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!
As he stepped into the Atheneum, Sam flexed the one remaining finger on his maimed hand, hoping it was the last time he'd have to feel the strange strain of oddly-healed skin over his incomplete knuckles. Hopefully he'd be able to erase the scars of Longnight and with them, some of the sting of the memories.
With the bones, metal and snake in his bag (the snake writhing unhappily) he entered the Atheneum, anxiously looking around to make sure Jigano was not nearby. He had chosen to come in the early hours of the morning, hoping it would be quiet. Just him and his Goddess; what he needed right now, he thought.
Coming to the shrine in the shelves, he smiled and whispered, the atmosphere around them almost too silent to break with his normal voice. "Hello. I'm here with the things you asked me to gather...on a break from exploring around Halo. I'm sure you already know, though." He laughed softly, a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry it took me so long."
---
Electrified Metal -- Trying My Best (OPEN)
Hanging Snake -- A Wordsworth Family Adventure
Kappa Cave Bones -- {PQ} Dancing Bones
"You have nothing at all to apologize for." The Voice said, appearing atop her shrine and gazing down at Sam with a beatific smile that radiated with electrical energy. "You did exceptionally well, with this and with your exploration." She added as she elegantly hopped down.
Taking the bag, the goddess lifted out the bones and the snake. With magical precision she began sculpted the bones into the shape of fingers, winding the still-living snake around them as if to force the creature's flexibility into the would-be joints. Finally she brought up the metal, and at her touch, bright blue streaks of light flashed over it as if it was lightning-struck all over again. As it touched the bone-snake prosthetic the lightning fused the creature to the bone just as the metal began to liquefy and cover the creation.
"Give me your hand, Sam." Reaching to take it, her thumb whispering across where the fingers once were, the Voice pressed the upgrade against his skin. Luckily with his recent upgrade to his sensory patch, the bookmaker would feel no pain as his skin stretched and knitted itself to accept the prosthetic; freckles and hair even appeared to make the addition completely seamless.
Sam's fingers have been replaced and upgraded!
Finger Upgrade | Can restore a non-organic item to the state it was in 5 seconds prior to being touched. Example: An unlocked door can be locked, a shattered vase can be made whole again, etc. Only works on small-medium sized objects.
12-17-2019, 08:27 PM (This post was last modified: 12-17-2019, 08:33 PM by Samuel.)
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
Sam smiled, let out a nervous laugh, genuinely relieved - why had he let doubters invade his mind with fear? Of course the Voice would not punish him; he had tried his best with the exploration, so it was enough for her. He was enough for her.
He watched with fascination as the Voice worked. She truly was a miracle maker, turning the disparate ingredients he'd brought into bone, skin, flesh; something useful. It had been difficult to get some of the items (mostly because of the uncomfortable conversations a lot of the questing had thrust him into) but in that moment, it was all worth it.
Holding out his hand with no question or hesitation, he saw his fingers mend themselves and gasped a delighted breath. "Wow..I...thank you, so much." Longnight had been a mess, he had made mistakes, but he was well on the way to fixing it, to improving the future. Flexing his fingers and bending each knuckle, turning over his hand, he wore a small smile as he asked: "So...um...could I ask you something, while I'm here? I don't know how much of what I do you see, but...I had a conversation recently with someone who um....doesn't like you too much. I couldn't change his mind. I don't agree with him, but something he said made me wonder what the answer was."
"Of course. Though promise me you won't go sticking those into the mouths of any monsters? At least not for at least a week." The Voice laughed and gave Sam a fond look, before falling silent to hear him out.
"Jigano?" She hazarded a guess, a soft smile tugging at her lips looking for all the world amused rather than angry. "What is the question?"
Sam laughed and shook his head. "I can promise that. Believe me, I learnt my lesson." He wrung his hands together, feeling with slight disbelief the new knuckles and fingertips she had gifted him.
"...Yes, Jigano." He revealed, sighing. He hoped that this would not land the bard in any more trouble with the Voice or Wessex; he could not handle yet more tension between their people and those devoted to the Old Gods. "He...he asked me, if I wanted to, if I could ask you to ah...reverse my ascension, I suppose. I don't want to. But...if I did, is that something you'd be able to do? Or...something the Old Gods would do? I think people feel like this might be a trap, if you can't choose to leave." Sam's voice was low, almost ashamed, as he delivered most of his speech to the floor.
The Voice chuckled as well, nodding. Most learned the lesson of not sticking vital bits of yourself into the mouths of monsters at a much younger age. But that was alright; Sam developed in his own time, as he always had, and she loved him for it.
At the notion of reversing his ascension, the goddess' eyes widened and her nostrils flared slightly. Her teeth clicked together for a moment as her eyes blazed with electrical angry, before all tension melted away and she offered Sam a smile.
"A trap, mm? Tell me then, for those born into this world, did they have a choice in it? Did they ask to be created? Did they ask for their souls to be marred and labelled abandoned, through no fault or choice of their own?" Softly the goddess reached out, her finger beneath his chin to raise his eyes. "If your bard is so worried about choice, perhaps you might ask him that. They only think it is a trap because they think you are lesser. That is what is at the heart of it. Those made into demi-gods are not asked; was your Fallen Star asked? Or was he simply thrust into what he is? Ahh but he has power, and so no one worries about it. What of your twin? Born with magic and hated in her younger years for it? Where was her choice?" Slowly the goddess shook her head. "This is the very opposite of a trap, Sam. It is a choice, to be what you are. A choice that not many others get to make. The attuned do, but had your bard worried about them? About asking to reverse that?"
She shook her head, thinking not. It was only because he was an ascended, something that he Jigano's of the world had a problem with, that words like trap were used.
Sam stiffened as he saw The Voice's anger; it was rare to see the Goddess so visibly enraged and fear began to settle in him until thankfully she calmed. At least it seemed that while the question itself was one that angered her, she was willing to speak to him about it.
And as much as she dressed up the answer in questions and things he could retort with, he knew she was saying no. He couldn't reverse his Ascension. He was fine with that, really, but he knew it would be the only thing Jigano (or anyone else that asked) would hear. Still, he listened to what The Voice was saying; it was good to have things to repeat back to their detractors. Her points sounded good, anyway. "I suppose you're right...I do always think it's unfair that people are Abandoned for no reason."
Though there would be something she said that took him by surprise and had little to do with her greater point. Frowning, Sam looked up at her with confusion in his eyes. "What...do you mean, magic? Evie doesn't have magic. She's Accepted." After all, she'd always been better than him. Good little Evie - it wouldn't have made sense for her to be anything but perfect.
"Everyone...seems to think we've been brainwashed. Like I'm stupid and I can't see why I'm being foolish, but..." Sam chewed at his lip, wondered how much he was right to say to The Voice. Eventually he decided if he did trust her as much as he said, he would be able to be honest with her. "I don't always fully agree with everything we do. I don't like the deaths that have happened - I'm still upset about the Blight. But...I believe in you and what you are trying to do, and I believe you mean the best for all of us." Turning his face up to The Voice with a smile he nodded. "I really do."
'Is she now." The Voice mused, raising a thoughtful brow. "She is beloved by the gods then? They always answer her calls and long for her to be one of them? To attune to them?" The goddess shrugged. "Her apothecary shop seems to always be filled with such rich herbs, regardless of the season. Even when nothing grows, one can always count on her to have fresh ingredients, mm?"
Listening, the goddess nodded. There was a maternal discontent radiating from her, but like all good mothers, she knew she could not fight every battle for her children. 'And there is nothing wrong with that. To go forward sometimes there is death. So it is in the animal kingdom, so it has been with the old gods, so it is now. The next time anyone lays the burdens and responsibilities of my plan on you, ask them if they feel similarly for the horrors of the old gods. Bright as you are Sam, bright as all of you are, you are not me. You do not bear my sins."
Running a finger affectionately across his cheek, the Voice smiled adoringly at him.
12-23-2019, 08:18 PM (This post was last modified: 12-23-2019, 08:26 PM by Samuel.)
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
The Voice's points about Evie gave him pause; Sam's mouth opened and no words came out, shock stopping his throat from making the noise. "I...assumed she simply didn't try much with the Gods and...that she was good with plants." Now that he had it called into question, he supposed that Evie's life would make more sense if it had magic in it. "Why hasn't she told me?" He asked, as if The Voice might know.
He nodded along to her suggested response. "That is what I say to them. About that plague you mentioned to me... I put it on the notice board too so maybe people could see it and think...but...it seems if the Old Gods did it, no one cares. They only mind when it's us." Sam sighed, shaking his head.
All of this lead to another question - one that he'd asked Remi before, but The Voice would surely know better than anyone else... "Do...you think one day you'll...ever fight the Old Gods? Directly? And um..." He chewed at his lip, once again worrying about phrasing then deciding to just speak his mind. "Why is it the Old Gods don't come to fight you now?"
"You've not been entirely truthful with her your entire life, have you?" The Voice replied with a gentle shrug. "Perhaps it is time for the both of you to get some things off of your chest, mm?"
Taking a sip of air that she likely didn't need at all, the Voice hums her understanding. "Your job is not to convince them Sam. I only tell you these things so that you will know the truth, and can be strengthened by it. Caring about what others think is not necessarily a bad thing...but it is if you let their doubts crush you." So saying she reached forward to brush a strand of red from Sam's pale cheek, offering her child an adoring if not pained smile to see him so.
"Fight them?" Tilting her head back the Voice laughed a bright and electric sound before her brilliant blue gaze returned to Sam. "Fight? Oh no Sam. I intend to make them yield." As for why they were doing nothing now? The Voice grinned. "Because they are scared. Because they know it was only luck that saved them before." She replied, the light in her eyes sparking. "But don't worry about that. Unlike them I shall not have my children fighting my battles for me. Should a confrontation arise, I will ensure that none of you are harmed."
"I...suppose not. We had a lot to guard, when we were younger." It had been a defence mechanism. He could not have afforded to let anything go, in case Evie could use it the next time their parents pitted them against each other, made them enemies for a night once more. That she had kept her own secrets (though surely this was one their parents had to know too?) should not have been a surprise, yet he knew he would still need a few days to really understand it.
Sam glanced up as The Voice pushed away his hair, a weak smile on his face. "I...wish it wasn't, but some of them...I worry if I don't convince people well enough, they will turn to violence when they decide I am wrong. You know that the Old Gods have appointed 'portal guardians', just to fight us? It's hard to not feel like the debates they draw me into aren't arguments for why I should get to live." The words tumbled from his lips quicker than he had time to think of them, but they were true and he did not correct himself.
The laughter was unexpected and Sam did not really understand what it was The Voice meant as she spoke after it. Still, the important part was that he was not expected to fight the war. "...I have...one last question. Is..the Core going to come back? Is the Core you? Or are they someone else?"
"They probably will. They always turn to violence, don't they?" She frowned sadly, this obvious truth still a weighty one to bare. At the mention of portal guardians, the Voice stilled and nodded. "They did this before as well. Do you know what happened to them? They all died." With a snort, she grinned. "At least that will take care of your Jigano problem." She replied callously.
The mention of the Core stilled her once again and she pulled her hand back from his face. Not out of anger, but out of a respect for the name spoken it would seem. "No, the Core is ... not me."
Sam stayed quiet, eyes on the floor, as The Voice casually joked about the death of the old Portal Guardians and Jigano too...he knew why she felt the way she did, honestly understood, but...he could hear Jigano's voice ringing in his ears and was hardly comfortable to think of his friends dying. "...I...hope there's a way to resolve it peacefully this time." He said carefully.
As for the Core, it seemed he had struck upon something of significance. With curiosity, Sam glanced up as the hand left his face. "Can you tell me about them? ...Will we get to see them again? Are they like you...a relative? Or...part of one whole?" He had many questions about how this all worked, now that he'd accepted himself as a part of it.
"That will be up to them, not us." The attack in the woods against the fae....well. Would one fault a tiger for killing the handler that trapped it, in an effort to escape? They all did things they might not, went pressed against a wall.
Not for the first time her smile faltered. "Those questions are...difficult for even me to answer." She replied with an uncomfortable shrug. "Why do you ask?"
