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!
He tilted his head at Oliver's question, a brow rising in curiosity. "Do you know how to make such a thing?" he asked his fellow delver. "On my world I'd heard of such things in the southern civilized lands, but I've never seen one. They were gnomish contraptions, I believe... but books made without being written by hand were vanishingly rare in Numeria." His was a land of contradictions, traditional magic and the futuristic technology of the Rain of Stars interacting in strange and often deadly ways. He had trained to preserve a largely oral tradition, though he loved books when he could get his hands on them, but they were not as common in his northern land as they were to the south, and the means of producing them tended towards the simple given the literacy rate.
Oliver's questions were genuinely anxious, and Jigano paused in his perusal of the crates to look over at his young friend soberly. "I don't know," he admitted gently. "Though I don't think so. She wanted us to break her out of the Barrier and the Spire.. something we did admirably, I'm afraid. Some Naturals, too, but mostly Outlanders who weren't familiar with the world or its history - or who didn't care - rushed to open the Spire and free those trapped within the old Barrier. They did it for the best of intentions in most cases, but the result was still the same. The Voice was freed along with everyone else. And the old gods aren't pleased. The Fae have already banned the Ascended from the Greatwood - a ban the Ascended continue to break, I might add - and she has encouraged her Ascended to expand their power and reach through killing others before. I think it's wise to be afraid. But..." He sighed and shook his head as he began to free the box from the others around it. "I don't think she had further plans for most outlanders, no. If she could control who came through the portals from other worlds, I think we'd all have arrived as Ascended to swell her forces. She might continue bringing people through in the hopes of increasing her own side's numbers, though, even if she has to gamble on hoping that some percentage of new arrivals are Ascended rather than Attuned." Something that hadn't been working out in her favor, based on those Outlanders he'd met. Most seemed to be Abandoned, in fact, though at least they might be neutral towards her, having no reason to love or help the Old Gods who treated them with such disdain.
The faintest of a frown appeared on his face and Oliver shook his head. "No idea how to make one, but I imagine it can be done...maybe though the use of stamps? Like...maybe we could use stamps and press them down to make books?" Oliver remembered there being stamps of sort in his home, ones that he could only look at when they were cleaned, but never actually use. "I'd like to try and work something you, you know? Make books more accessible." It would be easier than teaching people about monsters verbally.
It was a lot to take in and while Jigano seemed confident enough that the Voice didn't have darkly sinister plans, Oliver feared that there could be worse going on. "She... something is going on... and I really don't like it... I'm worried, Jigano... I really am. I don't want to fight anyone. I know there's already some drama between the ascended and some people and I just-" He cut himself off and chewed on his lip, clearly upset about this. "I don't want us to fight. I don't want there to be problems... but she.... she sounds like she's trying to do so much... why is it that only the ascended can you know, do things? Why cant you or I discover these places? And.... and what if she does have plans for us? That she may try to get you or I to begin killing?" The voice was someone he never wanted to meet, not in his entire life. While he would trust his ascended friends, he would never put any faith in the Voice.
"You can try," Jigano encouraged. "I could probably figure out how to use such a machine if we found one, but as for making something like that... well. Remi would have been the best man for that sort of tinkering." His voice was sad as he finished because timelines are fucked and Torchline wasn't open yet when this thread started, wondering if the missing alchemist was okay.
Besides, he liked teaching people. Oliver's disinterest in attending his presentations might have made him just a little exasperated with the younger man. "Though making books accessible won't change that not all Naturals are literate, either," he cautioned him, considering his own mate could barely read, and Maea's early lessons with Sam. "Or Outlanders, for that matter." He'd been giving Adam secret reading lessons, too, after all.
Jigano was confident the Voice did have sinister plans, but not for Outlanders. Or rather, not anymore, since they had already fulfilled their purpose for her. He listened quietly to Oliver's concerns, though, as he tried to gently free the crate of jewelry from the stack it had been sitting in for three hundred years. "What places?" he asked, trying to follow the young man's broken words and half-finished thoughts. "Like Halo?" He grunted as he freed the box and headed towards the stairs to carry it out to the fresh Longheat air above. "That's because the portals are something she created. They're linked to her and the Ascended, somehow." But Oliver's other worry earned a snort of dismissal. "And how would she do that?" he asked curiously. "Aside from lying to the gullible, I mean, and convincing them to fall for a ruse?" Which seemed her main way of recruiting more Ascended, admittedly, but would hardly work on those already predisposed against her.
Found one? Oliver had full intentions of trying to create one himself. He'd just have to work on that in the future when he felt he had the time and materials available to create it. "I'm sure that Remi is still alive... I just know it." Seeing as he had that pendant he needed to return to Remi, he'd just have to see him once he does return. Unlike Jigano, Oliver lived in an ignorant bliss where he simply assumed that Remi was still alive, refusing to accept that he may have died or disappeared for good. It was best to be positive rather than assume the worst. "I hope that I can make progress without him... I'll have to start looking for supplies to start making it." Handwriting books seemed like a poor use of time in his eyes.
And yeah, Oliver sometimes liked to learn, but he also found that books were more accessible. "We could always help them learn? I mean... you offer classes, yeah? Maybe once books are more accessible, people will be willing to learn and if not, then they can continue to gain information verbally." Wait... didn't they have a Notice Board? One where people could make posts? Isn't Jigano being a bit hypocritical by saying they shouldn't make books because people are illiterate, but still continuing to use the Notice Board?
Following after Jigano, he grabbed the box he had managed to uncover and brought it over to where his companion was heading. "I don't believe she's making the portals out of the generosity of her heart... something is going to happen. She is unlocking them for a reason, Jigano. I love accessing new places...but what if the Ascended are in danger?" Or what if something bad was going to happen once all of them were opened?
03-13-2020, 02:34 PM (This post was last modified: 03-13-2020, 02:37 PM by Jigano.)
”Of course he’s alive,” Jigano agreed, his Guardian Sphere having reassured him of that much, at least. ”But as for where he is or what shape he’s in, given that he tried to kill himself before he disappeared…” The bard shrugged as he trailed off, having no better answers at the moment. Just because someone was alive didn’t mean they wanted to be. He nodded at Oliver’s vow to start the work with or without the tinkering alchemist. ”Perhaps something you find in that box of scrap metal might help?” Once it was properly sorted it might end up containing only scraps and junk, but there might have been some useful parts or gears tossed in that could be salvaged for another project.
”The Loreseekers do offer reading lessons to those who want them,” he agreed, ”and some do take us up on them. We can’t force lessons on people who don’t particularly want them, though.” His own mate included. His humor turned wry at the young man’s next words, though. ”Oliver, the Atheneum has stood, filled with more books than even an Ascended could read in their lifetime, that are available to anyone and everyone at any time of day or night, since long before the first Outlander arrived on this world. How can books be more accessible than that?” Though the nice thing about the Notice Board was that it was easy for people to read short news posts aloud to their less-literate friends – something that had also happened on more than one occasion for both Rory and Adam - and all it took was one person reading it to start passing the information by word-of-mouth through town. It wasn’t perfect – nothing was – but it usually worked because the messages on it were shorter than full books and therefore easy to pass on verbally.
As they lugged their chosen crates up and back into the light of the Longheat day, Jigano glanced back at his young companion with fond exasperation. ”Of course she’s not doing it out of the goodness of her heart,” he agreed, setting his box down and considering their cargo thoughtfully. He reached for his magic, beginning to draw it together as they continued to talk. ”I’m not sure she even has a heart anymore after what happened in the Spire. But you’re right that it’s for no good purpose. That’s why the Old Gods appointed Guardians of the Portals, to try and stop her from opening any more.” He grunted as the simple cart began to take shape beneath his hands, creation magic mixing with earth to make wooden planks and fire to place metal nails and make a sturdy axle. ”Not that we’ve had much success… But what sort of danger do you think the Ascended are in?”
He stepped back as he finished, the cart small but sturdy enough to make pulling their wares over bumpy rubble much easier. Loading their boxes onto it he tilted his head at the younger man with a brow arched in question. ”Did you want to grab any other crates to take back? We might be able to fit one or two more on here.”
The emotions reflecting through the blonde's eyes are heartbreaking. His eyes soften and any hint of a smile fully disappears. What could he even say to that? The reveal of Jigano's belief that Remi wouldn't want to be alive, seeing as he absolutely was. "I want to help him... he was there for me when I first arrived and I owe him for that." He was Oliver's savior and he owed him his entire life. His eyes drifted away and he nodded. Yes. The scrap metal would have to work.
Moving over to the boxes, his hand laid down on one of them and his fingers tapped nervously. "And if the Atheneum burnt down? We'd only have one copy of each book, it sounds like." It really did sound like Jigano thought this would be a detriment to, well, everything. Letting out a soft sigh, his hand nervously ran through his hair. "Sorry, forget the book idea. It was stupid." Seeing as Jigano didn't think it was necessary and he was literally the keeper of all knowledge... he was probably right. Why make books if nobody would read them, why make more books when they already had enough.
Grasping for one of the final boxes that caught his eye, Oliver brought it up to the surface, now far more silent than before. "Just this last crate should do..." He held it out for Jigano to take away from him. Honestly, he didn't need a lot of the stuff and unless Jigano could find a purpose, Oliver saw no reason to bring it with him. "And the Ascended? I don't know... what if they're in danger? She has them following her every order and I don't want her to kill them.... what if she thinks they're merely replaceable? Completely expendable? I don't want anyone to get hurt by her choices and if anyone is going to get hurt, it's the Ascended."
Loren had made it very clear that Remi had tried to tear out his own throat before the summoner had forced enough Healing on him to keep him alive against his will. That had been the last thing anyone had seen before the alchemist's disappearance, along with his daughter's broken body and his husband. "We'll have to find him, first," Jigano said quietly. "Which will mean opening more portals..." Something the Voice and her Ascended were very keen on doing, conveniently enough.
"If the Atheneum burnt down we would, indeed, be in trouble." Considering how often things burned down during LongNight, that was an excellent point. "There's Sam's bookshop, but that's quite small in comparison." Oliver's sullen surrender had the bard biting back a sigh of exasperation, and he focused on his magic to distract himself from shaking the boy. "It's a good project for you to undertake, Oliver, I'm just not sure who has the technical ability or knowledge to help you assemble such a thing." Other than the Voice, perhaps, that mysterious mistress of all things mechanical.
He used the time while Oliver retrieved a last box to breathe deeply and calm his exasperation, and when the blond returned he took the crate and settled it into place with a grateful nod. Taking up the handle at the front of the cart he grunted and began to pull, the iron-shod wooden wheels rattling over the rubble. "I don't want her to, either. It's been a matter of concern since we discovered her other discarded experiments," he admitted. "But the Ascended won't hear a bad word about her. They refuse to consider that she might be using them... and she does treat them far more kindly than the old gods treat most of their followers." He sighed. "She buys their loyalty and love with trinkets and powers and sweet words, it sounds like. And perhaps they're not completely replaceable... not for the moment, at least. They're few enough in number that she can't afford to spend their lives wastefully. But... eventually... they may find themselves going the way of those that came before, as she perfects her craft on newer 'children.'" He glanced over his shoulder, arching a brow at the young man.
"No words I've spoken to my friends among them has been able to convince them of that, though. And surely you've seen the manifestos and propaganda that have gone up in the Temple and Noticeboard. Do you have any ideas for how to break such thorough mindwashing, when facts alone won't work and they go to her of their own free will?"
Shaking his head, Oliver looked off to the side, clearly uneasy with this whole thing. "It's too bad there isn't an easy way to communicate with other people... damn. Wasn't there like, a shell? What if Remi has the other half with him?" Oliver could vaguely remember a shell from LongNight that could be used to communicate. Who knows, maybe Remi happened to have such a thing on him!
There was an obvious shift in tone and Oliver could feel it. While Oliver was all for education, he wasn't a fan that it could only be kept in the hands of two individuals. Yes, the Loreseekers should continue to exist, but their existence doesn't mean people shouldn't have easy access to books. Maybe easier access to books could make learning far more accessible. The gears were turning swiftly and he had to pull himself back in reality before it went too deep. "It's fine, I'll try to work on something myself. Who knows, maybe I'll just start handwriting books for a living and offer them to all of the families." If they wanted them, fantastic, and if not? Fine by him. Jigano would...probably hate it, but whatever.
Other... discarded experiments? "I don't like what she does, and unfortunately, I don't think we can save those she's already spoken to... I want to help them. The Ascended are good people. But she has them wrapped around her finger. Only way they can survive is by getting modifications from her..." It was disgusting but there wasn't anything he could do. With a soft sigh, he walked over to the cart. "For now I guess... just hope she slips up? That one of them becomes wise? I don't know... I think they're too far gone." Oliver only had a couple of friends within the Ascended, but that didn't mean he wanted them all to suffer. Quite the opposite, really.
"Phoebe has both shells, currently," Jigano said quietly. "I believe she's keeping them safe for next LongNight." There were other things they might have been used for in the interim, of course, but for now they rested with the Dean of the Medical College and whatever doldrums she was trying to drown in.
It all came back to books being accessible for generations in the Atheneum, a building filled to bursting with tomes and journals in myriad languages where anyone could go to read at any time of day or night in any season. But Oliver seemed obsessed with the idea and the bard had other things on his plate. "It's a noble career," he agreed mildly. "And honestly, a little competition might do Sam some good." The bookmaker had a habit of being a bit scatterbrained and starting multiple projects before finishing one. Perhaps another book vendor in town would help give him focus...
And keep him from doing quite so much of the Voice's bidding with the portals.
Jigano simply nodded as Oliver repeated his words with different phrasing, glad that they had something they agreed on. "I might not have been able to convince my friends yet... but that doesn't mean I've stopped trying," he said, gently. "Even if it seems hopeless I won't give up on them. That's what makes them friends." He smiled crookedly.
"If you could... push from the back... that would be a great help," he grunted, hauling the cart partially by brute force over the lowest portion of some fallen rubble that stretched across what once had been a street.
It would hardly be an easy trip back through the Ruins, but between both of them they would be able to manage it, and they were able to divvy up the contents of the crates between them when they got back to town.
