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!
It had been a series of sobering experiences. Spars and battles, skirmishes barely won and defeats experienced - not for the first time, but never quite so profoundly before either.
With her dragon in tow, Seren had made her way to a remote shrine and awaited the arrival of dusk in quiet contemplation. It was not often that she went through the motions of prayer when visiting her mother, but today the ritual was soothing, and helped to clear her mind. She had even dressed up for the occasion, in some vague need to put a distance between the casual tousle-haired girl and who she was growing into.
Or perhaps she merely wanted to see if Safrin would like her dress.
As shadows lengthened and the first star kindled high up in the sky, the demigod looked up from her meditation and began to clean the shrine. Clear water soaked the stone and washed off any accumulated grime. A wreath bound from flowers was placed on the barren stone, white and soft blue in color, the petals painting the shapes of stars, and at the center of it Seren carefully added a clump of once molten metal, silver now oxidized and oddly twisted. It had come from the tiger she and Umbra had encountered, and it seemed a fitting tribute, even though the girl wished she had the skill to work the metal into something more beautiful.
When she was satisfied that everything was neat and tidy and that the stars could shine unhindered upon the shrine, Seren drew in a soft breath and gazed upward. High, high overhead, where the stars were coming out in earnest now.
"Mother," she called in a quiet murmur, speaking to the goddess alone. "I have completed the tasks you gave me." By her feet, Umbra was trilling his own greeting, warbling and melodical - a dragon's serenade to the stars.
Fight a battle on someone's behalf (verbal, physical, whatever)
― {SE} Can you poison pumpkins? - fought vampire gourds on Ray's behalf, to protect her store.
Fight an animal in the Wilds
― {SE} welcome to the jungle - fought and defeated a Molten Tiger in Ouerwoods (Tanglefoot).
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
The wreath of flowers begins to stir as each petal thereupon glows softly as if sprayed with starlight. "I have always quite loved it here." Safrin muses, appearing from the darkness like a sliver of light made real. With eyes for her daughter only—the room could have been bustling with onlookers and still Safrin's gaze would have been just as it is—she crosses the distance between them to take Seren's face in her hands.
"How beautiful you are, my precious light." She beams adoringly as her thumbs stroke comet trails across Seren's cheeks. "And busy too." The raising of the goddess's eyebrow suggests she's talking about more than just the quest she'd given to her daughter.
She would never get tired of watching the goddess step between the layers of reality. It was always a new flair, a different entrance, and done with such grace as Seren would never be able to emulate. Leaning her cheek into her mother's palms with utmost trust, the starchild gazed adoringly at her parent. "Thank you, Mother. People say I take after you, so it's only natural, I suppose." A cheeky little smile full of love spread slowly across the young woman's lips.
Draping her arms loosely around Safrin's waist with easy affection, she shrugged her shoulders upward in a gesture of agreement.
"I was asked to help, and so I did," she replied, assuming at least some of that arcing brow was referring to her involvement in Halo. "Though I'll admit that I might have stuck my fingers in too many pots... it's more difficult to juggle different situations and problems than I thought. I don't know how you do it without becoming exhausted."
Pausing, with a glance down at the dragon, Seren gazed back at her mother. "Do... you mind it? That I involve myself, I mean." There were a number of other things she wanted to keep struggling with, but if Safrin disapproved...
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Narrowing her eyes playfully and adoringly, Safrin taps her daughter's nose with a fingertip before wrapping her arms back around her and cuddling her close. "It seems my instructions were a touch lost in translation." The goddess muses against the top of her daughter's head. "I only asked that Halo's alignment be changed. I suppose a coup achieved that—" Though she doesn't say it, there's a clear implication of for a time that's wordlessly whispered. "—but now I think Halo is even more firmly rooted in the Voice's clutches." She adds, clearly disappointed, though not with Seren.
Chuckling, Safrin pulls back slightly so that she can smooth her daughter's hair back down. "You are still very young, but you'll learn. The key is to be able to prioritize, like this:" Standing back, five balls appear in Safrin's hands. Two are made of plastic and look worthless. One is made of starlight, one of glass, and one of mageglass. Easily the goddess begins to juggle them. "Now. Imagine things get out of control—" The balls become more scattered in their patterns as Safrin tosses them, and clearly one—or more—are going to be dropped. "If I don't drop one, I will drop them all. Which should I drop?"
Unfortunate, but true. Perhaps Safrin's loyal followers - including her daughter - were more enthusiastic than smart. With only that small clue it seemed obvious that a grassroots movement influencing the people would have a more stable, long term effect than the kind of coup they had pulled off - only to lose grasp on the entire region in a single blow. Hindsight was a bitter teacher, indeed.
"Perhaps... but I don't think it's hopeless yet either. I know at least one person who has turned his back on the Voice after what happened in Halo. Morgan's choice in allies might still come back to bite her."
Seren mulled over this even as Safrin stepped back, and she was distracted by the colorful balls. As they spun out of control, Seren weighed the value of each orb. Perhaps it was the hoarder in her, but she really did not want to discard any of them.
"The plastic ones won't break if you drop them," she reflected, playing along with the game. "So if you set them aside now, maybe they can be picked up again later."
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Safrin shrugs her shoulders but offers no argument. Her long sight stretches farther than her daughter's optimism, but there is always hope when it comes to the hearts and minds of mortals. Perhaps Halo indeed will stand with the old gods one day.
Chuckling at Seren's answer, Safrin's head tilts back and forth as if to signify that her answer was only partially right. "True, but they are also not as valuable as the others. Even if they did break, it would be no great loss." Tossing all the balls into the air with a flourish, they shrink and shine, becoming stars that drift up toward the sky. "Priorities, my darling one. I have watched you attack every opportunity presented to you with the same zeal. The same fire, but...not everything deserves your attention in equal amounts." That Seren had inserted herself into situations did not concern her mother. That she would burn out too soon for having done so, did.
A slight wrinkling of Seren's nose suggested that she did not enjoy sorting things into such categories. Everything had its own beauty, all things its own worth, and to let a thing break because there was something else that shone brighter just did not sit right with her.
"I think I may be a little greedy," she admitted as she watched the balls ascend into the night, not without regret. "Especially when the priorities circle around people. I don't feel so far removed from anyone that their troubles don't deserve to be at least heard... Though I admit that it's been difficult, lately." She had felt her own smile begin to fade, how the enthusiasm over new interesting things became obscured by looming stormclouds.
Reaching out her arms to slip back into her mother's embrace, Seren wanted to breathe deep of the familiar fragrance, as if inhaling it might lend her some of Safrin's strength.
"I'm concerned about Halo, and my exiled friends who are now without a home, and without many allies." Noah, Hotaru, yes, but Deimos most of all. The man had seemed so tired, lately. "I worry about Stormbreak too, and children who never get a chance to live. I want to give them that... but someone said their deaths are the will of the Gods, and that's been troubling me."
Chewing her lip, Seren sighed softly. "And I worry about myself, too. Some days... I wonder if I didn't grow up too quickly. Or skipped some vital step.... because I seem to be struggling with matters that others my age take for granted." A faint flush crept onto her cheeks just thinking about it, let alone telling her mother... But Ronin had been right, Safrin really might want to know about the worries she's been having. And if she told one parent, it was only fair that she told both.
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
"But you are not infinite, my star." Safrin reminds her with a small shrug. "There is not enough of you to go around. It is better to keep perfect a few balls, then to let a handful become nicked and scratched and only most-whole."
Letting her fingers trail down her daughter's back as they come together in an embrace, Safrin leans her head against the top of her daughter's head as she speaks. "Deimos and Hotaru acted rashly...Hotaru I think is a lost cause, but Deimos?" The goddess sighs and shakes her head. "I offered him the world, did he tell you that? A chance to be one of my demigods and grow to be brighter than he ever could on his own. To finally have a place and purpose, but he turned me down." With this failed coup, the goddess was beginning to think it best if she set her sights elsewhere. "Noah is one of Frey's I believe...is he not?"
The mention of Stormbreak has the goddess's head tilting slightly. "Those who give birth in Stormbreak know what risks they are taking. At any time the Tower can complete scans to tell them whether the life they carry is an accepted or an abandoned. If they refuse the tests or if they decide to give birth within Stormbreak's walls with all her enchantments?" Safrin softly shakes her head.
Pouting softly, Seren reluctantly agreed with her silence. Resting her cheek against the goddess' shoulder, she absorbed the reflection over her friends. That Hotaru was so thoroughly dismissed made her want to sigh - it really would take a miracle to redeem her here, it seemed. Noah... was a Frey follower, it was true. She nodded in confirmationof that.
As for Deimos, that came as a surprise, and Seren made a curious noise in her throat.
"No, he didn't say that. I'm surprised... he speaks so highly of you, too, whenever I ask. The world, huh... In a way, I can understand why that would seem overwhelming. But at least he was honest with you, right?" The idea of Deimos as a fellow demigod was certainly interesting. Seren smiled; "He'd definitely make an interesting uncle, though. Was it a one time offer?"
The matter of Stormbreak had her amusement falling away. Seren bit back a sigh, even less enthused by the fact that everyone behind the walls seemed to be aware of the situation, yet did nothing to remedy it.
"Why do they fear magic so much? I dont understand, Mother. Isn't the Voice and her Ascended the problem? Are we going to fight this war only for magic users to still be shut out and suppressed? That would be such a waste, when they can do so many beautiful and interesting things."
Squirming ever so slightly, the girl searched for a phrasing that might express her concerns as succinctly and efficiently as possible.
"Uhm... I seem to... be a little lacking in experience with.. with the reactions to persons of opposite gender.. the ones normally sorted out during puberty. It's been somewhat... distracting. Especially since I'm still unused to people in general." Nope... saying it like this absolutely did not help. She was still hot in the face, with a distinc wish yo sink into the ground or maybe dissolve like so much stardust.
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
'I was surprised as well, though disappointed mostly. He asked for what he might need to do to be worthy of ascension and then...dismissed it once it was laid out before him.' Safrin says nothing of him being an uncle, and though she doesn't quite shake her head no, there is an unmistakable cooling. "I do not offer such things lightly." Safrin replies in a grave tone. "What Deimos has done by declining my gift...it is an act not unlike betrayal."
Smoothing down the lace of her daughter's dress, Safrin leans back slightly so that her smile might find her daughter's gaze. "Stormbreak has always been a city of purity. They do not fear magic, they are simply above it. No one has said magic-users will be shut out and suppressed, merely that they are not allowed within Stormbreak's walls."
Raising a brow and looking slightly surprised that this was what had her daughter worried, the goddess can do little but smile warmly at her. "And what is stopping you from experiencing these things?" Safrin wonders kindly. "There is no path through this that you have to walk. You might remain unused to people even once you have been around them." She shrugs her shoulders. "Your interactions with them are entirely under your own control, to take at your own pace."
Leaning back so she might gaze more closely at her Mother, Seren eventually nodded and tightened her hug around the goddess, pouring all of the love and support she possessed into it.
"I'm sorry you were hurt," she whispered. "I won't let you down, I promise."
She would solve this issue of children in Stormbreak as best she could, until she was satisfied, and the... eh... issue with her own inhibitions... "I'm just scared, I think," she confessed, "that I'd be swept up and fall in love and forget what I'm here for. No one else should ever get to mean more to me than you and Father." Gazing at Safrin with serious expression, Seren realized all over again that there really wasn't anything she wouldn't do for her family. Even though she wanted to be good and kind and please her friends too... they would always take second seat in her life.
"What is worthy of my attention, Mother? If there is anywhere you would like me to go, or to do, you need but say it. The Sea of Glass... we will set out for it soon. I was invited to search for Mageglass. And Amalia seems to be interested in seeking out your Library. Father doesn't want me to go, but I still can, if you wish me to."
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
Tsking under her breath, Safrin chuckles. "Anyone who says that love makes them blind or has swept them away are just liars. Love has the power to change priorities to be sure, but you do not lose your mind when in love. Those who act like they do are just too weak or selfish to admit what it is they want." Stroking her daughter's cheek with her palm, Safrin smiles warmly and adoringly. "Besides, would you really give away your heart to someone whose intentions and wants for your lives would be so at odds with your own?"
Sitting back, the goddess gives her daughter a firm look as if waiting to see if she might answer the question for herself. Sighing slightly as her smile wavers, Safrin answers. "A quest given to you by me. A search for items that only benefit the abandoned. A trek into the ascended hub against the caution of your father." She recites, raising a brow. "I should think it quite obvious what is worthy of your attention."
Seren gazed back at her Mother, and shrugged lightly. "I have ever only loved you and father. How am I to know what it's like, that other kind? From what I've seen, it turns people into idiots and cause chaos wherever they go." Sunjata was one, Hotaru another. Her own father, and Maeve too - no matter where she looked there didn't seem to be a single sane person around.
As Safrin's smile faded and the goddess leaned back, a chill passed through Seren. Like a cloud obscuring the sun. She closed her eyes and breathed in slowly.
"Those Abandoned are among the people you would see turned to follow the Old Gods. I'm afraid you won't find many of your pure Accepted within Halo... nor will anyone listen to or trust me if I don't help them to strengthen their own people. As for father's cautions," Seren continued, with her jaw tensing, "I would be happy to listen to them if he offered me the same courtesy. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case."
Seren gazed almost warily at her Mother. "So? Are you going to treat me like a child too? Or is this appearance, this age and all the gifts you've given me only for show? If all you want me to be is a princess in a tower to be sheltered and coddled, you should really say so." Then she would really start working on the spoiled brat attitude, and stop expecting anything like courtesy or respect from the people she loved.
The torturous stars are taking every breath I wish I held The love in my heart is never ending
✰ Starlight (Passive) | Starfilled night billow around her like a veil as she moves. It is more noticeable in daytime and when she make sudden movements.
'The only way to know, is to know my love. And to know who you are first before letting someone else try and hold your heart." With a small laugh, Safrin can only beam down at her child. "Those you are thinking of? I will tell you a secret: they were idiots and caused chaos long before love took hold of them."
Seren seemed to be full of argument today, and though Safrin continued to hold her close, the goddess's exhale spoke brightly of her dwindling patience. "That was a task given to Deimos. Had he not been so impulsive, perhaps you might have suggested the mageglass to him as a way of encouraging the people of Halo." The goddess stiffens that Seren might heed her words. "You cannot complete Deimos' task for him. All of your assistance will not change what he has done." She replies, before her expression darkens to her Seren speak so of Ronin.
Only for the world around the star-child to blacken and twist with her mother's anger.
"Careful now, Seren." Safrin cautions as cosmic ice begins to form on the grasses of the mound. Her voice is low and calm, though make no mistake of the danger that lingers beneath her familiar tone. "The bond between parent and child is not equal in both directions." Not between Seren and Ronin, and certainly not between mother and daughter.
"Have you been treated like a child? You were given a task that no one else was. Did I give you a step-by-step list on how to complete it as if you were incapable? Or have I left you to your own devices? Devices that have led you in other directions. For all of Deimos's failings, at least he took seriously my demands of him. But here you stand talking of mageglass and libraries." Safrin's jaw sets as she folds her arms over her chest. "You haven't been treated like a child Seren, but you're certainly acting like one. If you want to focus on your mageglass and this trek with Amalia, so be it. I can find someone else to assist with the sea of glass."
