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!
So he'd had no answer from the Gods. Bastien stood up from the shrine slowly, as if caught underwater, and turned into the temple, unsure of what to do next.
His eyes breezed over the few people sat about in the main hall, wondering how none of them were caught in absolute hysterics over the possible loss of Rexanna. While he was looking at each, hating them for not being as distraught as he, his eyes fell on the shell in the middle of the room.
Of course. He hadn't thought to use it because he had assumed Rexanna was still out somewhere - but perhaps Samuel and Remi had taken her back to the Monster Hunter's Guild. It was possible, more importantly, it was hope. He marched up to the shell and lifted it, unsure of how it worked but determined he was going to try.
"This is Bastien. Is anyone there? I need to know if Rexanna is there." He barked into the shell, feeling a little like a crazy man but too desperate to care.
sometimes we break so beautiful and you know you're not the only one
i breathe you in so sweet and powerful
She’s absolutely not dead but she looks terrible. And she’s thankful when someone helps her to the shell that Bastien can’t see her in this state. She doesn’t know what she looks like, but she can imagine it’s something close to his worst nightmare. But his voice, his voice gives her the strength needed to settle in the chair provided for her, aimed toward where the sound is, thankful to whomever had helped her find her way here.
“Bastien?” It comes out quiet, wavy, arms resting along the table because of the splint that Deimos had provided on both hands. “Bastien I’m alive.” She manages, as if it hadn’t been proof enough by hearing her voice. But she doesn’t know if she can tell him she’s okay. Because she’s not okay, really. And it pangs her deep within, but to know that he’s okay, gives her the strength to continue. “I’m... I'm glad you made it back.” Because she had worried, in that split second before the beam had pierced her chest, if he hadn’t even made it back.
Rexanna's voice came through the shell and it was the most powerful sound Bastien had ever heard. He struggled to not drop to his knees he was so overcome with relief, with a wave of emotion so intense if he still breathed he would struggle to bring in air.
"Rexanna.." He whispered, as if scared saying it too loud would make it all fake. "I am so glad to hear your voice, my love - for a while I feared the worst. I thought you would come back here, then--" Bastien trailed off, shaking his head to himself. "Are you alright?"
Concern for himself was so far out of his mind it was basically nonexistent, so he did not respond to her final comment; she could find out about his minor leg wound (as it was now) later. "Do you need me, cara? I will brave the outside once again if you need me there." He meant it, too.
sometimes we break so beautiful and you know you're not the only one
i breathe you in so sweet and powerful
He hears her, and the way he says her voice manages to spark the slightest of smiles along her face, but it fades quickly. As he goes on and on until pausing enough to ask if she’s okay. And it takes her a moment, perhaps longer than she anticipates it to be. But she can’t lie to him, and her voice breaks slightly as she replies. “No.” She’s not okay, she’s not okay. Alive, yes. But not okay.
He offers to come to her, and the fear surges back up. “Please stay at the Temple, do not come here.” She tells him, some stern demand in her voice. Though it wavers and breaks slightly. “I got hurt, badly, but Deimos and Zuriel healed me enough. I need to see the Voice after, to fix everything.” She announces, uncertain in the tone of her voice if their goddess can fix her.
Rexanna sometimes seemed so strong to Bastien, practically invincible in the face of all she had dealt with and continued to, in how she could come back from darkness with a smile on her face and determination in her heart. But he had always known she wasn't, of course - that did not make it any easier to hear the break in her voice as she admitted she was not alright.
Hurt, badly. No two words had ever scared him so much.
"Darling, tell me what has happened. Are you able to walk? Where have you been hurt? Did that little ginger macchia di merda help you at all?" He was angry at Sam. Partially rationally - after all, it was his fault she had been out at all, for his hopeless scheme, but the anger was partly just to place the blame somewhere.
sometimes we break so beautiful and you know you're not the only one
i breathe you in so sweet and powerful
Her heart drops when he pauses, hearing that she’s not really okay. That she’s been hurt, and when he asks her what happened, is Samuel had helped, she pauses trying to calculate it. To go from the start. “My eyes are gone.” She tells him quietly, a frown finding her face as she sits in the chair. “I can walk, I can’t see though.” As if there’s any consolation with it.
“My wrists are broken. I think my nose is too. It feels like a few of my ribs are too.” She pauses, biting on her lip for the worst of it. “I was impaled, by a metal railing. Deimos removed it with Jigano’s help.” Her voice wavers further at this admission, worried how he may take it. “Sam helped me onto Remi’s back, held onto me until we got here. He did help, but… Well, the entire thing was a terrible idea.” There’s a hiss to her voice at the end of his. How stupid and poorly it has all gone.
The words 'my eyes are gone' were so horrific Bastien didn't understand at first, finding the idea too absurd to deal with. "Your...eyes?" While he knew she was Ascended and could not feel pain or bleed, immediately he had an image of his mind of Rexanna screaming, her eyes red holes, dripping thick blood down her cheeks.
She continued, adding more and more injuries upon the list. Upon hearing impaled he had to hold the side of the table, worried he actually might fall. "Oh, love...how brave you are, to have all of this and still be here talking to me." At least she couldn't feel physical pain, though Bastien was sure she was feeling plenty of it emotionally.
"Do not worry, Rexanna. As soon as I can be with you I will be and I will not leave your side. I will be your eyes and anything else you need, darling. I promise." The oath came quickly too him, no decision making needed. "We shall go to The Voice, yes? Perhaps she will be able to help."
“Is that Rex?” Wessex interrupts Bastien, coming from behind where she’s been eavesdropping on the conversation. Well, one side of it. She already knows it’s her sister from Bastien’s words, but, well, appearances matter. She has to ask.
There’s a noticeable note of worry in her question, her face reflecting the concern and fear that washed over her when Bastien had come crawling back to the Temple, sans Rexanna. All the anger she’d felt at the two of them is gone, replaced by a well-leashed anger towards Sam. That ginger something or other, indeed, she finds herself agreeing with whatever Bastien has called him. “Can she talk to both of us?” the Queen asks, stepping up to the shell phone and the man’s side.
She asks only out of respect for the love Rexanna has for him; in truth, it is a command disguised as a question.
sometimes we break so beautiful and you know you're not the only one
i breathe you in so sweet and powerful
She nods as he questions about her eyes, only realizing shortly after that he isn’t there to see it. Biting down on her lip and folding her arms into her lap, she leans forward toward the shell. “I can’t see.”She admits, quiet and heartbroken at that fact. That she can’t look upon him and ensure he’s okay. That she can’t look at his paintings and tell him how wonderful they are. That she can’t do all the things she used to.
But she isn’t done, and she lists off her injuries from the scans, heart breaking as she recounts it and hears his response, a half broken smile crossing her face. “I love you Bastien. How could I not come and tell you I’m alive?” She asks, a small form of light within her at that simple fact. But he tells her that he will be her eyes, and it takes her a moment to respond, finding her throat tight with the emotions. “Yes… We will go to her.” She agrees, quietly, softly, until she can hear the shuffling of feet and Wessex’s voice from the shell.
“Wessex?” She asks quietly, wondering to herself what the queen might have to say. And remaining silent until she finds out, an arm brushing her hair back from her face out of sheer habit because it’s certainly not gotten into her eyes.
Bastien nodded as if Rex could see him (and he thought with a dark, painful humour that even if they were in the same place, she would not be able to anyway). "You never know, cara, she may be able to heal you entirely.". He had never before Caido been a man presupposed to faith, but he tried his best to wholeheartedly believe the Voice could and would heal Rexanna's eyes given the chance.
Wessex appeared seemingly out of nowhere (Bastien's focus was entirely on the shell, as if Rexanna were within it) and he turned to look at her, for a moment oddly defensive of Rexanna. But he was not the only one who knew her, who cared for her, and he could not claim her to himself. "Yes, it is." He told Wessex, then holding the shell up to his face, said:
"I will pass you to Wessex love, but stay after - so I can tell you I love you before you go." With that he handed the shell over, watching carefully. He worried Wessex might try to chastise Rexanna or talk to her of tactics, both things he felt she could do without.
10-24-2019, 11:27 PM (This post was last modified: 10-24-2019, 11:42 PM by Wessex.)
WESSEX
the wraith
He doesn’t have to go. While she’s happy to talk to Rex alone, there was a reason she’d asked if Rex could talk to both of them. But if Bastien is done here, she will be brief. Taking the shell from her brother, the Wraith looks at it for a moment before speaking in what is hopefully a clam voice. She isn’t dead, and that’s what matters the most. “Hey Rex. Good to hear your voice. Your… eyes? You can’t see?” She wants to ask for a catalog of all that is wrong, but what good would it do, other than make Rex repeat it? There is nothing to be done until the end of LongNight.
After listening to the response, she hesitates a moment. “And Sam? And…?” she didn’t know who else was with them. It’s all kind of pieced together because no one tells her shit. Leaving open-ended questions is easiest. Let the others fill in the blanks.
sometimes we break so beautiful and you know you're not the only one
i breathe you in so sweet and powerful
“I hope so.” She tells Bastien, a shocking sound of weakness in her voice that hasn’t been there in years, since Halyven, since that entire ordeal of life and birth, of destruction and pain. But the softness of his voice, the love she can feel through it, means more to her than she ever knew, and she clings to it in the brief moments before she can hear Wessex’s voice. “Okay.” She tells him before he passes the shell over, waiting until she hears Wessex’s voice, the question, the softness, and she bites down on her lower lip.
She doesn’t mind telling Wessex what’s all happened. The two of them, having grown close from her Ascension, from the events that occurred at the Mathair, and she nods briefly only to remember they’re talking over the shell phone rather than in person. “They’re gone.” She tells her, in terms of her eyes. “Both my wrists are broken. I think some ribs are too.” She says softly, explaining and pausing while she runs her mind through everything that’s happened. “My nose is too, but Jigano set it I think.” It’s all I think because she can’t see, can’t confirm any of it. “I was impaled by a beam. Deimos took it out with the help of Jigano.” And gods how terrible it had felt. A shiver runs down her spine at the memory of the vibration. “But I’m alive.” There’s a form of gallows humor laced in there before the moment fleets away.
“Sam and Remi are hurt, but, I think I took the brunt of it.” She doesn’t know, of course, how bad it had been. But Samuel’s pain had been loud, and her body had been slick with Remi’s blood mixed with the Ascended’s fluids. It had been a nightmare. “We have Isla and Zuriel here though, so they should be okay. Zuriel healed the hole in my chest but was unable to heal much else.” A small amount of surprise at the unicorn’s ability, unsure if Wessex knows they can be healed by unicorns or not. At least, the parts that didn’t have as much of the Voice’s influence.
“We caught one in a net, but we had to abandon it.”
Bastien stayed close enough to listen, but didn't look at Wessex, instead glancing around the temple. A fine defence against the horrors outside to be sure, but it felt uncomfortably like a prison when Rexanna was outside and he couldn't get to her. She had gotten into the guild, but that didn't meant she was safe. There was plenty of Longnight left after all, and he knew being inside was not an absolute guarantee of safety.
Hearing faintly the list of injuries again made him sigh heavily, wishing his mind didn't provide him with imagined pictures of each any time he heard them. She is still alive, and we can work with that he tried to remind himself, closing his eyes and taking in a calming breath.
He waited to see what Wessex would say, hands in his pockets. Catching a monster in a net was ludicrous, he knew that much.
Right after being nearly squished to death. And then blasted at the Mathair.
Wessex shakes her head, eyebrows raised. “You know you really have a knack for these things. Maybe the goal for this year can be just one less serious incident, yeah?” It’s followed by a dry chuckle, because what else can they do but laugh and say all together, at least she’s still alive.
“Mmm, yeah, the unicorns were a surprise when they healed me during the cave-in. But there’s no substitute for the Voice.” And speaking of… well, the Wraith doesn’t really want to go there, so maybe she’ll just… tiptoe around the topic. “You know this was all Sam, right? If he’d had asked, or mentioned anything, I would have -” What? Tried to explain it to him again that the current version of the Ascended can’t become monsters? That it’s like trying to talk to mindless, vengeful beasts of varying strengths? That there is anger in these shadows, that what he wanted to do was stupid and irresponsible and it could have gotten all of them killed.
“- Sorry. That’s not fair. Not a thing for this week. You just rest up, ok?” She takes a look at Bastien and offers him a rare smile. “I’ll look after Bastien.” And then waiting to see if she has anything else to say, the Queen offers the shell back to Bastien , but doesn’t fully leave the area. She has something she needs to say to him after they ‘hang up.’
