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'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
It was early afternoon, and the sky was pregnant with clouds. But though the wind was brisk and the waves of the ocean rolled in white-capped and chilly, there was no sign of rain. Seren had strayed down to the coast, still with the lighthouse of Aumakua in sight, and as usual she had discarded her shoes and rolled up the baggy pants above the knees.
Wading through the receding tide, her bright eyes were turned to the ground. The departing water exposed a treasure trove of interesting things, and she ran excitedly between corals and sea-shells, driftwood and stranded starfish that she helped back into the water.
But though many a thing caught her attention, most were discarded. Seren was hunting for a very specific treasure today, the blue sea shell her mother had told her to find. It rekindled all her enthusiasm for the game, and she hummed a cheerful tune about pirates where she skipped from tidal pool to sandy beach, raven locks tumbling in the breeze.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
The ceaseless sun and tropical breezes of Torchline were unlike anything Dante had experienced before. It didn't take long for him to wander from the busy vendor filled streets to somewhere a little quieter but just as awestriking when compared to the urban dystopia he had come from.
He'd never seen such an expanse of water or such soft dirt and it didn't take long for him to shed his shoes and run without thinking into the surf with a bright laugh. The cool water washed over his shins, salt finding its way into every nick on his thin legs. A quick hopping motion and Dante is out of the water as soon as he was in it, rubbing his legs down to ease the sting.
In the midst of his dramatics, a figure just further down the coast catches his eye. Her dark hair first catches his attention as he wanders over, keeping a good few inches from the tide and the waters bite.
"Hey! What're you looking for?" He called out over the gentle breeze as he approached, picking his way gingerly across the rocks with a newfound wariness for this great lake.
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
So occupied with her own game was she - a real quest, mind you! - that she didn't notice the boy until he called out. Seren straightened up from her study of a stranded crab and turned, her eyes as brightly blue as the ocean on a cloudless day. And she smiled cheerfully at him, a little taken aback by how young he was. Only a bit older than her! That was a rare thing, she almost never saw kids, only adults like her father and Remi and the neighbours... It could have gotten tedious, except Seren never knew anything else.
"Hi! I'm looking for a blue seashell," she replied, hesitating not at all to share in her mission. "Who are you? Do you live here?" The little girl looked very hopeful as she asked this; there was a prospect of friendships to be made here, and it would be a lot easier to play games if her friends actually stayed in the vicinity.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
A seashell? He'd never heard of something like that but a quick glance at his feet as they brushed the tide pools he had stepped over, he didn't see anything very shell-like as he was used to. Of course, that was assuming a seashell was anything like a snail shell. What kind of creature was a sea anyway?
He pushes the questions aside momentarily as he balances himself on a larger rock. "I'm Dante, but I'm from the Hallowed Grounds. Sorta. It's where I ended up anyway." The young boy hadn't met very many younger than himself and Clem, and Clem hardly counted now if he didn't age, right? Were her parents okay with her being by the biting water alone?
"What about you? I've never been here before so I can't say if I'd recognize you or not."
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
She knew what the Hollowed Ground was. The girl had never been there, but she knew many who had come from there to stay at Torchline instead, or who came here to visit. The descriptions had not made a very nice impression on her, but she sort of wanted to see it anyway, some day.
"My best friend comes from there," she said, just to show she knew where he was talking about, sort of. "What is it like? I am Seren, I live over there."
She pointed up along the cliffs that lined the beach a litttle way off. The lighthouse tower stood high as an excellent landmark not very far away, and beyond it, a small cluster of houses could faintly be seen. Seren had strayed a bit further away than she really should, but since she could still see home, it should be fine.
"Do you want to help me look? It can be a treasure hunt! First one to find it wins," she coaxed invitingly, the freckled little face very eager; it was rare to have company in her games.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
Seren pointed quite a way off but this was her home, not his. Who was he to say where she could and couldn't wander off to, even if she seemed about half his age. If the kids were even half as well off as the adults in this world than she probably didn't have much to worry about.
"It's nice, but definitely not like what I came from. Everyone is willing to help one another in the Hallowed Ground. I grew up somewhere that wasn't so kind." Dante shrugged and left it at that. "Who's your friend?" Though the chance he knew them was slim, he couldn't help but be curious.
Her invitation invites a laugh from between his lips as he finds himself nodding without much thought. There was something about a kid's childish innocence that he couldn't help but entertain. "Yeah, okay, I'm game. But first, you have to show me what a seashell is."
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
Tilting her head in puzzlement, Seren tried to imagine a place where people did not help one another. But she could not. All she had faced since she came to this mortal realm was kind and generous and good. Even Loren, who hurt her father and Remi, and even Saiden, when he skewered a worm on the hook of a fishing rod. She understood the action better now - if not completely - and could forgive it. Fish was very tasty to eat, after all, and the fish had to eat too. It somehow fit together very nicely.
"Everyone is nice here too," she said generously, oblivious to the darker sides of Torchline. "Sunjata says it is warmer here. He is my friend, he lives with Nate in the house next to mine!" The girl beamed, very proud over having them both as friends. They were really tall, which was worth something even without listing all their other accomplishments.
She might have done that, if he didn't deliver a shocking statement in the midst of agreeing to her game. Seren stared open mouthed at the boy, shaken to the core. "You don't know what a seashell is?"
Quickly, she looked about their feet, and scurried off to find a few different kinds that the surf left bare in the wet sand. Returning quickly, she held them up. One was spiral shaped and round, like a snail's shell. One was spread like a fan, with grooves that lent it a comb shape. One looked like unicorns horn gone astray, and another could have been a recently opened bud of flower or leaf.
"Like these! But it needs to be blue. The bluest blue you can find. Mama says I can lure down a dragon with it!" The girl made to hand them over to Dante, so he could keep them and compare. There were many other things to find in the sea, but they would not be what she sought.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
Dante didn't know who Sunjata was, or Nate for that matter, but now wasn't the time to try and learn everyone's name in Torchline. Or the Hallowed Ground, for that matter. Sure, there wasn't as many people as back from his old life, but he only knew Clem there. Needless to say that his capacity for names wasn't used to being stretched to such an extent with so many new, and important, faces here.
He's doesn't have much time to dwell on it regardless as the young girl scurries off with such a surprised exclamation. Did more Outlanders know about this kind of thing and he was just stupid? Either way, he didn't have to wait too long to find out what a seashell was. And there were so many.
Dante held out his hands to take the shells from Seren, holding each one up one by one to really look at it. What an odd creature the Sea was that it could fit in so many different shells. "Okay, I think that should be doable. How many sea's can there be to leave behind blue shells, right?" He offered her a bright smile as he pocketed the examples she had brought him.
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
Seren blinked slowly, not quite following what the boy was saying. It sounded like a riddle. How many blue shells holds the sea... except backwards.
But she dropped the matter when Dante upped the stakes in the game. Her smile turned into a grin, a competitive gleam sparking in the blue sky eyes. "Alright!" she agreed with an easy laugh. "Ready? Go!"
Seren started on quick feet down one end of the beach, her small feet sending up cascades of water as she ran through the surf. Quick eyes scanned the sand and the tidal pools, searching for anything and everything that shimmered in the right hue. Most of the time it was merely water reflecting the sky, but a few times she leaned down and examined something closer. The one blue shell she did find really was not up to scratch; more white and gray than blue, and not at all clear the way she wanted it.
Nervous about losing, she frequently threw glances after Dante, to see how his progress went. Apparently he wasn't used to being near the ocean... and young as she was, Seren couldn't help but want to keep an eye on him. To make sure he didn't get in trouble.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
An easy laugh slips from his lips as Seren brightens with an innate competitive spirit. As soon as she takes off in the surf he turns on his own heel in the opposite direction to be fair. It doesn't take long for him to give up searching with his eyes before he's on all hands and knees and crawling through the shallows of the ocean. It's not the fastest way to go about it, but he's finding a surprising amount of shells in the time it takes regardless.
And while he has a handful of shells already, none of them are the blue that Seren had described. They're mottled with other colors and some even had small creatures living inside them! It seemed to be a normal occurrence but spooked him regardless to the point of throwing them further out into the waves and far away from him.
"How's it going over there? You won't beat what I have!" He boasts as he holds up his latest find, and he might be bluffing more than he'd care to admit, the drill-like shell is streaked with different shades of blue deposits in streaks along the grain.
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
His tactic seemed dangerously efficient, and it didn't take Seren long before she too was on hands and knees in the water. Digging through the sand, gently replacing sand worms and crabs where she unearthed them, Seren too picked up a lot more in her search. But the shells were white, and pink, and gray, and she found one bright yellow that would have been an instant addition to her collection any other day.
"Just you wait, I am going to..." And just then her small hand closed around half a piece of oyster shell, and after rinsing it in the surf, Seren whooped and held it up in the air triumphantly. "Found one!" she declared, face shining with excitement.
On quick feet she started back towards the boy, eager to show off her find. And possibly to give him a chance to find something too... Competitions aside, she was a generous girl, and wouldn't begrudge him half a victory.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
Dante was rather satisfied with his initial find, even if it wasn't the most blue out there. It wasn't a solid blue but it was still beautiful! And that's what mattered, right? ... Right? Dragons liked pretty things regardless. Or he's assuming at least. Not that he had the first-hand experience to back any of his assumptions up past that.
Pushing himself up off all fours, he wrings the sleeves of his shirts out while he waits for Seren to make her way over. Sure, he was competitive but she was also a kid and he wasn't an ass about having to win. He'd given it his best shot considering, and he was more than pleased with that.
"Alright, lets see it then! No way you beat mine." Regardless, he can't help but fit in some friendly teasing as she approaches.
I'm ready to start the conquest of spaces Reaching the starlight and silver fields
Happy as a clam, Seren reined in before the boy and held out her hand to show off her find. The shell was gray and gnarled on the outside, but within it was a beautiful gradient of blue that ran from near white, through airy sky blue into deep marine and navy and ending in looming cobolt, almost black. The colors were sharp and vivid, luminous against the sunbronzed skin of her hand, just like her eyes.
"Isn't it pretty?" she breathed, a little awed over her own luck, and eager for his approval. "What did you find?"
Seren gazed eagerly at his hands, seeking whatever it was that he had... His seashell must be amazing if it was as great as he said.
Come with the night the science of fighting The forces of gravity
✰ 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.
"Woooow, Seren, that's gorgeous!" What could he say, the girl knew her shells. It caught the light that almost made it seem as if it sparkled and though he knew that probably wasn't possible, Caido made everything seem like at least a possibility. Who was to say a shell couldn't summon a dragon from who knows where.
After taking a good, close look at Seren's shell he holds out his own for inspection. He wasn't sure it compared to her own as it had been one of the first he'd found; his drill-shell of streaked blues. Regardless, he was still proud for his first shell contest.
"I think you probably have a better chance of catching a dragon with your shell, huh." Dante laughs as he holds up his hands in surrender with the ghost of a shrug.
