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!
Getting four feet down a lighthouse was... ambitious to say the least. Ronin was unsure how he had managed it, in fact, and tottered out onto the cliffside like a fawn rather than the majestic stag he had apparently become. The stars twinkled and the waves rippled against the shore, and his way was softly illuminated by the light of his antlers.
The going was slow, at first. Trying to coordinate as a luxere was a lot different to anything Ronin had ever tried to achieve before, and it took a long stretch of beach before he finally realised how to walk. And then run.
And then prance.
And oh, he was in full prance-mode by the time he arrived back at the wagon he shared with Remi, blood high with a renewed energy, antler's fiercely aglow.
Remi! he called, only aware of the way he might speak because of the ring on his finger. Remi, come see! You will not believe this.
Ronin might not have known the difference, but Remi did. Remi who had a lifetime of experience feeling the attuned-bond was immediately on his feet, feathers and fur trickling from his curls down the base of his spine. It was a weird world the pair lived in and though it wasn't out of the question for someone else to have made Ronin a magical item that one-upped the ring on the hunter's finger, or for Ronin to somehow be an attuned now, it was far more likely that this was something...bad, in some way, shape, or form.
Slamming open the door of the wagon, a snarl on his lips and hostility bright in his green stare, the alchemist locked eyes with the moonlit, softly glowing stag. Running his tongue over his teeth in silent consideration of the scene before him, Remi narrowed his eyes further as he stepped out, careful to keep his eyes keenly focused on the luxere. You're right. I don't He thought back, fully aware of just how tangible and Ronin the tether between them suddenly felt.
And then he remembered how good luxere tasted.
"Would you kindly stop prancing." Remi said, jumping off of the back of the wagon and approaching with a caution that was more for Ronin's benefit than his own.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The urge to tromp over to Remi as soon as he spotted him was nearly outrageous, but unlike in their previous conversations, Ronin could feel a lot more of his husband now. He managed to force himself to a trot, and then a walk, his hooves sinking into the sand as he approached the alchemist. Good enough for you, your majesty? he asked, sounding amused.
So long story short. I visited Safrin about Vanya's star. She said I would need to appease Ludo, so I am to... well. Go to the Grounds at LongNight and protect people. Better to get it over and done with now, right?
Now able to, Ronin would feel the rising unease within the alchemist. It was a primal sort of soup comprised of hunger, desire, and violence. Steeling himself against it, the tethers of his restraint used to this sort of work, Remi pulled in a breath and swallowed. "Your majesty mm? You're the one wearing the crown." The alchemist observed smoothly, feet stepping onto the cool sands.
However what came out of his husband's...head, made Remi stop abruptly. The connection between them would turn to static as the heat-filled desire of the predators within him ran from the cold dread consuming Remi's thoughts.
Surely Ronin meant he couldn't turn back into himself, but the alchemist interpreted it another way. That he couldn't turn back against Safrin, not after everything that had happened.
"You're going back?" Remi asked, breathless and unsure. "During LongNight?" It was what Ronin had said, but perhaps hearing it from someone else would make the hunter realize how absolutely mad it was.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
I mean... antlers aren't really a crown, but I get what you're saying. Ronin sounded far too cheerful for what was going on, and that was almost definitely due to leftover adrenaline from the transformation. Still, he was rightly careful as he drew closer to Remi, able to feel the predatory lean in his thoughts, and he fell to a halt a few feet away when those very thoughts turned to white noise.
He understood his husband's trepidation (though he really was concerned about the whole how do I turn back human thing), but honestly, Ronin had had a feeling that LongNight would continue to haunt him, and Safrin had just made the inevitable happen in the end.
If you were stuck in the sky and this was the way to get you back, I would do it, he said. Is it any different to last LongNight, what you did for Ludo?
'Back?' Remi asked, confusion evident in the way his brows reached out for one another. If Vanya was coming back..
A host of uneasy thoughts followed this. Unhappy and unfair as they were, they blinded the alchemist with their potency. Thoughts like, surely Vanya and I aren't on the same level. Not anymore or Yes it is different to last year, as we hadn't made any promises to each other then. Remi could feel his teeth sharpening, and intertwined with more hostility towards Vanya and the lengths the hunter would go for his former flame, was the urge to bite, and tear, and devour. "Considering I did that to appease Ludo so that it might not feel inclined to steal any more of my memories, memories of you specifically, yes I'd say it's quite fucking different." The alchemist snapped.
The itch grew, and as Remi closed his eyes against it, nose scrunching as if that somehow assisted his willpower, he realized he'd not meant a word of what he'd said. It wasn't him who felt the rage, but the predators inside of him using it as a means to springboard towards the throat of the luxere.
"Ronin, please.." He mumbled, voice suddenly soft and pleading, eyes still firmly closed. "..I can't talk to you when you're like this. Change back." His hands had balled into fists at his sides, claws punctuating his fingertips as long tawny strands of mane appeared through his curls.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A snort left the luxere, along with a swathe of irritation - was Remi purposely misunderstanding him? They had spoken about this, all of it. That was why he had gone to Safrin to begin with. But then the alchemist snapped and swore and all of the obvious signs of predation began to appear, and Ronin found himself taking instinctive steps back. Rippling beneath the surface was suddenly the urge to bolt and to run, to put a lot of distance between himself and those teeth.
Did you not hear me? I don't know how, he said, his mental voice quiet and uncertain. He wasn't sure he wanted Remi to tell him now, either; indeed, he was already half positioning himself to run.
Remi grit his teeth against the rising tide of his hunger and need. Raising his fingers and pressing them against the bridge of his nose, he took a shaky breath, releasing it quickly. "Gods damnit Ronin, DO IT." He shouted, the words partially lost as his teeth turned sharp. Opening his eyes, now rimmed with predatory gold, the alchemist took a step forward, retaking the lost ground between himself and the luxere.
Had Ronin the ability to feel his ring in this form, he'd feel the voracious thunder of his husband's heart as it raced wildly against the slipping confines of Remi's restraint. Tongue heavy with saliva and the taste for blood, Remi clamped his teeth together, taking another step.
..think...of yourself. hands. feet. just...think of your body. He mentally gasped, trying to find a handhold on his own sanity and finding it lacking.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It was an entirely animal thing, the stag bounding quickly away across the sand, traitorously visible due to the light on his antlers. He felt the ravenous thunder of Remi's heart, his own fluttering and panicked in return, and the mental words from his husband were barely audible.
Barely - but they did make it through.
Thinking of his body, his hands, feet and all the rest of it didn't really happen until he was halfway down the beach. But when he did manage to focus - and indeed change - it happened far too quickly for his liking. Luxere could pick up quite the speed, it turned out, and as a man's feet hit the sand on two legs, he was entirely unprepared.
Tripping and staggering and gasping for breath, Ronin took a tumble on the shoreline and was completely graceless as he rolled to his knees. Lungs burning and with residual fear clouding his judgement, he tried to get his feet back under him, to put yet more distance between them.
Remi's change was far more fluid, the lion shift taking over with swift elegance. Had the hunter been used to the body he found himself in (and not on the sand), he'd have had a fighting chance. As it was, those hooves would do him little good, nor would the relatively straight line he took.
As the lion ran, his eyes were locked upon the luxere's hindquarters, his muscles precisely tuned to calibrate for any divergence in the path the bolting stag was taking. Unable to help it—the mind of the loving and adoring husband of Ronin was far away, somewhere dark and thoroughly swamped by instincts—the lion lunged with paws outstretched.
This was of course when Ronin finally managed to regain his humanity, falling to quite human knees. Twisting in the air as cats are wont to do, Remi roared a sound of warning, trying to avoid fully colliding with his partner. Shifting with about as much grace as Ronin had this time around, Remi landed in the water, on his hands and knees. Facedown, curls still more mane than hair, the alchemist panted wildly as his senses and instincts whirled with unhappy discontent inside of his chest.
"...Ronin..!" He managed after a moment, looking up and squinting, relieved not to see the telltale glow of the luxere's antlers any longer.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
His chest thundered and every nerve was sparked to change back into the stag; the roar of the lion overhead did nothing to alleviate the terror that clouded his judgement. Ronin wobbled as he got his feet beneath him on the sand, wildly glancing around for the feline he expected to still be trying to hunt him down. There was none of the Dark Star's bravery or tenacious nature in that moment - majestic as the luxere had been, it was ultimately a prey animal, and Ronin felt that acutely now.
Remi's call was difficult to process, Ronin already backing away up the beach. His fingers felt numb and there was a tightness in his chest that he belately recognised as panic, and he made absolutely no move to approach his husband. "Thanks for helping," he panted. "I think I should give you some space now."
"No—" Remi half-growled, the teeth in his mouth the last to recede away. He felt utterly exhausted from the shock and emotional-spike of it all, but that didn't stop him from staggering to his feet with a hand shakily outstretched.
An entirely human hand, Ronin would notice.
"Please no. Don't go." Gulping down a mixture of guilt and adrenaline that tasted sour and dry, Remi straightened. Running a hand up the side of his face before grinding the heel of it against one eye and rubbing hard enough to make his vision blurry, he let it drop with a weary sigh. "Fuck, I'm so sorry Ronin. That...I..." But what was there even to say? Oh the last time I hunted a luxere I was with Isla and the world hadn't fucking shattered yet and nothing has ever tasted better?
"You looked good enough to eat, what can I say?" He tried instead with a bashful smile, taking a small step towards the hunter.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Ronin held out a hand as well, but his seemed intended to keep the alchemist at bay, and as Remi stepped forward the hunter stepped back, as if they were still dancing this dance of predator-prey. "It's fine," he said through a tight voice, making it all too clear that it wasn't fine at all, and he wanted nothing more than to be alone with the night and the stars now. "It... yeah. It definitely showed."
Swallowing hard and taking another step back, Ronin rolled his shoulders as if there was a stiffness there; from the exertion, from the transformation, he didn't know. "Safrin said she would be able to get Vanya back down from the sky, if I was able to appease Ludo," he mumbled. "That way she could go and be with Mort, like she's supposed to be. That's it. That's all. In exchange I have to protect the Grounds at LongNight. I didn't... I just didn't know how to turn back into myself, that was all I needed."
Remi swallowed hard at that. Normally shitty humour was all the plaster the two needed to abridge whatever came between them. Nodding, the alchemist's anger and need properly neutered by Ronin's reluctance, Remi offered his husband a quick and ashamed smile, before linking his hands behind his back.
Shaking his head as if to cut off what Ronin was trying to say, Remi bit the inside of his lip. "I didn't mean what I said." He interjected lamely, doubting it would help. "That all makes sense...I guess." It didn't, but not because of anything Ronin had or hadn't done; gods work in mysterious ways and all that, and Remi wouldn't pretend that this strange quest was something he understood.
"Seeing you like that...I...I just wasn't prepared. Being back in the grounds during LongNight, it was all too much. I lost control." Remi's fingers clenched behind his back, wanting nothing more than to reach out to Ronin, to tug him close. It made him feel monstrous, to be the thing Ronin feared. To make the Star's heart leap in the worst of ways.
the alchemist
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
