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!
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
Seren cocked her head aside and considered. "I look at pirate ships on the water, and pick flowers for Aoife, and play with Haai and Sugar. And make friends with Mama's visitors." There weren't a lot of people for her to play with, and no other children around. This lighthouse was the extent of her trips on her own, and even coming here was pushing the patience of her father and other guardians.
"Do you have a game we can play?" she asked, seizing on the opportunity.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
"Hmmmm...." Letha hummed for a moment, making a gesture of intense thought for the girl. Her motions were somewhat dramatized, as she had acted with her siblings before she had entered Caido. She was thinking, hard, in all honesty. She needed to come up with a game that kept her in the safety of the shadows. The newly-Ascended woman was wary of the daylight, even with the cloud cover they were experiencing.
"Oh! I got it!" she exclaimed, her eyebrow lifting as she leaned towards Seren. "If you've played this one before, you can tell me. Otherwise, I'm going to explain the rules." She tried to vary the pitch in her tone of voice, but she was only partially successful. Speech was still somethign she was practicing. It was not that she did not know how to talk before she came to Caido, but Letha had never been able to hear the inflection in even her own voice before she came through the portal.
"It's called "I-spy". You can go first. All you have to do is look around, and find something you think is interesting. Don't tell me what it is, instead, you have to describe it and I have to guess. We can each have three guesses before you have to reveal what you've chosen to describe." She tried to speak slowly enough for the words to make sense. As she looked back down to the bundle of curls, Letha felt a small pang. She remembered sitting while her younger twin siblings went on forever, describing what they had seen and trying to get the other to guess.
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
Not everyone took the time to make themselves interesting for Seren. She was a child surrounded by adults, and while they automatically tried to accommodate her in their speech, there were varying levels of success. Remi and Sunjata rarely even tried, which was... both nice and difficult at the same time.
But Letha tried, and did it well, and Seren had no trouble catching on to both the game and the rules of it. She nodded eagerly and looked around for something to start with. Left, right, up and down, out towards the cliffs and the vast expanse beyond... that really wasn't very visible in the heavy fog. Then she brightened and giggled, and nodded that she was ready.
"I see something white!" she declared, starting off the game.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Letha had always been fond of children. In her life before, when she was darkened to the rest of the world by her hearing loss, children had always been kind to her. Their communication did not always involve as many words as those her own age. It was surely with the help of her younger siblings for this to be the case as well, this love for children. When she did not want the company of others -- peers or older -- she always welcomed the presence of her siblings. Their expectations of her were far lighter.
Letha pursed her lips, gripping her chin as she exaggerated her thinking. "Hmmm...." She hummed, narrowing her eyes and looking beyond the child. "I wonder..." She rocked forward to sit on her knees, looking hard around them for what the child could have spied. "Ah, yes, I've got it! Is it the fog?"
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
Seren gasped, taken aback by how sharp this woman was. "Yes!" she nodded, not even put out that her thing had been guessed so quickly. There were other white things around of course. Aoife's gravemarker was a white rock standing not far form the lighthouse, and there were seashells littering the cliffs - thrown there by Hels or brought up from the beach by herself - but none were as white as the fog.
"Your turn!" Seren urged, quite pleased with this game. It was fun, far more so than her own solitary collection of rocks. It lay forgotten forgotten on the step beside her.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Letha had smiled and been expressive through her face more in her time in Caido than she could recall in years. When her guess--which she was confident in, of course--was revealed to be true, she grinned again. She had no mind to hold her lips back from showing off her sharpened teeth.
Okay, okay... she put her hands up. She let out another hum of thought, tapping her fingers on her knees. She scanned her eyes quickly over their surroundings, trying to pinpoint something to describe to the young demigoddess. She briefly let her eyes bounce off of the girl's pirate treasure, and she settled. "I spy, with my keen eye," she pointed to her blue eye, tapping her cheek just beneath it, "something black."
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
Seren was observant. She noticed a great many things, and was curious about all of them. When Letha smiled, and showed off her fangs, it immediately drew the girl's attention. Quite without any respect for personal boundaries, Seren got up on her knees and reached for the woman's mouth, curious to inspect. "Why do you have pointy teeth?" she wondered.
Quite possibly the game might be interrupted here, because she wasn't really paying attention. 'Black' might be the clue, but her attention was rapt and all focused on 'sharp'.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Letha did not think her race to be something to hide, but she had not initially intended on talking about it with this child. Of all that was happening to her in Caido, this new place full of new things and experiences, her time with Seren had felt easy. Easy and warm and playful. It had eased the tension she had been feeling, and the game only made her feel more comfortable.
But she had felt it too much, and she had smiled too broadly. Seren was almost immediately drawn to her fangs, and Letha leaned back away from the child. She was not yet sure why she had fangs, but she knew two things: creatures that had them were predators, and her fangs were sharp. She did not know much of anything other than that, but she did not want to take the chance of hurting this girl, even if on accident.
"I am an Ascended," she tried not to let her voice sound panicked, and smile lightly to Seren. She reached out to hold the small girl's hands, as to keep them from curiously reaching up for her fangs again. "I'm just different from you."
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
The child didn't mind being staved off - It wasn't that unusual a thing for grown ups to do around her - and she merely watched Letha curiously. Until the woman replied, telling Seren what she was.
That... had an immediate effect on the girl. The little face blanched and stiffened, and in a hurry she withdrew, jumping back from her playmate faster than if someone had shouted 'snake'.
Mother had not left many instructions, but Seren did know two things. The Voice was bad, and Ascended belonged to her, so they were bad too, and Seren was to stay away from them.
"I have to go home now," she said hastily, with an awful feeling of wrongness in her tummy.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Just like that, everything around Letha shattered. Her expression shifted to one of pure shock as Seren moved away from her. Letha hated the way the girl's eyes shifted and looked at her now, spoke to her with something cold and terrified in her voice. Letha stood up, but stayed still in the shadow of the lighthouse doorway.
Seren, wait," She said, taking a step towards the girl. She hissed some and pulled back into the shadow, wrapping her arms around herself. "Seren, it's okay, I won't hurt you." She said, desperate to comfort the child. In a time before now, Letha's body would have stared shaking and her heart would have pounded against her ribcage, but now, she just stood there, before the demi-goddess, eyes pleading.
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
The girl stopped, her little heart racing. She wasn't sure why, because she liked Letha. But it was a bit like when Loren said Father didn't like him. Only, now it was Mother she tried to obey.
"Mama said the Voice is bad," she explained. Face downcast, kicking at the ground with her bare foot. Seren didn't quite understand why, but it was a rule.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Letha had not yet met the Voice, but the trepidation it put into the little girl was vastly different than the admiration Amun had spoken with about her. Confusion and pain wracked her, and Letha sighed, deeply. "I can't tell you if she is good or bad." It was honesty, and it was all she could muster. "I can only tell you that I am good." She swallowed, pushing down the lump that had stared to form.
Letha did not really know why she was so wholly consumed with what this little girl thought of her. She had never been one to be desperate for the approval of others. In fact, she hated trying to live up to the expectations of other people. It was too difficult and overwhelming. But now, standing before Seren, all Letha wanted to know was that this little girl was not afraid of her, that she didn't hate her.
I am magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment Destined to seek, destined to know
It was confusing. But at least Letha was not directly contradicting Mother, which would have been... rough. Now she was left with a moral dilemma she wasn't quite old enough to handle, and a person with sad eyes that wanted to be her friend. What was a girl to do?
"I'm sorry," she said softly, drooping a bit in her confusion. It felt like she was doing something wrong, but didn't know what it was... Apologizing seemed the safest coarse to take.
I am a princess on the way to my throne Destined to reign, destined to roam
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
"I am not angry with you." It was true. Letha was not angry. It was an emotion she knew well, and what she was feeling now was not it. There was anger there, somewhere, stirring and rumbling. But it was not directed towards Seren. Instead, it was directed towards the goddess that this child called mother. She sighed, her shoulders dropping some in her own confusion, her own disappointment.
"I don't want you to disobey your Ma." Letha kicked herself, hard, mentally. How dare she share her own mother's title with Seren's, who had put ideals of hatred in this child's head. "It's okay if you need to go because she told you to stay away from people like me," Her own words stung coming out of her mouth, but even if she didn't want the girl to hate her, she would not force her to stay here with her. "I just want you to know that I am good, okay?"
