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 sends out a note to Jigano, now that she has eyes again, to meet her in the Glade at dusk, just after the sun has set. She knows that the two of them don’t exactly have the best of relationships lately, but he’d helped her out of the Guild as it was burning, and she had been named the leader of the Grounds at least until a council had been chosen.
And so she starts here, sending her note to Jigano to discuss something, and she waits for him, sitting atop one of the rocks of the Glade, emerald eyes scanning the earth and grasses beneath her, dressed in dark clothes to blend in, hands in her lap. Waiting.
A note, in Rexanna's fine hand, was not what he had expected that day. Firstly, to hear from her at all since the difficult conversation they had during LongNight, but secondly for her writing to be so clear. It took him a little while to realize that her eyes must have been restored for such a thing to happen, and he exhaled softly in relief when he did, pausing to scrub Vaya's ears before he went back to hauling hay up to the loft in the barn.
He was in no rush while the sun was in the sky, but once the golden orb turned to orange and then red, setting in a glorious blaze of fiery sky and purple clouds, he kissed Rory and made his way towards the Glade.
He dressed in quiet colors as he so often did, neutral shades of tan and grey, accented with pale green. It made him a wraith moving through the trees to the place where he and Isla used to meet, once upon a time, to study fire flowers and coax luxere. He had sat with her here, after her Ascension, and held her hand as they had talked, and he had been curious, naive and innocent in comparison to what he had lived through since.
Before so much blood had been spilled.
But his stubbornness had already cost him dearly with Sam. He did not want to lose Rexanna, too, and he found he didn't have to force a smile as he saw her seated on one of the glowing stones, the picture of demure grace, albeit dressed in shadows that gave her a waxen, corpse-like pallor. "Hello, Rexanna," he called softly. "How are you doing?" Since broken bones and fluid bleeding clear upon a table, healing magic availing little as he held her broken body steady and helped to splint her wrists so no more damage was done until Zuriel could staunch the flow of her life. Since eyes eaten away to nothingness, and a stately helplessness tucked away into a backroom while fire raged towards her too-flammable flesh.
Since Queens, and votes, and talk of councils to try and herd the fiercely independent people of the Hollowed Grounds, who all agreed they needed someone to deal with the ever-increasing mix of outsiders, but couldn't agree on who should do it.
He’s perfectly on time, but has she ever known him to be late to something? She can’t recall, but she can hear him as he approaches, briefly before he announces his arrival, and her head tilts over toward him with a bright smile. “Much better.” She announces, scooting over should the bard want to join her on the rock she sits upon, emerald eyes scanning the grasses before them and the fading sunlight that’s changed the hues of the sky to something akin to navy and purple.
She lets her new eyes land on Jigano once he’s closer, the smile remaining on her face. “Thanks for joining me. And I never got to thank you for helping me out of the Guild when it was burning.” She hopes that the sincerity is there in her voice, that she appreciates him and the act he’d done. “But I actually wanted to talk about the Council things I’m working on implementing. I wanted to wait until I could see again.” She begins, waiting to see if he has anything to add, to say.
She has her plans, she hasn’t told anyone yet, but there were those few she wanted to give the heads up about said plans.
Her smile was even more welcome than her note had been, and he returned it in full as he walked softly across the fresh-growing grass to join her, settling beside her as the dissonant memories of Isla warred in the twilight for a moment. Night and day, the two women were, however, and he could never mistake one for the other. "I'm glad to see you looking so well - and looking at me," he added, turning to study the green of her eyes in the fading light of the day. They were different than he remembered... but then, so was she, in so many ways.
He shook his head at her thanks, smile turning a touch wry. "You're a hard lady to leave," he said lightly instead, hoping to keep things genial and not bring about the same downward turn his conversation with Sam had taken. "But you're very welcome." It was almost a relief to hear that she wanted to talk about the council, and he tilted his head as his smile faded - though only to a more thoughtful expression as he took her words seriously.
"Eyes do make everything easier. Especially reading and writing documents," he agreed. "And a government does love its documents, whether council or monarchy or whatever else." He huffed a short chuckle, thinking of the potential for Loreseeker work, copying documents out and adding them to official records. The laughter covered his surprise and how touched that he was that Rexanna wanted to speak with him about it at all, but instead of flooding her with questions that she could answer if he only gave her time, he just arched a curious brow at her and waited for her to say on.
“I’m glad I’m looking at you too.” She says with a light chime of laughter, allowing him the time to study her emerald eyes, the slight shift in hue from what they had once been. But Rexanna doesn’t mind, in fact she enjoys the change. A fresh beginning, as it were. The smile remains as Jigano shakes his head at her thank you, snorting to his comment. “I’ve heard that a time or two.” She jests with a wink.
But the conversation shifts toward eyesight and councils, and she nods in agreement, leaning back against the rock and tucking a leg up underneath her as she turns to regard Jigano a bit more front forward. “I plan on voting in a council, but I’ve split it up into categories. And I think one for the Loreseekers would be important, a way to keep and get information. It’ll be voted on of course, but I thought you might like to know ahead of time.” A small offering, despite their rocky relationship. “It’s all voluntary, but you have to come to the meeting and mention you want it once I list out all the other details.”
Green... suited her, he decided at last. Blue did as well, and the argument could be made that she would wear almost any color well, but there was a freshness to the green that he hoped presaged creation over the destruction that the Ascended had lately been wreaking. "And yet, Mrs. De Rosiers, your many admirers have been left bereft now that you have settled into staid and settled married life," he jested back.
She struck straight to the point and he nodded as she reiterated her intention to make a council. The brow remained arched in curiosity at the mention of categories, however, and her desire to include the Loreseekers among them. "What are the other categories you've come up with?" he asked, intrigued on if they would follow the path of his own proposed groups from that stilted meeting. "And who else were you thinking of inviting, if I may ask?" The day Jigano stopped asking questions was the day they'd know he'd been replaced by a doppelganger and they were all in danger of invasion by bodysnatchers.
A light hum of a laugh is sent to Jigano at his jested compliment. “How dreadful.” She announces, feigning the dramatics of the idea of it, before she focuses on the bard and explains her thoughts, what she’s giving him a slight heads up about. And she should have expected him to ask of the other categories, but she hadn’t. Much of it was meant to be secretive until she had a chance to talk to everyone.
Giving him a bright smile, her shoulder rises and falls in a small shrug. “You’ll have to forgive me if I wish to keep them more of a secret until I’ve had a chance to talk to everyone.” She says softly, head tilting slightly as she considers it. “You’ll find out all the sections at the meeting, for sure.” She gives him a nod, smile settling along her face.
"Must I?" he pretended to pout at being told he had to forgive her for her secrets. He reached into his sleeve theatrically and withdrew a rose that he created with his earth magic, as if by old-fashioned sleight of hand. "Can I not bribe more information out of you?" he teased, proffering the flower beneath the spreading glow of moonlight as the stars shimmered faintly in the darkening sky above. No snow was left upon the ground, but the white glow of the Glade's stones give the place a curiously washed-out feeling that still managed to pick up hints of color and enhance them, like jewels peeking out from eyes and clothes.
The lightness in his eyes faded slightly along with his smile as some of the humor slipped away at an uncomfortable thought. "Can you at least tell me whether Wessex will continue to be involved?" he asked more seriously, for even if Rexanna had only heard the former Queen's side of things, neither he nor the Wraith was hiding their active animosity for each other anymore.
There’s a faint smile granted Jigano’s way at his pout. But she is surprised as he pulls a rose out, grasping it gently beneath her pale fingers in surprise. Her eyes sliding over to him in further amusement. “True magic or practiced hands?” She teases with a crooked fanged smile before she looks back at the rose, feeling the petals beneath her fingers, reminisced of when she had planted them during the Blight.
And when Jigano asks the question of the Wraith, her gaze slips back to him with that same soft crooked smile. She knows briefly what happened at the spire opening, learned of it from Wessex, but she knows enough that both sides of a story are important. And Wessex has other things to do, reasons to stray away from a council that she’d stepped down from being Queen to. “She will not.” The Penumbra assures the Sage, twirling the rose a bit beneath her fingers. “I won’t divulge more on it, but I just want to ensure we have sections for those to be heard that normally wouldn’t otherwise. A way to separate it all.” She says softly. “So that way whoever remains at the helm, whether it’s me or you all choose someone else, don’t have to try and cover everything. That way everyone has a bit of responsibility.”
"Does it have to be one or the other?" he teased back. "Can't it be both?" The fangs still sent a pang of regret through him at the reminder of what she had become, but he buried it determinedly, unwilling to ruin a perfectly pleasant spring evening with something that neither of them could change now. It had taken him time to come to terms with Ludo's revelation that even if an Ascended should regret their transformation there was no way back, but it also calmed some of that desperation he had felt to try and save his friends from the Voice's sway. Calmed it to resignation and regret... but calmed it nonetheless.
It was what he had tried to share with Sam, that he could disagree with someone's choices yet still consider them a friend, and he was more relieved than he could say that Rexanna seemed to feel similarly. He relaxed incrementally at her promise that Wessex would not be involved, though the ex-Queen's presence wouldn't have been enough for him to withdraw the Loreseekers from this proposed Council. He would have recused himself, though, knowing he could not deal with her in an unbiased manner, and given the seat to Amalia or Loren to represent the Loreseekers.
He nodded agreement at the need for sections, his lips quirking up wryly as she echoed his own declarations from the meeting, even if she chose different representatives than he would have. "We're on the same page then," he agreed easily. "Spreading out the responsibilities and the power should be all to the good of everyone. I disagreed with Maea last year over her own attempt to set up a governing council..." He sighed and shook his head. "In hindsight, I was a fool not to give her more support."
There’s a light snort that accompanies the response she gets from Jigano, but she passes it off to give him a slight grin. “I suppose so, but as far as I knew, you hadn’t wielded magic before.” She replies easily, waving a hand to create a small glass vase for the rose he’d offered, setting it inside before glancing over to him with that very same amusement.
But it dissipates as she explains her thoughts, just not necessarily who’s involved, and she finds it agreeable that they were on the same page with it. It’s how she would have done it, it’s how it had been done back home in Halyven, had she been given the chance. Regardless, a small shrug is sent Jigano’s way as she offers him a light smile. “You live and you learn.” She offers. They all did, eventually. Mistakes were made, and you learned how to deal with them. That’s just how it worked in the end.
"We haven't spoken much since LongNight," he agreed, his teasing smile growing a little sadder. "So much to do, so little time, as they say. But yes, I pissed off another goddess and woke up with an affinity for flowers." That was the heavily edited version of the tale, at least, but it hit the high points with comfortable efficiency. Honestly it was better than what he'd gotten from the Voice, but he wasn't suicidal enough to press his luck by thanking Safrin for the fallout of her lesson in humility.
A council was a curious idea, and even if he hadn't agreed with Rexanna's reasoning he would have wanted to see who she had chosen - and why. He would have to wait, but he could manage that, he decided. At least this time he would give it a chance, unlike Maea's attempt at a government. "I wish I was as certain of that," he admitted wryly, considering how many times he tended to make the same mistakes, over and over. "But enough of business. How is married life treating you?" It would be nice to just catch up like two normal people for a bit, even if it might not last past the next catastrophe, whatever form it took.
He comments that they haven’t spoken since LongNight, and she nods lightly to that. How so much had changed, so much to do and work on, learn. But she pauses when he mentions he’d pissed off another goddess and woke with an affinity for flowers, some small amount of amusement lingering on her face at that. So much for the irony of that. “Safrin, I’m assuming?” A quiet question, emerald eyes lingering on him briefly before they speak of councils and roles, of living and learning from mistakes.
All she can do is snort lightly to him as he comments that he wishes he was as certain of that, doesn’t comment on it, not as he questions how married life is treating her. And well? The best she can ever hope to imagine for herself. “Wonderful.” She begins, looking out over the Glade, seeing the stones that glimmer and glow in the lowlight. “I can’t quite remember how much of my past I told you before, but Bastien is everything opposite of my first husband, and he shows it every day.” She murmurs, a faint smile blooming across her face as she looks back to Jigano. “And he has a companion now, Pittore. A lovely little creature who loves the arts as much as Bastien does.” She says with a light laugh before she shakes her head.
“And you? Aside from pissing off gods?” A dark brow lifts in quiet question.
"Frey might have been more appropriate, given the flowers that came later," he admitted with a rueful tilt of his chin. "But Safrin and I... have never quite seen eye-to-eye when Amalia isn't around. I'm a bit too full of myself for her taste." She had reason for it as she had shown him, as viscerally and painfully as possible. He shrugged, trying to pass it off lightly. "Or perhaps I just don't have much luck with the ladies?"
His smile softened as she extolled her happiness with Bastien, and he was glad the fickle man had finally settled into a more reliable and loyal mold. "I remember," he murmured about her first husband, but that was enough said about the winged excuse for a prince. "Pittore? What sort of creature is he?" the bard asked curiously. A cat? A bird of some sort? Something else?
Her own question earned a lopsided grin that was a little faded as he looked away. "Rory and I are well," he said quietly, "but LongNight took its toll on us both. The monsters... tried to trick him into opening the door at the farm. It was... it's left scars on us both." His mate had always been prone to dark moods, but the false-Karlia's visit in the last hours of LongNight had made them worse, and even the joy of Flowerbirth hadn't been much of a cure. "But I've been staying busy. Doing some recruiting for the Guild, making new friends, and catching up with old ones," he added with a smile for Rex. "Not to mention preparing for the festival! Do you have any plans for it this year? Helping with the Artist's Build booth or dancing or such?"
