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!
And apparently Frey still wants us to have sex... Phoebe thought considering the way in which the god had said she would need to conceive a child made of Remi and Ronin's blood alone. But she absolutely wasn't about to being that up again. "All I'm saying is maybe you're allowing a few bad experiences to blind you from the full truth." she quipped back, a small smile on her lips. "Frey certainly holds nothing against you."
Phoebe considered what he said, something about his words reminding her of Amalia's questions. "Amalia seemed to think that it came from the Voice...but I've yet to find anything that seems mechanical or manufactured. But...that doesn't mean a natural thing couldn't have been spread by unnatural means." she said, a dreadful feeling coming over her. What if...what if someone was out spreading the blight on purpose?
"Frey said that the Mathair is a tree that the Fae believe used to be a goddess." Phoebe explained. So, a tree, but a very special one.
Still, the alchemist shrugged. He had enough on his plate without worrying about that particular god, and whatever help they might be able to provide, it seemed Phoebe would be that conduit of information anyways.
Casually, Remi shrugged. " I don't know..the ascendeds almost seem natural enough, and they were made by her." He said with a sigh. Her words caught her off guard then, and he nearly came to a full halt as they trekked through the woods. "Intentionally?" Remi swallowed, thinking of what Sam had said about the Voice asking him to explore the woods. "Do you...but why would anyone do that?" He asked, knowing in his heart of hearts that Sam would never do such a thing. The only caveat being that he wouldn't do such a thing knowingly.
"Oh." Remi stuttered with a shake of his head. "Good. Off to see another goddess then." He added with a wry shake of his head.
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe bit her lip, suddenly feeling like they were onto something very dark, and very above their heads. Why would someone spread something intentionally? What would Frey tell her? "Why does anyone do anything destructive?" she said quietly, after a moment's pause. She looked over at Remi, worry clear in her eyes. "Because they think the ends justify the means. Because it gets them something. I can think of at least one person that might have a grudge big enough to seek to destroy the world that lay outside the barrier." she said quietly, eyes falling to the book in her hands. She didn't want to think that this had something to do with the voice. She was just a small, weak human. She wasn't anyone or anything great - she was no hero. Just a midwife, trying to help heal people and calm her god-friend's worries.
She smiled a little at Remi's joke and shook her head. "You're in luck. Frey said that the Fae thought it was a goddess, not that is was. I think we are safe from errant deities today." she said with a light laugh.
Remi raised a brow. "Who?" He asked, wondering if she meant the Voice or someone else. As for what the ends might be, he had no idea. "The blight seems only to have effected the Greatwood...though perhaps it does stretch farther and we just do not know." Safrin having contacted it seemed...accidental, almost. From what he had heard, she knew she shouldn't have entered the Spire (though perhaps that was for some other unrelated reason).
Ruffling a hand through his curls, the alchemist shook his head and sighed as if relieved. He wasn't of course, but the pretense lightened his heart a bit. "Ahh yes, because the fae are so rarely wrong." He grinned back.
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"The Voice." she said softly, a frown curving her lips. "But more than likely one of her followers. People with power rarely get their own hands dirty after all." she said quietly. "But...that would mean someone would have had to go running around the Greatwood without being apprehended by the Fae and that...well it just seems like that wouldn't be possible." The Fae seemed to know where every living creature was in the Greatwood at any given time. She couldn't even go bumbling through the Greatwood without being found by irritated guards - she couldn't imagine someone spreading the blight would go unnoticed.
The playfulness in Remi's voice pulled her out of her dark musings, and she smiled at him a bit. "Well, they did think they could catch the sun in baskets to make the days longer once upon a time so I think they are as fallible as us in their own ways." she said with a grin.
People with power. But was she a person? Remi nibbled the inside of his lip, offering Phoebe a feeble sort of half-shrug. "Wessex did." He interjected softly. It was why she hadn't been at one of the meetings, a current throne in her crown and Ronin's side. "She was captured, but...she made it quite far. And.." The words felt like lead on Remi's tongue, his smile faltering even as he tried to widen it. "And...Sam can be invisible." He all but whispered, the words like daggers on an already ragged soul.
As the forest appeared like a looming guardian around them, Remi began to whistle for just a moment. He had no hope at all that it would call the merchant's wagon, but...just in case. Ianto, if you are there...I would really like to see you.. He called mentally. Unsure of just how far his attuned-voice would stretch, he thought it was worth a try.
"If the blight started near the Mathair...are we in danger of being close, do you think?" Ronin only contracted the blight because Safrin had it, and thus far no one else that Remi knew of was personally sick from it.
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Phoebe looked over at him wide-eyed, her already pale features going ghostly white. It was just too coincidental. It lined up too well. She knew Wessex was a new Queen but otherwise knew nothing of the woman. But...Sam. "Remi...if Sam helped spread the blight..." She would have to tell Frey. It wasn't even a question. People were dying. Animals, and entire forest were dying because of this blight. "Do...you you think he would let me examine him? Just to see if anything is on him that appears like the blight?" she said, changing the subject quickly. There was no point going to the worst possible conclusion when they might not even be right.
"It is my understanding, based on things Frey told Pim, that we are only in danger if we eat blighted things. So long as we keep open wounds from touching it, and don't eat blighted things, I believe we should be alright." she said. But it was just a belief. She was putting everything on the line to go and study the blight at the Mathair. "I have protective gloves we can use once we get there." she assured.
Remi's smile was frail as he nodded weakly. "He...he just said that she asked him to explore. That was all. I am sure if he knew what he was doing, if we are even right...there is no way he would have done it." Please, please let that be true, Remi silently prayed. As for examining him? "I... I am not sure. Sam can be a bit..." Nibbling the inside of his cheek, something in his heart tensed. "..wary, I suppose. But yes, that might be wise."
With a light chuckle, Remi nodded. "Alright. No shifting and eating the blight. Got it." He said with a grin he didn't quite feel the warmth of.
Glancing around the Greatwood, Remi sipped some of the crisp Leafchange air. "Honestly Phoebe, I do not know where we are going. I take it if this tree was said to once be a goddess we will recognize it, when we find it?"
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I am sure he wouldn't have." she said in agreement with Remi, but it was a bit of a white lie, which was the only way she managed to get it through her lips without flinching. Sam could be...weak willed. She could imagine a scenario where the Voice convinced him this was somehow good and so went along willingly. But she wouldn't say it to Remi, not now, not when emotions were on edge as it was. "Well...if you could perhaps bring him to the College...perhaps we can convince him. Or...well you rather. Or...we could lie and say I am just studying cells and want to see how ascended differ from others..." Even saying it openly made her shudder. She didn't like dishonesty, it was something she could rarely get away with.
But...for the sake of the Greatwood? For Safrin and Ronin? She might have to.
"Yes, no eating blighted creatures." she said with a light laugh. She turned her head, looking down at Pim, her neck and the marks it bore exposed again. "That goes for you too Pim. No eating anything, and keep your head away from blighted plants." she said, to which Pim trilled.
"I should think it would be obvious..." she said quietly, looking around with knitted brows. Suddenly a thought came to mind, and she pulled out her canteen of water. "Ianto might not be here...but maybe we can put his tricks to use." she said, going over to a tree, and pouring some water at it's roots. "Excuse me, I am sorry to bother you but I am trying to find Mathair. Frey asked me to research the blight that is hurting you. We just want to help find the cure so you can heal, Greatwood. Could you please help us get there?" she said, speaking to the wood sweetly.
Remi tilted his head unhappily at the suggestion that he should lie. Immediately he shook it no, frowning at the midwife. He knew for some that indeed, the ends justified the means...one lie to save a wood, to save Ronin seemed a small price to pay, but even so everything in Remi's soul backed away from the idea. "No..I...I am sure he will come if I tell him what has happened." He mumbled with a faltering smile.
Raising a brow and tilting his head to the side, Remi watched as Phoebe knelt down and began to...water and speak with a tree. For all his magic and his attuned abilities, it had never occurred to him to just ask the forest, and so, watching silently, Remi too added what he could to her offering. He made the blooms around the tree more vibrant and full of life, healing some of the dead plants and revitalizing the soul.
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The refreshment was welcome, the addition of more greenery too. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the tree began to shift. One of its large boughs twisted until a gnarled near-finger points down a specific path.
Phoebe smiled at Remi, glad that he was just as uncomfortable with the lie as she was. "Alright. Please try. If he won't do it willingly though...we might be able to get some help." Not that she wanted to ask Frey to intervene and somehow get Sam to comply...but she did have to answer to the god, and if they heard Sam might be the cause, she doubted she would have to ask their assistance. This blight disturbed them deeply.
Remi added his help to the tree, and she watched with hope that the wood might respond. Slowly, very, very slowly, the tree began to shift, and she tilted her head curiously. As a bark covered finger pointed a direction, she smiled brightly. It worked!! She bowed respectfully to the tree. "Oh, thank you so much! We will do our best to help!" she said to the tree, then grinned at Remi. "Good manners do go far! This way apparently." she said, setting off in that direction.
"Mmm." Remi hummed with a nod. There were other ascendeds too. "It might be worth asking the others as well. Safrin wondered if they could even be infected." Swallowing those words back, he fell silent. If he wasn't prepared to lie, he certainly wasn't prepared to potentially commit one of his friends to a death sentence merely for science's sake.
"Manners." He repeated with a wry chuckle, before shrugging and following along the course the tree had apparently pointed out.
it's like sunshine and whiskey
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Well...if you can think of a way we might be able to get some cells off of Queen Wessex, I would be happy to examine those too." she said to Remi with a small smile. While she thought the one that the Voice sent into the wood specifically the most likely lead, Phoebe would take what she could get. "Anything is possible at this point." she said with a light shrug.
The blonde grinned back at him. "Yes. Manners. Remember, that is how we got the wagon unstuck before." she said with a smile as they walked. She looked at Pim then too as they walked passed. "Say thank you, Pim." she said to her little dragon. Pim huffed then roared back at the tree, in his own dragony way thanking the tree for helping his little helpless hooman friend.
"So...beyond all of this...how are you doing, Remi?" she asked him as they walked. Things could change quickly - she knew that from her own day to day life as of late. And with a husband and a baby, she figured his life was no different.
