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!
Saiden had been both distraught and single minded since his encounter with Ludo. He'd been spending most nights in the Hanged Man and most days combing the beaches for the man who made things out of nothing and the Dark Star, to no avail. People had heard of them, of course, but no one seemed to know where they'd be at any given time.
So, armed only with better descriptions than the one that the god had given him, the cook had kept at his search. Today had been another fruitless walk along the beaches. Sighing, he pushed open the doors to the Hanged Man, intending to just drink the night away again and pray that either of the men would talk through the doors.
Imagine his surprise, then, when he saw someone matching the description of the Dark Star at the bar. Eyes widening, he realized the man was definitely familiar, from his old world. Approaching, the Hali slid into the seat next to the other man. "You wouldn't happen to be @onin Taliesin, would you? If so, you're a hard man to find."
Ronin tried not to spend the majority of his evenings drinking any more. Not since his reconciliation with Remi and his conversation with Safrin. No, the hunter was doing his best these days to make something good of himself again, but gods if it wasn't a tough challenge. So before heading home - and after a long, rough day of skimming the shallows for a creature that the fishermen had been advising was eating all their catches, he was rewarding himself with a single drink.
All too easy to turn into two or five or ten, and it was the soft, cold nose in his ear that persistently kept his attention. Smiling, Ronin turned his head and nodded to Sugar, as if to promise that he would stick to his limit. About to take the final gulp of his drink, he was surprised to hear a voice half familiar, a voice from another world.
He turned in his seat and found himself face to face with the tanned skin and bright eyes of someone so close to Vanya that it made his stomach flop uncomfortably just to look at him. "...Saiden?" he asked, his voice low and suddenly rough.
As Ronin turned to face Saiden, he smiled. However, it was more reflex than anything else, and his eyes were still sad. Settling in, he tapped the bar for a drink. "The one and only." His voice was as low and rough as Ronin's. Indeed, there was a great deal of sorrow in the words, given how they were truer now than ever before.
He turned to face the Dark Star more fully. "A little birdie told me that I had a niece. And that you mourn her." Neither was a question, and the Hali picked up the mug that was slid in front of him without taking his eyes off the other man's. There was something almost a little desperate in Saiden's gaze.
The smile was offputting - Ronin remembered a similar smile once when he had been standing in the tavern in Northaven, back when he had been a soldier and Saiden, presumably, had been a crook. And then nearly his once upon a time in a different life brother-in-law. Huh. Making a noncommital noise in the back of his throat and chucking back the rest of his drink as planned, Sugar let out a soft coo of disappointment when he did, indeed, tap the bar for another drink alongside the Hali.
It was not every day that you ran into... well... whatever his mind tried to wrap its head around when it came to Saiden. He kept his eyes on the other man as he received his own drink as well, careful not to hold it too hard lest it smash. "I mourn my daughter," he muttered. "And your sister."
Reaching out a hand, Saiden idly scratched the dragonling on top of her head. ”And who’s this?” His voice came out softly, not wanting to startle the creature.
At the mention of the word daughter, his eyes widened and he returned his full attention to Ronin. And the cook's eyes filled with tears when the Dark Star brought up Vanya. "I did not know any of my family had made it to Caido, or else I would've stopped at nothing trying to find them." Despite his sorrow, his voice was fierce.
Expression softening a bit, he reached out to gently lay his hand on the other man's shoulder. "But I would mourn them with you, if you let me. And I would...call you brother." There was a question in the words, a hesitancy that was rarely seen in the Hali.
Sugar was primed and ready to snap her sharp little teeth at Saiden's questing fingers, but a wickedly familiar scent about him had the dragon's growl melting to a soft trill instead, and she allowed the attention with surprising patience. "This is Sugar," Ronin supplied. "She hatched in Deepfrost just over a year ago. She's looked out for me ever since." Even when I kept leaving her behind. The hunter took a large gulp of his drink, like that would help to steady him; Saiden's hand on his arm, his emotions, raw and fresh and so decidedly real... they were a lot to take in.
"We were trapped within the barrier of the Hollowed Ground. Vanya never got to see that barrier fall." He shrugged, brows drawn together in a troubled frown. "You may call me whatever you like, Saiden," he murmured. "I loved your sister fiercely, and she brought me the greatest joy I had ever known in our daughter. It is her loss I feel more greatly, these days."
Saiden's fingers were deft and sure as she scratched the top of Sugar's head, behind her ears, and under her chin. "It's nice to meet you Sugar." With that, he let his hand fall as his eyes lifted to Ronin.
However, the cook remained silent as the Dark Star explained. The Hali's eyes were sad, and grew more sorrowful at the mention of his niece. "I...see."
He took a deep breath and let his hand fall from the other man's shoulder. "I know it, it must be painful for you. But...I never got the chance to meet her." The regret lacing his words almost made the tears that were welling up in his eyes fall. "Please...please tell me about her?" The words were half-choked.
Leaning back, he glanced around at the bar. "We can go outside. Or...I can leave you to your grief." His reluctance at that offer was clear, but he'd leave if Ronin asked it of the Hali.
Trilling her pleasure, Sugar settled back around Ronin's shoulders when the not-so-stranger retracted his hand, the hunter offering his dragonlet a brief smile before taking another healthy gulp of his drink. It was painful - very painful, and he didn't know if that would ever change - but even so, Ronin was not the wreck who had been dropped into Torchline. Putting down his half finished mug, he nodded quietly at the suggestion to go outside. Bidding farewell to the bartender, he rose to his feet and swept himself off leading the way out of the tavern.
"She was never meant to live. She and Vanya..." He shrugged. "Safrin saved her. She was born with the stars in her eyes. Her name was Aoife." Past tense. Was. Simple facts were all he could manage, really, scrubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand. "I made her a small marker, up at the lighthouse. If you ever wanted to go and visit."
Saiden finished his own drink, tossing it back, before following Ronin out of the Hanged Man. As the Dark Star spoke, the cook remained quiet. Nodding at the mention of the marker, he smiled sadly. "So that's what it meant." It came out quietly and distractedly.
Shaking his head, he focused his whole attention on the other man. Reaching out, the Hali rested his hand on Ronin's shoulder once more. "I would like that." Though Saiden's eyes and voice were sad, there was a surprising amount of gentleness in it. "And I think my sister would like the spot you chose. It overlooks the Ocean."
Hesitating, he dropped his hand. "You and Vanya were..." His voice trailed off as he lost the nerve to ask his question. "I am sorry for your losses."
"What what meant?" Ronin sounded equally distracted as they headed back out to soft sands and the sound of waves lapping against a shore, the hunter gazing over his shoulder to the Hali as if assuming he had missed something pertinent to their conversation. It was a surprise, though not an altogether unpleasant one (he thought) to have Saiden's hand back on his shoulder, and he found a small, sad little smile flickering across his face at the man's comment. "I thought she would," he murmured, blinking up at the starry sky and spotting, instantly, his former lover.
"This way they can see each other," he said, pointing. "The day I put Vanya to rest, Safrin lifted her ashes to the sky and put her there, as that star. If you ever want to find your sister, she shines down on us, always." It sounded twee, but it was true.
Unsure what Saiden was about to say but unable to finish the sentence for him, Ronin could only nod softly. "And I yours," he said. "Have you been here, all this time?"
Saiden shook his head a little at Ronin's question. "Oh. Sorry. Ludo was cryptic." Falling silent, the cook shrugged.
Following the Dark Star's gaze and finger up to the sky, the Hali squinted. Reaching out with his own hand, he called up some water to circle the star the other man had indicated. The motion was weirdly tender, Saiden giving his sister one last embrace from the Ocean they'd both loved so dearly. "I asked Safrin to pass along a message, but she didn't respond. Perhaps I should've just tried to speak to Vanya directly." It came out sadly, and he let the water fall. "Thank you for showing me where she rests." Despite his sorrow, he truly was grateful.
Nodding, he gestured out at the sea. "I have. The Siren's Call came through just with me and Eloise Teralux. None of my family." He paused, eyes suddenly distant. "It was stormy, and we didn't have enough to sail her properly. So we wrecked her..." Voice filled with remembered terror, he sighed. "How long have you been in Caido?"
The mention of Ludo had Ronin frowning gently down the beach, to where he knew their wagon was set up and where Remi might well have returned from his own adventures throughout the day. His opinions about the masked god were not negative, per say, but... they were definitely wary. He glanced back again at the circle of water that Saiden conjured, smiling and ruffling a hand through his dark hair. For so long his grief for Vanya had felt like a burden he had to bear alone, but there were others, he was learning, who had loved her just as dearly.
"Perhaps," he agreed. "Either way, she is likely up there now, laughing at us and telling us not to be so foolish. I should know - I was up there with her, for a time."
Whilst the mention of Eloise did not spark much of a memory, given how little he and the other woman had interacted, the Siren's Call brought all too many things flooding back; indeed, she had been bobbing along the Northaven shorelone from the very day that he had met Vanya. To hear she had been wrecked... his shoulders sagged. "It really is an entirely different world," he murmured; more things in it that were new now, than familiar. "It will be three years this coming Leafchange." And oh, how it sounded strange to say.
Saiden smiled a little, though obviously it was sad. "If she is, I'd tell her to come down and say it to my face." The words weren't happy, exactly, but they were the sort of bittersweet that came from remembering a loved one.
As Ronin mentioned he'd been up there, the cook shifted to look at the Dark Star. "That sounds like quite the story." Obviously there was a questioning and curious tone to his voice.
Nodding slowly at the other man's comment, the Hali leaned back on his elbows to stare at the star that was supposedly his sister. "It is. But...there's been good to go with the bad." He shot Ronin an uncertain glance.
"I imagine she would, if she were able," Ronin assured Saiden with a bittersweet smile of his own. "She was always trying to find you, when we first arrived. She wanted so badly to learn what had happened to her family, and the Siren's Call." He sighed. "I realise now that she would have been able to watch over you for much longer than I was able to travel outside the Grounds." A shame, though, that she could not be with their daughter in Mort's realm.
Ronin glanced sideways at Saiden and shrugged, his smile turning crooked. "It is. We'll have to have a drink some time, and I'll tell it," he murmured. "I am not the man I was in Northaven. Not one part of me." And it still felt strange, even now.
He could only nod in agreement with the other man regarding good and bad, though he was curious about Saiden's time since arriving in Caido. "How has it been for you, here?" he asked.
