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!
It’s at this point that Rexanna realizes that she’s never actually spent time with Samuel without anyone else around. And with all the work he’s doing, all the things that had happened to the both of them since LongNight and after, that perhaps she should get to learn more about her newfound brother, a part of her family she held some amount of pride for. So she leaves a note on his doorstep, asking to meet her in the glade, to learn about Safrin and perhaps to just get to know him better should he wish the same.
Dusk hits and Rexanna leaves the Artist’s Sanctuary to head for the Glade, and by the time she makes it there the stars flicker out overhead. There’s a shrine to the old gods nearby here, one she had uncovered with Remi and first met Frey – something that marked her arrival here… Almost two years ago now. And gods, how long it had been, a small blip in the difference between the time she’d spent here and Samuel’s whole life within the barrier, within the Grounds, now able to spread his wings and explore.
And so she waits for him to arrive, tucking her dark jacket around her figure, green gaze flickering along the glowstones nearby beginning to shine.
The note from Rexanna, left on his doorstop, had surprised Sam with it's arrival. He was sure that the Queen liked him (he personally respected and liked her, but did not know her well) but had never expected she would seek him out personally; he worried a little that he could have done something wrong.
Probably not, he assured himself: If he had made an error, he would have heard of it from Wessex by now. Perhaps Rexanna just had a request to make of him (though what he knew about Safrin that she did not he was unsure); the idea that she might be trying to get to know him better did not cross his mind.
In a light coat he headed to the glade, smiling at the glowstones illuminating the way there. It was a beautiful evening, at least, the perfect kind of time for a walk. With an anxious smile, he approached Rexanna and nodded. "Good evening. I hope you weren't waiting too long...?"
The perks of Ascension, aside from the obvious, is being able to enjoy the scenery in any climate. And with it, she walks along the glowstones, inspecting them – wondering what parts of them the Voice had used to create her green gaze now – before Samuel’s voice reaches her and she turns to face him with a bright smile of greeting in response to his anxious one. “Oh, not at all!” She chimes, drifting closer to him.
She doesn’t know him very well, but a part of her wants to hug him in greeting like she does Wessex, like she does Clemente. But she refrains, letting her arms swing along her sides, before she looks out over the glade once more. “It’s a lovely night, and I thought maybe we could get to know each other a bit better.” Her head swings back to him softly, verdant gaze lingering on his face. “You know, when there’s no monsters involved.” Her mind flits back to the blighted gourd, the mathair, the adventure over LongNight.
Her smile is soft as she looks back ahead. “That and I want to learn a bit more about the celebration for this season, with the capturing the sun if you have some suggestions? I heard something about singing or telling a story to Safrin. But alas I’ve never met her, nor… Do I really know much about her actually.” She’d heard the customs in passing as well as tidbits of the goddess, but wasn’t sure how accurate they both were, and she wanted to participate. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind either.
Rexanna's bright smile and cheerful tone calmed Sam's worried heart; it seemed she was not calling him here to chastise him for some unknown crime. Perhaps it was the rather intimidating title of Queen, or just his always-present paranoid imagination, but he had convinced himself on the walk over she had to have some bone to pick with him. For the moment, he would believe that wasn't the case, and breath easier (metaphorically) for it.
"Oh. Yes, that...that would be good." He had told the Voice that he wanted to get to know his Ascended family better, after all; he supposed this was a part of the process. Slightly awkward conversations and meetings that one of them had to begin one way or another. "It is nice to see you without being in a fight." Smiling, he began to walk with her.
That Rexanna knew nothing of Safrin was a little bit of a surprise - was she not married to the man who had once begun a church in the Goddesses name? Still, he had yet to sing this Longheat, and it needed to be done, Ascended or not; it was a good chance to get in his seasonal duty while teaching Rexanna (and hopefully, growing closer). "Yes, we sing to Safrin. To ask her to keep the night away - though really, any song will do, I think. I doubt she actually listens to them." He truly doubted an Old God paid attention to the singing of Ascendeds.
"I have never met her myself, but I know she is the Goddess of the night..I've heard she is cunning and very beautiful...dangerous, though, too." She sounded like the kind of person he would hate, really. The kind of person that could easily trick him.
In comparison to a majority of those that Samuel has met – Rexanna is a quite forgiving person. And Sam had only really done wrong by her once, in everything they’ve done. But he had done what she’d asked of him, taken her to the Voice to get her quest for her eyes, had been there squished beneath the blighted pumpkin with her, had been there when she was being attacked and tied up at the Mathair. She didn’t have any issues with him, and in fact was happy to have him as a part of the little ever growing family of theirs.
As for her relationship with Bastien and how once upon a time Bastien had created a church for the very goddess? Well, she never really brought it up ever – chose to forget about that little blip of time since so much more had happened after.
As he comments that it’s nice to see her without being in a fight, she bobs her head in agreement, a bright fanged smile crossing her face at that. “It seems every fight I get into I always end up less than stellar, so we take the little victories where we can, right?” A small chime of a laugh, surprised somewhat that despite the terrible things that continued to happen around them, that Rexanna had always tried to find the light in it, even if she now lived in the shadows.
The Penumbra incarnate.
But as they walk, her head tilts toward him to listen as he speaks. “I imagine that would be a lot of time spent trying to listen to everyone.” She muses in agreement, pulling her jacket around her tighter as she looks about the Glade, eyes lingering on the glowstones. “It’s aimed to just be a distraction?” She asks, ensuring that while he said it didn’t matter what songs, that she had been right in her assumption.
But Samuel has never met Safrin either, and she nods along with that. “I think they all are dangerous in their own right.” She hums thoughtfully, fingers tapping along her side. “I was cursed and then blessed by Frey before I Ascended. They took my brand away and gave me a sort of… glamour I think. My hands could never get dirty, though I could feel it. I just couldn’t see it.” She hums thoughtfully. “But I’ve never met Safrin either. I tried to go see her with Deimos a long time ago.” But Deimos and her had been Abandoned, and it was very likely she wouldn’t have cared to show anyway.
"You're still very brave, though. You fight better than I do." Sam laughed awkwardly, knowing that he spent the greater part of most battles invisible or hiding behind his barrier, waiting for a moment when the more strong among them would provide him with some kind of opportunity to act.
He nodded to her question about Safrin, though he didn't truly entirely know. "I believe so. Just to please her and make her less likely to do it, I suppose. There are some written songs, but you can just make up your own." Certainly, he'd heard some creative verses from children around this time of year, some of them more suitable than others.
The nature of the curse that she described sounded interesting, though rife with potential issues. "Wait..." Sam frowned as he walked. "So...you could be covered in dirt and not know? Did you smell? Could..other people see it?" Given that she had successfully dated someone during that time, he had to assume she had not constantly stank of muck, but if one couldn't see the dirt on themselves, how would they know to clean it?
At Sam’s compliment, she offers him a bright fanged grin while they walk. “Well, you probably do the smarter thing. Come in when needed rather than charge in blazing.” She offers with a light hum of laughter. “I always seem to end up getting a bit too hurt at the end of them all.” And it was true, every time she’d gone out to attack or fight something, she’d always ended up pretty badly hurt.
The mention of Safrin though has her tilting her head and listening. “Well I hope she doesn’t mind. I’m not a very good singer.” She jests, shoulders rising and falling in a shrug. But she tells him of her glamour, and she hears the questions that leave him while they continue their small trail, drifting closer to the old gods shrine more and more. “I could feel it a little bit. Like it was oily until I washed. But no, nobody could see it. My hair would stay the same even if it was raining terribly outside.” She looks back up to Sam with a bright smile.
"I don't have many ways to fight." Sam laughed quietly, shrugging his shoulders. She was right, though - Rexanna's tendency to be in the middle, to protect, it usually did cost her. "But...you are still here and if you have survived through all of this...I do not think there is much left that could do any worse." He meant it, too - she and Wessex both seemed so invincible to him, able to complete whatever they put their minds to.
Though, once upon a time, he'd thought the same of Lucas. Of Remi...
It was best to focus on those of them that still remained, he decided, and forced his mind to come back to the current moment. "Oh, I am hardly good at it. The Luxere still come when I sing, though, and Safrin has not yet cursed me for my voice...just...for The Voice." He rarely made jokes, much less good ones, and Sam could not help his dorky laugh after this one.
"I see...do you miss being Abandoned? Just...just abandoned, I mean. Before you Ascended." He asked, stepping up over an overgrown tree root.
A bright cheerful grin is sent Sam’s way when he tells her that he doesn’t have many ways to fight. “You have your mind though.” She shrugs. And sure, while they’d all had their shortcomings (looking at you Sam who tried to touch a LongNight monster), for the most part Samuel had bright ideas. Much brighter for things than Rexanna had. “I think it’s only my Ascension that’s kept me alive, if I’m being honest.” She hums but smiles regardless.
She doesn’t regret any of it, regardless how many people wanted her to.
The mention of the Luxere still coming to him causes her to snap her gaze to him in interest. “Oh? Really? I’ve never gotten one up close. Though I heard they don’t like dark magic, and I have fire magic.” A brief pout crosses her face. “That’s probably why, I think?” She tilts her head to see what Samuel has to say, whether he wishes to inform her more officially on the matter.
At his dorky laughter though, she can’t help the un-queenly giggle that slips from her lips. But she calms enough to explain the magic from Frey, gaze attentive on their surroundings as they near the Shrine and Sam asks her if she misses being just Abandoned. And she’s quiet for a time while she thinks about it, head tilting to the side enough that her dark hair falls over her shoulder in a dark curtain. “I miss parts of it. I miss the sun on my face. I miss… Not being double hated by the gods.” Another quiet chuckle at that as she looks to Sam once more. “Imagine being Abandoned by the gods already, and then going and Ascending.” A half smile crossing her face before it fades in a small shrug.
At least the Voice was kind to her far more than she thought she ever deserved.
"I'm not sure that's always been a blessing." Sure, Sam was (sometimes) intelligent, had a good brain for reading and writing books, but it had come at a heavy cost; he had never been able to stop the worrying, the impending sense of doom, the way his mind held his heart and soul in it's grasp and crushed whenever the smallest issue came up.
Sam nodded at Rexanna's explanation, shrugging. "I suppose that might be it. It's not because you're Ascended, I know that much." After all, the Luxere had always approached him just the same as anyone else - he'd actually always appreciated that about them. "Maybe if you tried to sing for them with someone else, it might help. I've found that when I sing with those with less experience it can sometimes bring a Luxere when they've had no luck before." Though, there was a chance it was coincidence - maybe in the next Deepfrost, it was worth experimenting a little.
Having made Rexanna laugh he found himself quite proud, smiled wide at her, though it faded as he listened to her give the reasons she missed her old life. "In some ways, it makes you more similar to The Voice herself. She was Abandoned, then the first Ascended...maybe she will understand that well. I'm very used to the Gods hating me, though they didn't like me all that much before my Ascension either. Still...I do things like the festivals and sing to Safrin because I don't.." Trying to gesture before him, Sam paused for a moment as he tried to come up with words.
"I don't want the Old Gods or the people that follow them to have anything bad happen to them. I just want The Voice to be among them and for her help to be accepted." It all seemed so easy, if the Old Gods would just stop being so cruel to their Goddess.
“Pros and cons, huh?” She says to his initial comment of his brain not necessarily being a blessing. Indeed, pros and cons for her fearlessness, pros and cons for his staying out of the way. And when you put the two together, well, things would in theory work out fairly well one would think. Perhaps they’ll have another chance to try it out? Perhaps not where they both lose a piece of themselves in the process?
She glances over to him as he shrugs, nodding along with the mention of singing for them with someone else. “I did try with Lily once.” She muses. It had been back when she was only abandoned, with only fire and firework magic in her arsenal. Her darkness showing through with the fiery bits of magic within her soul. But she doesn’t know, and next time maybe… Maybe she could go with Sam to lure them closer. “Maybe we could go sing to them together next Deepfrost?” She asks with a soft smile along her face.
He is family, after all.
But he continues on mentioning that it makes her more like the Voice, something she’d heard echoed from Jigano once before she thinks. And she nods in agreement to that – understanding glimmering between her features as he mentions the small amount of insecurities. “I get it.” She agrees softly, reaching out to squeeze his arm gently, like a sister might do. “I think people think that we just… Actively hate the old gods because we’re Ascended when I think that’s hardly the case at all.” She muses. “The Voice is the only one that’s seemed to care, really. Even though I was Abandoned, she walked me through the Ascension, ensuring that nobody was forcing me into it, that I wanted to do it because I wanted to. And after my past life of being told what to do and manipulated into it, well, it was more of a gift than anything else.” She offers with a light smile.
Sam nodded, though he often struggled to come up with the pros of his anxious and wandering mind. It had gotten easier in the last year at least, when he had begun to see himself as more than dirt, worth at least something.
"Yes! Let's. Maybe...it would be nice to take Wessex and Amun, Nate, Bastien...everyone else too. I think we should all try do more things together." After all, they were a family and they needed to stick together through their trials and tasks; it was easier to bond when not every meeting was for a fight or mission. Imagining Wessex singing with gusto made him laugh and he was unsure it'd ever happen, but he'd extend the invitation.
Rexanna leaned over and squeezed his arm and Sam smiled softly towards her, finding her words very relatable indeed. "Jigano implied I might have forced Nate into Ascending...that Bastien might have been the reason you did. Was he? I think Nate came to the decision entirely on his own, but...I worry I might have made him do it." He frowned, looking down to his feet. Since he'd heard Jigano say it, he'd been unable to push the idea away. "I don't think people understand that we can actually enjoy being Ascended. It...took me some years to get to this point, but I've found joy in it now."
A suggestion of a family outing has her smile growing brighter at the thought of it. She can imagine their little group scouting around the dark Deepfrost nights, singing and enjoying each other’s company, trying to gather Luxere for the upcoming LongNight. And with it, she hums a quiet laugh of happiness with it. “I agree. Let’s plan one out then, talk to them all when it gets closer?” She agrees cheerfully.
But the cheeriness ends when the conversation grows a bit more serious, about her Ascension and her choices, and her head tilts to him as her smile fades when he brings up Jigano. An unnecessary sigh leaves her lips at that before a soft smile crosses her face, almost perhaps in disbelief or confusion. “No, he wasn’t the reason. He’d brought it up months prior as something that he spoke to the Voice about, that we could try it if I wanted to. But I was never pressured into it. I decided to do it after Zariah locked me up in the Manor because I didn’t want to be so… Powerless anymore.” A purse of her lips at that before she focuses on Samuel again.
“Likewise, the Voice ensured through the whole way that it needed to be something that I wanted. Had it been fake, had someone else been trying to push me into it, she would have known this was something I didn’t want to do. But I did.” She goes to squeeze his arm once more. “I’m sure the same went for Nate.” A musing thought before a softer smile reaches her when he mentions he’s found joy in it now.
“There are some people in life that won’t agree with the choices you make and will come up with all sorts of reasons to try and make it seem like it wasn’t you that wanted to do what they disapprove of. But it doesn’t matter in the end, you know. What matters is what you think. If you’re happy, then let the rest of them be miserable with the choices you’ve made with your life.” She shrugs, offering a bright smile.
Sam was glad to hear that Rexanna did not think Bastien was the reason for her Ascension. He'd doubted his own ability to persuade Nate to Ascend, but Bastien was far more charismatic than he was; he supposed he could see why someone might think the artist could lead someone along to such a decision. That Rexanna could so confidently say he hadn't made him feel better; if Bastien had not, he had no chance of doing so.
"Do you think The Voice can...read our thoughts? Or see us, all the time? I sometimes think she can, but I'm not always sure." She did seem to always know what was going on in Sam's life.
He smiled at Rexanna's words, knowing she was trying to comfort him, but they didn't really reach his heart. It was hard to damn all the naysayers when they were his friends, when it would be Jigano being miserable. Sam knew he would not be truly content until the Ascended and the other races had all found a way to get along, though he was not sure it was possible anymore.
But if it was going to happen, it would require effort from both sides. In that spirit, he stopped walking and looked up to the sky, clapped his hands together. "Well. If we are going to sing...should we begin?"
