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!
There really was an endless amount of interesting places to explore in the Hollowed Grounds, most of them feeling like lands from a children's book or the sort of locations that people in his old forums would have insisted existed despite all evidence to the contrary. When Josh had first heard of a shifting, almost alive Labyrinth, he had wanted to scoff, but he was quickly learning not to doubt anything in Caido.
He headed out with a bag containing some food, a few candles and a knife. Having heard rumours of hostile creatures lucking within the maze, he didn't want to take any chances and would not hesitate to use his weapon if needed.
For a moment he stood at the entrance simply staring in, trying to see if he could watch the shifting paths from this point - not seeing any movement for the while he pulled a face, figuring the only way forward was well...forward.
Just as the man began to enter, a peculiar sight would likely catch his eye. A black kitten, of all things, seemingly surrounded by pulsing shadows, went bounding into the labyrinth, as if chasing something he certain could not see. Even more strangely perhaps was that this kitten of shadows was followed by a woman with wild, unkempt hair in an oversized sweater. In fact, she nearly tripped over him, their shoulders colliding as she hurried passed and into the hedges of the maze.
Tishy, you see, was hot on the trail of a lost soul and Delphia was in hot pursuit of the kitten who hadn't quite learned how to finesse the catch quite yet. "I'm so sorry! I just need to make sure Tishy doesn't chew on this soul too much!" she shouted back at the man, continuing to chase after the small cat.
Josh watched flatly as before him a cat ran across the ground then a woman who nearly bumped into him: he barely moved, just watched her with raised eyebrows as she gave a (bizarre) explanation for her running then continued. He gazed after them for a moment then deciding he had nothing better to examine at the moment, began to follow.
Hands in his pockets he followed Delphia at a distance, watching what she was doing and trying to see if he could spot this 'soul'. While he was not trying to hide actively, he stayed back enough that he wouldn't disturb her in her task, wanting to see what she was doing uninterrupted.
Whether he was trying to hide or not, Delphia paid him no mind. Tishy was her focus at the moment. The cat sith was still young and while adept at bringing souls back to her, rarely did the come without having been played with first. Nothing Delphia could not fix, but still a habit the kitten had to be broken of.
But of course, this chase was not made easy. At least not for Josh. With suddenness the hedges that made up the labyrinth moved, blocking up the path that the kitten and woman were barreling towards. But that did not seem to stop them. The kitten seemed to burst into shadow, disappearing through the leaves and vines. The woman too seemed to fade until she was but a ghostly apparition, passing through the shrubbery and all but disappearing into whatever space lay beyond.
As Delphia and her cat disappeared before him, Josh considered not following, turning around and going home: it wasn't like he was lacking for mysteries at the moment, and maybe one less to solve would make things more focused...but he'd never been able to resist a good cryptid, and the strange cat and fading girl certainly seemed like candidates.
Still walking slowly, hands in his pockets, he walked to the shrubbery and shouldered his way through, looking beyond to try and see Delphia. "Hello?" He asked out into the space, unsure if he had seen some kind of passing apparition that would not respond.
Before his eyes, Josh would see the young woman and cat reappear in the clearing a few feet ahead. Both were sat upon the ground, facing each other - though the cat now held a translucent, silver ball of light in its mouth, which had clearly not been there before.
"Alright, Tishy, now hold it gently you silly cat. You will hurt them otherwise." the woman said, wholly focused on the cat and seeming oblivious to Josh's presence. The cat trilled a 'meow' as shadows pulsed and flared around it. "No no no no! Gently, Morticia, we must be gentle with the souls of the dead." Delphia said quickly, holding the cat in place to keep it from running off again.
Josh stopped as he saw Delphia reappear, carefully watching the conversation that ensued between the woman and her companion. He paid special attention to the glowing shape in the cats mouth, hearing Delphia refer to it as a soul of the dead - that raised an eyebrow.
Stepping forward as Delphia grabbed the cat he stared at it, tilting his head. "Why is your cat eating a soul? Have you stolen it?" For the moment he was humouring her, though he did not believe in souls whatsoever; he would try and ascertain what it actually was later on.
Delphia glanced up as Josh stepped into the clearing, setting the kitten upon her lap. "Oh. Hello again." she said with a warm smile. The cat stared up at him with wide green eyes, almost unrecognizable as a cat as its black body melded in with the shadows around it.
"Eating it? Why of course not, she is playing with it. Though, really she ought to be fetching it." she said with a sigh. "She is still a kitten though so the urge to play is very strong." she said, stroking the cat's head. "And no, I did not steal it. It was here, lost. We found it so we might send it to my father's realm." she said, as though it were plainly obvious.
"Hello." Josh replied simply, nodding but definitely looking at the cat rather than Delphia as it melted away into the shadows.
Delphia's rambling explanation about the soul was met with a definitely skeptical look, Josh unsure if any of it was real or just the mumbles of a madwoman with a cat. The glowing object the kitten was holding could have been a soul, or a million other things: some kind of magical object, a light Delphia had made, an illusion. "How did you gain the ability to harvest souls? Can I talk to it?"
Big green eyes simply stared back at Josh from the void of black shadows, floating about the white spot that was the only other truly discernible feature of the Cat Sith kitten.
"I was born with this ability. It is the purpose for which my father Mort created me." she said simply, as though that explanation alone ought to be enough to satiate his curiosity. "You certainly may though I highly doubt you will be able to hear any response. This soul only barely exists within this realm, and very few lack the power to hear that which lies beyond." she explained with a bit of a shrug. Delphia had been met with skepticism enough times to know better than to allow it to bother her. So she simply spoke the truth she knew, and if he chose to be skeptical, so be it.
The cat was fascinating, but Josh doubted Delphia would let him conduct any experiments on it, which was a shame. For the moment he just watched it fade in and out of the shadows, wondering if it were an illusion or if the cat was genuinely made of the gaseous forms...and was the cat it's main form, or just one it adopted for the time being?
"Mort. God of Death." Josh stated, as if accessing the information in his memories. "The Gods can reproduce?" There didn't seem to be skepticism in him at the moment, just curiousity: he was entirely aware of the possibility Delphia's powers could be fake, but he was more interested in what she'd say about them for the moment.
Stepping a little closer he knelt and stared hard at the 'soul', not saying anything but giving it an intense glare as if trying to get it to reveal it's secrets. Squinting his eyes he got closer and closer, daring the orb to try something.
Unless he asked, Joshua would truly never know now would he? Tishy was only capable of communicating with Delphia after all, and seemed all the more content to keep her secrets to herself as she refocused on the soul hovering above Delphia's hand.
"The very one." the confirmed with a nod, keeping her hand steady so that the man might inspect the soul light. "They can, in a manner of speaking. It is more accurate to say they can create other beings within the world and call them children." she explained. Reproduction was not so straightforward as many considered it to be - especially when one held the powers of a god. And furthermore, for all his staring, the soul light did nothing, merely hanging in the air, swirling about above the demigoddess's hand.
"Hm." Josh distractedly hummed, irritated to find the Gods didn't have an actual reproduction cycle, simply because that would have been interesting to study. Still, there was plenty more to ask and discover here.
Walking forward to crouch before the soul-orb, he watched it carefully for a moment, how it glowed and just slightly moved. He squinted, trying to see if it was perhaps a light or some kind of illusion...but he supposed if it was crafted with magic, it was unlikely he'd be able to tell with the naked eye anyway. "Hello." He said to the orb in case it could hear, then slowly raised a finger to touch it, just brushing his fingertip against the outermost glow of the light.
