, relief evident in his voice as his face tried to make a cheerful expression that was entirely ruined by the bandages. Pulling Ianto's hand back, Remi ran an exploratory thumb across his palm, his own fingers trembling slightly.
"Ianto did you...did you know she would do that? That removing the collar would summon her like that?" Remi asked in a low and almost worried tone.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Mm... Ianto said unhelpfully in response, not enjoying the awkwardness between them and wanting nothing more than to wrap Remi up in his arms, to hold him and check he was alright and to apologise over and over about what he'd allowed to happen. Instead, he let the alchemist create more distance between them, the thumb ghosting across his palm like a memory.
His question, though, turned Ianto's blood to ice; shakily the fox shook his head no, before realising Remi couldn't see. Because Arduinna had blinded him. "I had no idea," he half whispered. "I swear it. I thought... I thought it would hurt me, when you tried to take it off. I was prepared for it to hurt me."
And oh, but it had. Just... not in any way he could have possibly imagined.
Tears tried to push themselves through his ruined eyes, and though it was painful, Remi hissed in a happy breath. Some still-wounded and broken part of his heart had thought that the fox simply hadn't come for him. Worse, that Ianto had let Remi try and remove the collar knowing full well what would happen.
That he did neither? It did much to settle Remi's uneasy heart.
Smiling with trembling lips, the alchemist pulled on the merchant's hand, wanting him close. Remi's free hand moved forward as well, expecting to find a hip or the fox's side to grasp onto. "I am so sorry. I...I had no idea. I am only glad that you are alright. Come here, please—"
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ianto winced as Remi pulled him closer, wanting nothing more than to fold into his arms but at the same time knowing how dangerous it was for the both of them. And yet, Ianto was as ever a coward, and his flailing willpower was nothing to Remi's anchor; he stepped forward, grasping Remi close, his arms slipping around him, quiet tears welling up in his eyes.
"But you are not alright," he whispered. "All because of me. Because of the deal that I made, the life I'm living. Remi, I don't... I can't hurt you again. I won't." And the weight of what that meant, with Arduinna pulling his strings, was heavier than he ever imagined it would be.
Remi hummed a note of relief, smelling the juniper and pine mixed in with smoke and spice the he'd come to expect from the fox, as he pressed his face into the crook of Ianto's neck, letting his arms curl around him.
"I will be alright." Remi countered. "And it was a deal you had to make. And we...we can figure it out..Arduinna said...she.." Remi bit his lip, thinking of her words. If you want to make a deal... Instead of smooth skin against him, all Remi could feel and smell was the collar back around Ianto's neck.
"It was not your fault ." He added after a moment.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I don't want you to be just alright," Ianto protested softly. "I want you to be safe, and happy." And it was almost traitorous, the way his body melted against Remi's, holding the alchemist close even while he tried to do the right fucking thing. "We tried figuring it out, Remi, and look what happened." The irony in saying look was almost enough to make him laugh, but he luckily caged it back. It wasn't the time and besides, it would have sounded hysterical.
Ianto sighed, stroking careful fingers through Remi's hair and down the length of his back, breathing in the scent of him deeply. "It might not have been my fault but I still take the blame," he murmured. "Remi, I... I can't put you in danger. I don't know if I'll ever be free of her. Ever. And she'll hurt you every chance she gets. I know it." Gritting his teeth, he grasped the other man's shoulders and stood back. "You need time to heal, to get back on your feet. And I don't think I can be part of it. I want to, but... I can't, Remi."
"Same for you." The alchemist replied immediately, a boyishly crooked smile forming on his lips and colouring the words. One of Remi's hands pulled in and around Ianto's jacket, to slide beneath the fabric of his shirt. Sighing heavily into the contact, the alchemist merely shook his head against with a shrug. "I would not say what I did was figuring it out. It was too brash...too reckless. I just..." Tilting his head up and then thinking better of it (it wasn't like he could actually look at Ianto, Remi sighed. "...I just wanted to try. But we will find another way."
Shivering beneath the fox's fingers, for a moment Ianto's words were just background noise. He heard them, the way you could hear the rain, but he wasn't really listening. Instead, he was smelling, and feeling, and was just happy to be close—
—until he was suddenly pushed back with hands against his shoulders. Raising his chin to look roughly where he thought Ianto was, Remi tilted an ear towards the fox as a confused expression clouded his face. "But..I am healed.." The alchemist replied uncertainly. "The bandages are just a precaution, but Isla...the skin is healed. There are not even any scars." I'm as healed as I'll ever be. "We can figure out a way to deal with Arduinna. Maybe Safrin can help. Or...or we will just..." Haplessly Remi shrugged his shoulders beneath Ianto's fingers, as he ventured a tentative and painfully optimistic half smile.
"We can make this work."
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ianto couldn't meet Remi's gaze, even when it was just sightless bandages, the fox gazing somewhere at the ground beside them. "You are healed," he muttered. "So you'll be able to see, when the dressings come off?"
He couldn't help but sound boyishly hopeful in that moment. To think that the damage he thought his godmother had done wasn't as terrible as he'd first assumed... it lifted his spirits enough to hear Remi out in full.
Shaking his head before realising the other man wouldn't see it, Ianto reached out to cup the alchemist's cheek in his hand. "The old gods are as much a part of Arduinna as the woods. I wouldn't rely on them," he muttered. "I just... No more throwing yourself into stuff like this, Remi. Please."
Clearing his throat slightly, the alchemist bit the inside of his lip and remained motionless for a moment. Eventually, though, he did shake his head slightly. "Isla thinks that...the damage was too severe. It was not the sort of thing she is capable of healing. Of anyone is healing, I suppose."
Feeling his cheek cupped, Remi ran a hand over it, leaning into the warm hand. "Stuff like this?" The alchemist replied with a light laugh. "You mean you? If so, I do not know if I can promise that." His smile was jovial and youthful, ignorant of the storm clouds lurking in his friends gaze.
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The shuddering sigh that escaped Ianto was almost a sob, but not quite, at hearing that his mistakes and his ignorance had gotten Remi permanently blinded. "No," he mumbled, as though his protest could fix it, the fox scowling deeply down at the ground even as the alchemist leaned into his gentle touch.
"I don't know that it's the kind of situation to laugh about," he mumbled, fingers lightly trembling against Remi's cheek, before he reached out to pull him close again into an embrace that suggested he wanted to protect the alchemist from the world.
