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!
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
Three kings in the Hollowed Grounds seemed like a good number. Better than one queen and two kings after all, and since Edy was now proudly sporting a penis, she was more than happy to join the boy's team if only in title.
Still, before Ronin agreed to her plan, she...probably had a bit of explaining to do. Or a lot of explaining, but she was hoping mostly to get away with only doing a bit of it. He knew of their shared Northaven experiences, wouldn't have to justify much of Zariah's behaviour, and even better, he knew about the Launceleyns.
"Captain my captaaaaainn-!" Edy called in a bright sing-song voice as she banged open the door to the guildhall. She was still a member after all.
One of these days, people would stop referring to Ronin as a captain. It had been near enough a year since he had been anyone's captain, after all. But at least they had stopped knocking at his door during working hours, as if the guildhall was just one big house.
Then again, if there was anyone Ronin had been hoping would knock before entering, it was the Queen of the Hollowed Grounds. Luckily enough things were quiet in the hall - which was good, because it meant that he only had to explain the mess to Remi.
By mess, of course, he meant the explosion of sharp icicles that blocked entryway to the great hall courtesy of Sugar, the dragonling swooping to land on Ronin's outstretched arm. His blue eyes were hard as he considered Edrei over the threshold, and though he knew it was probably good etiquette to bow, he wasn't really in the mood. "Yes, Your Highness," he said. "What is it?"
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Oh don't be like that." Edy scoffed, arms folded. At her heel, Bobi eyed the dragon with a predatory respect. The tension was palpable in her companion's mind, but even the bobcat was smart enough to know that as fast as she was, the icy queen atop the guildmaster's shoulder was too much of a match for her. Still, she growled low in her throat.
"Do we need the clear the air, or can we get down to it? Because what I came here to say is...well. Probably going to require a lot less of this—" Edy waggled her hand from Ronin's head and downwards, indicating his whole moody captain's attitude. "And a whole lot more...Oh I don't know. Happy Ronin."
Don't be like that? That might be nice, sure. Maybe it would have even been possible if it had been anyone else in his doorway. But after everything, unfortunately Ronin wasn't willing to handwave a Launceleyn in his home, even one that had been his friend once. "Oh, happy Ronin will be right back as soon as you leave," he assured her, unwilling or unable to put up that sort of mask in her presence.
"Is there something you need? Some report I didn't fill in? Remi isn't home, so unfortunately he's not available to make anything further for the crown right now." He raised a sharp brow, gazing at her expectantly.
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Why are you being such a dick? I brought Remi home as fast as I could. Would you have been happier had I taken him to the infirmary? Or, I don't know, gotten myself killed by intervening with Zariah? He just got a little magically tired, that's all." She said with a shrug.
With an exasperated sigh, Edy let herself in further to find a piece of furniture to lean angstly against. "I'm here for you, hence me shouting your name." She replied a touch sulkily. And then, because she didn't really know where to go from here, added, "And Zariah is gone as I"m sure you know. Who gives a fuck about paperwork."
"You know, anything would have been better than letting it happen. Woe betide you for doing what was right - just let Remi exhaust himself to death instead. He told me what happened - Zariah wouldn't let him stop. And you did nothing." He needed to cage his damned tongue and do it quickly before he got hurt, but once that fire had kindled in his belly he found he couldn't quite stop himself.
Tilting his head at her, he allowed Sugar to clamber up and onto his shoulder as he considered her with clear wariness. "How can you expect me to trust anything you say? Zariah's gone - and if she isn't? If she's just waiting for someone to fuck up, or watching for any sign of rebellion?" He shrugged. "How am I to know?"
07-27-2019, 09:09 PM (This post was last modified: 07-27-2019, 09:09 PM by Edrei.)
Edrei the Rapacious
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Woe betide?" Edy sniped, smirking at Ronin and feeling her lips curve into a smile that he always seemed to coax out of her. That would probably just make him more angry, so she sighed it away as best she could. "How do you know I didn't? And don't act like you're on such a high horse. You know what it is to take and follow orders. I wasn't even in the room.
Looking as if she'd been slapped, Edy recoiled with a slight snarl, averting her eyes for a bitter moment. "Have I ever lied to you Ronin? Or been anything but blunt and upfront about everything? Zariah is gone. Off on some mission for the voice."
"I also know what it's like to defy them, even if it means a verbal smackdown from the General of the Storm. Or being beaten within an inch of my life by Archebold fucking Cobb, and thrown in a cell to rot," he sniped back, folding his arms across his chest. When she looked so wounded he raised his eyebrows, shaking his head at her.
"Yes," he said easily. "The night you brought Remi back here, and you wouldn't say a word about what happened. Not blunt. Not upfront." Shaking his head, he took a few steps back and sagged against one of the chairs. "So she's gone. Now you're queen. And I would really appreciate if you were to leave now, if there is nothing you want from me."
07-27-2019, 09:21 PM (This post was last modified: 07-27-2019, 09:22 PM by Edrei.)
Edrei the Rapacious
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Right well. This isn't the General of the Storm, but Zariah fucking Launceleyn, and as someone from Northaven you know damn well what that entails." The Launceleyn compound might have given Edy many things, but a moral compass had never been one of them.
"That was because you were a drunk asshole if I remember." Which..she absolutely did not. It was just some gossip she'd heard from the rest of the guards over breakfast one morning. And since Ronin was in jail, it had definitely been Arche's version of events.
"Did you ask?" Edy sniped right back, brows raised challengingly. "I told you what I could at the time and probably more too."
Watching him turn away and leave brought heat to her cheeks. She wanted to go over and punch him or maybe show him her new dick and see if he'd like to work on any of his techniques to better please his husband. Anything but this diplomacy shit.
Biting the inside of her lip, Edy skulked her way over to where Ronin was but didn't sit. Instead she folded her arms across her chest and hovered over him like some shackled ghost. "I'm sorry, okay? I wasn't there. I didn't know Zariah would...you know. Use him up, or whatever. I brought him here to you as soon as I found out." Running her fingers up her arm, Edy's jaw tensed for a moment. "Yeah there is something I want. Are you ready to talk, or is this just how we are now?"
"Apparently so. But here's the thing - I was Zariah fucking Launceleyn's captain for a good, long while, and I never saw her do much more than snipe from the sidelines," Ronin snapped, before having to physically bite at his knuckles to stop from letting anything further out. Even so, as Edrei approached well beyond the line of ice Sugar had used to try to establish distance between them, the dragon on his shoulder snapped her teeth at the approaching monarch.
Rubbing tiredly at his eyes, Ronin shook his head. "Edy, do I have to beg you to leave before you'll actually do it? Say what you have to say and go. Please."
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Good for you." Edy groaned, throwing her hands up dramatically. "The storm guard ain't got nothing on our family dynamics."
Knowing how Bobi's actions were often a manifestation of how Edy was feeling, Edy took Sugar's snap more than a little personally. Had she hackles, they would be fully raised. Being dismissed so out of hand was probably one of the easiest ways to properly chaff Edy's insecurities. Puffing out a small stream of air with all the sass of one still very young, Edy merely shook her head. Feeling the prickles of tears behind her eyes and the weighty heaviness of rejection on her chest, she turned to head for the door.
"Fine. Don't be king. See if I care." She snarled over her shoulder.
"So I have seen. The Storm Guard had honour, and cared about the people who weren't a part of its family, as well as those who were," Ronin muttered, his voice half a growl as he looked somewhere at the wall beyond where Edrei was standing.
Only when she turned to leave did he feel a fraction of the tension start to leave his shoulders, Sugar's cold snout pressed firmly against the side of his neck. Pinching at the bridge of his nose, his eyes were shut by the time Edrei delivered her last snippy comment, and Ronin couldn't help the laugh that huffed out of his chest.
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He shook his head.
07-27-2019, 09:39 PM (This post was last modified: 07-27-2019, 09:41 PM by Edrei.)
Edrei the Rapacious
& I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put 'em
"Exactly. Edy hissed. Never once had Edy seen her family as anything more than the overpowered henchman they were always made out to be. That was her fucking point.
"Doesn't matter now, does it." The Queen/King (she did have a penis, the title could go either way, (as could Edy. EEYYYYY)) said. Reaching for the handle, Edy pulled the door open, meaning to slam it as hard as she could on her way out. If some of her disintegration magic made some of the wood warp, so much the better.
No, he supposed it didn't. Glaring hard at the door as Edrei left, Ronin didn't flinch as the deep slam echoed throughout the guildhall, even if Sugar betrayed him by nestling further against his shoulder. The hunter let out a long, shaky breath when she was gone, clenching and unclenching his hands as though to rid them of some of the pent up tension.
Sagging further into his seat, he rested his head in his hands for a while, wondering when he had started to associate Edrei with all of the worst parts of the Launceleyn family. Even more concerning was his total inability to hold his temper when she was present. So, after sitting for a few moments, Ronin poured himself a large drink, and padded upstairs to think.
