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!
She waits for them, seated upon the lower hanging boughs of one of the still-healthy trees in the Wildwood. Leaves settle in her red locks, crowning her in the fiery colours of Leafchange, and she sits and hums a gentle tune to the woods around her.
"Come," she says softly, and somehow the words will seem to echo and ring out to those who were there the night that the great gourd made its approach on the forest. "You who have saved these great woods from more pain. Come and tell me your wishes, and I will see them made real."
Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown
Come she heard through her waltzing, her bliss, her relief. Come echoed again, causing her to turn her head, face to the wind, to the balm of autumn and its chilling flesh and blood; the singsong quandaries hastening over her mind. For a moment, she was unsettled, anxious, a weird, strange trepidation piercing on her skin – teeth worrying over lips, and she didn’t know where it had come from, because hadn’t she always followed, yearned, and craved? Hadn’t she always run straight into the ether, no inquiries asked? The heedless, reckless reverberations didn’t scrape at her here; instead, it was a coiled apprehension gnawing at her sides.
What’s going on? she wondered, not even noticing the trembling in her hands.
But she followed, like a dutiful little soldier, Fangorn at her heels, growling some version of inquisition at why she wasn’t rushing into the fold, at why they weren’t racing headlong into the abyss, into the void. When she glanced up, they’d managed to meander towards the Wildwood, and the beautiful Fae before them, compelling them onward and onward. Our wishes? They were being rewarded for the great pumpkin disaster? “Thank you,” was all she could manage to conjure at first, the boldness oddly lacking (and even that was irritating, usually so audacity, so quick to act). She didn’t even know what to ask for – her wish, what was her wish – before Fangorn nudged her, and the gilded set of her eyes flicked back to the kind Fae. “A new bow?” She wondered aloud; timid and sheepish, while the rest of her seemed dying to claw out – her breath and lungs in a rush, rapid inhales, palms quivering. Her other one had diminished in the fight; she’d yet to pull at the strings again, afraid it would crack and fall apart.
The alchemist did not come willingly, but instead stayed near the back of the 'pack', his shattered stare firmly fixed on the witch who had taken so very much from him. With magic enough to make whatever it was he might need, there was no part of him that wished anything from Arduinna save for a reprieve from her.
But...
For Ronin? But no. Jigano had said that Arduinna knew little of the blight...and yet she had healed the Undine. Swallowing hard, the massive beast simply stood among the trees a safe and hopefully respectful distance away.
Can you make something that will protect one from the blight? He asked. Not for Ronin who was already plagued with it, not for himself..
But for Aoife.
Please..
trying to take what's lost and broke and make it right
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A distraction from her otherwise normal day to day, the moment she hears the words echo in her head. It sounds nothing like the Voice, nothing like anything else she’d known. But she follows it, still a slight limp in her walk, ever slowly healing as the days went on. But without the pain, it only looks as awkward as it seems. Her feet manage to take her wherever the voice has called from, and she doesn’t seem to notice until she sees the trees of the Wildwood, eyes adjusting and watching to see a woman she’d seen before that night with the blighted Siren.
Melita is there, and Remi too (hidden and away). And suddenly she wonders if they’ve been summoned because of the pumpkin that had nearly killed her. She steps up beside her red haired friend, listening as Melita asks for a bow. She can’t hear what Remi asks for, but she knows he’s there and likely asking something, too. At least, if his more recent lesson had taught her anything. She doesn’t see Sam yet, but she approaches and gives a small fanged smile to Arduinna.
It’s not like she has anything against the witch, she barely even knows anything about her.
Splaying her hands in front of her she contemplates what to ask before folding her hands behind her back and straightening her posture. “A parasol to protect me in the sunlight?” She asks with a tilt to her head before another thought hits. “Maybe a hidden weapon within, if that’s possible.” A small quiet addition, uncertain if it can even be done, but she reaches out with an elbow to nudge Melita with another small smile.
A weapon was a wonderful idea, after all. But gods how she misses the sun.
To ask for presents at all was difficult for Sam, but from Arduinna? Who, as far as he could tell, was some kind of Fae Goddess...? It felt unnatural. But there he was, and he deserved to be there. Rubbing his hands together anxiously, he watched everyone else voice their desires. So sure, so easy. While he did know what he wanted, he waited to be the last to say because of his nerves.
"I, um.." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Sorry. I, um, I would like something to protect myself with, please. I am not a good fighter, so some kind of...ranged...thing? Would be good. I keep running into situations where it would be useful to have something." No one else had said this much, so he smiled and nodded, wondering if being awkward could disqualify him from the rewards.
One by one, they all arrive. And Arduinna greets them like heroes, like children of her beloved forest - yes, Remi, even you. As they state their wishes the Fae lady hears them out, puzzling through their requests and humming a song that has the leaves of the woods curling towards her, tickling at her ears and causing her to smile.
"Very well," she purrs, and the magic that suffuses the air as she gets to work is palpable. "Use them well, my sweetlings. Defend the Greatwood, and you will see that it continues to be bountiful and generous." One by one, the items appear in her hands, and she gifts them to their respective owners. "Remember too, however, that if endangered or disrespected, these trees can be vengeful also."
Bowstring Bracelet | At first this bracelet appears only as a length of intricately braided bowstring. But with an arrow in hand, upon miming the action of knocking and drawing it, the user will feel a bow beneath their fingers, as if it was there all along.
Arduinna's Blessing | A delicate necklace of copper leaves, this grants the user immunity against the blight for as long as the lady Arduinna's heart still beats.
