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!
When he'd stumbled out of bed that morning, Loren had wandered around the streets of the Citadel for a while. Eventually, his feet took him out of the city entirely into the Tundra. Clearly not dressed, barefoot and in just a shirt and underwear, he staggered out into the white expanse. The guards gave him a funny look before one took off at a run.
He glared at them, and at Astra who followed in his footsteps and kept bleating. Pushing sweat-slicked hair from his forehead, he finally collapsed into a snowdrift. Tongue darting out, he started licking the ice. It was nice, but his body shuddered with revulsion after a moment and he scrambled away from it. Afterwards, he tried not to touch the ice, but it was everywhere and he let out a wordless scream.
Sprinting (in his mind: in reality, it was more like a controlled fall), he leapt (fell) on the relatively safe stretch of the road. Panting there, he sat up and stared at the horizon. Astra tried to nudge him to his feet before finally settling to the ground and curling against his side.
"Psst." Looking around for the source of the voice, after a long while he pulled the bag he'd grabbed on the way out of his room off his back and slung it to the floor. Rummaging through it, he pulled out the rock. That...the rock. There was only one rock.
And there was someone inside it! "Took you long enough." The little figure put its hands on its hips.
Licking dry lips, he croaked out, "Sorry. I forgot." Shaking his head, he leaned forward so he could hear the figure better. He made a strange picture, skin flushed, body bent forwards with his legs splayed out before him, a rock that shifted and was gloriously warm in his lap.
Beatrix was always in the know, it seemed. Really, she was a snoop. She wanted to know everything, and despite her recent good deeds in helping to rebuild, she still was not the nicest person out there. None of those facts helped with the dismay she felt when people stared at her--or at Jace--often in fear or something akin to fear.
She was adamant that her brother was just as human as she, and that the fact they'd been blessed with aging did not make them any less human. It was a real sore point for the young woman.
But what was an even bigger sore point was... heading out into the tundra to practice her magic away from prying eyes (because really, who wanted to be watched while they probably failed at new magic?) and stumbling upon...
Something in the snow.
No, someone.
Someone she was not thrilled to see, in the least.
"Huh. So you've gotten stupider? That's disappointing." She stepped closer to Loren, brows furrowing slightly. "You know, I always thought you were the smart twin but..." She tsked quietly and crossed her arms.
She'd not seen Loren since before LongNight. She'd not seen him since she'd aged, had purposefully gone out of her way to avoid both Loren and Neron--they were disappointments in her opinion.
Blinking at the woman's voice, Loren swiveled in the snow to face her. "Celeste?" Frowning, he tilted his head to one side. "But you died giving birth to Beatrix."
Then he shrugged. "Guess Caido brought you back to life. Welcome, I suppose. He shifted to face front again, scowling now. "I am the smart twin. It doesn't surprise me you don't know that though. You were a t e r r i b l e stepmother." Astra looking at the woman, bleated before pressing herself even closer to the healer's side.
He was holding up his rock and speaking in a whisper. "Hey, wanna see something cool?" Grinning, he looked up and a phoenix exploded into the air above him. Jaw dropped, he stared at it, transfixed.
Beatrix stared at Loren, her lips pursing. "I am Beatrix, you nutcase." She grumbled under her breath, frowning when he went so far as to insult her birth mother. She took a deep breath and glanced around, as if searching for somebody that might be watching; hoping to see her reaction to this trick. Finding nobody, she took a breath and decided she couldn't just leave her brother, no matter how stupid he was, in the tundra alone.
"Loren," she moved closer, kneeling in front of the healer. He stared in wonder at the air just above him, and she reached up to wave her hand in his face.
"Hey. Why're you out here dressed like this?" She snapped her fingers in his face, irritated. There was a reason Beatrix didn't deal with people.
Scowling, Loren turned his upper body to look at Celeste again. ”No you’re not. Beatrix is like, this tall.” Measuring about a foot off the ground, he frowned at it and adjusted his hand as high as it could go. ”Wait no that’s not right.” He lowered it until it hovered somewhere vaguely around his. ”Whatever, a kid.”
His hand flopped back into his lap. ”Her and Jace are just kids.” Tears sprang to his eyes. ”Jace...he’s dead. Neron said he’s back, but Zariah killed him. Her own son.” He growled, a sound that wouldn’t have sounded odd coming out of one of his shifts.
Not registering her movements, he stared up at the phoenix. It drifted lower at his command and he reached up a hand. However, her words and her talking distracted him and the firebird winked out of existence.
”Look what you did,” he muttered. Looking down at his clothes he looked back up at her. Down to his clothes again. Up to her. Finally back to where the phoenix had been. ”Dressed like what?” Astra stood up and sat in his lap, nuzzling against his chest. His hands instinctively closed around her and stroked her gently.
Beatrix scoffed. The man had no reason to believe she was Beatrix, except she was. Perhaps he'd not heard the chatter going throughout Snowcloak about Jace and Beatrix... She couldn't fault her "smart" brother for not knowing, but something wasn't quite right.
"Zariah didn't kill Jace, Loren. Neron's right. Jace is back. He's fully grown now, like me."
The young woman narrowed her eyes as he muttered something, and then asked a question. "You've not got clothes on, Loren." She reached out to touch the man, "What'd you smoke?" She demanded, bitterly.
If there was ever a time for Jace to appear out of the cold of the tundra, it was now. He'd know what to do. "Get up, come back to the Academy with me, and we can talk. You can tell me everything you've done lately."
"No," Loren insisted. "He's dead. Zariah sacrificed him to the Eirachi like he was nothing. Her own son..." Voice trailing off, he spun around on the ground so he could fix his gaze on the woman who claimed to be Beatrix and so clearly wasn't. "What do you know, Beatleste? You just gots here."
Jerking out of her grip, spilling Astra to the ground as he did, Loren scrambled away from Beatleste. "I didn't. I don't. Smoke. Or things that mess with my mind. Nevvv....nevv...never." He shook his head back and forth as many times as he could before he got dizzy and had to stop.
Clutching the rock to his chest, Loren scowled. "Everyone already knows what I've done. FffffffffFirebrand." He pressed his lips into a line.
Beatleste made Beatrix laugh, the sound sharp and harsh. "Okay," she shifted her weight slightly. "Loren? Will you show me how to get home? You know, because I'm new here." She decided to play into his delusion.
She was hoping that maybe he'd be more keen to go back to town, to the Academy. "I'm cold, Loren." It was a lie, Beatrix was well bundled against the cold. Something fishy was going on; either her big brother was... playing stupid, playing insane, or he'd eaten something or been slipped something...
She wasn't a healer. Loren was the healer. That meant she wasn't entirely sure who to take him too.
Loren frowned at Beatleste's question. "Didn't they tell you? No goin' home." He hung his head and hugged the rock to his chest tighter. Astra, still bleating, climbed back into his lap. He tapped the side of his head with one finger. Although he aimed for his temple he hit his nose instead. "Gotta make new home here."
Starting to stroke his companion's fur at random, his frown deepened at the woman's words. "Cold? Don't you have the protection magic thingiemabobie?" He waggled the fingers of his free hand.
Then he grinned. "Ooo. Ooo. Ooo. If you're cold we could make a fire!" He beamed at her, then tried (and failed) to struggle to his feet.
Beatrix practically facepalmed at her brother. Stupid. She couldn't help but continue to try to get through to him, though. He was... well, he was almost an okay big brother, even if he'd tossed the Launceleyn name aside. He was a better big brother than Neron. And Jace didn't count, even if he was now older than her. Stupid spirits, messing up their ages.
"I have a new home here, Loren. I stay in the Academy." She explained, with an exasperated huff. Maybe if she was more like her biological father, she could just walk away and leave him here in whatever high he was having. But... some stupid part of her remembered that he was the nicest member of the family; especially to her.
Turns out, one good moment can make a lasting impact.
"Loren, come on." She insisted, practically facepalming again as he suggested making a fire. "But we could go home, and there's a fire waiting there. It's the law, right? A fire must always be kept burning."
She watched as he struggled to his feet, and promptly failed... and muttered something about the only competent healer in the entire place being off his rocker, before she held her hand out to him. "Let me help you. We can go find a fire." She eyed Astra thoughtfully, half-curious if she could lure the luxure away, and if Loren would follow for his companion.
Loren stared at Beatleste. Blinked once. Twice. Then his head flopped forward and his chin hit his chest. "S' a prison." Laughing, he fell back on to the road.
When she mentioned making a fire he made an abortive attempt to rise and managed to prop himself up on his elbows. "Yesssss. Home fire. Let's go. What are you waiting for we got to make the big." From his elbows he sprang to his feet.
Actually, what happened was he pushed himself up on one side and rolled himself over on to his stomach. It took him a few more abortive attempts to actually get to his feet. When he did, Astra pressed herself against his leg. He put the barest amount of pressure on her and began to walk down the road.
Beatrix watched as her brother flopped around on the ground for a bit, before getting to his feet. How had she ever held any respect for the healer? When he finally got up, he started in the wrong direction. “Loren, home’s this way.” She reached to grab him by his shoulder, to stop him.
“Where are you trying to go? We have to go home to the Citadel, to build a fire.” Well, theoretically they could build a fire anywhere… but, she wasn’t about to linger in the tundra with her insane big brother. “In a fireplace. Where fire belongs.” She enunciated each word, hoping that, maybe that would help the issue.
Loren resisted for just a moment. However, he let Beatleste pull and Astra nudge him around. "Told you." He muttered the words, then held up the rock with the hand not buried in Astra's fur. "I told her. Beatleste doesn't know though." He reached out with the hand on the luxere and patted the woman's shoulder, flinging his arm across his body to do so.
However he halted in his tracks when she brought up fire. "Yes. Wait. Fire belongs other places. Except when fire other places it burns. Good burns. But sometimes bad burns. Like 'basi." Tears filled his eyes and started spilling down his cheeks.
Beatrix sighed softly as the luxure helped guide Loren around. "What don't I know, Loren? You can tell me anything," It was hard to believe that when her resting face was literally bitchy looking. But maybe he'd not notice.
"Basi? What's Basi, Loren?" She tugged at his shoulder, trying to get him moving again without knocking him down. "Is Basi important to you?" She inquired, tipping her head slightly.
Nothing he was saying made much sense. And this sudden obsession with fire? Briefly she wished she had fire magic, because that might be the easiest way to coax this dumbass to safety; to a healer. Not that she knew just who to take him too. She'd probably need to figure that out before they got back.
