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!
Maybe Neron's smile didn't contain quite as much mischief as he would usually pack into such an expression, but it was enough to make Morgan smile in return. "Then I suppose that's your next task." It would be good to know how her people felt, though she knew it a possibility that they would be unsympathetic to the Ascended; whether she would bend to that will or not she couldn't say. Hopefully, the Halovians would be compassionate and intelligent as she knew them to be.
The vines had come easier than expected; she didn't object to heading back, still feeling remnants of the tension from earlier but happy enough to walk and talk with him. "...That's true. I suppose you could say I'm not truly neutral then...because if they actually take steps to harm the Ascended, to eliminate you..." She shuddered, having heard the word used before and hating it. "Then I would act against them."
Still, as much as she was willing to defend his Ascended self, she did smile at the idea of his remaining unturned for her. "There's not much point in dreaming about the past...but thank you. Similarly, you are the only reason I've ever considered Ascending." An admission she wouldn't say to anyone else, she turned to glance at him even in the dark where it would be hard to make out a reaction.
"Yes ma'am." Neron bounces his eyebrows at her and smiles, though he isn't sure quite how much of it she's able to make out. Either way, it would be his pleasure to discover which side the Halovians buttered their bread on. And if he could perhaps persuade them to butter it on the Voice's side... would that really matter in the long run? Probably, to Morgan. But that's precisely why he isn't going to mention it.
They begin their walk back, Neron surprised to hear the Glacier anything but resolute and neutral, and it sparks something in him that makes his cheeks flush silver - a detail he is hopeful will be lost int he shadows of the trees. "Given that we are speaking about acts of war and death, that is still very sweet of you," he remarks.
And he stops altogether at her next comment, gently reaching out to snag her fingers in his own. "At least we each know where the other stands, should the world ever change enough to allow us to make a choice. Because I would choose you, Morgan."
Morgan couldn't see the wiggling eyebrows in the dark, but she could hear them in his voice. The thought of that made her laugh and she squeezed his hand, wondering if he knew just how much his smarmy sarcasm both infuriated and delighted her.
"Ha. I am not often called sweet." She commented, though her voice quickly turned serious again, the topic too harsh to be frivolous with. "I wish those that are 'opposed' to the Voice would speak to and discuss things with the Ascended rather than immediately resorting to violence or underhanded methods. I was, at first, disgusted by the Ascended--" Morgan paused, but she felt this was worthwhile saying, besides, Neron knew. "--I found it unnatural and terrifying, new and as if we would all be replaced. But when I made the effort to listen, to see...I cannot in good faith continue to see things the same way."
Could others who felt like she had go through the same transformation? Admittedly, her shift in values had been accelerated by her relationship with Neron, but Morgan felt anyone that got to know an Ascended had to be able to see they were not the soulless monsters the Old Gods constructed with their words.
They stopped and he took her fingers, his words sending a pang through her heart. "I...would also choose you, Neron. I think you should know." She swallowed, throat dry but chest suddenly confident that this was the right moment, that they'd suddenly reached the correct point: "That I love you."
"Just because you are not often called it, does not mean it isn't true," Neron points out, though he can't very well spend his time complimenting her when they have to discuss impending war and the fact that a lot of the world wanted him and his kind dead. He smiles, in fact, to hear the reminder that Morgan was once the same way, and warm blooms in his chest at the recollection of how she used to be with him.
"They do say that it is difficult to see something as other when you spend enough time around it," he points out. Perhaps there's a future on the horizon where the Old Gods and the New could coexist as peacefully as he did with Morgan. (Neron isn't holding his breath, though).
But then they are stopping and although Neron can sense the words before they come, it still has something in him fluttering with anticipation. Silver flushes his cheeks to hear her say it, the Launceleyn drawing her closer against him that he might slip his arms around her. "I love you too, Morgan," he murmurs; words safely whispered in the dark away from Halo's watch.
"Yes...though I don't think sending you to Stormbreak to enamour them all is a good plan." She laughed at the idea, able to imagine Neron trying his best to charm and coax the Order into liking him; he might actually succeed with a few of them, but she was sure that anyone that dedicated to such an evil cause had to be beyond reason.
And then there is her sudden, but correct confession; Morgan was expecting Neron's response but it still put a wide smile on her face and something not unlike butterflies in her tummy. For all she was too old for this, Warden and Soldier, she couldn't help but be terribly happy in the moment. With his arms around her, she leaned in to kiss him soft and slow. The jungle in the middle of the night was not where she'd expected to have this conversation, but the deep dark, calls of birds and animals and the fresh smell of nature around them...somehow it just felt right.
Pulling away, an amused smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "...It is incredibly inconvenient though, isn't it?" Her being who she was, him being ex-Warden, his Ascension, her Abandonment, the years between them, the secrecy, the immortality...yet it hadn't mattered.
"You don't? What a shame. I think I would do quite a stellar job of it, between the torches and the pitchforks," Neron informs her, though the grin on his face gives him away. But then he is lost in their kiss, and for all that he cannot feel it like a man of flesh and blood might, it's still enough to bring silver to his cheeks, for him to relish the fact that they are here, alone in the jungle to enjoy this moment.
When they draw back from one another he reaches down to slip his hand back into hers, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze so he might lead them out of the wilderness with their sentient vines as a prize. "It is the most inconvenient," he agrees with an exaggerated sigh. "But as they say... nothing worth doing is easy."
And as they have already established, Morgan is worth it, for Neron.
