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 tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
Though Delphia had been at the Festival of Lights in Torchline, the timing hadn't been right. It had been too immediate, too much. For however good parts of his encounter with Ludo had made him feel, there was certainly much to still shift through fro Remi; cleansed soul or not.
Eventually, though he did find his way into the Wildwood. It was a place he was welcome, or had been last time he'd checked. Like with his visits to find Ianto, the woods had a way of passing along the messages that needed to be making hours of wandering unnecessary. It might still take hours, but strolling through the woods wouldn't get him any closer to where he needed to be.
Sitting in the moss and fallen leaves, the alchemist closed his eyes. With a small burst of effort, he felt his soul leave his body. It was strange, to see himself sitting as if asleep, though the longer he waited, the more another magic took over, dissolving his corporeal body into shadows.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Indeed, the Greatwood had many ways to communicate to those within that they were sought after. Though not many were quite as in tune with its whispers as the daughter of Mort. And when the whispers floated passed her ears, carried on the breeze, they sent a tingle of anticipation down her spine. What an interesting wind, ominous, filled with new promise and life. Something divine yet still oh so human...even Tishy mewled at it, nose twitching as she sniffed after it.
Best investigate.
The pair stepped into the realm of spirits with ease, moving through the wood with far greater speed than they would have on foot, carried by the whims of the spirits themselves. And it was to her great surprise to find at length another like her, a mortal person walking through the realm of the dead, if only briefly. "My how you have changed." she said, voice filled with adoration for the grief stricken man she had once taken in search of Wonder Puddles.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
The spirit world was not like the regular one. Remi couldn't hear Delphia approach until she called out to him. Spinning around in a body that seemed weakly ignorant of physics, the Alchemist gave the demigoddess a stern looking, before his lips broke into a smile. "I should have known the Woods would bring you to me eventually." He said by way of greeting, before nodding her appraisal of him.
"I have indeed. My soul is...no longer my own. It's owned by Ludo now." Looking over his shoulder, where his physical body had all but melted into shadow now, he looked back to Delphia. "Is this...is this where you went, when we were out at sea?"
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Delphia smiled warmly at him and nodded. Moving through this realm was indeed similar to moving through water. Fast and slow at the same time. Heavy but weightless. The realm seemed to laugh in the the face of physics. It certainly took getting used to. "Yes, the wood was quite intrigued by you coming, and now I see why." she said. His words further confirmed her suspicion - Ludo had taken hold of Remi's soul and made him more than he had been before. "Welcome to the family, Remi. It is good to have a brother of spirit to share these experiences with." she said warmly, grinning at him.
"It is indeed. This is the realm of the spirits. It is neither fully in Mort's halls, nor is it wholly part of the mortal world of Rae. It is the space in between all souls pass through to reach their final rest with Mort, and where spiritual entities that have neither lived nor died exist." she explained.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
"Oh, these Woods know me well enough." Remi said with a hollow sort of laugh. "I nearly fell in love with a fox in these woods...was blinded here by the Lady Arduinna..." Rather than sounding bitter or melancholy about it, the Alchemist merely chuckled to himself. Oh, he missed Ianto terribly still and always would, but no longer did his past haunt his waking moments. He had Ludo to thank for that.
"I've never been a brother before, though I don't expect to be any good at it." Remi admitted with a twisted smile.
Nodding at her description, Remi waved a hand through the base of a tree, watching as his fingers passed through entirely unable to make contact with the world of the real. "I feel like I'm just...a traveler here. But you? You are actually here." He said, unable to really parse the distinction he wanted. Delphia could do things in this world in ways he couldn't.
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Delphia laughed lightly, the sound eerie as it hung longer in the air than it should. Not really an echo, but there was no other word to really describe it. "My, what a life you have lived, my brother. You will have to tell me all your tales some day - especially the love stories." she said, corners of her eyes crinkling as she gazed at him adoringly.
"Nor have I ever been a sister. We shall make wonderful mistakes together." she said, not in the least bit worried. Inexperience was as much a part of life as anything else.
She watched him warmly as he experimented with his abilities and lack thereof, nodded at his spoken observations. "Unlike you, my soul has died before. It is at home in this realm, which is as Mort intended it to be." she explained softly. "And I have spent my whole lifetime learning and growing in this realm and the one you know. In time, with patience and practice, this realm will feel as much your home as the mortal one."
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
It was like breath on a cold day. That is how Remi would describe it anyways. Not entirely real and quickly faded, but there in a way it shouldn't be, even once past her lips.
"Ahh, my love stories aren't much to hear. Nothing that would make a book, anyways." Lovers lost through memory loss, a man died and then resurrected as his husband. Two demi gods of opposing forces, wildly in love? Nah. Not worth a drop of ink.
Smirking, Remi nodded. "To wonderful mistakes, then." He said, as if toasting this resolution of theirs. "That's true. I've never died yet." Remi agreed, but nodding apologetically. "I didn't mean...of course you're more practiced and learned. And...I take it there's likely something special about being born a demigod as well? Or at least, coming from Mort." Swallowing a touch unsteadily, Remi cleared his throat. "It was Mort who brought my husband back from the dead...to settle the scales only but...if you see him, please tell him I'm eternally grateful for it."
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"Oh, but I would still wish to hear them. I wonder often what it is like to love in the image of Vi and Mort." she hummed, a wistful look crossing her expression. A hopeless romantic without the first clue as to what that would look like from her eyes.
But again she laughed lightly, shaking her head. "I am not cross with you. I am...serious in expression and tone is all." Delphia said, the corners of her eyes crinkling with mild amusement. She did take her work for Mort very seriously, so she knew well that she tended to seem particularly harsh if she was not careful. "I would not say special...but because I was born as I am, I have never known any other way of being." she said with a shrug. She lacked any basis of comparison, like Remi had. "And Mort...well Mort and Ludo do have every different demeanors and means of teaching." she said with a grin.
Her head tilted though as he continued on, a spark of amusement alighting in her eye. "Oh! So you are the one that holds the heart of the Fallen Star?" she said, smiling brightly. "Mort will indeed find this a wonderful turn of events." A demigod of life in love with a demigod of death? How picturesque!
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
'Well, I'm not sure that ours is a love in their image.' Then again...with Remi now the ... whatever he was for Ludo, and Ronin the whatever he was for Safrin, they more than had the life/death trope covered. Then as Delphia came to that conclusion himself, the Alchemist scrunched his nose slightly as he ruffled a hand through his curls bashfully.
"We know how it sounds." He grumbled, despite being unable to help his slight smile.
"So...tell me Delphia. What...is your purpose, here?" The question was a touch awkwardly phrased, but Remi couldn't rightly think of any way else of saying it. "I know you can take souls, but...is that what you're...what your magic is aimed at?"
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"If it is an unconditional love, then it is in the image of Vi and Mort. Worlds and galaxies could collide and crash and burn and they would remain side by side, inextricable and inseparable." she said wistfully, a warm smile on her lips. For all that made the two gods different, both in personality and in purview, Delphia was certain that there was no force great enough to separate them without also destroying all that was.
"If you think it sounds beautiful, then yes you do." she said in agreement, a light laugh parting her lips again. To love and to so mimic Vi and Mort was indeed a glorious, beautiful thing. A serendipitous blessing of the highest order she thought.
But Remi turned the conversation to more serious things, and she hummed low in consideration. "I was created to fill a void left by Ludo. My purpose was to find lost souls, soothe them, and send them to Mort. I am...a cheap forgery of a masterpiece, so to speak." she said softly. Rare was it for her to speak of herself or her purpose with such a negative light, nor would she ever present herself as such to her divine father, but she knew it was true. And as thrilled as she was that Ludo was back, this reality was one she had been pondering on deeply. "If it will remain the same going forward, I do not know. Ludo has asked that I continue to guard the Greatwood, and I shall. But...certainly they have plans of a similar vein for you?" she said, smiling at him despite the sad look in her eyes. Unlike others who could seek out their divine parent or creator and reach them with ease whenever they felt themselves losing sight of their path, Delphia did not have such luxuries. Rare was it for her to see Mort more than once a year...and it had been barely a season since she saw them last.
the tightrope that i'm walking just sways and ties, the devil as he's talking with those angel's eyes
Remi neither agreed nor disagreed, preferring instead to continue to grumble under his breath. There was the issue of the ridiculousness of comparing his relationship with Ronin to anything remotely close to that of Vi and Mort, but it was more than that. Remi didn't want what he had with Ronin to be so simply reduced down. Maybe that was just hubris, but though it might not be such the spectacle that Vi and Mort's love was, it was unique just the same.
Listening to Delphia's explanation, wondering if he'd feel similar had he been born into what he now was, the Alchemist merely nodded. 'Well, I'm not sure I would call it similar." He said a touch bashfully. "I am...to release souls from the living before their organic death, you might say. A few moments ahead of time, to spare them pain." Currently it was just moments. If and when it would become hours, days, or even weeks, Remi couldn't say and wouldn't guess at.
"I suppose that means we could work together, you and I. I can't see the souls after they leave their bodies, but you can."
THE ALCHEMIST
but i just want to be there when the lightning strikes & the saints go marching in
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
