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 might only have one match, but I can make an explosion
Morgan had asked Hester to come with her to the shrine for the final prayer, the last thing needed for their quest from Frey. She felt protective of the girl anyway, wanted to make sure she saw and participated in good work in Halo, but more than that, she wanted to know that Hester knew her work had been appreciated. That her contributions had been noticed and she was a part of this, a part of the Citadel.
"I have prayed more in this last season than in my entire life." She admitted as she came towards the shrine, a wrapped bundle of fruit in her arms. "Being Attuned, you must pray often? Or at least more than I?" Morgan asked of Hester, looking over to her; she supposed had she been born with transformations herself, she might have been more loyal to the Gods, but with her magic and distance from the Gods Morgan had never wanted to be the first to cross the barrier.
Getting close enough to lay the fruit down, she looked to Hester, letting the younger woman begin the prayer.
Everything in Hester jumps at the chance to spend time with Morgan, real one on one time. Everyone said don’t meet your heroes, but so far there hasn’t been a single downside. There is a basket balanced on Hester’s hip when she meets up with the Warden, stocked with preserves and fermented meats and vegetables, and a few stoppered bottles of mead, prepared by her eldest brother, all of it nestled in small furs.
Morgan’s words bring a smile to the attuned’s face, bright eyes turning to focus on the Warden, to shrug sheepishly in response to her question. ”Less than I should, my mother says.” Hester readjusts the basket balanced on her hip, smiling tightly as she does. ”More and more often lately though.” These offerings, and her quest from Ludo, both marked a sudden uptick in her piety. Perhaps her lack of faith until now was why she still held just one shift beneath her skin, instead of the multitudes others sheltered.
It takes her a moment to realize she is being offered the lead here, that Morgan is waiting for her. Hester sets her basket down before the shrine and dips her head, chin against her chest as she tries to let words flow naturally from her. ”Thank you, Frey, for the bounty you bless us with, and the lives you allow us to have. Please accept these small tokens of our appreciation.”
I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion
Hester had brought an impressive array of offerings, Morgan leaning to peek in the basket with raised eyebrows; was this the usual amount faithful brought for their Gods? If so, she had been severely underpaying Frey for the gifts they were getting, but she supposed it was too late to worry now.
That the girl had been praying more often could well be a good thing, a personal revelation of faith, but Morgan couldn't help but be a little worried. "Has something happened you need to pray more about?" She asked, tilting her head with a frown; if someone was giving Hester trouble, they'd hear from her in no time at all.
Letting Hester take the lead had clearly been the right thing to do, as the girl gave a prayer far more eloquent and respectful than anything Morgan had been able to come up with. She never knew how to speak to the Gods, always held that resentment of being Abandoned in her chest, couldn't quite bring herself to sing praises when she knew the Gods would easily see her gone from their world. "...Very nice. I'm sure Frey will appreciate your gifts; they are very well presented."
”No... nothing really specific. But,” Hester licks her lips, immediately regretting it as her tongue is frozen by the cold air, ”I met a man. Not an outlander, but weird like one, you know?” And she hadn’t been able to get his words out of her head, helped along by her mother’s quiet disappointment that she wasn’t already more pious.
A moment stretches out after she speaks, turning into two, three. Hester does what she can to not feel conscious about the words, the wardens voice lifting her spirits immensely. ”Thank you! But, I had help with it. My family all chipped in, and my brother wrote the words.” There are many things she can do, many she’s willing to take credit for, but this is not one of them, not something she can claim as done entirely by her own hands. This isn’t something she can replicate, after all.
I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion
"A man." Morgan repeated, at first wondering if Hester had found herself some kind of romance she was coming to Frey for advice on, but it seemed that it was something else about this man that had caught her attention. "If he was not an Outlander, where was he from?" She asked, not immediately suspicious (after all, she'd met people from Torchline that were quite weird), but the back of her mind did recall Loren's tale of the Order Member he had met.
That Hester had gone to the trouble of having her family write the prayer brought a smile to Morgan's face. "I see. Good work then; be sure to pass on my thanks to your family. What we are doing now will help the Citadel for generations to come."
"Oh, he said was um... Stormway, or Stormcall, or something like that? Another city, somewhere out there." Hester sniffs, not picking up on Morgans' suspicion in the face of her own spiky irritation. "He said it was bigger and grander than Snowcloak." Still, he had impacted her life in one way that seemed to be working out, Ludo's quest a warm weight of responsibility in the back of her mind.
The attuned had been worried that the fact that the prayer and the offerings were not solely her own would have diminished them somewhat, either in the Warden's eyes, or in Frey's, but at least Morgan seemed pleased. "I'll tell them. They'll be pleased to get thanks from you." A bright grin dominated her face as she turned back towards Morgan, her hair bouncing as she tilts her head to the side. "Do we need to do anything else?"
I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion
"Stormbreak." Morgan filled in for Hester, a troubled frown coming over her face; she had only heard of that place once before, in connection with the Order. Now, she was sure there were plenty of wonderful people in the city, but it seemed that lately a lot of mysterious men were appearing in her Citadel, all from this place and spreading their hateful rhetoric - she couldn't let it go, just in case. "I'd like to hear more about that, if you could visit my office later."
A shrine wasn't really the place for that conversation.
Prayer said and offerings given, she shook her head. "No, nothing else here. This is the third of the offerings we have made. This, in addition to everything else, will help to impress Frey." Morgan smiled, sure that this prayer had been a success. "Thank you, Hester."
