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!
At Beatrix’s question, Loren smiled softly, though there was a sad edge to it. He remembered standing where she was, waiting for the inevitable blows (well, spells) to fall. If only he’d had someone to show him there was a better, kinder way. However, at least he could do that much for his half-sister. ”Of course I’m not mad. You did your best. Now it’s my job to see if I can help you get better.” Maybe this was too much all at once for her, but he could feel time slipping away from him, and he needed to make her understand before it was too late.
Indeed, it seemed like they made some progress: her magic managed to completely dissolve the ball this time, and he beamed at her, incredibly proud of her efforts, as he held the two remaining balls behind his back. ”Excellent. See? You just needed a bit of help.” They all needed a bit of help, and he wasn’t sure he was the best one to provide it.
His kind, accepting behavior was making her uncomfortable, which showed on her face. Her lips pursed and eyes narrowed a bit, as if trying to figure him out, and her whole posture was tense. "Why are you being weird?" she said, not fully knowing how to describe his odd behavior in words. She barely had the right words to describe what she was accustomed to.
When he smiled at her success though, she smiled as well, grabbing her sweet toast to munch on. Her magic still tuckered her out very easily. "Thank you for helping me." she said sweetly, but with her mouth full.
Apparently, they had a long way to go, if Beatrix thought a bit of gentle kindness and encouragement was being weird. Then again, Loren had been in her shoes not too long ago. Hopefully it didn’t take her as long as it did him to break free of her conditioning; she was young, and maybe, just maybe, her mind was still flexible enough to learn a better way in the time thye had left before Zariah returned. ”What is weird about my behavior?” Perhaps getting her to articulate it would help her get to that brighter path more quickly. As she thanked him through a mouthful of her sugary concoction, he smiled again. ”You’re welcome.” Apparently they could both be polite and work together when they let go of the past.
What was weird about it? Didn't he know? "I didn't do it right right away and you didn't get mad. You even smiled." she said. "And you didn't shock me or prick me or do anything to make me want to work harder. That's...weird." she said, brows furrowing, even as she said it. But she had cinnamon toast to munch on which was fairly distracting. It got all over her cheeks too as she tried to take extra big bites of it. Magic was hard work after all! "Weird isn't always bad though." she said with a shrug. He thought cinnamon toast was weird after all and she loved that.
That was an incredibly depressing list from Beatrix, though honestly quite tame compared to what Loren had experienced. He tried not to let his thoughts show as he smiled again at his half-sister. ”Well. You don't have to do it right the first time, every time. Some times it'll take you a couple tries to learn how to do it properly, and there's nothing wrong with that. Thank you for trying it my way, though. And I agree, weird isn’t bad. Sometimes it's just different, and takes some getting used to” Hopefully she’d agree with that, but if not, he’d have to keep trying to show (and tell, he supposed) her that kindness was a much better method for learning than cruelty ever could be.
As she managed to get cinnamon all over herself, he wet a cloth and held it out for her. With his free hand, he picked up his own bread and munched on it contentedly. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. For both of them.
