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!
09-09-2019, 06:36 PM (This post was last modified: 09-16-2019, 03:19 PM by Loren.)
They say blood makes you related but
loyalty makes you family
After Loren’s encounter with Frey, the command from the gods to plant his final Rose hadn’t stopped ringing in his ears, and it had joined the order from Vi to do the same. So, once he’d recovered from that night, Loren had taken his flower and gone out into the snowy Deepfrost. The only reason the Launceleyn hadn’t done this already was because he’d been trying to think about the best and most hidden place to put the Rose to keep it safe from the blighted.
But after his encounters with Ronin, Melita, and Abasi, the summoner knew that there was no place he could hide the Rose. So he decided to take a different approach entirely. Loren was going to plant his in the very heart of the Sanctuary. Though the blighted had been seen there, it was well-populated at all hours, and someone would respond to a disturbance quickly enough. So instead of trying to keep the precious bloom safe through stealth, the Launceleyn was going to keep it safe through strength of arms. It was the way of his family, and he was a little worried about how easily he embraced it. Still, desperate times and all that.
Besides, with all the horror and chaos all around them, Loren felt they could all use a reminder of exactly what they were all striving for. The Rose—besides being a miracle cure, which was the most important part of it—was beautiful, and a living symbol that the gods had not completely abandoned them to their plight, not even the Abandoned. So the summoner had constructed, with his hands and his magic and the kindness of strangers on similar quests and of similar minds, a large flower box, filled with dirt and empty of anything else for now. But not for long. Though it was evening by the time he finally finished his work, he wasn't quite done yet.
The Launceleyn knelt in the exact center and scraped away a small hole with his hands, before reverently taking his Rose out from his pack and holding it for a brief moment, before placing it into the earth where it belonged.
Granger had long been content in his home he had made in the rubble alongside the Settlement of Outsiders and Naturals alike. Nobody needed him for anything, and he didn't need them. It was just the way he liked it. Keeping a low profile had kept him alive for the past five years where others had failed. He'd watched them waste away in the Bubble up until just recently and it kept him on his toes.
But even then, he was still only a young boy. A young man, if you asked the mousey looking child himself.
Long days of gathering food as the colder days of Deepfrost approached were necessary to stay alive if he didn't want to waste away in the hovel he called home. But as those his age were prone to, even longer days of preparing for Deepfrost took its toll when compared to the alternative. Sometimes he just wanted to lay in the sun and let it warm his pale skin in the midst of those minding their own business. Sometimes, he just wanted to pretend that every day wasn't a fight to stay alive while minding his own business, much less getting involved with the business of others.
He found the sanctuary was the perfect place for such an activity. To lay among the business without involving himself.
As it was he had found himself moving with the sun from one spot to the next as the star moved across the sky without caring that someone was trying to take a consistent nap. Pushing himself up with a groan from his most recent place of rest that day as the shadow of the nearest building obscured his vision of the sky, the tall lanky figure of another man catches his eye from across the way. While most ambled through the Sanctuary with other places being their end destination, this man moved with purpose before he bent down to pull out...
A flower? Granger scoffed as he pushed himself off of the bench he had been lounging on, his curiosity getting the better of him for once.
Approaching from the other side of where he planted the flower, he couldn't help but peer closely at it. What an odd place to plant something so delicate, amongst a crowd of people too wrapped up in their own lives to notice the fragile lifeform the man was placing among them.
"What're you doing that for?" The young Attuned asked, his head tilted as he crouched down to the same level as the one he spoke too. The flower didn't look like anything too special, and definitely not tasty enough for him to consider making off with. Not that a flower was much of a snack anyway, but the thought passed by him briefly. "Doesn't seem like the best place to start a garden if you ask me."
Considering Loren had been working most of the day and no one had approached him to see what he was doing, he hadn’t really been expecting anyone to come talk to him now, when he had completed his task. Still, he straightened up and turned to glance at the boy who’d spoken. And it really was a boy: he must’ve been a teenager, and a scrawny one at that, with blue eyes and big ears, and a too thin frame. Considering that the summoner was still a little too gaunt himself, he recognized the signs in others.
Although it was cold and snowy the Launceleyn was bundled up tightly and had been working pretty hard, so there was sweat on his brow. He wiped the back of his hand on his forehead distractedly, inadvertently leaving streaks of dirt from the flowerbed he’d constructed there. ”You haven’t seen these around before?” It seemed like everyone the summoner knew had been hard at work planting the blooms, but that didn’t mean that everyone was actually following the directive from the old gods.
Shaking his head Loren stepped closer to the boy. ”Sorry. This is one of Vi’s Roses. The gods ordered all of us to plant them everywhere we could but...some people are resisting the old gods.” The Launceleyn didn’t really want to bring up the blighted if the boy didn’t know about them already. ”I thought that planting them here, where there were always people present, might keep them safe if anyone did try to destroy them.” Giving the boy a considering look, Loren wondered if he should encourage the lad to go out to the woods. While it was dangerous, they all needed to pitch in. ”If you haven’t already, please go to the shrine in the Wildwood. You’ll understand, I promise.” After all, if the gods accepted Loren’s help and gave him instructions, surely they’d accept the boy.
At that point the Launceleyn realized he couldn’t keep referring to the person before him as the boy. So the summoner held out his hand. ”I’m Loren. I don’t think we’ve met.” At least, the boy didn’t look familiar to Loren.
Granger shivered in the cold as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other while the man in front of him spoke. It was easier to ignore the snow that crunched underfoot when his weight as a mouse hardly broke the surface tension of the frozen water. As it was, staying warm as a human wasn't something he had necessarily planned for, especially not when conversing with others and the time that took. So much to say and yet so little said.
With a raised brow he watches the older man's, Loren's, face as he brings a foot back to kick snow onto the newly rooted rose in front of him. Would the gods deign to protect that lifeform? What made that more important than his parents? Lips pursed as his brow furrows, arms crossed in both defiance and in an effort to keep warm, purposefully ignoring the hand held out in greeting.
"'m Granger." Though he'd lived there his whole life, he had no reason to elaborate on the elusiveness of his appearances around the Hallowed Ground. Of course he hadn't seen him before, and that's how he preferred it.
"I don't listen to Vi. Or any of the gods. If it's so important then they have do-gooders like you to take care of it, don't they?" A pause as he sniffs, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. "Ain't no reason for the rest of us to get involved with the gods dumb ideas."
As the boy shivered, Loren’s eyes narrowed. Now that he was paying closer attention, he could see that the teen was too thin, and probably not adequately dressed. So when Granger didn’t accept the summoner’s handshake, the Launceleyn just dropped his hand with a smile. ”It’s nice to meet you Granger.” Although the boy was a little older than the children the summoner normally hung out with, Loren could recognize the same signs of stubborn rebellion he often saw in Beatrix.
Maybe that was why when Granger attempted to kick snow over Vi’s Rose, the Launceleyn didn’t feel the spark of anger he might’ve expected once upon a time; instead, he simply moved in the path of the powder, letting it splash harmlessly against his boots. Or maybe it was because he could see that Granger wasn’t doing great, and that the anger he expressed seemed entirely out of place in the presence of the final flower the summoner needed to plant. Weirdly, the snow started moving back where it had come from, and the Launceleyn glanced at it briefly before dismissing it as harmless.
Instead of responding to Granger’s action, Loren just rubbed his hands together. ”Bit chilly, don’t you think?” Then, with an effort of his will and a drop of his magic, a phoenix exploded into being in the sky above them. It flew in lazy circles above them, radiating heat and light. If that didn't impress the child, well, the summoner had more tricks up his sleeve.
Turning his attention fully to the boy, the Launceleyn gave him an appraising look. ”I take it you haven’t encountered anyone with the blight then?” The summoner’s voice came out bluntly, but not unkindly. Being called a do-gooder wasn’t the worst name he’d heard in his life, which meant that Granger was going to have to work a lot harder to get a rise out of Loren. Having two children at home had taught the summoner a great deal of patience. And while it might not be wise to tell the boy about the blight, it was more dangerous to let him live in ignorance.
Granger was having a hard time following Loren's train of thought. A rose, a phoenix, the Blight. Wait, a phoenix? Granger blinked twice, his mouth agape as he watched the firey illusion take shape across the sky. Was nobody else seeing this? A quick glance around showed that nobody else seemed all that interested despite the light show. How?
"I don't know 'bout nobody with the Blight," The implications that someone could actually catch the Blight was pushed to the back of his mind after seeing the display of magic above his head. Of course, he knew the Blight was bad. But nobody he cared about was alive and as long as the vendors kept showing up to sell their wares and he kept taking those items without consequence, what did he care about the others?
"But I've never seen nobody do that before. Can you teach me how to do that?" He's already dropped arms from their previous defensive position, reaching forward to take hold of Loren's hands. Looking them over, he brought them to nose to sniff them but caught no smell of an explosive ash. "I want to make phoenixes come out of my hands too, sir."
For once there's a spark in his eye that Granger himself wouldn't recognize if he saw it. Even if his reasoning for wanting to learn was purely selfish-- who would mess with a mouse that can shoot fire? There's still an excitement that's near palpable as he remembers himself and drops the man's hands, stepping back abruptly.
09-23-2019, 01:50 PM (This post was last modified: 09-23-2019, 01:51 PM by Loren.)
They say blood makes you related but
loyalty makes you family
Given how people usually reacted to Loren’s magic, he probably should’ve predicted Granger’s response. However, the summoner still wasn’t used to being anything special, so he forgot how others saw him: this mere mortal that had the ability to call beasts of legend into the world at the drop of a hat. Glancing up, he smiled briefly at the phoenix before returning his attention to the boy. ”I’m glad to hear that. But many have been afflicted, and the more people who plant flowers, the faster they’ll be cured. And maybe the gods will reward your service.” He wasn’t at all sure about that last point, but it seemed right to him. However, he wouldn't force the boy to do anything.
When Granger grabbed the Launceleyn’s hands he was too surprised to move out of the way. However, that didn’t stop him from having to claw back his instinctual response to have the phoenix dive-bomb the boy; Loren didn’t like being touched (for now) and he didn’t like surprises and this was both. However, it helped that Granger was so young and that the summoner could see the eagerness in the boy’s eyes. The Launceleyn just wished he had a better reply to give.
The sniffing was the last straw, though, and gently Loren would attempt to extract his hands from the boy’s grip. ”I’m the only summoner in the Hollowed Grounds powerful enough to call upon mythical creatures, so that’s probably why you haven’t seen something like this before.” The Launceleyn figured that would be meaningless to Granger, but Loren was mostly trying to buy time. He searched the boy’s face—the awed look on it made the summoner uncomfortable—searching for some sign of magic there.
He hated to crush dreams, but this power was innate and couldn’t be trained. ”I don’t know if you can learn or not. Do you have any magic of your own?” If Granger didn’t, he was probably out of luck. However, even then there might be a chance: Remi had developed magical abilities so there was a chance the boy could do so as well. However, Loren didn’t know how the alchemist had done so, and he wasn’t going to ask any time soon.
Talk of summoners went too far over Granger's head to even grasp the concept. Was there no Phoenix above him? Of course, he knew of magic. It was hard to live in Caido as long as he had without hearing mention of it. But seeing it was another thing. Perhaps the magic he had grown to know and fear, relating it to gods who didn't care, was misunderstood if it could create something so spectacular.
But the idea that there was magic inside of him? Even the possibility was as exciting as it was terrifying. He finds it hard to believe the gods would take such interest in him before he stepped foot into the world to give him something as both cursed and incredible as magic that Loren was obviously gifted with.
"I dunno. I can shift but I know that ain't the same." Loren's hand falls from his grasp, face already falling at the dawning realization that something was so out of his reach. "'m only a mouse so it ain't as exciting as one of your firebirds."
"Uh, sir?" Granger caught himself, clearing his throat. "Loren? Even if I can't learn, s'okay if I can't, will you come by to show me again sometime? I hang out here uh, a lot." He wasn't about to admit that he made his home in a hole nearby but if there was even a chance he could see such airborn warmth during Deepfrost, he had to at least ask.
If Granger was an Attuned, then no, he likely couldn’t learn to summon creatures the way Loren could. However, there might actually be some good news for the boy. Smiling gently at the teen, the Launcleyn tried to come up with something to cheer Granger up. ”I have a friend. Once upon a time, all he could do was turn into a hawk. But he kept working, and working, and now he can turn into a manticore.” Granted, Loren wasn’t sure if Remi’s abilities had something to do with his strange status as a hybrid, but they didn’t know, so it didn’t feel wrong to give Granger some hope for the future.
Loren could also provide some reassurances in the present. ”Did you know that elephants are afraid of mice? Sometimes even the smallest of creatures can pack a mighty punch. Besides, I’ll bet you’re really good at getting in and out of places.” Indeed, a mouse could find all the little cracks in buildings, and were masters at finding their way into pantries. The summoner should know. He was in charge of the Manor, and constantly had to summon creatures to chase off rodents. And that wasn’t even getting into the colony of humming bats in the attic, but they were at least harmless.
Maybe he should get a cat.
On the subject of the Manor, however, well, Loren could definitely grant Granger’s request. ”Of course. I live in the Launceleyn Manor.” If the boy didn’t know where that was, Loren would provide directions. ”You’re always welcome to stop by for anything at all, a meal, some tea, to see the phoenix or any other creature really, and you’re even welcome to stay the night. We’ve got plenty of beds.” Although the Launceleyn didn’t know for sure, he felt pretty confident the teen didn’t have a permanent place to live. And, well, Loren had already taken in plenty of strays. One more wouldn’t make a huge difference.
The young boy wasn't sure if he appreciated Loren's attempst at reassuring him for being a mouse and unable to cast magic, or if he should be offended by such simple statements. Of course, the mouse worked for him even if it was less impressive than say, a manticore. Or even a hawk, for that matter. Even a hawk could still eat him without blinking. But the gods had given him the form of a mouse and it had kept him alive this long, even if he thought their judgment was flawed.
Granger was pulled from his thoughts by the mention of the Launceleyn name. Having lived in the Hallowed Ground his whole life it was impossible not to know the Launceleyn family. Even if he didn't know the details, he knew they were powerful. And now one was offering a bed in place? His eyes haven't narrowed once since seeing the phoenix, too shocked to even blink more than a few times as he takes it all in.
"I, uh, 'unno if I'd fit in there." He kicks at the ground once more, turning his wide-eyed gaze to the snow as he shifted his weight to avoid looking Loren in the eye. He can only imagine the dirt he'd track into pristine hallways and more money than he can comprehend in one room. "Not like I need your charity 'nyways. Dunno what you think I could do for you anyway, Launceleyn." He huffed but it's halfhearted at the thought of having a warm bed for more than a few hours beside a makeshift fire.
As Granger’s statement that he wasn’t sure if he’d fit in at the Manor, Loren frowned and tilted his head. ”Why not?” It didn’t seem to be that he was afraid: most people who’d suffered under Zariah made some passionate declarations about how they’d never stay in the tyrant’s home, but this didn’t seem quite like that. Still, perhaps the boy just thought that it was too fancy for his tastes. The summoner could understand that, given that he also hated the opulence of his home.
But at least it was large enough to allow him to open the doors to those who needed it. When the teen bristled at the Launceleyn just smiled. ”It’s not charity. You’d be doing me a favor, really. It’s a big house, and the more people there are in it, the less lonely it feels.” That wasn’t really all that true. Even though there were many others in the Manor, Loren barely saw them, and he usually felt like he was alone. However, that didn’t deter him from trying to fill the building with life and laughter and people. Even if he couldn’t experience it himself, he could help others do so.
Well... If Loren insisted. Maybe it wouldn't hurt for a little bit. At least just through LongNight. Granger had made it through the past five years alone and relatively unscathed, but nobody paid much attention to a mouse hole unless they were desperate. And there were plenty of other unfortunate souls that made themselves easier prey than a mouse.
"Well... If you insist. I s'pose I could make an exception with this weather." Granger hummed, a shiver wracking his small form to accentuate the point. Days like this he wondered why he ever ventured outside of his hovel without a tail to keep his balance and the fur to keep him warm. "But I ain't sticking around once this shit clears up."
He mumbles the last part under his breath as he kicks the snow once again. As if he can take out any sort of animosity towards LongNight on the snow that falls around them. With hunched shoulders, he's at least going to try.
Well, that hadn’t taken nearly as much convincing as Loren had thought. Then again, he’d had a lot of experience coaxing people to come live with him at the Manor recently, so maybe he was just getting good at it. Unfortunately, it did nothing to alleviate the crippling loneliness he felt at home, but at least he was helping people. ”I insist. And I don’t expect you to.” Granted, most people had said something similar—that they’d only be in the Manor until they could find their own place—and they’d all stuck around for much longer than they’d intended. In fact, most of them were still there. The Launceleyn didn’t mind. Although he was starting to get a bit worried about space, so long as they got through Deepfrost and LongNight he could help settle them in more permanent and private locations.
"Do ya think we could, uh, head there now?" Granger wasn't about to admit that he wanted to be out of the cold just yet. After all, he'd been the one lounging in a sunny spot in the same weather just a bit ago. But as the snow chill settled in his bones, the content memory of a mid-Deepfrost nap was long gone. Perhaps if the snow didn't insist on working cold fingers against every exposed part of his body, which was most of it, he'd have put up more of a fit in staying with a stranger at such a lavish home. A deep shivering breath wracks his body as he sniffs. If he just kept his hands to himself, everything would work out this time. "Unless you've still gotta watch after 'at rose."
