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 haven't been falling all this time - I've been flying
Oh, Neron thought he was so clever with his little secrets. But such were difficult to maintain in a palace with whispering maids and shouting guard captains. So he thought he could pull a fast one on his family, hm? How quaint. But Zariah knew she was not the only woman who had been circumvented. The former lawyer thought he could make deals and break them without consequences?
Men were terribly stupid creatures.
With Jace bundled up, toddling along at her side, Zariah approached the shrine at the sea of glass, where the Eirachi was rumored to visit. "Eirachi, I wish to speak to you. It seems the Warden thinks we are both fools he can trick...and I wish to see if you are amenable to reminding him just who he is dealing with." she called out.
the cold was so intense that she could see her own breath; it came out of her mouth like smoke
"They do say that if you are to get a satisfactory answer, you must speak to the puppet master and not the puppet."
Precisely who said that wasn't important, but Zariah would hear the voice echo all around her like a haunting melody, one that blew across the Sea of Glass and chafed at the cheeks.
The Eirachi did not appear - not visibly, at least - but the Merciless and her son would feel her presence acutely. As if every flake of snow had eyes to study her, as if every breeze was a sigh on the goddess's lips.
"Speak then, Zariah Launceleyn. Let us see what agreement we might come to."
I haven't been falling all this time - I've been flying
To be fair, Zariah was a bit surprised that the goddess in question appeared. She was still abandoned after all. But it was a pleasant sort of surprise. And despite his youth, the keen little Jace looked around with wide green eyes - not fearful but perhaps confused. Where was that pretty voice tinkling down from?
The Merciless smirked a bit, a puff of breath lingering in the air as a small white cloud. "Indeed, yet this puppet thinks he can cut his strings and not fall down." she said, eyes still scanning, as if she might catch where the Eirachi might materialize. "I am sure you know he ran to the Voice and Ascended, hoping to escape making his payment to you and my influence. If I may be so bold as to assume you are as equally livid as I am?" she said smoothly. Not that Zariah particularly disliked the Ascended. No, it was the insult of running away from his duties, his promises, his loyalties. And while the Eirachi's wrath might whip through the frozen winds with icy precision, Zariah's boiled over and flared with burning force.
"I should like to do anything to see him wallow in the despair of his decisions. Let him see he cannot run from those to which he owes his existence." she said further. The Eirachi had saved Neron's life, for which he now thought he owed no payment. As a Launceleyn, his grooming and skills that allowed him to twist and turn anything to his liking was thanks solely to the family who had trained him; the very same one he now tried to distance himself from. "His divine and his mortal puppet masters have been insulted. Shall we not come together to see that he face the wrath of both the gods and the people?" she asked.
the cold was so intense that she could see her own breath; it came out of her mouth like smoke
"I know much more than that, sweet one." My, but she was a pretentious little thing, wasn't she? Speaking to a goddess as if she herself were divine. The Eirachi approved, but that did not mean she would suffer the pride of an insect pretending to operate on the same playing field as she did. The goddess still did not appear, but the temperature around them seemed to plummet a few degrees. "I know that Neron Launceleyn has a child, and that he stands at your side. Hiding things from a goddess in the palace she created? Tut, tut."
But for all of her arrogance, Zariah certainly did have a point. "You should like to do anything to see him suffer, you say?" Now it sounded as though she were nearby, her voice a whispering thing just over the Merciless's shoulder. "Do not hear me wrong, sweet one. He will pay. That much has already been written. What do you wish to have to do with it?"
I haven't been falling all this time - I've been flying
Zariah smirked as the temperature plummeted. "Perhaps once I felt enough warmth towards the Warden to attempt such tricks." she said softly. Jace shivered, for even under his layers the sudden drop in the air reached him, little ice crystals forming on his lashes. "But the winds have changed, and I have brought the child not to hide or trick, but to hopefully forge trust and partnership. He is not just Neron's child, but mine as well - a better bred abandoned I doubt could be so easily found." she said. Here, where magic was looked down upon, such things were not pursued. But Jace was the product of careful cultivation over many generations, with endless potential. Surely it was that bloodline that the Eirachi was after - a pristine canvas upon which she could paint her own masterpiece.
The Merciless quirked a brow, not flinching as the woman's voice suddenly loomed over her shoulder. So there was already a plan, hm? Zariah chuckled low, her smirk growing. She liked the way this Eirachi thought and acted - so proactive! How refreshing. "Surely you don't wish to meddle endlessly in the affairs of mortals? To solidify your divine wrath as his punishment, to keep the fools and diehards from defying your will, I suspect you will require a mortal partner who is as merciless as your tundra to make blatantly clear your intentions."
At the mention of bringing Jace to forge trust and parterniship, Zariah would sense the true presence of the Deepfrost goddess behind them. Scantily clad and voluptuous in all the right places, the Eirachi was a thing of beauty and cruelty. She smiled upon them, small white teeth sharpened to points. "You would fulfil the bargain that he denied me?" She glanced now at the boy shivering at her side. "Your title fits you well, Merciless." It was unexpected for a father to give up his child, but near unheard of for a mother to do the same.
The laughter chimed on the wind as she heard the other woman out, the goddess beginning to prowl now, slowly and precisely around the two Launceleyns. "Quite, sweet one. As I say, Neron Launceleyn will pay. If you would trade his child in his place, then mayhap there is room for future dealings between us. I give you this one token of advice - leave the Citadel this Deepfrost. Or if you do not, name one place you wish to act as sanctuary."
I haven't been falling all this time - I've been flying
"Indeed, I would and I shall." she said with a sure nod. Why should Neron get away with not paying his debts? He thought himself far more grand and clever than he deserved. Jace looked up at Eirachi with steady, wide green eyes. Curious, but unafraid, having inherited his mother's fearless boldness, but his father's calm, cool demeanor. Zariah's lips merely twitched to a smirk at the observation about her title. Cold as ice, despite her fiery wrath, was the Merciless, and she embraced it without hesitation.
All Launceleyns had been raised to think of themselves and each other as tools in a way after all. Her children were no exception.
She pondered the goddess's words for a moment, thinking tactically through what might result from the options presented to her. "If you leave the Academy I have built unscathed, I can ensure there is no doubt left of your message in the minds of those left." she said smoothly, plans already spinning up in her mind. Whether it was the Eirachi's real message to the people or not did not matter, so long a it left Neron nothing on which to stand or stake claim.
There was something wild and feral about the Eirachi in that moment, something that was all icy winds and avalanches, and her smile reflected it all. A boy for an Academy? It was pitiful, but then mortals had a habit of being such. "We have a deal, then, Zariah Launceleyn. Keep to your Arcane Academy this Deepfrost, and you and all who reside there shall remain unharmed."
Silently, she held out a hand for Jace. A deal was a deal, after all, and this one had been brewing for over two years now.
I haven't been falling all this time - I've been flying
Oh it was much more than a boy for an Academy. It was a boy for revenge - a boy for snuffing out insufferable indignation and unearned confidence. The Eirachi would bring the Warden to his knees and Zariah would impart the final blow to destroy all the progress Neron had made on the backs of powerful women. Let him suffer. Let him burn. Let him freeze. Let him simper at the feet of another who held him with chains far heavier than any curse he had ever known.
And so the Merciless briefly knelt kissing Jace's forehead. "It is time for you to go now, my sweet. Do you remember why that is?" Zariah asked the boy, voice smooth and warm. Jace nodded before saying oh so softly, "Father said so." Zariah's wicked grin grew slowly, eyes ever so crazed as she gazed at him lovingly. This really had been the plan all along. Whatever the Eirachi did with the boy, whatever suffering or chains he was now placed in, if he returned to Halo, the blame would fall entirely on Neron's shoulders. "Indeed, my love. Now hurry on." Zariah said, gently nudging him to the Eirachi.
Jace nodded and toddled through the snow to the icy woman, reaching up to take her hand.
The Eirachi's grin was full and sharp-toothed, and she bared it all directly at Zariah. Whatever the reasons for Zariah's decision, she did not care - it wasn't about that. It was about completing the deal that Neron had once made, and as her hand closed around the boy's, the Merciless would feel it in the air, the release of some sort of invisible tension.
"Stay warm, Zariah Launceleyn." Such words were especially important when they came from the Eirachi, one might imagine, and a truly chilling breeze ripped across the Sea of Glass. When it settled, both the Deepfrost goddess and Jace were nowhere to be found.
