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!
Ascending the stairs of the lighthouse, Sam let Amalia lead; as much as he knew he had to ask the Old Gods for help he dreaded with every inch closer they got what might happen. Would Safrin smite him where he stood? He wanted to think arriving with Amalia gave him some insurance against that, but he'd also heard many legends about the Old Gods and their tendency to, in layman's terms, not give a shit.
Hands clasped together and head bowed he would let Amalia do the talking when they got to the shrine, privately hoping no one would show up so they might be able to do this another day.
She still doesn't know if this is a good idea or not, but she feels she owes it to Sam to try. And if there is any of the Gods she feels comfortable appealing to, advocating for her brother in front of, well.... of course it is Safrin. There is no question in the girl's mind, no lack of faith or conviction.
Only a fear that at the end of the day, nothing can be done.
They reach the shrine in mutual silence, each lost within their own thoughts. And of course it is the baker who steps forward, dark eyes cast hopefully over the flickering candles, a Shield of Safrin, but hopefully for Sam, too. "Safrin... Sam, my brother, has left the Voice. He understands the mistake he made in following her, and seeks your help in finding another way to live."
Silently, for only her goddess, the girl adds: Please... If there is anything you can do to help him. You have done so much for me already... but he's my family, and a good man who made a mistake when he was young, and the Voice would abandon him to die.
If Safrin thinks anything at all about being called in to moderate familial drama, she gives no outwards sign of it. Instead, she appears as if breathed into life by the light of the lit candles. The room seemed to darken around them making Safrin the brightest object in the room, like a life-giving sun amidst the planets caught in her gravity and nourished by her warmth.
"Hello Amalia. It is always good to see you." The goddess says with genuine affection, before her enigmatic gave shifts towards Sam. "Samuel. What a...difficult decision you seem to have made." She says a trifle stiffly for reasons only Amalia will understand: There is nothing to be done, Amalia. Ascension is a change over which none of us have any control. The best you might hope for is the return of his soul, that he might find Mort once his life ends. She says mentally to her Shield as she smiles at Sam and nods.
As Safrin appeared Sam stared down at the floor, waiting for her to smite him or maybe just push him down the stairs: when she gave him a hesitant, but polite greeting he glanced up in surprise. "It...it w-was, yes." He confirmed, noting that Safrin didn't seem to say it was a good one. Surely she supported his leaving the Voice?
Not hearing the private conversation between Amalia and Safrin he decided he should try and speak for himself. "I d-don't care how difficult it is or..or what you want. If...if th-there's a way..to..to be un-Ascen..Ascended." Or perhaps even just somewhere inbetween: as long as he could live his life independently from the Voice, away from her commands and wishes.
It eases her mind as it always does, seeing Safrin materialize before her. She takes solace and strength in her starlit lady, mirroring the affectionate smile with dark, adoring eyes. Like a plant that seeks the sun she turns her face upward toward the goddess' light, hoping for absolution and solutions to the things that weigh upon them today, praying for an answer other than that which she expects.
Alas, what comes is all she had dreaded. Disappointed but not surprised, the Shield drops her eyes from Safrin at the mental declaration. Though the hope that is offered is something she snatches at, desperate to somehow save her brother. To find his soul... Can it be done? Mort's daughter told me it might be in the Spire, but that doesn't seem to be true. She'd been in the Spire only once of late, finding rubble and a dragonling rather than any souls.
'What I want? Oh no, you misunderstand." Safrin says with a shake of her head. "What I want has nothing at all to do with it. When you ascend...you are fundamentally changed. Surely you know that? The way to unascend is...death, I suppose. But in life, you are what you are. " She adds, before her eyes move towards Amalia.
The Spire? As you know I cannot venture there, so I suppose it is possible...it seems highly unlikely, though..
Safrin wasn't saying anything to Sam he didn't already know: honestly, he'd expected her to cast him out, so that she was giving him an answer at all was an improvement. Still, it was depressing to hear the bad news he'd known was coming spoken back to him and he nodded with a sigh, glancing between the Goddess and Amalia as they looked to each other.
"Maybe...if..." He had one last idea. "You d-don't make me unAscen-Ascend, but...is there a wa-way you could help me survive with-without the Voice? Without..fl..fluid? Something else you c..co..could give me?" The Old Gods had to be able to give him some kind of energy to live on, didn't they? They seemed so all-powerful in the stories and legends he'd been told as a child.
If not the Spire, then where? I didn't see sign of it the last time I went in. Perhaps Delphia will know where it has gone. It is time to visit the daughter of Mort.
She wishes she could reach out and comfort Sam through the Attuned bond- that she could somehow show him she is here for him, and sorry that this has not gone better. Reaching out with slender fingers she takes her brother's hand, squeezing gently in apology and reassurance before dropping it again.
"What will happen to him, Safrin? The Voice has forsaken him - made him into something other than human as a child, and condemned him to this half-life for failing to bow to her whims." There's anger rising in her voice, frustration with the would-be mother who so abandons her child. "I know... Ludo put Isla's soul into another vessel, for Remi. If we found Sam's soul... Could that be done?"
Pausing, Safrin turned her full attention on Sam. Though her smile was sweet, her eyes were cold and aloof, as frozen as a long-dead star. "And just why would I do that? You were born an accepted, and this was the life you chose, and when you did, you lost any help you might have received from the likes of us." With a quick glance toward Amalia as if to head off argument, Safrin shook her head. "Brother or not, it isn't blood that binds the two of you, and it is for that reason among many that you'll not receive help from us."
Looking properly towards her Shield, the goddess shrugged. "He'll die, I assume. Or...shut down." Raising a brow at the idea of the Voice having forsaken him, that sounding so very unlike the false-god, Safrin kept her thoughts to herself. It wasn't for her to question the whys or the hows. "That would be a question for Ludo. Such is not an ability I possess, as I'm sure you know."
Ah, there was more of the Safrin he'd heard about. While Sam was a little hurt by her dismissive words he'd come expecting them so he didn't fall apart like he once might have. Instead, he nodded to what she had to say. "That's tr-true. I did choose it." He had been young and half-forced into it by circumstance and abuse, but he had still been able to choose it for himself.
"I was...ho-hoping...well. I wasn't ex..expecting you to do it ff-for me." He said, trying one last thing. "But t-to hurt the Voice. Change one of her chi-children, show it's poss..possible. That would ruin a lot of he--er plans." Sam wasn't sure how keen Safrin's distaste for the Voice was, but he hoped it might be enough to motivate her to try.
As for death or shutting down...he didn't really want to think any further about that, the possibilities already having gone around his mind thirty times. He only hoped there wasn't a visit to Ludo coming up next.
There is terrible certainty in Safrin's tone and words, certainty which Amalia does not dare question or press. And so while Sam continues to state his pleas the Shield falls silent, resolute and resigned, her fears confirmed and materialized. A part of her wonders if it might have been possible had he not been so ardent a supporter of the Voice, had he seen his error in the years before...
But the past, like Sam, cannot be changed. And in the end, there is only one to blame for what is now occurring.
And that person isn't Sam.
"If I speak to Ludo again, I will ask it." Safrin will of course be able to sense her anger with the Voice, fury stirring in the coals of her breast. And her determination to do something- as well as the plan, the intention, stirring currently in her mind.
"Ruin her plans? Are you so very valuable to her, that helping to remove you fully from her clutches would do anything?" Safrin raised a skeptical brow. The man before her was a simpering and whiny thing, and for the life of her she couldn't fathom what it would mean to the faux-goddess to lose him. "Why not...go back to her and ruin her from the inside, if that is what you want to see done?"
With a glance towards Amalia, Safrin's eyes narrow cautiously for a moment as she considers. "We both know the sorts of payments Ludo might demand for such a thing. Where Roana failed, I'm sure you would now succeed. I'd suggest caution before asking it for things of which you cannot pay."
"No, I meant..." Meant that dismantling any of the Ascended would be a blow to the Voice, that it would destroy her vision, that he could prove someone could live happily without her damn upgrades - but Sam found that he didn't have enough fight in him to argue it, so he only shook his head.
He had assumed this would be a dead end and it seemed he had been right.
Amalia's offer made him shake his head and he gently reached out to touch her hand. "Amalia, you d-don't have to do anything l...like that, for me. This was my o-own choice."
There is no point in continuing this- Amalia can see it plainly, read in her Goddess' expression and words how little she cares for Sam's plight. And though she had hoped it might end otherwise, she cannot count herself surprised. The decision of a mortal to Ascend is a small piece of the world to one such as Safrin, the Shield thinks.
It is a mortal folly, and so it will need a mortal solution, perhaps.
The final comment Safrin makes does leave the girl stunned, color draining from her face as the implication lands. "I... could not pay that price," she whispers, glancing back at Sam. "But there are others who would. Remi... may be able to help you, better than I can. Or Delphia. We can speak to them."
To Safrin the girl nods her head, respect and resignation in her tone. "Thank you for giving us your time, Safrin. I hope I will see you again soon."
