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 was not often that Delphia was pulled so strongly, but even rare occurrences happened sometimes.
She had been sitting just outside her home, meditating deeply, convening with the spirits when the most unusual of sounds reached her ears. A child's laughter, barely more than a babe by the tone. It floated and danced, free and light, and then began to drift away. She would have let it go, ignored it even - for when you could hear things long dead echoing through the trees you learned to ignore a lot - but the spirits did not wish her to do so. With unexpected force she was shoved forward, sloppily forward rolling as she tried to catch herself. "Well alright, then." she said with a bit of a huff. Apparently she was supposed to pay attention to this child's whispered giggles.
And so she set off, following the pull of the spirits and the sound of the child's faint laughter. Off and out of the Greatwood she walked, through the portal and into Torchline of all places. Through the sand she trudged, enjoying the sun, even as she squinted to try and see into the distance. Fortunately, by the time she reached the pool, her eyes had adjusted. More importantly, across the water, she saw a man who she was pretty sure wasn't dead. Her head tilted slightly, corners of her eyes crinkling as she beheld the unfamiliar man. "Your soul must be very weary indeed for the spirits to have called me all the way here." she called to him.
Given Ronin's motley kind of lifestyle these days, he rarely found himself with much time to do nothing. So it probably wasn't much of a stretch to imagine that, on those rare hours he did get to himself, his melancholy caught up to him.
It was true enough today, in the sun drenched sands around the Miana Pool, and Ronin sat near its edge to stare into the clear, shimmering depths. He rolled a brightly coloured stone between his fingertips - it looked like it might be a gem from a Cloud Manta, honestly - but he didn't seem to know what to wish for.
A voice stirred him from his thoughts, the Dark Star blinking and squinting across the pool to the woman suddenly standing there. "A heavy soul is the least of my worries," he informed her. "Tell your spirits that they ought to look for their fun somewhere else."
She hummed low, sitting in the sand as she sat across from him. It seemed he was not in the mood to get cozy, and distance was just fine with her as well. "Forgetting to nurture and rest one's soul is what so often leads man to my father's realm far too early." she said, tone suffused with warmth and affection. Delphia pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs before resting her chin atop them. "And I would not say these spirits are mine. Though there is a child who seems very attached to you." she said gently. Dead children were a touchy subject, but she was never one to run away from such topics. It was what it was, and that the spirit of this child was joyful should be a comfort, she thought.
"My name is Delphia, by the way." she added, realizing that once again she had forgotten to introduce herself.
Ronin arched an eyebrow across to the woman. Her father's realm? He snorted, shaking his head. Whether it was to brag or something else entirely, he refused to bite more than he had to.
"I have died and come back. I would prefer not to do so a second time, but the state of my soul is nothing to do with that." The 'child', apparently, who was very attached to him, was a different matter entirely. Knuckles growing white on the cloud manta's jewel, Ronin's eyes were hard and dangerous as he stared her down.
"What are you, Delphia? What do you want? Because if it's just a chat, I'd like you to leave, please."
Died and come back? Well wasn't that interesting... Her head tilted as she processed the news. "I suppose we shall see in time." she said at length, not sure she knew anything about this man, as peculiar as his circumstances apparently were. "Though you must be special if Mort allowed you to live a second life." she added, smiling at him warmly.
But his tone took a sudden turn at her mentioning the child. Even so, she didn't waver, the warmth in her gaze ever present. Anger was a common attribute of grief, and she was well accustomed to it. "I am the child of Mort." she said simply. As for what it made her...she would let him decide. It didn't terribly matter. "And I am here because I was asked to be. You've caught the attention of the spirits...though I can hazard a guess why, now." she said, eyes drifting off, as if watching something or someone, just to his side.
03-19-2020, 12:58 PM (This post was last modified: 03-19-2020, 12:59 PM by Ronin.)
I will fight the end
"I am not special. A good friend sacrificed immortality for me to be here now." Was that entirely true, though? Safrin had pulled him down from the stars, for goodness' sake. And the more Ronin tried to align himself with 'normality', the more chaos seemed to find him. Case in point right now. "Child of Mort, huh? Well tell your spirits to leave me alone."
For all of his anger, though, there was a touch of fear in his tone too. For a child - his child, a nasty voice whispered - to come and find him, that meant her spirit was wandering, did it not? It meant she was not at peace? "Why did they tell you to come?"
Sacrificed immortality for him, huh? She laughed lightly, the eerie, haunted sort of sound seeming to echo across the water. "I would say having friends willing to give such a sacrifice is a very special thing." she said, tilting her head with a soft smile. His insistence about the spirits though only made her shrug. "These spirits are not mine. They were here long before me and will remain long after I am gone. I am merely the medium through which they communicate to those in this life." she said. The sort of control he wanted her to exhibit over them was beyond her or anyone really, at least at this sort of scale.
Her eyes flicked back to Ronin briefly before looking into empty space again. "Surely, because she thought I could help. What child likes knowing their parents are suffering?" she said, gaze drifting back to him again. "You are the one they call the Fallen Star, are you not?"
"It is a special thing," Ronin agreed quietly, dropping his gaze to the water. He didn't think that made him special, though. But his thoughts went beyond himself now, the hunter gazing into the Miana Pool and thinking of Ashetta, of where she might be now, of what she might be doing. Was she dead? Would this child of Mort know? He made a silent wish for her to be well, and flipped the cloud manta gem into the clear water where it landed with a plop.
He let out a breath at the realisation that the spirits she channelled had been around long before he or Aoife had even been in Caido, something in him relaxing a little. "Suffering is a part of life," he said, shrugging his shoulders and glancing up at Delphia again. "I used to be. I'm a few shades darker these days, if you believe the rumour mill."
At the sound of the plop of the stone entering the water, a new being entered the scene. From under the collar of her oversized sweater a kitten's head emerged. Bright orange eyes blinked and squinted at the sun before locking onto the rippling water. Shadows swelled around her with excitement as she scrambled out from her hiding place and quickly darted around the pond. Tishy's tail flicked back and forth, spying the shiny thing beneath the surface of the water.
"So it is. And so joy. Sorrow. Ecstasy. Life is ever shifting and changing, and all the more beautiful for it." she said a bit wistfully, an adoring smile curving her lips as she held Ronin's gaze. She hummed at his assessment of himself though, a bit amused. "You have suffered greatly. Your heart and soul ache. Death will not hold against you that which you have wrought in pain, and neither shall I." she said simply. When she had mentioned to Mort what Ronin had done, he has expressed nothing but empathy for his situation. Losing a child was one of the worst pains imaginable.
Ronin's eyes narrowed towards the little cat as it prowled forth to spy on the shiny jewel in the water. His look was clear - steal my wish and feel my wrath, cat. But then Delphia was speaking again; platitudes he neither needed nor wanted to hear. But he supposed it was in her nature, as a daughter of death, and he ought to be soothed, or something, to hear it.
"Thanks," he said flatly, ruffling a hand through his hair and rising to his feet. Overhead a pale figure soared; Sugar had been drawn by the appearance of the newcomer. Both of them. "I appreciate you seeking me out, but I don't think you can help me. Or that it's your job. Especially given that we... you know. Just met."
Tishy might be small, but she had the soul of a much, much older cat within her. She reached out and tapped at the water, shaking her paw with dislike at the feel of it before tucking it back under her. The kitten spared Ronin a glance, eyes wide and full of indifference. It was truly the look of negative fucks given, a literal void where fucks went to die in fact. Then the kitten went back to staring at the shiny thing, shadows pulsing as she purred.
Her head tilted, taking in what he said. "Is there harm in trying?" she asked, a small smile on her lips. "Sometimes the greatest comforts do come from strangers, for they've nothing to gain for offering their help. What is it you have before you that troubles you? Or what ghosts plague your mind?" she asked, curiously.
There might not be harm in trying, but Ronin really did not feel like opening his bleeding heart up to Delphia then and there. Still watching the cat as if expecting it to do something typically... well, cat like, when it settled back down the Star raised his gaze to its owner. It was Delphia's curiosity that turned him away in the end, he realised. To have someone so interested in his pain, in his grief...
He cringed internally. "No thank you." His tone now left no room for argument, and before Sugar could swoop and take an irritated swipe at the feline, Ronin walked away from the pool. Delphia, clearly, was not his type of conversationalist.
