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 shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
This is the smallest shrine to Safrin and Vi that Ronin think he has ever visited, tucked away as it is in a few branches within the Fae's Observatory. But Ronin thinks he likes it all the more for its intimacy, and he spends a great deal of time preparing his offering before speaking up. There is no way he might cart anything extravagant up here, so the Star has delicately arranged hanging candles in the shape of the constellation he has been sent out to spy.
"I never realised how different your skies looked from the four points of Caido," he muses as he hangs the last candle amongst the leaves, the dark night made milk pale by the number of stars that burn and brim overhead. "It's beautiful, truly." Smirking, Ronin turns his attention to the shrine. "Of course, none of these candles can hold one to you."
"Thank you." Safrin's voice is uncharacteristically lacklustre, and she arrives with non of her pomp or circumstance. Sitting upon one of the branches like some overly large fae, the goddess reaches out to slightly adjust one of the candles into place. As she does so, the constellation above does indeed pulse and seemingly come to life, making the candlelight shine all the brighter. 'Well done, Ronin."
Her weariness makes her look mortal in a way that her attempts at seduction don't even come close to. But I suppose the same might be said for almost anyone, not that Safrin was just anyone, of course. "Remind me....would you prefer your protective garment to only appear when you find yourself aflame in pheonix fire?"
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
Ronin lights up with his dazzle as she appears - because of course he does - the Star smiling at his goddess only for it to fade quite quickly. "What's wrong?" he asks, taking a step forward, but of course she is out on one of the branches and unreachable in a way that is both tantalising and irksome. Ronin feels lighter than he has done in seasons, truth be told, though that can be put down to Leafchange. He swings on a pendulum, wild and possessive, and that of course extends to the goddess before him.
Talk of his 'Safrin-suit' draws his attention briefly, Ronin rubbing at the back of his neck as he considers. "I don't think so," he murmurs. "I would need to wear ordinary clothes until I was aflame, and they would burn off. Then I'd just be naked again when the fire went away." He chuckles, before tilting his head. "Besides, the point is to let everyone know who and what I am to you."
07-08-2021, 06:54 PM (This post was last modified: 07-08-2021, 06:54 PM by Safrin.)
Safrin
"Nothing." She lies, smiling brightly at him even as her eyes remain dark and withdrawn. Ronin's light casts long shadows across her face, darkening one half and illuminating the other.
'Oh is that the point?' Safrin wonders, almost to herself. "I thought it was that you simply did not want to appear naked on the battlefield." It was his initial complaint, after all, and just now, after everything which had happened with Deimos, the goddess was growing tired of men and their words. Especially when their actions were so far removed.
"You could wear your ordinary clothes, which would simply be replaced by the magical armour needed to keep your fire from burning them away. Then, when the fire was gone, the armour would fade and you would be as you were." Safrin shifts slightly, her fingers wrapping around the tree branch upon which she sits. "Fitting, if you think about it. Cloaked in my protection when you're in danger, and then just...gone once you've no need of it."
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
Ronin wants to say more, tilting his head, but he wisely holds his tongue in his goddess's presence. At least until she's finished, and her words sting as acutely as if he'd plunged his hand into any one of the hanging candles. The Star draws himself up for a moment, the criticism prickling along his ego and begging him to swagger and headbutt one of the nearby trees. He doesn't, thankfully, huffing out a breath and seeming to deflate for a moment.
"I have not been fair to you," he says quietly. "Far from it. And for all of our flaws - mine, mostly - and all of our tribulations, you have only ever tried to give me the best. The best of you, the best of myself... and you are right. I have not given you the respect or the devotion that you deserve." Is it still a dangerous line that Ronin walks? Certainly, yes. But it's a sincere one, for once.
"I would change that now, though, if you would allow me to."
Ronin's charm, for perhaps the first time in his life? falls flat. "Do you need my permission to start being better?" Safrin wonders, her brows drawing together as her face turns gracefully to the side. Pearls of starlight dance across her neck, illuminated by the light from his answers.
"There." With a nod behind him, Ronin will find a star on a chain, emboldened with an etching of a phoenix feather. The star pulses softly, and it will indeed be quite hot to the touch. Once around Ronin's neck, it will disappear from sight, though Ronin will be able to feel it just the same.
Ronin has received:
Phoenix Armour | Encased within an invisible pendant, when Ronin shifts or partially shifts into a phoenix, the pendant will activate. Dark fire-proof leather will replace his clothing, inlaid with golden strands of starlight that perfectly fits his body and is extremely easy to move in. In the dark it will appear nearly black, while in the light it will have a golden sheen to it. Constellations of the Warrior shine on the front and back.
07-08-2021, 07:38 PM (This post was last modified: 07-08-2021, 07:39 PM by Ronin.)
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
That does leave Ronin speechless, the realisation that... no, no he doesn't need her permission. Inhaling as if about to offer something more, Safrin speaks and the Star glances over his shoulder instead, tilting his head at the feather pendant. "Thank you, Safrin," he murmurs, reaching out to carefully handle it, slipping it around his neck and shivering at the feel of it flush against his skin.
"You know, this place reminds me of the Glade where I first saw you," he admits, turning to gaze out along the treeline. "Do you remember? I feel like I was so young then, compared to now..." The light within him softens, but doesn't grow any less bright. Turning back to Safrin, Ronin does his best not to overstep in his approach, halting a few feet before the branch she is seated upon.
"How do you do it?" he wonders. "How do you keep these stars shining, and still find the time to meet with mortals who call on you?"
"I do." Safrin agrees, softening slightly. "Things were much less complicated for the both of us, back then." She acknowledges. Now, there were wars for both of them to fight, and outside of the barrier, Safrin was not the all-bright being she could masquerade as. Out here, she had Vi to answer to, as well as a world that was quick to forget her contributions to their lives.
'Well, you are no mortal.' Safrin corrects, though whether it is meant to be endearing isn't easy to tell, given how blank her expression has gone. Ronin's light makes her lashes look like spider legs that race across her cheeks with every blink of her dark eyes. "Meeting with those who wished to see me was once the highlight of my days. Now...I'm not so sure." The power imbalance a relationship with a goddess brought was unfair, but it was unfair to both parties in equal but different measure.
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
"They were," he agrees, though his brow does furrow a bit. "Though in these meetings between the two of us, I wonder if it couldn't be uncomplicated again?" There's a wildness and a warmth in the Star's blue eyes, fed by the smell of the woods and the light of his goddess. "It doesn't seem like a difficult thing, to worship you. Not when you make it so easy,"
He does let out a soft, self-deprecating laugh at her correction, nodding his agreement. "No, not any more. And I have you to thank for that as well," he agrees. "But I still feel like a mortal in your presence." He pauses to hear her admission, bowing his head for a moment. "Is it because they come to you wanting things? Or because they don't understand you?"
And yet lingers loudly between them. If it was so easy, then why had it been so hard? Safrin shrugs, girlishly almost, knowing only a few ways forward and none of them seeming quite right to her. Folding her hands in her lap, her gaze lowers for just a moment. "I have tried not to make the same mistakes with you as I have with others...but I fear I have just the same. But then.." Looking up at him, his eyes impossibly charming and blue, Safrin sighs wistfully. "..such is the fate of a goddess who loves a man."
Smiling slightly at that, Safrin nods again. "Both I suppose. There is little genuine back and forth anymore. It's all pretty words that ultimately say nothing while asking for everything. Only the other heralds understand what it is to live this life. To be in service of all of you." Because at the end of the day, it was less of a choice on her part than she would ever like to admit. She was as shackled by Vi just as Ronin was shackled by her.
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
"What mistakes could you have have possibly made?" Ronin says softly, shaking his head. "I'm the one who blamed you for Aoife's death, for a time. I attacked the Temple and destroyed your shrine. I was so bitter for so long, and you..." His laugh rides out on a sigh. "You were there, stoic as the stars. And when your patience did run thin, even then it was nothing I didn't need or deserve."
Ronin shouldn't feel how he does at her admission, but such is the madness of the stag in his blood and the thrill of the season. And even then - perhaps that's just an excuse for all the things he already feels to bubble to the surface. "Am I even a man any more?" he wonders softly, before shaking his head.
Lowering his gaze again, Ronin finds his shoulders squaring, something determined in the set of his jaw. "They ought to celebrate you. You light up the night for us, Safrin. We miss it soon enough come LongNight..."
Safrin laughs suddenly, and brightly. "Stars? Stoic?" The goddess shakes her head, and holds out her hand suddenly to him. "Come here, Ronin. There is something I would show you."
Her fingers stretch for his, even as her shoulders shrug again beneath the dark material of her gown. "You both are and aren't...I suppose you're a demi-man just as much as you're a demi god."
Of how quickly they forget her, coming to her in a time of need such as LongNight, Safrin says nothing. Instead, as Ronin's fingers find hers, they are transported worlds and lightyears away. The darkness of space is resplendent and complete. Around them is nothing but each other, and a thousand softly twinkling stars burning far, far away. 'Stars appear like twinkling, sweet things from where you view them." She says softly, her hand warm and small in his. "But to be closer to them?" They drift in space—or does the star come to them?—until it looms close enough that Ronin might understand. Not a twinkling and merry thing at all, but a burning geyser of fire and power. The roar of it is nearly overwhelming as bursts of flame snarl from its surface like cries of outrage bellowed into the blackness of space.
My stars are not stoic, Ronin. You are just too far away to see them for what they are. She whispers in his mind that she might not have to compete against the roar of the star.
I shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
His head tilts curiously, the Star stepping forward to reach for her hand. And no sooner do his fingers brush against his goddess's than the world winks away, Ronin's gasp catching in his throat to find them so, so far out from all that surround them. It's a blackness that dwarfs him, until it isn't - then it's the star that makes him small, his fingers holding securely onto Safrin's, though whether he is trying to offer comfort or seek it is beyond him. Alight in the tumultuous roar of the celestial object before them, Ronin has the mad urge, suddenly, to reach out for it.
He doesn't, of course, but the urge is still there. It's beautiful, he whispers in return, using his Attuned bond rather than attempting to speak. It's like me is what he doesn't say, but what he is sure Safrin will understand nonetheless. It's like us. Taking a shuddering breath, he tears his gaze away from the star to look up at their lady instead. I understand so little of you, he realises, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. To have the love of someone like you... Ronin's smile is almost boyish, and he shakes his head.
You are so much more than merry lights. And you deserve so much more than pretty words.
Not all of them are this colour, either. Safrin muses softly. Some burn white, or yellow, or even blue and green. But.. Vaguely, she indicates to the nothingness that swarms them. By the time the light reaches your eyes, far away as you are...it loses much of what it actually is. Her smile is sad, as she gazes at the star. It's why they say everything looks perfect from far away.
It's like me She might have corrected, but he isn't wrong, wordless though the thought was. They were each of them, viewed through lenses and across time and space such that who and what they were was warped. Is there really so much to understand?
Another and yet lingers, unspoken, in the wake of his pretty words. Pulling in a breath that shimmers the world around them softly, Safrin whispers a hush to the star nearest them, and suddenly the world around them screams with silence. Every breath is like the bang of a drum, and it lingers around them, without wind or air to move it away.
