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!
Her excitement is uncomfortable, given the nature of what Finn sees, what he thinks is attributed to the glasses and what isn’t. (It’s the isn’t that’s the problem, honestly). Still, he can only nod along in agreement with her, not the type to rock the boat, especially when she’s agreed to lend them help with something so arguably important. And for the low price of friendship? Who is he to say no?
Delphia has already admitted to being odd, and when she states outright that she’d like to hold his hand, Finn starts to believe it. But strangely enough, it’s the prior admission that makes it less strange, and he finds himself settling around her. Her warmth and enthusiasm is a balm on nerves made sharp and pointy by the world. Quite without thinking, he reaches out to take it, his hands cool, fingertips calloused.
”Rituals to soothe my soul,” he echoes, furrowing his brow and waiting for her to lead the way. ”You sound rather confident about that.”
Perhaps if he could see what she could, and vice versa, they would better understand their differing prerogatives. As it was, such things were impossible.
Her loving smile did not fade, but instead grew as he took her hand. Her gaze turned to the forest, and slowly but sure the the path began to shift, trees and brush bending out of the way, forming a new trail she knew would lead to her home. "Indeed I am." she said as she started forward, guiding him down the newly formed path, staying a few paces behind those areas still in flux. "Soothing souls is one of my purposes - one cannot guide a soul to Mort in Ludo's stead if it is distraught after all." she said lightly. And since she lacked Ludo's ability to take whatever shape would please them most, she had to find other ways to accomplish the task. At the end of the day, his soul was not so different from the soul of the dead - his simply remained in it's mortal vessel.
Delphia glanced at him, a curious look in her eyes. "Do you think that the gods would have left us all without the tools we need to heal ourselves spiritually?" she asked. The divine was spiritual after all. Everything in Caido grew from it into what most considered 'reality'.
Her reply answers everything without really answering anything, leaving Finn bemused as he falls into step in her wake. His fingers are almost numb in hers, such is his distraction when the forest begins to bend and weave around them as if responding to her will. Which he supposes it must be, for it to react in such a way. His lips part, head tilting up to look all around them, trying to track leaves as they whisper out of sight.
The she asks a question and honestly Finn doesn’t know how to answer without being immediately blasphemous. Because he wants to say yes, to tell her that this is exactly what’s happened in his case. But that doesn’t seem appropriate. ”If they have left us those means,” he says instead, ”they have hidden them very well.”
Slowly but surely, a small clearing would come into view. Her home was nothing special, a yurt of modest size tucked away in the trees on the edges of Ludo's Woods. Only then did Tishy reappear, quite suddenly in fact out of thin air in front of them, trotting along the worn path up to the structure before seeming to walk right through the walls to disappear inside.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps the knowledge simply had not reached your ears. The Greatwood keeps many secrets." Delphia said with a bemused laugh. Though she supposed as the daughter of Mort and his most spiritual follower, she may have had an upper hand there. The Seer released the Spyglass's hand as she went inside, leaving the door open so he could follow if he wished. The inside was cluttered but warm - filled to the brim with candles and wall hangings, books, drying herbs, and protective amulets and charms. A random assortment of collectibles - some as valuable as gemstones to as worthless as funny shaped twigs - littered every available space. And yet, by some miracle, it remained functional and easy navigable, the demigoddess not having sacrificed her ability to live in the space for all the treasures she kept.
She stepped up to a desk, covered in dusty tomes with odd runes, lanterns, and thuribles strewn about. Her pale gaze was locked on the shelves above it though, looking are various vials of liquids. "I wonder just what would help you best..." she murmured.
”Yes,” Finn echoes, his gaze somewhere over his shoulder behind them. ”Perhaps...” He’s trying to see if the way is closing in their wake, if the trees arch down and obscure them from view, and only as Delphia begins to slow her steps does his attention return to the sudden appearance of the yurt. Tishy earns a small smile, and perhaps it’s because Finn is already elsewhere in his mind that he doesn’t seem to notice as the feline trots straight through a wall.
The yurt is another matter entirely, and Finn’s stormy eyes widen at the plethora of trinkets and treasures, the brick-a-brack stacked high. Gazing with interest at a few colourful feathers, he blinks as Delphia speaks, pulled back into the present moment. ”What is it you are looking for?” he asks, carefully having to navigate around to stand beside her.
Delphia was undisturbed but Finn gaping at the treasures she had strewn about her home, quite accustomed to such reactions from the very few visitors she received. Instead she focused on her own task, examining the various oils and dried plants she had to help her new friend keep his mind and wits. For a moment she ignored his question, still pondering what would be best. At length though, she nodded to herself, a smile curving her lips.
"Vi has created, and Rae cultivated, a variety of substances that help calm the mind, and ward away any of the spiritual energy that exudes from my father's realm when applied tactfully." she explained. "Lavender, lemon grass, frankincense, and sage ought to do you well, I think." Carefully, she plucked from the shelf two bottles of oil, a satchel of what would appear to be amber stones, and a bundle of dried leaves. Tucking these into the crook of her arm, she rummaged then through a drawer before pulling out a small stone censer and a cloth bag.
"Take a seat." she said, gesturing to a chair tucked away near the bed. "I will show you how to use these things so you can use them on your own whenever you need."
Finn continues to watch the yurt and its contents out of the corner of his eye, but most of him is distracted by Delphia at least. He tilts his head, noting the ingredients she picks up and automatically shuffling to go and take the offered seat. Quite how they both manage it in the cluttered space is beyond him, and he looks thoroughly out of place in every sense of the word. ”I have seen some of these things before,” he murmurs, recognising lavender and sage in the mix.
”Though they have only been used on their own. What is it you plan to do with them?” He would use it if it worked, but more than that - if he could show it to Falke, perhaps, then the Fixer would be able to share the practice with more than just Finn. He is not a selfish man, the Spyglass. Perhaps he should be.
Delphia nodded as he spoke, carefully setting out everything she had brought for him. "All are products of this blessed world, created by Caido. They are not hard to procure if you only know where to look." she said with a soft smile. In response to his question, she showed Finn how and where to apply the oils on his temples, brow bone, and sternum. Then she walked him through the steps of lighting the frankincense in the censer along with the sage, so the intermingled smoke could clear the air.
But the day was growing short and he needed to be on his way. So she sent him back off into the woods with his supplies, and better directions on how to find her again should he need to.
