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!
Abasi was walking along the path to his home. The hot sand under his feet, hotter shame running through his heart...get my things, get out. That's all. he told himself. This was the hard part, with the watchful eyes of his neighbours judging him for not being his father, the part that marked the end of his hardest chapter.
And well, it would. Just not in the way he imagined.
His hand on the doorframe of his home was suddenly rushing through the wall, his whole body losing a grasp on the enviroment around him; it took a moment for his mind to catch up with the fact that he was underwater. Alarmed, he did the only thing he could think to do and swam up, no idea what was happening other than rushing, loud water and bubbles, then he was breaking the surface but instead of the familiar desert sun and pyramids--
there was--
...
What was this?
Bewildered he swam to the shore, stumbling up and laying on his side as he looked over the water he had just swum out of, the trees surrounding it and the mild-weathered sky. He had never seen any place like it. Panicked he just stared, panting and whipping his head around, trying to make sense of it. The heavy golden jewellry on his wrists clanked as he scrabbed up the edge.
It was the churning of water that first broke her focus on the spindle. Bubbles rising from the center were soon followed by a dark, water-slick head gasping for breath in a way that made her lungs seize at the memory of once inhaling water, stunning her as she watched in mystified silence as the new arrival swam to shore. "Oh." She could not remember the circumstances leading up to her arrival on Caido in the shadow of the Spire but remembered keenly how vulnerable she had felt, sparking something more nurturing than just simple curiosity.
She leaned the staff against the nearby tree she had sheltered under from the afternoon sun, winding the spindle and carefully arranging the items as not to lose all of her hard work, scooped up her satchel, and carefully picked her way across the uneven terrain of the shoreline, carefully watching her feet though she did periodically look up at the figure, marking their progress mentally as she scuttled just a bit quicker to the rescue.
"You look like you could use a hand," Mel called as she neared, proud to say she had even loped several paces there without so much as complaint - she felt better than she had in ages since her arrival, and not too soon. It was getting colder, night by night, a reasonable cause for concern despite her efforts to prepare. She drew to a halt several yards away, calmly fishing from the crossbody satchel a waterskin. "I wouldn't stand up too quickly - portals always made me feel a off on first arrival, do you want a drink?" Uncapping it, she took a dainty demonstrative swig before offering it down to him, slowly picking her way toward him over the rocks and mud and grass carefully.
Abasi coughed up water onto the rocks beneath, the rushing in his ears slowly giving way to reveal that someone was talking - he looked up and saw a woman after a moment. Most of her words fell past him, but the ones that did reach him made him frown; he did not recognise the sounds of her speech, yet...he understood it.
The last thing he thought he wanted was more water, but he took the offered waterskin automatically as she held it out.
He took one swig, the water bringing up the last of his choking breaths. "Portal. You said portal." Carelessly he tossed the skin back in her direction, too caught up in his discomfort and confusion to be polite (not that he often made an effort to be polite otherwise). "Is this the Land of Two Fields?"
Perhaps as he had been walking, a passer by had struck him and he had died without knowing of it. Though if this woman was a representation of Osriris, she was an odd one indeed.
She caught the skin but barely, capping it and carefully stowing it once again as she this time reached into a pocket and produced a handkerchief, offering it down to him as she came to knee, peering at him with scarred visage as she searched for signs of injury - malformed limbs, blood, bruising. "I can't imagine how else people would magically appear in lakes or strange lands but for portals." Tilting her head she leaned onto her raised knee, explaining her theory quite reasonably without so much batting an eye at the attitude. It helped that her initial instinct had been to stab - it made it a lot easier to try and be more understanding, given that sort of perspective.
Where they were was a bit more confusing to her than the how and had bothered her so much she had elected to stop thinking about it entirely, save for the basest of acknowledgement. She had no idea where Caido fell in relation to where they had been and this man did not appear familiar in any way. She was not sure what the Land of Two Fields was, nor how to explain it in a way that might make sense, so she didn't try to. Instead, she shook her head. "This is the land of Caido. Sorry to say, I think it has more than two fields." Sobering as the experience of waking up in a new world had been, she couldn't help but inject a bit of humor into the situation, offering him a crooked smile.
Clearing her throat, she averted her gaze briefly, turning toward the distant spire, then back to her new acquaintance, breathing a sigh. "We're going to be here a while - you're not experiencing any discomfort, are you? There's people in the settlement that can answer questions and patch you up if you need. Get some dry clothes for you." Her smile gentled, allowing more warmth into her expression as she attempted to make the situation seem perhaps a bit less dire than it sometimes could seem in her experience.
Most of what this woman was saying, like his situation at large, was not making any sense. He had never heard of 'Caido' but wherever it was it hard to be far from Egypt - and only a few minutes ago, he had been there. Was this the Gods finally showing up in his life? Just to mess it up? Set had once blown scattered bodies along the Nile in the legends for miles. Perhaps he had been taken by a wind too.
Managing to struggle up onto his feet, Abasi looked her up and down as he pressed his clothes back into a semi-orderly fashion. She had to be in on it. Whether she was a supernatural agent or mortal he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to get condescended to by a portal woman.
"I am Abasi, son of Hapuseneb, priest of the Pharoah, and I will not be played with. Take me back to Egypt or show your true self immediately."
She followed him up onto her feet, struggling thankfully very little. As she tucked the handkerchief away again and watched him carefully arrange himself, she found that subconsciously she mirrored this action, smoothing wrinkles from her own clothing as he made his demands, speaking down to her as though he still held some sort of authority here.
More bemused than annoyed, the witch's head tipped to the side as she drew a breath and exhaled, nodding slowly as she rubbed her hands together and interlaced her fingers. "Right - son of Haspuseneb, Priest Abasi." She pronounced the names passably, though they sounded still slightly wrong. Wearing a patient smile she looked him over, satisfied that he was not going to die on her watch, and breathed in, speaking on the exhale. "My sincerest apologies, however I cannot send you back and there is no truer face I have to offer." Calm and apologetic, Mel met his gaze again.
Her hands separated, lax at her sides. "You're very far from home, Abasi. You said you are a priest, no? Perhaps speaking with the gods would help clarify your thoughts?"
This womans common and unfamiliar accent sounded foreign and wrong around his father's name (not to mention his own) and Abasi wrinkled his nose with distaste. Especially as she continued to keep up the charade that she could not help him.
He sighed, irritated, and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was unprecidented and he didn't know how to handle it; there had never been a rule written down for 'if you appear suddenly in a lake in a forest you don't recognise'. At least he didn't have to ponder what to do for long, for the witch before him said something very interesting indeed.
"You know the Gods?" He asked. "I would very much like to speak to them." For once. It would certainly be the first time he'd actually felt any kind of connection there. "Take me to the Gods."
