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!
Deepfrost was finally upon them. The snow had fallen and the luxere had followed. The season they’d all been dreading had stolen upon them in the quiet of the night, and they had awoken to a sleeping world of white.
But sleeping was better than dead: the threats that were upon them were myriad and varied, and Loren knew he could only do so much to combat them. Still, he was one of the few who was relatively unaffected by the recent turmoil. He was not blighted, no one he was close to (at least, not anymore) was either, and the summoner had missed his cousin’s reign of terror. While obviously Loren didn’t want those who’d once cared for him and that he, at least, still cared about to suffer, it did give him distance and energy that others did not have. There was so much to be done, and not nearly enough people left to do it.
And some of those tasks required a specific person. Weirdly enough, Loren hit more of those criteria than he cared to admit. Most of those related to LongNight rather than the blight—not that it would stop him from helping with the blight, which he already was—but that didn’t make them any less important or pressing. Indeed, too many people were ill or dealing with sick loved ones to have much time for anything other than that. And, apparently, too many of them had darkness in their souls.
Which was why Loren was standing here, at night, with a pack full of hay and apples, gazing upon a herd of some of the most wondrous creatures he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. That was saying a lot, coming from someone who’d seen dragons and unicorns and phoenixes and three-headed dogs. But the luxere were something else, something purer. Though they resembled deer, the soft glow of their antlers belied their true natures. They were almost light incarnate, and he felt wholly inadequate beside them.
That didn’t stop him from putting his bag on the ground and pulling an apple and a handful of hay from inside. He held those in each hand, and eyed the herd, wondering if that would be enough. A few glanced at him curiously, but none were brave enough to venture over just yet. So the Launceleyn reviewed what he knew about the luxere. They liked light magic, so the Launceleyn ran through his list of summons for the most colorful and exciting. He didn’t know how they’d react to another magical creature, so he settled for mundane ones instead.
Two peacocks appeared on either side of him, tails fanned out in a brilliant display that stood out even more brightly against the white of the snow, even at night. That earned him a few more antlered heads turning his way, but still none of the herd came to him. Which meant that Loren had to pull out his last trick, the one he’d read about, the one that he’d been hoping he wouldn’t have to resort to.
But it didn’t seem that he had a choice. Loren opened his mouth and sang.
”In the quiet misty morning, when the moon has gone to bed…” The Launceleyn’s voice, a passable baritone, albeit completely untrained, rang out into the chilly evening. He knew he would look entirely ridiculous, food in hand, flanked by birds, mouth agape and music pouring from it. He certainly felt like an idiot. Still, it was all worth it when almost as one, the luxere turned, their eyes bright and deep and finally curious enough to pick their way over to him, leaving delightful little paw prints in the snow. Loren smiled then, though not too much, and kept singing as warm and slightly wet (but in a pleasant way) mouths munched on the treats he brought. It wasn’t long before his initial offering was accepted, and he knelt down to go pick up more, his song continuing all the while.
Jiao didn't like Deepfrost very much. The clothes were so...bulky and focused more on practicalities than the frivolous fabrics of summer, and she had never liked the cold. While it tended to be good for business, people noticing holes in their old warm clothing and coming to her for scarves, jumpers, hats, it was a time of personal grumpiness.
The cold wind had kept her up, sighing heavily at the ceiling as if it would stop the wind if it knew just how displeased she was. Of course, it kept blowing, so eventually she got up and decided to go for a wander, holding a cup of tea in her hands and dressed in warm blocky clothing. Earth tones. The kind of thing she would never let herself be seen in, but could be worn for a nighttime wander; her face bore no make-up either, making her look younger than usual.
Walking through the woods, she planned to loop into the Outskirts then back into the trees, hoping that the route would make her tired enough to sleep despite the breeze blowing in through her bedroom. Hands clasped around the clay mug she stepped out into the Outskirts, yawning.
The sight of a Luxere made her stop, watching the creature as she took a sip of her tea. She had always liked the Luxere, having respect for a being so beautiful all the time. If only she could master the art of glowing. It wasn't until a moment later that she noticed the voice singing, and finally matched it to a face when she looked towards Loren. A human, seranading Luxere? She didn't know they had known to do that.
As much as she didn't want to be seen, Jiao very much enjoyed both singing and the Luxere...slowly, she flitted over to where Loren was, her feet only a few inches above the ground; perching herself on a wall nearby (in the graceful way she always did, as if she had belonged there always) she asked with no introduction: "Where did you learn that song? It's pretty. But it doesn't sound like it's from around here."
The voice startled him, though not as much as the person it came from: a beautiful woman, even in the unflattering clothes she wore now, who, with the help of two pairs of wings, was hovering just above the ground. Loren’s song cut out, but his mouth remained open as he gaped at her. This must be one of the fae, and she was as wondrous and mysterious as he’d been lead to believe.
Her words finally penetrated his skull, and he closed his mouth with an almost audible snap. Immediately flushing from embarrassment, he looked down, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. ”I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare!” Hopefully the pure contrition in his voice would appease her. ”And it’s a song from...from the world I came from.” It was odd: Loren rarely thought of Northaven and didn’t necessarily have the fondest memories of it. But thinking about it still filled him with a pang of homesickness, even if it hadn’t been the first world he’d passed through. But it had been home, for a time at least.
His embarrassment was not helped at all by the fact that he was dressed plainly, in a brown cloak and black clothes under it, nor was it helped by the fact that he hardly the most handsome. Indeed, in that moment, he made a rather poor ambassador to the fae, and this was hardly how he wanted his first encounter with the flying women to go.
Then some antlers butted against him insistently, and he had to laugh, startled back into remembering his task. Kneeling, he picked up another apple and handed it to the insistent luxere; it was smaller than most, though no less beautiful for it. Almost, Loren thought it was a fawn, but it had a full head of antlers. So it couldn’t be a baby. And (with a quick check to confirm) also not an it, but a she, and a fully formed she at that. ”Well, what do we have here, a runt? That's okay little one.” She looked at him with an almost indignant expression on her face and huffed. Clearly Loren had offended her. ”I’m sorry, my lady, I meant no offense to you. Obviously you are the most beautiful of the lot.” He reached into his pack for some hay for her, and she took it, apparently accepting the apology and the gift. Indeed, she even curled up at his feet, and he grinned at that.
But by that time the rest of the herd was demanding attention and he found himself passing out the treats he could to the eager mouths all around. Indeed, he was so caught up in that task that he almost forgot about the fae. Indeed, only periodic glimpses of her reminded the summoner of her presence. He was being rude, probably, and to a race they didn’t quite understand and really needed to remain allies with and couldn't afford to offend, but there was no helping it, seeing as the herd was no all around him, brushing against him in an almost friendly manner and dancing around the peacocks he’d summoned, which he made dance back.
As much as Jiao did not want to be seen in her current state, she was still pleased to know she could attract stares (it did not occur to her that stares could be bad. If someone wanted to look at her, it had to be because of her stunning beauty, right?). "That's okay. A lot of people do." She said with a smirk, sipping at her tea.
A song from his old world...immediately, she was curious, but Delah's words echoed in her head too. Warnings about the humans, the things they would do if the Fae opened up. Were they not responsible for the Blight, after all? Suspiciously, she eyed this man. Did he have it...? She realised she did not actually know how to tell.
The Luxere were a satisfactory distraction for the moment, and Jiao watched Loren gently try to feed them. She easily laughed off her 'offence', finding the mistake funny. As long as no one was genuinely insulting her, it was generally easier to let things go.
"It's fine. So..." Reaching out, Jiao stroked the Luxere's neck. "...Do you have the Blight?" Perhaps it was a blunt way to ask, but it was hard to make nice with someone when they couldbe responsible for the death of her people and home.
When the Fae woman forgave him for staring, Loren smiled at her. ”I can see why, and I can’t say I blame them.” Maybe the flattery was a bit thick, but seeing as this was his first encounter with the winged women, he thought it was entirely appropriate. The Fae laughed, so he hoped all was completely forgiven. ”I’m Loren. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Once more, he was distracted by the increasingly insistent herd, and he laughed when he realized his hands were empty again. Kneeling down, he pulled more hay and apples out, trying to make sure they got to the eager mouths all around. Concentration shattered, his peacocks winked out of existence, but none of the wonderful creatures circling him seemed to mind their absence. Apparently Loren had earned their trust, hard as that was to believe. The one curled up at his feet rubbed her head against his leg, and when he had a moment he reached down to stroke her incredibly soft fur behind her ears. Her eyes closed in pleasure and he grinned at the sight.
Perhaps it was because he was tending to the luxere, but the summoner wasn’t at all prepared for what the woman said next. He blinked at her question, completely flummoxed by it. ”Uh, no. Do you?” It was probably the worst response he could’ve given at the moment, but honestly he didn’t know if the Fae could be blighted or not, and he was still so floored that she’d asked him about it that his mind wasn’t controlling his tongue as well as it should have. Flushing, he gave her an embarrassed and apologetic look. ”Sorry, that was rude.” Hopefully he hadn’t just made everything worse between his people and the Fae.
Jiao did not mind flattery, no matter how thick. Not enough people gave it to her, she thought. Already Loren was becoming cemented in her head as one of the good humans. "I'm Jiao. You weren't there when the annoying guy told us about pens, right?" She didn't seem to remember having seen him before, so he probably wasn't related. "He had stubble and hair about this long--" She motioned around her neck.
She too smiled at the Luxere. They really were lovely, some of the forest's best creatures. She appreciated an animal that looked great and the glowing was fantastic. Jiao had often tried to capture it herself in a dress (not with the actual fur of the animal, of course) and had always failed.
Snorting at the idea that she could have the Blight, Jiao shook her head. "No, of course not. The humans started it. I don't talk to that many humans." She fixed him with a look meant to stress just how lucky he was to be having her attention. "I heard that being rude can be a symptom of it, so you might want to look out."
"Are you one of the weird ones with the teeth? Or the animal ones?" Truthfully she was a little jealous of those. "Or the....bad ones that the Gods don't like?"
Loren paused, taken aback by Jiao’s question. ”It’s nice to meet you Jiao. And no, I wasn’t there when he told you about, uh pens.” The description didn’t really help him narrow down who it was, so the Launceleyn just shook his head. ”What color was his hair?” Presumably, if the Fae had known the other man’s name, she would’ve told the summoner. Or maybe not: he knew nothing about the race, save what snippets he’d heard about the relationship between their leaders and his being strained.
Smiling at Jiao’s, well, indignant response to Loren’s dumb question, he pondered how best to reply in turn. ”I apologize, again. Sometimes us humans are rude even without being blighted, and I spoke without thinking.” His smile gained a sad edge. ”And I’m sorry, too, for the fact that my people brought the blight to your lands. Although I assure you that I do not have it, I want you to know that I, we, are doing everything in our power to cure it.” It seemed like the least he could do and say, in so many ways.
At her next question, he again paused. ”I’m one of the bad ones, as you say. The Abandoned.” As he fed the next set of luxere, he smiled sadly for the second time. ”Though they also say that the luxere like those of us with light magic, like me, so I suppose there’s good with the bad.” From what the Launceleyn had heard of the gods, he’d trade having the luxere on his side any day.
"Brown. He wasn't dressed very excitingly and he had these big black stains all over." Jiao clearly did not care for this man very much at all. Despite never actually speaking to him beyond the one heckling event (she had seen him since, been in the same room, but had decided he was not worth giving a chance to) she seemed confident she knew he was awful.
He apologised for the Blight, which was so bizarre she nearly laughed; instead she just smiled bemused. Was that what the humans thought they wanted? Verbal apologies? She was not prone to violence in the same way as Delah, but she felt a surge of anger similar to the chiefs in the moment - how dare he try to apologise as if that would fix anything? As for the promise they were doing what they could...she rolled her eyes. She had not yet seen the results.
Her disdain would only continue when he revealed he was an Abandoned. One of those cast aside by the Gods. And while Jiao did not have the best relationship with them herself, she found herself immediately distrusting him even further once she learnt he had none at all. "You know not all magic comes from being weird and the Gods not liking you, right? Fae have magic, and the Gods like us."
That didn’t sound like anyone Loren knew, though it was hard given how poor a description was. Still, he smiled apologetically at Jiao. ”I’m sorry, I don’t think I know the annoying man.” And if he did, well, he wasn’t sure he necessarily wanted the Fae to associate the summoner with the stranger, given that she already seemed to think the Launceleyn was rude.
He actually hadn’t known the Fae possessed magic, so he paused, and gave her a curious look. ”I didn’t. But it sounds like you and your people are truly blessed, to be both powerful and beloved.” So far, Loren’s flattery had been the only thing Jiao had responded positively to, so he was going to keep complimenting her until she got sick of him or warmed up. It would almost certainly be the former, given his luck. To occupy himself, he handed out the last of the treats he’d brought to the remaining luxere. They eagerly gobbled it up, then swirled around him in a grateful rush before dispersing.
All except for the fawn that rested by his feet, that was. He peered down at her, a smile dancing on his lips. ”Sorry, girl. I’m all out.” She stood up and shook out her coat, and then nuzzled against his side, cleary not intending to go anywhere. Loren obviously wasn’t going to complain about it.
"Good for you." She really had to get his name, so she knew who to avoid if it came up.
Jiao nodded at the description of her people, very glad to hear a human say so. "Mhm. We are the God's people in the Wildwood, after all. We don't have any new people like you all do, either." It was unclear whether she was disapproving or jealous, because she was both. While she was sure the new people were hated by the Gods and lesser than the Fae (blah blah, etc etc)...Sidhe could feel awfully small sometimes. "Have you met any other ones who came from other worlds? Anyone from somewhere interesting?" It felt sometimes like betrayal, but she couldn't help that she was curious.
Reaching out, she gently stroked her finger along the Luxere's ear with a faint smile. They didn't have quite the same glamour for her as they did for the new humans, but they were still sweet creatures.
Loren wasn’t sure what to make of Jiao’s tone when she spoke of outsiders. Still, as she reached out to pet the luxere, the Launceleyn smiled and decided to give her an honest answer. ”I have. Many others came over from the world I came from, a walled city that was surrounded by jungle and ocean, both filled with monsters. And before that I came from a world at war. I’ve heard of someone who came from a city that was made entirely of glass, and one who came from a desert city that flooded periodically, and one who came from a world filled with mountains and valleys.” He was giving broad strokes, trying to paint a picture of all the worlds that the outlanders had come from. Hopefully the Fae would appreciate it.
Jiao couldn't help but be wrapped up in the fantasy of Loren's words, imagining each world as he described it. Did these places really exist? Could they? She had never imagined worlds outside of Caido before the Outlanders came, and even then it had seemed more of a myth than anything else. "...Sounds like your world was kind of the worst." Was all she said though, determined not to give him more praise than deserved.
She couldn't pretend she wasn't interested, though. "Wouldn't a city of glass get really hot? And doesn't everywhere have mountains and valleys?" Tapping a finger to her chin, she tilted her head. "When I ask people about their worlds they usually tell me about wars and politics and stuff, not the landscape. This is more..it's easier to imagine."
Jiao seemed to enjoy the descriptions of the various worlds, for which Loren was glad. If she had reacted with annoyance to another one of his statements, he didn’t know how he'd recover. ”It kind of was,” he agreed with a smile. ”But...I don’t know. It was terrible. But for all the horror and danger lurking in the jungle and the ocean, there was a kind of savage beauty to it.” It spoke of freedom and adventure, both things that had been in short supply in his life. ”I doubt it could compare to the forest you call home, however.” Hopefully she’d respond well to the compliment—as she had to the ones about her and her people—and he might even get some useful information out of it.
As she commented that the other worlds he had mentioned seemed silly, in comparison, he nodded at her. ”I don’t know, really. I only heard them described to me briefly, and that’s what stood out. I’m sure others could do a much better job explaining it than I could.” Like those who had actually lived there. As the Fae spoke of wars and politics, Loren gave the fawn a tiny scratch behind her ears, the subjects hitting far too close to home for the Launceleyn to be fully comfortable with them. ”We had that too. But...I don’t know. It seems kind of silly, looking back at it. Small, in the grand scheme of things.” They’d gotten so wrapped up in petty squabbles that they’d somehow lost sight of what they were fighting for to begin with.
"Savage beauty...hm. I think I just prefer normal beauty." Jiao commented, but her voice was not critical, just observant. As a self-appointed aesthete, she had long ago decided that the best kind of image was one that was simply breathtaking at first sight, not anything that required a longer look, or a bending of the mind.
She knew he was simply continuing to flatter her with his compliment, but she had never minded that, so she smiled. "It is wonderful in the forest. Sidhe looks nice in some seasons, too. I don't really care for this time of year, though..." Looking to the Luxere apologetically she continued: "The colours are so boring. In Longheat everyone seems to suddenly remember they can wear more than brown or blue."
Jiao had not lived through any wars and had very little interest in the politics of her village, so she could only agree with his thoughts with a 'mm', though wondered why, if it was silly, so many people willingly died in wars? Had Loren fought in one...? She looked him up and down, but decided not to ask. He could get sad, and a sad human was the worst kind of all.
"If you're one of the humans with magic, can you fly?" She asked, looking up to the sky. "I was thinking I might stretch out my wings.." The iridescent wings behind her fluttered, catching the white light of the snow and nearly appearing to glow.
