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!
Korbin Hale was not a good patient. Bed rest did not agree with him, and he knew too much about the treatment he was going through to accept it quietly. Knowing did not actually help him in this case; even with the understanding that he would get out sooner if he ate the honey soaked bread or drank the sweetened tea he still couldn't get it down.
Speaking of the tea, he had complaints about that too. To the point where he dragged his trembling, aching body out of bed and began to rummage through Delphine's stash of herbs at one point, when both Noah and the woman had left him unattended.
Shaking hands made the task of grinding and measuring herbs difficult, but he persisted even as cold sweat trickled down the temples. He was muttering under breath all the while, long oaths and curses that appeared to be quoted from some old play or prose. Half forgotten, half remembered, but it was rather cathartic to be wishing plague and dismemberment upon nameless, faceless enemies.
Though if one listened carefully it would seem that many of the cussings and besmirchings was equally directed at himself.
It was broken off when the pestle slipped from his hand, and a more common "Well fuck you too," interrupted the eloquence. Barely able to keep upright, Korbin carefully leaned down to pick it up.
Delphine wasn't enjoying treating this patient. Korbin was... a hard patient to handle. Though she'd definitely dealt with worse. He continued to refuse her teas and the sweetened food, so... she'd slipped to the kitchens, and carefully prepared something she thought he might enjoy. Enough carbs to do the same work as sweet food.
It'd been a long time since she'd cooked, so she'd taken care to taste it as she worked. She thought it was okay. Not her best work, but, it had been like getting on a horse. She never forgot how to cook, even if it was not her favorite thing to do. Carrying the meat pie, a clean cloth over the top to preserve the heat, she entered the room in time to watch the pestle hit the floor.
At least he was out of bed. She cleared her throat and moved to set the platter down, "I thought you'd like something that's not as sweet," she explained. She doesn't move to grab the pestle, and she doesn't order him back to bed, despite the fact she can see he's having trouble.
New tactics. Most of her care for the man had been through Noah, as it were. But Noah couldn't stay here all the time, he had other things to deal with. "What were you making?" She's settled on the tabletop, hands tucked into her pockets.
Straightening up with the pestle between two fingers, Korbin shot the woman a wary, unfriendly look. He couldn't bring himself to forgive her for the blackmail, for refusing to listen all those times he'd told her to go away. Even with Noah as mediator he couldn't stand to have her anywhere near him, and it took effort to merely remain civil.
It had come to a point where Korbin couldn't even tell what he so disliked about her. It was down to a crawling of the skin, a purely physical rection that made him want to flinch away and shudder. It was almost ridiculous.
"I'm remaking the tea, since you've choked mine with so much honey it's no longer drinkable," he replied, clipped and hoarse. There was a delicious fragrance rising from the pie, but Korbin only threw it half a glance, suspicious of anything that came from her hands. "Oh? Let me guess, there's only half a jar of honey in it?"
He had opinions about people who smothered perfectly good food in sweetness. It was cloying and stomach churning, toothache inducing... Weaver had loved it.
Delphine scoffed, "Why would honey go in a meat pie? I figure, maybe you don't like sweets. I can remake the tea, if you'd like to eat."
So much good came from honey. She would never understand how someone couldn't like it, but she had to accept that some people just did not enjoy sweets.
"Honey has amazing properties, internally and externally, though... I guess I prefer it because I used to be vegetarian... Caido makes it hard to maintain that diet," At least in the Grounds and Halo, that was. She shifted to get off the table, and moved to straighten his cot, tossing the old sheets off and replacing them with fresh ones.
"There's a lot I still don't understand about Caido... like the magic? Back home, I had more than just healing. I'm not sure why coming through a portal would take my magic away but..." She shrugged, and finished tidying his cot.
Wiping her hands down her pants, she straightened. "Anyway, the people in the Kitchens helped me find the ingredients."
Korbin merely shrugged. "How do I know? As far as I'm concerned honey is for bees and nothing else, but you're clearly perverse enough to eat it... Who can ever predict what crazy people will do?" The medicinal properties he wouldn't dispute, but it was way too sweet, enough that it turned his stomach and gave him headaches. It just wasn't a flavor he was used to; before the portal opened he'd never even tasted it. No flowers bloomed in Halo, there were no bees, and anything plant based was either dried and imported from the south or produced by magical means and pricey as all heck.
Still. If it wasn't sweet, the pie would be far more tempting. Korbin was hungry, his body roaring in demand for sustenance, and he eyed the food with slightly more interest. Not enough to make him abandon his self-appointed mission to remake the medicinal tea though. Cleaning off the tool he went back to griding herbs, ignoring Delphine's offer to help.
"Probably because you're only a copy of the version who lives in your original world, right?" he muttered, mostly focused on the work at hand. "It only makes sense that what you had would be stripped down and adapted to the closest thing that exists here." It was a different world after all, different laws, rules... "It's like taking two different pigments of blue and trying to paint an image twice. No way it's gonna be the same."
Delphine shrugged, watching as he continued to grind the herbs himself. "Crazy is as crazy does, right? No predicting that." She moved towards the door, leaving the pie on the counter, until he responded about her magics.
"I... I don't know if I'm a copy... but, back home I had more than just my healing. But I don't think it adapted," Or, if it had, she had no idea how to use it. Fun times. His explanation though, did help.
"That makes sense, at least." She chewed her lip, leaning on the doorframe. Lingering. "I was going to have Zariah help me... because she ran the academy but... I dunno what'll happen to this place now," Delphine hadn't seen Zariah since LongNight started. And the Launceleyn's seemed to be toppling to the ground, if Neron's words rang true.
It was such a bland and flat answer that Korbin grimaced in distaste. It left no opening for either argument - exchanging barbs - or jest - the same way - and he didn't even try to continue prodding that dead horse.
"Some note in the Hollowed Ground said that's what you Outlanders are. Copies of the real you. Maybe it's wrong, but its as good an explanation as any. Would answer why there's no portals leading out of Caido... there weren't any in the first place."
The comment on Zariah made him snort. "Considering how she sacrificed her child to a goddess for personal gain, I doubt she'll be allowed to head a dinner table, let alone a school. Any mage can tell you about the basics - even I could, and I don't have a shred of magic in me."
Scraping out the ground herbs, Korbin started measuring them into a container. Two parts of this to three of that, one of something else... and nothing sweet anywhere near his blend. He had changed the dosage of a few things too, and replaced a herb for something better. Would she notice? Or care?
Delphine turned to study him, shrugging. "My kids and I lived in a cave in the Grounds... did not get out much. Liked our isolation." Well, she had. The kids had not. They'd very much wanted to go play, and run and see the world.
Mommy Dearest never knew best.
She let the comment about Zariah roll off her. "Would you? And..." She'd turned to watch him now, studying the herbs he was pairing together.
"What herbs are you using? And why those herbs?" At least if Noah came in, they were definitely talking medicine. It looked like a similar tea to the one she'd made him previously, the one he had refused.
Isolation har been his way of life until quite recently, and it had been fine. Korbin couldn't see a reason to forego it. Though perhaps falling into another world would be incentive enough. "Depends. What do you know, and what's in it for me?"
Ah, so she did notice. Korbin shrugged, and listed the herbs he had combined, their properties and the reason why he had changed her original blend. "..those herbs were counteracting each other, at the current dose. According to the book Loren had me read, these should work better."
That said, he measured out a portion into a nettle and poured hot water over it to steep. Predictably, Korbin didn't add honey, even though he made the brew both strong and bitter.
Delphine's lips pursed, in thought. "I read some books, from the academy but... I'm better at doing, then learning from books." She rubbed her arm, furrowing her brow. "I'll make your food if you like the pie. I used to be a housewife, cooking's nothing."
When he explained, listing off the herbs, she reached for a piece of paper and a writing utensil, scribbling the herbs down and their properties. Literally taking notes. "Thank you. I'll remember that." She murmured, watching as he moved it to steep, foregoing anything to sweeten the bitterness. She liked to learn, even if she learned from doing than actually reading.
"That's not an answer. What have you learned or discovered about magic, yours or in general?" Korbin did not have patience for vague replies. His scowl deepened when he was offered food; he shook his head. "I dont need anyone to cook for me. Or clean my room, or make my bed. I'm not an invalid, or a child, and I would prefer if you stopped trying to take care of me when I don't need it." He was perfectly capable of doing all those things himself. In fact, it had been his job since the parents died to take care of the house while his siblings worked and hunted; it really didn't sit right with him to have that taken away.
He shrugged off the thanks, uncaring if she got anything out of it, and snatched up the plate with the pie. It was warm still, though cool enough to pick up. Korbin ignored the utensils and bit into the crust, pleased to find that it really wasn't sweet at all. In fact, his tongue prickled and burned from hot spices, and he was surprised to find that he had downed half in a few ravenous bites.
Unfortunately, he also found that he couldn't get more down. It had been so very long since he ate more than a few bites of anything that his stomach had shrunk. Setting the plate aside, he found a chair and slumped into it, drowsy and light headed and uncomfortably full. It was an almost bittersweet thing, to realize that he wasn't currently miserable. Strange, how a moments reprieve from grief and misery could leave him with so much guilt.
Delphine chewed her lip, as the man called her on being vague. "Well, my healing magic is really similar to what I had back home. But... I know there's different kinds of magic, and that they seem to fall into categories, like back home. We had light magic and grey magic and dark magic..."
He refused her offer of food, and then sat and scarfed what she had made down, which caused the woman to shrug. "I made your cot because this is my space. And you're a patient." She murmured, quietly. "It's my job to take care of you for as long as you're my patient. If you don't like that, then... Dunno what to tell you." She huffed quietly.
"Was it good?" She inquired, nodding to the rest of the pie.
Well, Korbin never claimed to consequent. Crazy is as crazy does, right? He absolutely would claim to hate cake and then eat one all by himself when he felt like it. "Well, it's hardly the first time. I recall that time in the tavern, and a very persistent bag of sweets, not to mention the way you refused to listen when I said I didn't want to have a hot meal or a place by the fire. You should stop that, at the very least. Accept it when people say 'no'."
As for the taste of the pie? Korbin had barely considered it, beyond being hot and not-sweet. "Crust was soggy, the meat dry, but the spices alright," he told her, in a brusque but constructive criticism.
All this was said as he turned over what he knew about magic in his head. It was only basic, things his mom had told Weaver and Erebor while he was around to listen. "Hm, magic... For starters, no one quite knows where it comes from. The gods consider it a curse, ever since The Voice used her magic to make herself immortal and rival them in power. It appears randomly, doesn't follow bloodlines, and as a rule a person is born with it."
Shifting in his seat, Korbin's eyes closed and his voice took on a lilting tone quite by habit, even though it was a long time since he had told any stories.
"Magic can indeed be sorted into three categories; light, dark and gray. The light abilities are healing, water, summoning, channeling and creation. The dark are fire, lightning, life drain and disintegration, while the gray are illusion, telekinesis, earth and air. Life drain and Healing are incompatible; a person cannot have both, and you can't heal someone with life drain magic."
Humming as he thought about what else there might be, Korbin added; "There's personal magic too, that's unique to each user. As far as I know, they can be similar but not the same as someone else's." He cracked open an eye and shot Delphine a glance, to make sure she was keeping up.
To the comments about her pie, she crinkled her nose, grinning. "Thanks, I'll take that into account next time." She doesn't say who she'd be making the pie for, and to his comments about her, she simply shrugged. She was working on that.
Delphine was indeed listening, keenly focused on Korbin as he further explained magic to her. Some of this she had read in books, but it didn't really sink in until it was told to her by somebody else.
"So intriguing... Do you have any idea how I should go about figuring out if I have other magic?" Back home, it'd just shown up randomly. Perhaps it was the same here. "Noah said I should try to enroll in the Academy if it opens again."
