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!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Loren had found that Halo lacked much reading material on the subjects he was interested in or would be useful. So he'd decided to seek it out elsewhere. Given that he still didn’t have much desire to see anyone, he’d once again waited until night fell before sneaking his way through the Hollowed Ground.
Astra was by his side, though she was tired to be moving at such a late hour. Well used to navigating by just her light and the moon, he swiftly made his way to the Atheneum. Pushing open the doors, he made his way through the stacks mostly by memory. It didn't take long to find the section on agriculture and herbs. Scanning the shelves, he pulled down a few likely looking volumes, then made his way to the nearest table. Glancing around, he lit a single lantern, careful to keep it away from the paper.
Then he bent his head and began to read. He soon became engrossed in the work, eyes darting from line to line, fingers turning pages quickly. Almost, he looked like an older version of himself.
With a final flick of his pen, Sam sat back from the book he had devoted the last week to and smiled, glad to have finished a project. Not his most complex or lengthy work, but a work nonetheless - the slim volume on the Flora of the Grounds was a collection of rewrites of some of the more faded tomes in the Atheneum, ensuring that the words of history would not be forgotten.
Waiting for it to dry he poked Mia with his quill, laughing as she lazy batted at it with her paw. He was just considering leaving it on the table in the Loreseekers for the night, a way to be sure it would be properly dry before closing, when a noise from upstairs made him jump. Not too loud, a scuff or a scrap of a shoe against the floor maybe, but he was unused to anyone else being in at this time.
Frowning, he reached to bundle Mia in his arms (if he was about to run from a serial killer, he wasn't going to leave his cat behind) and slowly headed up the stairs one at a time, peering around the door into the Atheneum. The flickering light of the lantern confirmed indeed that there was someone present and Sam closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down - probably just a Loreseeker coming in for some late work, or someone looking for shelter from the night. Still, he was anxious and walked forward slowly, just looking around the bookshelf to ask loudly: "Who's there?"
As Samuel’s voice called out softly, Astra gave out a little bit of an anxious bleat and hid under the table. For Loren’s part, he closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath and steeling himself for another conversation with the redheaded man.
Swiveling in the chair, the summoner peered in the direction the other man's voice had come from. "It's Loren." The Launceleyn's call was soft, but given how quiet it was in the Atheneum, it still seemed to echo.
Turning back to his work, he resumed scanning the pages. Indeed, after that initial response, he basically did what he could to put Samuel out of his mind. Still, Loren shifted slightly so he could watch behind him out of the corner of his eye.
The call of 'it's Loren' coming back from the main hall made Sam paused, frowning in confusion. It hadn't been very long ago at all that the Launceleyn had told him he was leaving the Grounds, apparently for good; even when Sam had flounced out of places, he'd managed to stay out for longer than this. Still, knowing it wasn't a murderer, he stepped out from behind the shelf, letting Mia go onto the floor and wander around (she chose to slowly crawl towards Astra, tail flicking playfully).
"Did you...decide to come back from Halo already?" Sam asked, going to stand by the table and letting his hands rest on the back of a chair opposite Loren's, wondering if he'd been too hasty to tell Jigano that the man had left. "I hadn't expected to see you here again so soon. Oh-- Of course, I'm glad to." Sam smiled, a little awkwardly, hoping it wouldn't seem like he was complaining about Loren's presence.
As the cat crawled across the floor, Loren glanced at it. Astra, for her part, grew excited to meet a new friend. She wriggled a little to get closer to Mia, though not before the luxere threw a cautious look at Samuel.
The summoner had already turned to face the redhead, though that proved unnecessary as he came to stand opposite the Launceleyn. "Not for good. I'm just doing some research. Halo is short on books." Voice soft and lacking much emotion, he nudged one of the books he was currently reading towards the other man.
Samuel's awkwardness caused the hardness in Loren's eyes to thaw an infinitesimal amount. "You can relax, you know. I'm not here for long, and I'll be gone before you know it. I'll lock everything up behind me." With that, he began to read again.
Mia paused as Astra began to come towards her, leaning back and widening her eyes in the offended way that only a surprised cat could.
"Oh, I see - they don't have a library in the Citadel?" Sam had thought the city of Halo was meant to be rather developed and civilised, from what he'd heard, but no library? It sounded almost barbaric. He reached to pick up the book Loren pushed towards him, leafing through it - he smiled as he realised that it was one of the books he'd used for reference in the project he had just completed. "If you're trying to find out more about the Flora here, I have just completed a book on the subject." He offered, gently closing the book and giving it back to Loren.
He shook his head as it appeared he had given Loren the impression he wanted him to leave. "Oh, no! Stay as long as you like. And don't worry about locking up. I've...been staying here for some days at a time recently. I don't need to sleep, so.." Sam shrugged, looking off to the shelves, trying to avoid the obvious subtext of avoiding his home.
At Samuel’s question, Loren immediately shook his head. ”They do. It’s short on books about plants, though, given the environment.” He sounded slightly defensive, but mostly just matter of fact.
The redhead’s offer was legitimately surprising, and the summoner found himself drumming his fingers on his current volume as he considered it. ”Know anything about cold-weather herbs, preferably medicinal, or greenhouses?” The words came out a little more bluntly than he’d intended.
Pausing, the Launceleyn actually lifted his gaze from the table and the tome. He even looked at the other man for more than a moment. Indeed, Loren’s eyes swept over Samuel, taking in everything.
The healer still didn't respond right away, not until he'd forced himself to take a calming breath. ”Rotten week turning into a rotten month?” Though his voice was far from interested, there was an almost imperceptible softening in his tone and around his eyes.
"...Ah. Yes, that makes sense." Sam had indeed not seen much plantlife in Halo on his visit. Suddenly a whole crop of questions to research came to his mind. Did they eat mostly animal products, then? How had they gathered any crops before the opening of the portals? Could they get fish in the half-frozen Sea of Glass? All things to find out and further delay heading home.
When it turned out he could assist Loren with his specific question, Sam's eyes lighting up with recognition, he pulled back the chair and went to sit down, a smile on his face. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. There were instructions for a greenhouse to build in Deepfrost and the plants that would be suitable in one of the texts I studied. What do you need to know?" Maybe this was what being a Loreseeker was meant to be about after all.
He hadn't expected a question about himself - Sam looked up, surprised. Was it that obvious he was avoiding home for a reason? "It's...difficult to go back, knowing he won't...be there. I-I mean, I'm sorry, obviously it's worse for you." It seemed he was determined to trip over his words where Loren was involved. "But I just...every time I walk past somewhere I think 'was it here? Did he take him here?', then when I get home all I see is all the times he lied and told me he cared."
As Samuel revealed he actually did have the information Loren was looking for, his eyes widened and he blinked. 'Oh. Thanks. That's...quite helpful, actually." The surprise was probably a little mean, but they'd had very few interactions and none of them had been particularly informative.
Reaching down to his pack, he pulled out a journal, quill, and some ink. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like a list of plants that would grow well in a greenhouse, the supplies necessary to build one, and the instructions on how to build it." He held the quill poised over the page.
However, as the redhead revealed his recent struggles, the summoner hesitated. He fidgeted a little awkwardly in his seat, as if wrestling with himself. "Mmmm." It was a considering hum, a chance to gather his thoughts. "No need to apologize. I get it." Shrugging, he found himself glancing away. "I know a little about losing myself in my work to avoid...everything. And I left the Hollowed Ground entirely, didn't I?" A little bit of bitterness and guilt crept into his voice.
Shaking his head slightly, he looked back at the other man. "Is there a friend you can stay with instead? If not, you can stay at the Manor. I know there are...well...empty bedrooms." The sorrow crested over him for a moment before the Launceleyn blinked it away.
If there was any malice to be taken from Loren's surprised tone, Sam didn't notice it, genuinely happy to be useful and able to well represent the guild he was a part of, which he knew he had been neglecting recently. Waiting for Loren to ready his pen, he then went into a list of the herbs he could remember and for the ones he knew, their various properties. Some were good for headaches, some for more serious things like making burn salves.
As for the instructions for the greenhouse...Sam reached for the book and sketched out a (wonky) diagram of it for Loren, thinking it would be easier to show than tell how all the pieces should fit together. It wouldn't be very big, perhaps only big enough for a few shelves of growing plants, but it would be a start and could be expanded easily. Since he hadn't actually been intending to make one when he'd copied the text, he hadn't thought much about the size.
Then it came to the much less easy matter of his personal woes, which Loren seemed to need to consider if he would address or not. He did, in a way that Sam had not expected, that left him staring. "You...would let me stay in your manor? I...I don't think I can take you up on that, really. But thank you, that's very kind. Honestly, I..need to get over it and go home - I can't just avoid what happened forever." No matter how much he wanted to.
As Samuel began rattling over the various herbs, Loren swiftly took them down. His notes were in a shorthand he'd developed long ago that only he could decipher. It was perhaps a needless precaution, but at least it let him keep up. As the redhead reached for the book and writing implement, however, the summoner glanced up, a bit surprised. He handed them over easily enough, then relaxed as the redhead began to draw.
Taking it back when the diagram was complete, the Launceleyn gave a grateful nod. "Thank you." Then he hesitated, biting his lip a little. Shrugging slightly, he looked away. "It's not my Manor. Not anymore. And there are lots of empty rooms." The words were quiet. "Suit yourself though."
He found himself tapping the end of the quill against the page in a slightly nervous manner. Sighing as he realized this, he set it down. ”Would you like some company when you go back?” It came out softly, and tentatively, with absolutely no enthusiasm behind it.
Sam did watch in interest as Loren took down the notes in what seemed like a different language, certainly not the way he would spell what he was saying; he wondered if it was something from his old world, but he hadn't seen Remi writing like that as far as he could remember. For the moment he didn't ask, but he wondered if he could find any other the strange notes in books in the Atheneum.
"It's...not your manor?" Confused, he tilted his head, then the slightest of amused smiles came to him. "Then...are you sure you should be offering out it's rooms?" Hopefully Loren would take the question as the light bit of teasing it was meant to be.
The tapping of the quill caught his attention too, but none moreso than Mia, who suddenly came bounding up to the table -- the only thing stopping her getting a blue mark was Sam suddenly grabbing her, holding her to his chest and trying to calm her as she wiggled about. "If you don't mind, that...would actually be very nice, I think. It seems like Mia might be losing her mind from boredom here, anyway."
Leaving the ink to dry a bit, Loren sat back, brows slowly unfurrowing as he no longer needed to concentrate. ”I left, remember? Seems silly to lay claim to a house I no longer live in.” His eyes grew a bit distant and he frowned a little.
At Samuel’s amusement, the summoner looked down, not quite able to meet the redhead’s eyes. ”The others who still live there wouldn't mind. And worst case, you can take my old bedroom. That, at least, I'm sure I can offer." Although the Launceleyn didn't respond to the teasing in kind, at least he wasn't retreating from the conversation entirely.
As the cat, whose name was apparently Mia, went for the quill, Loren actually smiled. It didn't reach his eyes, but he held out a hand for her to inspect. "Hi Mia. I'm Loren." Glancing down as Astra stirred, he lowered his other hand to give her a fond scratch. "This is Astra."
Introductions done, he began gathering up his belongings, then stacking the books neatly. "I don't mind. Let me just return these." Again, his voice wasn't excited, but he was moving. He lifted the stack in his arms and turned back to where he'd found them.
"I thought you'd still own it, though. Doesn't it belong to your family?" Not that property ownership was always set in stone in Sanctuary, where people regularly claimed abandoned houses as their own, but the 'Launceleyn' manor had even taken on the name of Loren's well-known line. "Who lives there anymore, if you or your family don't?" Honestly this was veering into Sam just being nosy, but he couldn't help but be curious; the Launceleyns were the closest things to celebrities that the Hollowed Ground had.
Mia happily 'meep'ed and rubbed her face against Loren's hand, always friendly. It was why Sam loved her as his companion, actually. As long as she had food and something to play with, she was one of the happiest, most sociable creatures he'd ever known. "Astra...how did you tame a Luxere?" Sam asked, having noticed Loren's companion before but not wanting to bother him with the question.
He waited for Loren to return the books, sure his things would be fine in the Loreseeker's guild for the night. All he had left was bookmaking tools anyway, which were hardly worth anything to those outside of his trade. "You know...you seem to be a little brighter, than last time I saw you." Sam ventured as Loren turned back around, a light smile on his lips.
