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!
Her face hardened some as memories--memories?--flashed behind her eyes. They were disjointed, colorful, quiet--but one thing remained the same among them: Ma. He looked down at her hand, still shifting the grains of sand. " I understand." She said softly, her voice falling in its tone to be flat, almost cold. "I--" she started, but a knot started to swell in her throat. She blinked, hard, swallowing down the gruesome feeling that the words she was about to say brought on like bile in her throat. "I don't think I want to." She was not sure if those words were true, but she felt a strange sense of confidence in them anyway.
Letha sat there in silence for a long time, trying to process what she had just said. She did not look back up at Amun while she decided where to go next. "Amun, why weren't your hands warm?" She finally asked, slightly terrified of the answer.
Somehow, the idea of magic felt familiar in her heart.
As Letha commented that she didn't wish to return home, Amun blinked. Then he nodded slowly. "Okay. That's alright. As I said, you can't go back. Whatever's back there can't get you here." He smiled at her in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
Glancing down at his hands, he shrugged. "I'm an Ascended." Looking back up at her, he grinned. "Caido has several races, of which Ascended are one. The other man ones are Accepted, Attuned, and Abandoned." Pausing, he studied her features as he waited for that to sink in.
"Ascended have a lower body temperature than the other races. Among other changes." He grinned, though it faded quickly. "I hate to ask this but...sometimes people come through the portal and find themselves transformed. Have you noticed any changes"
Letha listened to him intently, although she did not look back up at him for a long time. He went over what the different races were here in Caido, but Letha did not really understand. What exactly did that mean? What were the differences? Her face continued to contort as she thought, her mind racing. As her thoughts became busier, her hands became busier. The traced in the sand, digging some and still moving grains around like an hourglass. She tilted her head some, sighing.
But, he finally caught her off guard by what he asked. She looked up at him, surprised. How had he known? This was...normal? For people to change as they came through the portal? Her back straightened and now she lifted one hand towards her ear. "I was deaf." She said, nodding to him. "At least partially." This would explain to him why at first she had stumbled so much over her words. Letha had learned to talk and communicate, but without all of her hearing it never sounded truly right. As the pair talked on this night, however, her speech had been becoming clearer and more plain. "Amun, can you tell me more about the races? I...want to know what I am--what I may have become."
As Letha mentioned that she'd gotten her hearing back, Amun grinned at her. "That's excellent news." Still, there was something distracted about his tone, since he was trying to figure out what she might be.
It seemed that she was thinking along similar lines. Nodding, he swept his gaze over her. "I can tell you more. But it's...a lot to take in. So tell me if I'm going too fast." Pursing his lips, he cocked his head to one side. "Accepted are beloved of all the gods, and can channel higher beings. Other than that, I guess they're what you'd consider normal." He paused to let that sink in. "Attuned are beloved of the old gods, and can shift into animals. Abandoned are, well, abandoned by the gods, because they possess magic." Again, he stopped talking, waiting patiently to see if she had any questions.
"Then there are Ascended like me, the chosen of the new gods. We have been...altered, I guess you could say. Our physical form has been replaced, so we can feel pleasure or pain. But we also can't die of old age, heal swiftly can be altered further, and can borrow the abilities of other races by drinking their blood." He tensed, wondering how she'd react to that particular tidbit. "There are more drawbacks, though. We're weakened by the sunlight, and when first changed, can't go out in it at all. We're also quite flammable. And we need our fluids replenished periodically."
That felt like more than enough information for now, so he shifted so he was facing her fully. "How're your teeth?" It came out idly, as if this was a normal conversation.
Magic felt familiar, somewhere within her, and as she sat listening to Amun she knew this place was full of it. As Amun spoke about the races of the land, and the gods, and who they loved and who they didn't, Letha listened intently. It was not until he mentioned all that he did about Ascended folk did she perk up some. There are more drawbacks, though. We're weakened by the sunlight... She snapped her head over to look at him, eyes sharp and lips pursed together. She could not move during the day, and she was weak. She remembered trying to move, trying to get up, trying to save herself, but she kept losing consciousness until the night came. She wanted to open her mouth, to want to know why she had been brought here, why she had been changed...but nothing came forth from her throat.
When he asked about her teeth, Letha stood up. Without thinking, and quickly, she brushed the sand off of her hands and onto her shirt. She stuck an index finger in her mouth, running along what she thought were normal teeth...until they weren't. She gasped when the point of her finger ran over the point of a canine. "...what?" She breathed out, her arms crossing across her stomach. She wobbled some, the shock making her feel faint. She steadied herself, but had to sit back down again. "Amun, am I...did this..." She couldn't form a full sentence, and she rested her head in her hands.
As Letha panicked (or at least that's what it seemed like from where he was sitting) Amun reached out to hopefully lay a hand on her shoulder. "Hey whoa, calm down. It's okay. We'll get you sorted out, I promise." If he was successful in clasping her shoulder, he'd give it a gentle squeeze, then leave it there, hoping the contact would help ground her.
Giving her a sympathetic look, he nodded slowly. "I take it the portal changed you. Can you...is your heart beating?" He couldn't detect a pulse, but then again he hadn't exactly been paying attention or looking for one. "If you are an Ascended, I promise it's not so bad. We're not so bad." He grinned, though his voice was soft.
With all of her panic and her racing mind, there was something about Amun that still calmed her. He stayed a rock, solid and steady before the woman who, for a moment, felt like she was falling apart. The man had not balked at her once, and instead tried his best to comfort her. Letha looked up at him when he squeezed her shoulder. Although it felt different than before, she calmed some. She took in a shaky breath--habit?--and let it out again. Her body told her it wanted to cry, but she forced it back. Composure was the only way she was going to make it through this, the only way she was going to gain understanding about what had happened to her and who she was to become.
"Thank you." She said quietly, straightening herself up once more. When he asked about her heartbeat, Letha looked back down into her lap. One hand went to her chest and pressed in tight, the other went to her neck, trying to detect the ever-familiar, ever-present beat that pumped life through her.
Nothing.
"No..." She shook her head, voice dropping. "Amun...did I die?"
Nodding at Letha's gratitude, Amun released her shoulder. "You're welcome." It came out softly, still, though he was doing his best to project calm, remaining mostly motionless as she fidgeted.
"No." His response was immediate and he grinned in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "You're not dead. Just different from how you were before." That much, at least, he was certain about.
Tapping his eyes, then his ears, he lowered his hand to his lap. "You said it yourself, you were deaf and now you can hear clearly. Better than most. And you can see in the dark as if it was day." Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. "And if you're careful, you might just live forever."
Letha listened to what Amun had to say, as if every word he spoke was the answer to life. Well, in this current moment, it was. She breathed out again, shaky and harsh, but stopped herself short. If her heart didn't beat, did she even need to breathe? Probably not, she guessed, but it felt familiar and it felt calming. "Okay..." Letha was not sure if she was interested in living forever. Immortality, she thought, was such a lonely thing. While the woman might prefer to be on her own most of the time, she knew there was something to be gained from having close personal relationships. In her past life--as she would refer to it now--she had always had her Ma.
"You said something before about "new gods". Can you tell me more about them, if its not too much? Amun I know this is a lot, that I'm a lot, but I am grateful for the information you have given me so far." She would always remember him--the man who helped her in this new world. He was so kind, so warm. Things she often was not. Perhaps that was why she stayed here with him, listening to him talk and leaning on his comforting gestures.
Amun nodded at Letha's request. However, when she expressed her gratitude for putting up with her he chuckled and shook his head. "You're not a lot." Reaching out, he patted her on the shoulder, something almost tender about the motion. "You're going through a lot. There's a difference." Grinning, he gave her shoulder a squeeze before bringing his hand back to his lap.
"I'd be happy to tell you about the new gods, though mostly that means the Voice." He paused, his expression growing fond and his voice adoring. "The Voice is the goddess who created the Ascended. She cares for us like her own children, and wishes for us to be bright like she knows we can be."
So, you know her? This goddess? The Voice?" she asked, trying to hold in all of what Amun was offering to her. The idea of a goddess who worked for the good of those she loved was interesting to Letha. She tried to remember what--if anything--she had on the deities of where she had come from. Flashes surged through her mind, bright purples and teals swirling. Lightning flashed, dark fog formed, and she remembered Ma's voice.
She moved on, pushing the memory (?) inside of a box not to be opened again.
For Letha the time did not seem to pass so fast, but there was evidence on the horizon of the coming daylight. "Does the Voice reside here?" She asked carefully, fingers playing with the side hem of her skirt. Always busy, her hands. It was something Letha didn't even notice about herself, at this point. She was always fiddling, touching, moving those fingers. It was from her parents, their natures and careers as crafters overwhelming their warriors' blood.
Immediately, Amun nodded. His expression had grown fond, and he grinned at Letha, clearly pleased to be able to speak of his goddess. "Indeed I have, many times. She almost always answers the prayers of her Ascended, in one way or another." He reached out to clasp the newcomer's shoulder. "I'd be happy to take you to speak to her, if you'd like."
Chuckling, he let go of her shoulder, shrugging a bit as he did. "Depends what you mean by here." Glancing around at their surroundings, he shook his head slightly. "She doesn't have much of a presence in Torchline. But she's inside all of her Ascended, and she definitely has a presence on Caido. And her shrines can be found in several regions."
Part of Letha perked up, the curiosity about this goddess sweeping over her. Her face brightened up and her eyebrows raised. "We could speak to her, for real?" She stood up, brushing sand off of her skirt quickly. "Okay, so, where do we go?" She reached out for Amun in a scramble, trying to pull him up to his feet with her. She could barely contain her excitement.
She started to walk away, much quicker than she had been before. "Amun, if she made me she might know more about me!" She said, voice bright. She stopped, suddenly, realizing she did not know where she was going. She spun around, looking towards where she had begun to walk away from Amun.
Again, Amun nodded immediately in response to Letha's question. "We absolutely can." Of course, he hadn't meant right away, and as she scrambled to her feet his eyes widened. "Well that's..." he let his voice trail off as she began to stride determinately in a random direction.
Jumping up, he practically dashed after her. Of course, then she stopped and he had to skid to a halt before he crashed into her. "There's no rush! You've got time. Plenty of time now." He glanced towards the horizon. "But we'd better get you inside before the sun rises. The closest shrine isn't that close, so we wouldn't make it there in time." His tone was apologetic.
