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!
Unable to find her fellow doctor at the Wren Society, Isla's search takes her up to the house on the cliffs. It's late by now, the moon hanging high against a blanket of stars, but the Ascended thinks nothing of the time nor the darkness. She has nothing with her, unlike on previous visits - with her own infirmary so newly rebuilt, she has nothing she might offer anyway.
Hesitating before the door, she turns for a moment to admire the view out over the cliffs. Up here it is difficult to imagine a world where people set fire to medical clinics and allowed the patients inside to burn to death. Up here things might seem just and fair, if only for a moment or so. And that is all Isla allows herself, those few seconds, before she's turning to rap on the door to Nate's home.
Nate lays in bed, and he doesn’t sleep. It’s a routine he’s fallen into naturally, laying beside the furnace that is his husband and letting his mind wander through the night, at least until restlessness drive him up at an hour so early it could hardly be called morning. He’s just about at that point now, making moves to disentangle himself from arms and blankets and companions to head downstairs when there is a knock at the door.
The sound hastens his limbs, near silent feet hitting the floor without pause and carrying Nate downstairs, with only the briefest detour to the kitchen to palm one of his sharper knives before stopping in front of the door. The window reveals Isla, and all at once his shoulders drop, a hand flying to throw the door open. “You scared me.” He accuses before hello, brows furrowed even as he steps aside to let his fellow doctor inside.
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
Oblivious, of course, to the tension bubbling behind the closed door, Isla isn't even watching the glimmers of movement from within the house, even though her heightened hearing can tell her something is going on. And when Nate does appear, the smile that is already blooming on her face fades somewhat to hear him speak. "Oh, I did Why?" she asks softly, stepping into the house and glancing over her shoulder automatically as if to check that no one else has followed.
"I went to look for you at the Wren Society earlier, but I didn't see you there," she explains. "I wanted to check if everything was alright with the clinic and with you. I don't know if you heard, but the infirmary in the Hollowed Grounds was burned down... and it might have been on the same night that the Wren Society was targeted."
A bright gaze moves past Isla, checking the solitude she's left behind to ensure there's nothing there. "Late night knocks don't tend to carry good things for us." Nate explains with a careless shrug, locking the door behind her. He seems to hesitate a moment, leaning towards the offices before stepping stead towards the kitchen, a vague gesture inviting his fellow ascended to follow while they talk.
"I haven't been straying from home since it happened. I don't want to... I can't be away, if something happens again." Something like Remi. Something like Shaju. That train of thought is exited swiftly, Nate instead focusing on the news Isla has, his brows rising. "That doesn't make any sense." He points out bluntly, crossing his arms. "We know who burnt the Society."
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
"Oh, I see," Isla murmurs, wincing her apology as she follows along in her fellow Ascended's wake, heading wherever he deems best for them to chat. Humming a brief noise of agreement, Isla nonetheless can't say she's been quite as careful. "I have people keeping watch over the infirmary - I just knew I ought to come and see you, especially with everything that has happened. A letter wouldn't really cut it, you know?"
Halting to hear that he knows who targeted his clinic, for a second Isla isn't sure how to respond. "You do?" she says uselessly. "I mean... that's great, of course. I just... who was it? Do you know why?" She has not been nearly so successful in her own investigations.
To hear that Isla had come specifically for him has Nate pausing on his way to the window, and turning back to face his fellow doctor. “I appreciate that Isla.” He holds her gaze a second longer, then continues to draw the kitchen shades, engulfing them in a deeper darkness.
“My.. our... sort-of ex-wife.” Nate spits the condemnation with an unwavering confidence. “It was burned the same night as the Slagveld, and multiple people saw her that night.” It’s the only answer that makes sense, and only because they know it was Hotaru at the Slagveld. “The more I try to imagine why, the less sense it starts making.”
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
"Of course." Isla smiles back to Nate, her pebble blues calm and steady as she holds his gaze, before they're heading into the kitchen together. The darkness doesn't bother either of them, and she doesn't want to wake anyone else sleeping in the house, so as Nate begins to explain, she moves to lean against one of the counters. Her mouth all but falls open, though, to hear the presumed culprit of the fire, and she lifts a hand to rub at her forehead.
"I mean... I... Well, I don't want to say I'm glad, but it is a relief to hear it was a personal vendetta rather than someone targeting all of the Ascended at once..." But that still does nothing to explain what had happened at the infirmary in the Grounds. "I'm so sorry, Nate. It... no, none of this makes sense. I can't fathom anyone attacking a medical centre in general." Isla has lived through war, and it simply wasn't done.
“No, no I get it. It’s uh, y’know.” Nate shrugs, wipes at his face a little and throws a frantic grin towards Isla. “It’s great. Knowing, and all.” He tries for a moment to stay still, then pushes away from the counter, pacing back and forth in front of her. “It’s not your fault.” The reassurance comes quick, Nate pausing again, pushing hair out of his face.
A blue eye finds Isla on the dark kitchen, Nate’s gaze heavy on his fellow doctor. There are bags under his eyes, his shoulders slumped. “I-If theres uh, anything I can do for it, just... just let me know, okay? I’ll help out.” Licking his lips, he looks around, swallowing loudly. “Do you uh, want anything right now? Tea, or..?”
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
"Yeah," Isla echoes, somewhat lamely, but then again she's no longer listening to the words he's saying. It's all word soup, and the medic is more interested in what Nate isn't saying, what he's showing her rather than telling her. "It's not your fault either," she points out, pushing off from the counter as well. "And you don't have to worry about that, the infirmary is already fixed up. From here I'm just going to try and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again..."
Crossing the kitchen to Nate in a couple of short strides, Isla reaches out to gently clasp his forearms, glancing over him with a practiced eye that he'll probably recognise, given that they're both doctors. "You don't seem yourself," she says; an invitation to talk, if he wants to. "Do you want to step outside for a little bit? We don't have to go far."
Uncertainty fills Nate as Isla comes closer, his jaw clenched tightly and his body stiff. Hands tremble with the effort of holding back the flinch when her touch graces him, not settling when whatever he’s expecting doesn’t come to pass. It’s not entirely truthful to say he looks like a cornered animal, something far too calculating in his gaze as he watches her watch him.
The words that were meant as an invitation are read as admonition instead. Nate blinks, like he’s only just realized how he’d been acting, and shakes his head, one of his hands rising to cup Isla’s cheek. “I didn’t mean to worry you.” He apologizes softly, the corners of his lips quavering with the effort of rising. “I’m fine, Isla.” This close, she might able to see the edges of the mask, the new softness of his features not reflected in his eye.
Stepping past his fellow doctor, Nate wraps an arm around her waist and turns her, leading them back towards the door. “We can talk more in the garden?” He suggests, throwing the door open and pausing on the threshold, waiting for Isla to make the first move.
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
This close, Isla doesn't quite know what she sees, but it's certainly enough to worry her, regardless of Nate's reassurances. "Alright," she murmurs, even though it isn't, not by a long shot, and she lets him manoeuvre her towards the door and into the garden. "Sure, that sounds good," she murmurs, though she pauses when he does on the threshold.
Glancing up at her fellow doctor, Isla waits for a moment before she does indeed make the first move, stepping out and into the moonlight, the glitter of the stars against the water far, far below. "Do you want to come and visit the infirmary in the Grounds, for a bit?" she asks suddenly, her voice soft as she glances over her shoulder to him. "Only a day or so - I wouldn't want to take you away from this. But I thought you might like to look things over. I could use your opinion, anyway, about what else to do with the place."
Isla will not be able to find Nate’s gaze when she looks up, focused as it is on the outdoors, scanning the horizon, the sky, the greenery. The paranoid spell is broken when his fellow doctor steps past him, Nate taking a breath and stepping outside. He looks around once more, then looks at Isla, a grin quirking his mouth. “If you really think you need my expertise, I can get you a day or so.” He brags, the effect ruined a little by the way his voice shivers.
The amount of time it takes him to catch up to her is nothing to be proud of, but Nate manages, turning to pause at the edge of an empty hole lined with stone, a project that hasn’t had the chance to come to fruition yet. “...you know, I spoke to Remi not too long ago.”
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
"The expertise and the company," Isla admits with a warm smile, steady against the shivering hysteria that seems to threaten in the spaces between Nate's words and actions. "You are the only other doctor I know these days. One with any training, anyway." Even if he hadn't gotten his licence, it's still better than all he others between here and the Hollowed Grounds.
She pauses as well to gaze at the unfinished project - there are a few of those around the garden, Isla notes, and she turns back to Nate to give him her full concentration when Remi's name hits the air. "Oh, you did?" she echoes, raising an eyebrow before her expression melts into something more akin to concern. "I know that things aren't great, between the two of you," she says. "What happened?" He wouldn't have brought it up if something hadn't, she figures.
“We should work on changing that.” Things were supposed to have been getting my started soon, plans for lessons at his guild, but... he supposed that had all fallen apart, at least for the time being. “I can do company and expertise for you though.” And just like that, plans are made, even if the specifics haven’t been worked it.
“It was... interesting.” Nate’s voice is distant, a hand coming up to brush his own chest as if he can feel the whisper soft threat of a hand on his heart. “He... threatened to kill me, and then... told me he’d gotten Hotaru pregnant.” So there was some left out from the middle, really, these were the important beats.
My legacy will never burn down What you gonna do when it's your turn now?
