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!
03-21-2020, 05:11 PM (This post was last modified: 03-22-2020, 12:32 AM by Korbin.)
A door opened on creaking hinges. Cold winds blew snow in across the threshold, over the floors of a hallway cast in shadow. The sound of feet stamping off ice and more snow from heavy boots echoed in the stillness, against walls that were too barren to absorb all of the sounds.
Slamming the door behind him, he shrugged off the heavy overcoat, threw it on a stool rather than hang it on the peg where it belonged, and kept peeling off layers as he strode into the house, with the comfortable familiarity of one who belonged there. Passing the kitchen, he threw a brace of ningos onto the table.
"I'm home," Korbin called, out of habit more than any real conviction that anyone would actually be there. Weaver had been gone more often than not lately. The silence chafed on him as he headed off towards his room. The house was cold. But so was everything in Halo.
Nothing new about that.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
”You are a terrible Halovian,” she says, arms crossed, leaning against the door jam of her bedroom. ”Letting the fires nearly die in the house. That’s a crime here, you know.” Her grin, unlike her words, is playful though, unable to keep herself from teasing him. She snaps her fingers, entirely for show, and the fire in the nearby wood stove roars to life. Ever since she finally learned her magic, she’s taken to using it, as if finally beginning to embrace what she is.
”How was the market? she asks, unfolding her arms and coming to stand in the hallway near her brother. Wearing only a long-sleeve top and pants, Weaver appears unbothered by the cold, another thing that has changed about her lately. It’s part of why she worries about Korbin, because she realizes that she has changed more than him. It was a new world out there, and though she didn’t want to lose her little brother, she did want to see him embrace it.
She waits for him to answer about the market before continuing. ”I think I have all the vendors for the bar. It should be done soon,” she says, and her excitement is palpable. She has been preoccupied by the bar lately, by the stability it would bring them. Hell, the idea to simply move to the Kraai and give up this house that is too big for them has crossed her mind. Maybe they could leave a few ghosts behind, and yet...it is hard to imagine living anywhere else.
03-22-2020, 12:13 AM (This post was last modified: 03-22-2020, 12:32 AM by Korbin.)
Korbin stopped, a long-fingered hand pausing on the door-handle. His face split into a lazy grin, head cocking back in a casual shrug as he looked at Weaver. Oh. So she was home after all. A fucking miracle. "Almost, sis. And what were you gonna do if they did, turn me in to the Warden?" Her little display with the magic was met with a roll of the eyes. There was an itch beneath his skin, an urging of the raven in him to shift and ruffle dark feathers in a counter taunt. A cocky 'catch me if you can'... But he held back.
"Same as usual. Hunters are going crazy about Deepfrost being around the corner, keep sending out parties for more game. Your usual gang wanted to know if you plan on joining them anytime soon."
Pushing open the door to his room, Korbin ducked in under the frame - too low for him to walk straight through, like everything these days - and began to change. Pulling heavy leathers and wool off, to be replaced with lighter, but still warm clothes. Even with the fires blazing, there was always a chill in the air.
"Right. Your mysterious bar, given to you by a mysterious stranger... Remind me again why you're doing this?" You, not we. Korbin pulled a sweater over his head and came back to lean an arm against the top of the doorframe, hunching slightly so he could catch the gaze of his sister. "Since when did you start accepting charity from Outlanders?" His expression was unusually serious, and more than a little sceptical.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
03-22-2020, 01:06 AM (This post was last modified: 03-22-2020, 01:47 AM by Weaver.)
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She wants him to rise to the bait, wants him to shift. Honestly, she just wants him to be the Korbin he once was. Not that she doesn’t understand the subtle change in him. They both changed after that day, after they lost Erebor. And in the same way that he cannot understand what she went through, she knows she cannot understand what he went through either. His face is a hazy memory as she lay there nearly dead, and she cannot fathom what it was like to watch her in that state. But she misses the boy he used to be all the same. ”Well, I would have to be bothered to talk to the Warden for that, so no. But I would prefer not to come home to a Korbin popsicle. You’d probably taste terrible.”
He calls her out on the hunting, and she sighs slightly, running a hand through her hair, which is only sort of in its braid from this morning. ”Between the luxere I got from that demi-god and the ursur I got from the Academy, plus your trading skills, we have more meat than we can eat in a year. Though I’ll go out with them before Deepfrost hits.” If only to stay in their good graces, but she would. It’s not like she never hunted, she just didn’t have to do it every damn day anymore.
She follows him into his room, entirely unconcerned with her semi-naked brother. She plops down onto his bed with a dramatic sigh, and though she is playing up the drama, there’s some part of her that feels it with this conversation. ”So we can have a half decent life that doesn’t involve scraping together food and some ningo feathers all the time,” she says, frustrated. Her voice softens slightly as she continues though. ”You know I want you to work there with me. A steady, actual life for both of us.”
She lets out a breath, flopping all the way down so her upper half is laying down, her legs still dangling off the bed with her feet on the floor. The ceiling is nothing remarkable, but she stares at it anyway. ”Besides, it’s hardly charity. I do 95% of the work and he gets to work on his empire. At the moment it feels like I got the short end of the stick. You’d be better at dealing with all this vendor shit than me, you know. Everyone likes you more.” Not that she’d actually asked, given that she was trying to do this for him and respect Sunjata’s wishes that it stay guild business right now, but she could flatter him anyway. He would have been better at it, after all. It is true.
He grimaced wildly at the implication that she would still eat him even if he was a nasty tasting morsel. "You could do with a little less eating," he drawled in an off-handed way, and turned back to follow her path across his bedroom floor, a brow rising as she made herself at home on his bed. Like she owned the place. His dark blue eyes lingered on her curves in a rude way, before he shook his head and tutted. Implying a lot of things that went very much unsaid.
"I just want to know what the catch is. You make this bar for him, and he gets to say it's his, and then... what? This guy shows up once in a while and gives orders, and you have to follow them?" Folding his arms over the chest, Korbin leaned back against the door frame. Clearly not impressed. "If you want to make a bar, why not just do it on your own? I could have helped if you actually asked me to. Instead you go over my head and do stuff without even asking what I think."
His tone was even, almost casual, but there was a rare flash of annoyance in his eyes, the way they narrowed on Weaver. "That's not how we do things, sis. At least it didn't use to be."
But hey, maybe the rules had changed when he wasn't looking. While she was out on one of her explorations of those new lands beyond the portal, perhaps.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
”Oh, that is a low blow Korbin,” she says, trying to sound offended though she is not. She is very aware of how she looks, and fat is not one of her problems. Is she a twig? No. But honestly, she’s really not trying to be a twig. If you can live in Halo and put on a little fat, you are clearly doing well for yourself.
She props herself up on her elbows, looking at him now as he stands in his own doorway. She pats the space beside her. They used to just lay here together, but now they stand on opposite sides of the room, some invisible wall thrown between them. ”I promised him secrets. Ones that don’t hurt Halo or us. Ones that pass through the doors of that bar. It’s a price I don’t mind paying for someone to supply decent liquor, which you know we can’t get here. And trying to find our own suppliers would have been a challenge, even for your charming self. You could meet Sunjata, you know. You might even like him.” Hell, maybe he’d even join the guild. That’s what she would love.
”Do you recall you were the one who suggested we go to the Grounds in the first place? I’m living, Korbin. And I am asking you to help me now. But no, I’m not asking for permission for something that means this much to me. I’m tired of hunting. I’m tired of barely making ends meet. I’m just tired, Korbin.” She sighs, flopping back onto the bed. She misses Erebor. She misses having help. And not that Korbin didn’t step up, he did, but she knows how he feels about hunting and she never asks him to go. She never asks him to do anything he doesn’t want to, unless she absolutely has to. And this time, for once, she just wants to do something for her. Was that so bad?
The scowl deepened as he chewed on her arguments. Whatever storm that churned and brewed inside him was silent, like it always was. Korbin's anger was cold as Halo winds, there one minute, gone the next.
"I said we should go together," he pointed out, still not ready to let this go. "Never said you had to ask permission, but what's up with this running off without even saying where you're going? On your own, without so much as a fucking note. I thought you'd learned what the price for recklessness is already."
A ghost walked through the room, and Korbin clipped his mouth shut. Winced, knowing he'd said too much. But that was the real issue here, wasn't it. Weaver had been talking a lot about her lately. Her wants, her hopes, her wishes...
Was there even room for him in those plans? Or was he supposed to just go along, like always. Never objecting, never complaining, even when she went off to Gods knew where and left him here with an empty house and no idea where to start looking if she didn't come back.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
”And we did go together. Once. What, did you want me to force you to go back with me? Or to Torchline?” She wasn’t going to drag him to the portal kicking and screaming, but it’s not like she never invited him. ”And come on, that’s not fair. I tell you where I’m going as best I can, but it’s not like I know exactly where I’m going to end up.” It wasn’t like she didn’t tell her brother when she’d been gone, but it was hard to give him specifics and she never knew when she’d be back.
She sighs, all the anger rushing out of her in an instant at his last comment though. ”It wasn’t recklessness that got him killed. It was bad fucking luck and my lack of magic. Maybe if I’d learned sooner…” She trails off, haunted by that day. In truth, even magic probably wouldn’thave helped. There hadn’t been time. The blizzard threw them both off. Erebor’s mastered magic hadn’t helped him, but still, she blames herself anyway.
Most of the details were wiped from her memory, lost to pain and delirium, but there are fragments. They’d set out with no storm in sight, but she remembers the way the weather turned on them, as it does in Halo. She remembers not being able to see her hand in front of her face. Remembers being unable to get to a knife, buried in the folds of her cloak, fast enough. She remembers the sound of Erebor’s scream. The blood pouring from the hole in her chest.
”How do we go forward? What do you want to do? I can’t undo what is done, but we can work it out. We always do.” And it’s true, they always do. It was just hard, sometimes, because Weaver would always be impulsive and reckless, though not foolish. And Korbin would be...that’s just it, she wasn’t totally sure. Her behavior wasn’t surprising or new for her. But Korbin changed more with Erebor’s death. He’d lost some of his light, become someone else, and she always had a hard time seeing the man he was growing into instead of the boy he had been.
He wasn't trying to be fair. But then, he hadn't really meant to be an ass to her either, and her defense was met with a sigh. Korbing dragged a hand across his face, shoulders slumping as the irritation ran off him. Like water off his feathers. There one minute, gone the next.
"I just don't wanna sit watch over you again like that," he mumbled. Which was as close to both apology and explanation as she was gonna get, for this mood of his. Things were changing again, and too quickly for comfort. First the Warden, then the portals and now this sudden intrusion of new people into his life. Because Weaver could say it would be her bar all she wanted, they both knew who would end up doing the daily drudgery in the end.
"I don't know," he sighed, easing himself off the doorframe. It took only a few long strides for him to reach the bed, and he sat down next to her. Pulled a foot up after him, back hunched as he rested a chin against the knee. "Maybe stop treating me like a kid you have to take care of. You don't have to go to Outlanders if you want help, Wee, when I'm right here."
Tilting his head, he regarded her, a dark brow raised. Then reached out and poked a finger into her side.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
She pats the space next to her again as he finally deflates, hoping maybe he would actually join her this time. ”Why do you think I’m doing this?” she says softly. Yes, she did want a bar. It suited her. But they both know why she’s really doing it. It is a far less dangerous daily job, one that doesn’t have her running out into the tundra every morning just to keep them alive. One that means she can actually be here, with Korbin. ”I actually intend to work, you know. Drink too, yes, but I’m not putting this all on you, little brother,” she adds, anticipating his thoughts. She may not be able to read minds magically, but she knew his well enough after all these years. Not everything changed.
He comes to join her, and she scoots herself closer and sits up, resting her head on his shoulder if he’ll let her. ”Gods, when did you get so tall? In my head you are always the little boy who used to shift into a raven and pop out from behind closed doors to scare the shit out of us. Sometimes I forget you grew up.” She doesn’t always see the man in front of her. Sometimes she forgets that he doesn’t need her now as he used to, or maybe she just hates that he doesn’t. Maybe a little of both.
”Is it so bad to make a few new friends? Caido is changing, and Mom would have told us to either change with it or wither away.” She knows he doesn’t really remember Straia, but she does, and she can only imagine what her mother would have gotten into by now with the portals opening. Hell, their mother would have ascended just to help open them faster, probably.
He reaches out to poke her, and she jerks out of the way with a giggle, though not before he’d stabbed her in the side with a long, spindly finger. She springs to her knees, hands up, ready to attack. ”Oh, do you want to start that game?” she says with a wicked little grin. He may be tall and grown, but she would still try to kick his ass.
He let her snuggle close, tolerating the head on his shoulder with the stoic acceptance of someone who wasn't a hugger but had given up on resisting a long time ago. Korbin peered down at her, a slow smile growing on his lips as she babbled on and on about the past. She could promise him the sky when it came to that bar, Korbin didn't believe it would keep her interests going for more than a few weeks before he was stuck in the kitchen while she did her best to drink up the stock on her own.
"I'll believe it when I see it," he said, the lopsided grin a little teasing. "And no, I don't hate new people. I just don't think you can call anyone a friend until you know they won't turn on you when the going gets rough. What does an Outlander know of Halo?"
He only shrugged at the mention of mom. Korbin only had a few memories of her. Soft hands, a smile, the same dark curls as Weaver had. Sometimes he heard her voice speaking through his sister's mouth. Or was he just recalling Weaver?
Still, the mood was turning a little too somber for his taste, so he poked her, and she responded right away, grinning like an idiot. "I think I just did," Korbin told her lazily, a shit-eating grin widening on his face. Eyebrows wiggling, as he snaked a long arm in through a gap in her defenses, and poked her side again.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
Sometimes he really underestimated her. It wasn’t as if she had failed them, gotten drunk instead of hunting when they needed food. She may not clean the house all that well, but then again, he did walk in and dump his coat on a stool instead of the hook, so arguably neither of them were tidy. Tidy seemed like a waste of time in a house too big for two kids anyway. They weren’t much more than that. Korbin, despite being grown, was still basically a kid. And it’s not like she was old.
Maybe she’d dumped too much on him once Erebor died, but in the end, she wasn’t sure what else she could have done. Either he helped or they didn’t make it. She couldn’t be everywhere at once. She couldn’t hunt and skin and dry the meat while still getting to the market or cleaning the house. If they’d had Erebor, then maybe their little brother could have stayed little for a while longer. But they didn’t, and she can wish all she wants, but it doesn’t change how their lives had unfolded.
She sighs slightly. ”We are also going to actually hire people. Do you know how much business this is bringing in for more people than just us?” It wasn’t just her involved, or just her and Korbin. There would be cooks and maids, people to run the inn. A little bit of hope for the people of Halo. ”Korbin, I want this to be fun for you. If it’s not, don’t be there then. I hope it’s something we can do together, but I’m not forcing you into this.” Once, he would have been onboard without all the jaded distrust. Now though? Now she barely recognizes him sometimes.
”What does he need to know of Halo, besides how to get booze here? And even then, once we get going, it may be a whole lot easier to start working with our own suppliers. There’s a girl at the Academy who’s offered to teach me how to make cider, even.” Which he knows she’ll do. She already makes stellar jerky; it is not a stretch to believe she would learn to make good booze. ”Besides, I constantly expect everyone to turn on me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use their help when it is available. Fuck, Korbin, even you sometimes,” she says with a sigh, twirling the end of her braid around a finger. Particularly lately. Acting like she’d ditched him by having a life that he didn’t want to be a part of.
He pokes her again, and her grin widens as she pounces, attempting to push him over sideways and pin him beneath her with her knees. He may be bigger and stronger, but she was still the better fighter, and she could at least get a few good pokes in before he overpowered her.
He didn't answer, for what seemed like a very long time. Just focused on staving off Weaver's attack, his big hands reaching up to try and catch her wrists. Twisting just a little, so he was better braced against the attempt to push him over. He might be taller these days, but she was far from weak, and if he was pinned, it would spell the end.
But then, perhaps that was part of the plan. Because in the end, she got the upper hand and Korbin didn't resist as much as he could have when he was pushed back. Just tried to keep hold of her hands, so she couldn't tickle back.
"Maybe I'm just jealous," he admitted, a little gruffly. "That you found something you want to do, when I still don't know. It feels like you're going off somewhere, and I can't keep up..."
And it was mushy, disgustingly so, but she was the one person he was always honest with. Maybe he wasn't the same as before, maybe his distrust had sunk deeper than it should have, maybe it was just the turn of the weather or the coming Deepfrost... but he was scared. That this year would be another one where he lost something important.
korbin
Deep into that darkness peering, Long I stood there Wondering, Fearing
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
He puts up a good fight, having learned her tactics from years of this. He manages to catch her much smaller wrists in his large hands, and she twists and pulls until she manages to (hopefully) free herself. It takes some time, and he’s busy enough trying to hold her hands at bay that she does at least manage to pin him, using her full weight to keep her much larger brother on the bed. If she does manage to free her hands, she’ll give him a few good pokes before finally rolling off to the side and giving him a rest.
She lands on her side, facing him. Her braid is nearly ruined, and she undoes the tie and begins to work her fingers through her hair as he talks. Finally, it feels like the real truth laid bare before them. ”First off, little brother, you will always be the most important thing in my life. Got it?” she says, and she means it. Life as they knew it was changing, but that didn’t mean he became somehow less important.
”Second, it’s okay not to know. I didn’t know what to do at eighteen either, you know. Fuck, let’s be real, I still don’t know what I want forever. But I know what I want right now, and that’s enough. You should get out of this house and out of Halo and see what’s out there. You may like it, and it may lead you to what you want.” She may want him by her side, but perhaps it’s time to let him spread his wings. Literally and figuratively.
