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!
Isla was an ascended, and Juniper was a fae; together they should have been oil and water. It was perhaps lucky then, that the medic would seem like an attuned for a time, especially when she used Remi's shift. And if fae was able to deduce what Isla's race really was? Well, Juniper was one of the most reasonable fae he'd ever met. Isla had been dead before the attack on the Mathair, and he hoped that as his best friend, perhaps the fae would reserve judgement on her until she knew had the chance to get to know her better.
So Remi waited for both women on the borders of the Greatwood. The flight to the Feverlands would be long and full of many unknowns. No one the alchemist knew had been there yet, and he had absolutely no reason to believe that their journey would be uneventful. But Juniper was well versed in this world, and Isla? Well, Isla would have his shifts and her wits with her.
Juniper arrived at the meeting point: bow and quiver on her back, hunting knife and the dagger Alina had given her strapped to her waist. She also bore a small pack of other supplies: rope, food, bandages in case of injury ... Keeping in mind Remi's words about what the Mathair needed to regain her strength, she'd brought a carefully-wrapped hunk of fresh venison, taken just this morning. The goddess might need an offering to get her attention, to convince her to speak to them -- or to strengthen her enough to do so.
"Hello," she said to Remi, smiling. Yes, there was a dangerous journey ahead of them, through unknown territories with an unknown result -- but Juniper was in a good mood anyway. They were going to find the Mathair. Nothing could bring back the Fae the Ascended had killed, but returning their goddess to her home would go a long way towards salving those wounds. "Who else will be joining us?"
Juniper
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02-02-2021, 08:47 PM (This post was last modified: 02-02-2021, 08:48 PM by Isla.)
Isla
Isla arrives, trudging through the snow towards the borders of the Greatwood. In this season she does not need to worry so much about protection from the sun - it is mostly mist and clouds, and besides, she's wearing a coat with a thick hood to ward off the rest. Besides that she brings her medical kit in a leather Gladstone, something rescued, funnily enough, from her office when she had been alive last time.
"Good day, Remi," she tells him brightly as she spots him, the Ascended sweeping up to wrap him in a tight hug. "And hello to you, too. I'm Isla." She offers a hand to shake for Juniper. "How long do you estimate the journey to be?" Stepping back, she smooths out her coat and places her bag on the ground. "Hopefully we won't be caught up in a blizzard..." Though even if they are, she's unsure what things will be like in the Feverlands.
Feverish, by all accounts.
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
'Isla. She is one of my best friends, and an accomplished battle medic. There's almost no one better to join on this sort of trek." Remi explains with a boyish smile. "She's an outlander like me, but I promise she's one of the good ones."
So saying, the woman in question arrives. "Good day yourself." The alchemist chuckles back, before offering the medic a shrug. "A few hours I should think, depending on the wind." He and Isla would be able to fly much faster than Juniper, but given how unpracticed the ascended was with flight, Remi doubted if the fae would be the one to slow them down.
"I doubt it. We'll be able to see it coming from the air if there is one. Though from what I've read it's supposed to remain quite warm in the Feverlands regardless of the season. A bit like Torchline that way."
Looking toward Juniper, the alchemist ruffles a hand through his curls. "I'll only be partially shifted so that I can speak with you both while we fly. Ready?" Remi's wings easily unfurl from his sides, and he glances toward Isla with a reassuring smile and nod.
Let's get ourselves into the air!
i only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Isla nods at the explanation Remi has to give, absorbing the information like a sponge. She reminds herself to keep to the tail end of their group, at least once she's gotten the hang of things, so she doesn't risk slowing them down. Not only that, but she's about to become the largest one out of their trio, as confirmed when Remi produces his elegant partial shift. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." She nods, taking a few precautionary steps back before she unleashes the shift that resides within her.
A magnificent mane Isla does not have as a manticore, and her form is somewhat smaller and sleeker than Remi's, though no less ridiculously large or intimidating. Enormous wings fan out from her shoulders, fluttering in the biting air, and claws bite deeply into the snow. A soft growl thrums from a maw filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and Isla waits with tense expectation for instructions about how to fly.
Isla shifts into a manticore to get to the Feverlands!
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
"It's nice to meet you, Isla -- I'm Juniper." Probably the introduction was unnecessary -- Juniper imagined Remi had already told Isla who she would be meeting. But it was polite. She nodded to Remi's description of Isla, too, smiling at "one of the good ones" -- Juniper had no problem with Outlanders, so she had no trouble believing that. To Isla, she added, "Thanks for coming. It'll be good to have you with us."
Perhaps she would have felt a little differently if she'd realized Isla was Ascended. Not so much on her own behalf -- Juniper had made enough efforts to speak to the Ascended that she wasn't too wary of them, though she wasn't sure she would want to trust one with her life -- but the Mathair might not be so discerning in her enmity. But Juniper had no idea, easily trusting that Isla was Attuned.
Then it was time to leave. Juniper's wings fluttered as she rose into the air; she spared a wide-eyed glance for Isla's intimidating manticore form, quite impressed by it, but focused primarily on preparing herself to leave. "I'm ready."
Juniper gets into the air, ready to follow Remi.
Juniper
"art nouveau winged fairy" by e³°°° is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit here
Remi can't help the way his mouth drops to see Isla shift. He's never seen himself as a manticore after all, and to see this female approximation of his form is breathtaking. His mouth opens further as if to say something, before snapping closed as he briskly turns away. There is no time to linger on the complicated feelings this incites in the alchemist, but nor should it seem as though this isn't Isla's own shift.
"Up, up and away, then." Remi says with a nod and smile for Juniper.
You'll need a bit of a running start. Don't think about how to do anything. Your body will know how. Remi thinks silently toward Isla, who is now ina position to hear his thickly-accented mental voice in her mind. When you fly, look where you want to go. When in doubt, keep your eyes just above the horizon and your wings spread wide. We'll go slow at first.
"We should go slow at first, so we don't attract any unnecessary attention. " Remi says to Juniper as he easily lifts off the ground, forcing himself not to strain to watch Isla fly for the first time despite how his stomach does somersaults at the thought of it.
"Before we'd talked about trying to transport food back and forth...I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to help the Mathair regain her strength in the Feverlands before she returns to the Woods. If she comes back soon, she might be vulnerable to another attack, if the ascended find out." Remi says conversationally, flying close to Juniper that Isla might get her bearings behind them.
Generic flight post for this round and then I'll roll to see how our flight goes!
i only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Juniper smiled back at Remi and took to the air, too distracted by her own wonder at Isla's shift to realize that Remi was also seeing it for the first time. She modulated her pace to keep up with him; she was a decent flier, but with more agility than endurance or speed, so she appreciated them taking it slow. "We don't want to attract attention or wear ourselves out."
She nodded at Remi's planning, replying, "As I see it, we have two options, unless the Mathair offers us a better idea. As you've said, we can haul meat into the Feverlands to feed her -- that might keep her safer from sabotage, but transport will be difficult. Not to mention that if the Ascended do discover her location in the Feverlands, we may not have the strength to protect her ... Or we can invite her back to the Greatwood, which would make it easier to get meat to her, but might make her more vulnerable, especially as she travels."
Juniper added, "I've brought an offering of raw meat for her today, so that might help."
Juniper keeps pace with Remi!
Juniper
"art nouveau winged fairy" by e³°°° is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit here
Slow at first sounds best. Isla's mental voice doesn't change in terms of accent, but there is something softly dangerous about it, as though she's suppressing a large part of what wants to make it down the Attuned bond, as well as out through her claws or the sting in her tail. Snorting out a breath as an acknowledgement of Remi's instructions, she waits for the others to get into the air before taking that running start.
And it's a bit clumsy, at first, but she leans into the instincts that are all but screaming in her veins, and lo and behold, suddenly she's airborne. The crooning sort of roar that leaves her throat might be construed as Isla informing them that she's fine and happy to bring up the rear in these operations, but in reality it's pure and savage joy that she feels, being up in the clouds.
Isla flies!
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
The alchemist swallows against the broiling emotions that Isla's call awakens in his gut, and instead he turns his full attention to Juniper that he might keep his wits about himself. "No, you're not wrong about any of that.." He says consideringly, weighing the pros and cons of leaving the Mathair where she was or trying to encourage her to come back. "I suppose it will all depend on what she has to say." She'd know better than either of them. For all they knew, she might want to return to kill the ascended who'd wounded her in the first place.
"Ah, that's clever of you." Remi had been planning on trying to hunt something when they arrived, but coming prepared would likely prove even smarter.
Luckily for all involved though for different reasons, their journey is easily completed. Over fields marbled with snow they fly, bypassing the mountains on their right, until the ground below turns sickly and sour in colour.
Landing in the trees might be difficult..take it slow.. Remi suggests to Isla as he descends down into a marsh. The footing isn't ideal, but at least there are fewer trees on which the manticore might catch herself.
Glancing at Juniper, the alchemist takes a moment to survey their surroundings. "Any idea how we might find her? We could split up and search..or try and use your meat as bait?"
Round 1, shall we split up and search, or try and use bait to lure the Mathair out?
i only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
The ground below is a patchwork of colour, and as time goes on Isla is able to play a little with the air currents. Wings spread, she swoops lower and climbs higher seemingly just to pass the time, banking against clouds to see the mountains better before having to propel herself forward to get back to where Remi and Juniper are flying. And then it's time to descend, the medic snorting her distaste for the look of the ground beneath them. I'm not sure the ground is any more stable without the trees, she remarks, before starting to carefully descend.
Her landing is far from perfect, Isla catching against the spindly branches of one of the trees and blundering her way into the soft and marshy dirt. Wings fluttering and folding haughtily, she prowls forward to find the others. Searching might be best. Bait may attract more than just the Mathair.
passing by, you light up my darkest skies you take only seconds to draw me in
Juniper nodded as they flew, smiling at Remi's approval. "Before I became a diplomat, I spent most of my time hunting."
Soon it was time to land; Juniper examined the marsh below with a certain trepidation. It didn't look like safe footing, and she decided to perch in a tree rather than test the sickly ground. She'd rather hover over the ground, really, but after the flight, her wings were growing tired, and she needed a rest.
If Juniper could have heard Isla's telepathy, she might have commented that great minds thought alike, because her answer for Remi was similar: "Let's search -- the bait might draw unwelcome attention. Though I'm ... not sure what we're looking for, honestly."
It occurred to Juniper that bringing an Accepted who could try to channel the Mathair might have helped, but they had no way to get such an individual to the Feverlands, so no use wishing for that now.
Instead Juniper took a closer look at her surroundings, centering herself in prayer: "Mother Mathair, can you hear us?"
Juniper lands in a tree and tries to pray to the Mathair; her vote is for searching rather than using bait.
Juniper
"art nouveau winged fairy" by e³°°° is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit here
"Searching it is." Remi says, translating for Juniper. 'Shall we split up? We'll cover more ground that way. With Isla as a manticore, and you in the air, I should hope we'd be fairly safe." Raising a brow with a glance toward fae and manticoress, the alchemist will do whatever the pair think is best. Come what may, he'll be fine, and thus he it is for the two to decide.
Wordless, a vine of air tugs at Juniper's hair. There is a sweet snarl on the breeze and the cracking of dry boughs. It could be something, or it could be nothing. And if it is something, is it the something they're looking for? Or something else, entirely?
In the opposite direction there is the loud rapport of something very large breaking, or perhaps being trampled. Is that any more of an indication of which way they should go?
fuckfuckfuck sorry.
Do we: split up or stay together?
Follow whatever is pulling on Juniper, or go the other way?
i only knew how to hold on tight & pray for love enough to last all night
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Juniper turned towards the wind drawing her, the sounds that seemed meant for her. It did occur to her briefly that this might not be the Mathair, but ... she had to have faith in something. A smile crossed her face: she loved the thought that her goddess might respond to her prayer, that the Mathair might call the Fae back to her.
"I think she's calling me," she said. She started to follow the wind, then paused, looking back at Remi and Isla. As sure as she felt of the direction they should go, she didn't want to split up, so she'd linger if the others didn't follow her. "It's as good a lead as we're going to get, I suspect."
She turned away again, clearly eager to be off.
Juniper wants to follow the wind! She won't separate from the others, however. Not yet.
Juniper
"art nouveau winged fairy" by e³°°° is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit here
