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!
The Arc had stopped for a while at port and Jiao had gladly taken the chance to get out and stretch her sea wings. Things had begun to get a bit too real in there: her work was fun, but her relationships with the crew, as they got better, were more intense than anything else she'd had. She was beginning to find herself exhausted after each conversation, each one containing new levels of social closeness she'd never had before.
Had she really been so distant all her life?
At least cloth wouldn't judge her. She'd taken a roll of white fabric, one of the only things she'd brought with her from her old life, to see if the water of the Rainbow Road would transfer it's dyes over into the fibres. As it seemed at the moment, it wasn't going to - the colour just ran off. Still, it was a relaxing enough crouching in the water with the fabric flowing and changing with the current lightly before her, and Jiao watched it with feline-like eyes, keen and lost in thought.
Alina was continuing to scout Torchline, trying to search out its secrets and pinpoint any threats to the Greatwood. Mostly, that consisted of flying above the water and the sands below and seeing what she spotted. Occasionally she would descend to demand information, but the locals were unsurprisingly quite unwilling to answer her once the shock of her appearance wore off.
Today, though, as she flew over weird rainbow bands, she spotted something unusual. Frowning, she made sure her bow and quiver were secure. Then she took a firm grip on her spear before flying down to the other Fae she'd seen.
"What are you doing out here?" Although the huntress' words were still short and clipped, she was not hostile. She simply saw no need to waste time on niceties.
The telltale sound of wing beats in the air made Jiao look up with a curious expression, not having heard that since she had left the Greatwood. Actually seeing a Fae was a surprise and she stiffened, irrationally concerned that she was going to be dragged back to the woods and thrown to the judgement of the elders.
The question that Alina asked did not do much to help that fear, but for the moment she kept her spirits up hoping that it was just casual interest. "...What are you doing out here?" She asked back, defiant. "I'm on a break from my job on the Ark. I left the Greatwood ages ago."
Narrowing her eyes at the dismay on her fellow Fae's face, Alina studied the other woman carefully. Normally, the huntress would relax in the presence of her kin. Now, though, she kept up her watchful and downright predatory demeanor. "Looking around." It came out short and clipped, and she quickly moved past the question.
"What do you mean, your job? What is the Ark?" It was the last thing that Jiao said that had Alina practically gritting her teeth. "Why did you leave the Greatwood? Did something happen to you?" It was clear that the huntress didn't believe any of the Fae would leave the Greatwood permanently, not by choice.
"The Arc? It's the ship I work on; I'm the Quartermaster, which means I order food and things and help the crew with what they need." While she was having issues adjusting to life on the ship, she was proud of the work she'd done so far and it showed in her tone and wide smile as she spoke of it.
While she was still intimidated by Alina, she frowned when the other Fae suggested that there had to be something wrong for her out to be out of the Greatwood. "Nothing happened, I just got bored of living there and decided to go out travelling. I like it much more here."
Alina couldn't help but frown at the other Fae's words. "You work on a ship?" The question slipped out of the huntress' lips without her quite intending to ask it. However, her incredulity and confusion were evident. "How did you get this job?" There was more than a hint of suspicion in her voice.
That was nothing compared to her reaction to hearing the other woman say she had grown bored in the Greatwood. Alina's jaw actually dropped for a moment. "What could this land possibly offer you that the Greatwood cannot?" This time, her tone was slightly more heated and adament, and she stared at the other Fae as if the huntress expected the other woman to agree right away.
"Mhm. Um...the Captain just asked me if I wanted to." Honestly, Jiao wasn't quite sure what had qualified her for work on the Arc, but she wasn't going to turn down a new chance for adventure when it was so literally offered up to her on a plate.
Alina's jaw-dropping shock did give Jiao some pleasure. Yeah, that was right - she didn't think the Greatwood was the best place ever. Did that ruffle Alina's and all those huffy elder's wings? Did it make them mad? That she wasn't obsessed with trees like everyone else? Looking around her, Jiao scoffed at the question, wondering how Alina could possibly ask it.
"There's the beach, and the ocean, and waaaay more interesting people. Everyone isn't super snobby about humans, and some of the humans are actually quite nice." This was a change that had begun to happen in the last month as she'd met and gotten closer to more of her crewmates and realised it really was impractical to tar them all with the same brush. "I'm glad the Mathair turned into a portal." She added with a defiant look to Alina, now feeling rather proud of herself.
Alina snorted at her fellow Fae's answer. "And that didn't make you suspicious at all?" Clearly the huntress thought the other woman was a naive idiot.
Unfortunately for Jiao, Alina got over her surprise quickly. "So what? They're clearly just using you. And they're dangerous. Besides, there are nice people and snobby people among the Fae. Humans don't have a monopoly on that."
Perhaps her fellow Fae shouldn't have been so quick to speak because Alina immediately leveled the point of her spear at the other woman's throat (or at least tried). "Show some respect." It came out in a snarl. "How would you feel if I destroyed this ship you're so enamored of for some personal gain?"
"Nope. People like to see Fae. They think we're interesting." Admittedly she had not always been fond of that, the staring eyes and probing questions, but she knew why Jack had asked her on board.
Alina knew nothing about her friends on the ship and how dangerous they were and despite her fear, Jiao could feel an annoyance bubbling up in her as well, her fists clenching as she faced Alina with a frown - that is until there was a spear in her face and Jiao leaned back, alarm in her eyes. "I didn't do anything to the Mathair! This is why I left! You're all so..so..stupidly obsessed with the woods! You can't see anything past it!" Maybe it was bold to say that with the blade by her neck, but the words had come before she had a chance to filter them.
Alina had to roll her eyes at the other Fae's incredibly naive response. "And you bought that?" Although the huntress knew better, she couldn't keep the scorn from his voice. Honestly, as she continued to stare at the other woman, Alina couldn't understand how she was still alive and whole.
Leaning forward, she kept her spear pointed at the other Fae's throat. "You didn't answer my question." Nostrils flaring, the huntress leaned forward a bit, pressing her weapon forward as well. "How would you react if I destroyed your ship for personal gain?" There was a fervor in her voice, and her eyes glittered with anger.
"Yeah. I did. Why, what do you think they'd wanna do?" All Fae from the Greatwood were so suspicious. Jiao supposed she'd been a little that way herself at one point, but in the last few months she'd realised that humans, much like Fae, were both good and bad, not inherently one way or the other. They still had funny ways that she didn't quite understand, habits she didn't care for...but her view had softened.
Alina's question had seemed so ridiculous she'd assumed it had to be rhetorical. Hearing that she actually wanted an answer, Jiao frowned and looked around as she tried to think of what to say. "I mean, not good, but it's not my ship and how would you do that? It's much bigger than you and made of wood and full of people." Assuming Alina wouldn't like that answer and deciding she preferred to not have a spear aimed at her throat, Jiao without warning transformed into her hummingbird shift, zipping some distance away before shifting back into herself. "Stop being dumb. You're blinded by how amazing you think the Greatwood is you won't see anything else."
Still scowling at the other Fae, Alina rolled her eyes. "Use you in whatever way you'll allow yourself to be used." Again, she was making no secret of the fact that she thought the other woman was impossibly stupid.
The huntress gritted her teeth at that inane response. "So you admit when someone destroys something you hold dear for personal gain, it's bad?" She practically snarled out the words.
When the other Fae shifted, Alina's eyes narrowed. That was something only the most powerful Fae could do, though the huntress wasn't deterred by that fact. However, she made no move to follow the other woman. "And you're just blind to how the world actually works." Alina took to the air again and flew closer, though she didn't threatened her fellow Fae with the spear again.
"They've treated me nicer than anyone like you ever did." Jiao pointed out, crossing her arms. What would they even use her for anyway? At the moment all she'd been doing was ordering food and supplies, making sure the crew was well-cared for: a job, but hardly being used.
Alina still seemed to somehow be under the impression that she'd had something to do with the Mathair destruction herself; besides, there were more things than just that. "It wasn't just personal gain, though -- how did you get here?! I don't think you flew." Sarcastically she raised her eyebrows as if daring Alina to challenge her on that.
She saw the surprise as she shifted and revelled in it, glad she had something to defend herself over this Fae, who looked to be older than her. "How would you know, stuck in that wood all the time?"
Alina's eyes narrowed at the other Fae. "What did we do to you that was so terrible?" There was a challenge ringing in the huntress' voice.
"I used the portal in the Spire." Which was true: Alina never used the portal in the Mathair, if she could help it, as it was too painful. "And none of us would have to deal with the portals at all if it wasn't for the Voice and her Ascended wanting things they have no right to." The vitriol in her voice surprised even her.
Nostrils flaring, she jabbed forward with her weapon as if to punctuate her point. "Because I learned from the past. I listened to the stories of the war, and how terrible it was for our people and our lands. I actually thought about someone other than myself." Unlike Jiao, was the implication.
