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!
01-29-2020, 12:50 AM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2020, 02:34 AM by Safrin.)
LOREN
Loren had secured Delphia's assistance with Frey's tasks. They'd agreed to meet at the shrine out by the Sea of Glass, both because he felt the rumors he'd heard about the place would help her do what he needed and because when this went sideways, he wanted to keep the fallout away from others. So he'd trudged all the way out here from the Palace, Astra by his side. As he walked, he fingered the amulet with the illusion magic in it, the only betrayal of the nerves he felt.
Coming up to the shrine, he knelt. Out of habit, he placed a jar of honey and a fresh apple, both more precious now that he lived in Halo. He hadn't prayed to the deity since Fiat Lux, not sure what the reception would be. The less than stellar interaction at the wedding hadn't been encouraging either. Now, though, he had run out of the energy to worry or care. His expression was nearly blank, mind was almost empty, emotions were drained until all he felt was a dull ache. He felt as fragile as the ice all around him, and as prone to shattering.
But that didn't stop him from bowing his head. "I have done as you requested, Frey." His voice came out barely above a whisper, and lacking basically any inflection. The luxere herself to his side, letting out an anxious bleat at his tone. Glancing over at Delphia, he nodded at her to call upon a spirit or a ghost.
Turning in a god quest for Frey! Delphia is about to complete the third requirement. The other two were fulfilled in the following threads:
"A secret deep and dark must be revealed to someone who might hate you for it. A proper secret now, don't you go twisting words to try and get out of it." - Revealed the orgasm quest and past to Abasi in what we are in the dark
"Something fake, thought to be real" - Acquired illusion magic in flew me to places I'd never been
"Something real, thought to be fake" - Delphia will manifest a ghost
01-29-2020, 12:56 AM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2020, 01:21 AM by Delphia.)
DELPHiA
Delphia had come along mostly because she hoped it would cheer Loren up to appease a god. The love of the gods for those who worshipped them and did their work could soothe many hurts. And so she had agreed to assist. She brought an offering as well, peaches she had managed to bring with her from the Greatwood, and laid it on the alter. She was not there to pray, but a god deserved their gifts for offering this opportunity to come closer to them to Loren.
When indicated, Delphia held out a hand. Though Loren would not see, when and if Frey appeared, the god would surely see the ghost that held her hand. A lost spirit child she had found on the way, one she would send to Mort to rest after this meeting. "I have never met a god..." the child's spirit whispered, their voice a mere echo to Delphia. "Then be joyous, for today you will meet two!" she whispered to the spirit, smiling at them warmly.
"Have you though?" No sooner had the words been spoken, Loren and Delphia would find themselves overcome with warmth as if summer had finally found its way to Halo. Warmth would spread inwardly too, despite Delphia's relative prudeness and Loren's heartache; such trifles were not the deity's concern. Frey stood before them, utterly nude as they were wont to be though this time there was a thick snarl of fur around their neck and a smirk upon their lips.
This was one of their least favourite places to be for obvious reasons. The chill and starkness of it all did not fit with Frey's overall demeanor, and yet here they were just the same.
"Tell me Loren. Who else knew of your earlier quest? How to relieve your heartbreak?"
Although he'd been expecting it, the sight of them looking like Abasi was like a punch in the gut. Indeed, tears sprang to the summoner's eyes, though they did not fall, even as a familiar warmth spread within him. If anything, feeling his body respond in such a predictable just added to his grief.
He struggled to find his voice again. When he finally did, it was quiet. "Remi and Rexanna knew. No one else." He admitted it openly. "Abasi...he...he did not. But I knew how much he hated secrets, how, how important honesty was to him and I...kept it from him anyway. For a long time. Too long." He bowed his head, unable to look at them for much longer.
"Tell me Loren. Are you in the habit of sharing your deepest and darkest secrets? And do tell me, what is so dark about the task I set out for you? Pleasuring yourself and others to heal wounds hardly sounds to me like something you'd hide away from the world, and as a matter of fact, you didn't."
They raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, lips full and eyes dark as Abasi's had been. The aura of their sexuality didn't fade though despite Loren's obvious distress. If anything, it intensified. Frey wasn't in the habit of yielding and bending to the whims and flickering emotions of the mortals who sought them out.
01-29-2020, 11:20 AM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2020, 03:05 PM by Loren.)
LOREN
As Frey's words and aura washed over Loren, he shut his eyes. Taking a deep breath to try and get his rampant emotions under control, he found himself entirely unsuccessful. Indeed, he gasped a little as heat spread deeper and further through his body. "You're right. I don't see anything wrong with the task you set before me." The words were still quiet.
Opening his eyes, he kept his gaze trained firmly on the ground. "But I don't have many secrets that I would consider deep and dark. Many secrets at all, really." That came out more than a bit nervously. "And I knew that Abasi...he came from a world very different from this. And he didn't like things being kept from him."
Taking another deep breath, he finally lifted his gaze to the deity. "So I knew he would consider the fact that I lied to him, even by omission, about part of why our relationship began, to be dark and deep." He bit his lip, though whether from sorrow or lust even he couldn't say. "I really did believe he would hate me for it. But I still told him everything. About the threesome I had, and about my past, and about the previous task you set before me."
Considering this, Frey would seemingly peer into Loren's very soul. The cockles of his heart would flex around the deity's invasive fingers as they whispered through him.
"You loved him even then, when you told him these things. The seed of it was planted and nourished, even if you didn't know it. Tell me Loren, honestly." Frey would reach forward to softly raise Loren's chin with one finger. "Did you truly believe he might hate you? With all that you've been through, I find it hard to believe you'd risk such a thing. You might have passed off the secret on Remi. He'd have a reason to hate you surely. But Abasi? Your light in all of this? You'd risk love again, just for a bit of power from me?"
01-29-2020, 06:48 PM (This post was last modified: 01-29-2020, 06:53 PM by Loren.)
LOREN
As Frey lifted Loren's chin, his breath caught in his throat. For a moment, he was speechless at their painful beauty, mind lost in a haze of pleasure. However, he forced himself to focus, to dig the painful truth out from the depths of his mind. ”No. I didn’t do it for power.” Then he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to look at them any longer for fear he might break down completely. "Or not just for power."
Taking a deep, shuddering breath (shuddering due to equal parts grief and longing) he struggled out a few more words. "I did it because it was the right thing to do. Because I shouldn't have kept it from him to begin with. Because I felt guilty, for hiding the uglier parts of myself from him, just because I thought he wouldn't like me otherwise."
Finally, he opened his eyes, and they glittered with tears even as a moan left his lips. "But I did love him. And I did risk that love by telling him the truth." The words came out in a rush, but he was speaking honestly.
"What's so ugly about what I asked of you? You're not the first man nor the last to ask for his pain to be taken away. And considering who it was you came to for that help it hardly seems surprising that your task had to do with sex."
Frey stared into Loren's eyes for a long while, eyes that were reminiscent of the Egyptian to be sure, before looking towards Delphia's ghostly manifestation. "A ghost...This is what you've brought to me?" They stepped back a pace. "Perhaps you've forgotten the world in you're in blue-eyes. Who here would think a ghost isn't real?"
Loren practically gasped out his response. "Nothing. But the fact that I kept it a secret from the man I loved, that was ugly." Tears still stung his eyes even as he found himself almost panting from the heat swelling in his body.
As Frey stepped back, he whined a little, but managed to get another reply out. "No I haven't. People might believe in ghosts, but most of them have never encountered one. When they do, they don't believe that what they've encountered is a ghost. Not right away, not without it being explained to them. They'll say it's a hoax or that it's illusion magic. That it's all a trick." His eyes flicked to Delphia, as if hoping that she might confirm his claim.
"Was that what I asked of you?" Frey asked, reaching down to pluck up the apple Loren had brought and raising it to their lips. "I seem to recall warning you not to mince my words on this, and yet..." They bit into the apple, juice dripping from the side of their mouth.
"Most of them? And what do you know of most people, hun? Very little it seems. Spirits abound here Loren. There are animals that catch them, rituals that praise them. Ludo has an entire festival dedicated to their presence. So do tell me more about what it is they think they're seeing? Why they pray to Ludo to have malevolent spirits removed?"
”Yes.” Loren lowered his gaze, fear starting to twine its way down its spine, cutting through the lust and the grief. "Or at least that’s what I thought you asked.” The words came out softly, though not uncertainly, since he still stood by his interpretation of Frey's words.
However, the anxiety grew as they continued to criticize his choices, his apparent fundamental misunderstandings. "Fine. I don't know what most people think." He took another deep breath, biting the inside of his cheek to help himself focus. "All I know is that most of the people who I've personally seen or heard of encountering spirits have needed convincing that what they've encountered is real."
Bowing his head further, he closed his eyes. "If I'm wrong, though, about all of this, then I'm wrong. I've failed, and worse, I've wasted your time. I'm sorry." At this point, he spoke in a defeated tone, and what little fight he'd had left in him had gone away. "And I deserve whatever punishment you see fit to give."
"I asked for deep and dark and worthy of hate...This secret wasn't so deep since you told others, and not terribly dark in itself. Ugly isn't the same as dark, but even you said that it wasn't ugly. Just concealing it was."
Frey shook their head, tossing away the apple core. They weren't interested in Loren's limited views of the world. He was in Caido now. Spirits abound to the surprise of no one.
"Yes you have failed Loren but what's worse is that you're horribly dull like this. You jump from one heartache to another and it's all so very, very uninteresting. I'm not interested by this whole broody, my life is so very sad routine. Bad things happen, emotions are hard, the world hurts. It is how you were made and yet instead of admitting all this to yourself, My lover died Frey so i'm a touch off today, there's this whole pretense of strength that fools no one."
With a nod towards Delphia and the spirit brought along, Frey looked back to Loren. "No punishment, but nothing else either. Come back when you're ready to accept your mortality and all the inconvenient feelings that come with it. And if you're set on beating yourself up Loren, at least have someone else do it for you in the bedroom. You gain nothing by constantly blaming yourself."
As Frey vanished, Loren stared at the spot the deity had just been. Then his eyes strayed to the icy wastes just beyond. It would be so simple to just walk out there and keep going until his body failed him. Instead, he screwed his eyes shut. ”I never claimed to be strong.” He was just tired, too tired to even grieve properly.
The tears finally fell, now that their aura was gone, and he dashed them away almost angrily, before they could freeze his eyes shut.
Standing up, he reached almost blindly for Astra, who immediately pressed herself to his side. Turning to Delphia, he stared at her for a long moment, expression haunted. ”Thank you for your help.” His voice was half-choked.
With that, he began to stagger back to the road towards the Citadel.
