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!
"Well, it's done," Cam said when they and Mabel finally finished clearing their rock. Automatically, they wiped their face, then remembered that they didn't sweat. That certainly kept them a lot more comfortable while laboring.
They were quite curious about the Spire itself, so they looked and Mabel and said, "Do you mind getting it into the cart? I want to take a look inside, see what we're up against."
Without really waiting for an answer, which was kind of their bad, they headed for the Spire. They wanted to just poke their head inside -- gingerly, in case there turned out to be some kind of monster or trap waiting within. After all, they'd only heard stories of the Spire that made it sound like an RPG dungeon, so they didn't really know what to expect.
Cam will take a look inside the Spire!
cameron ?
"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“Thank you,” came with a nod towards Cameron’s assistance, and maybe a soft smile to coincide with the following conversation. Unaware that the other Ascended was doing anything to boost her ego and confidence, she went along in her feral certainty, forging onward alongside.
Somehow, they managed it.
If she were still truly mortal in the ways that mattered, Mabel likely would’ve been quite spent – sweaty, drenched, done in by the unrelenting effort. But Ascension had suited her well, and there was no sweat, no pain, no torment. Just a hard fought fortitude.
At Cameron’s curiosity towards the Spire, and hers not spiking at the moment, she inclined with another nod. “Not at all. Go ahead.” And then she ducked down, grabbing hold of the obsidian, and striving to load it into the cart.
That's a little better. Mabel manages to load to cart with her obsidian - it's now full to capacity and it's ready to trundle away to the Temple or wherever else the valuable stone would be useful to store. Isla, too, is able to clean up her area of the Spire - and she's well in time enough to join Nikolai and help him out with his splint. "It's okay," she tells him. "I'm a doctor." And between the two of them, they'll manage to get him back on his feet in no time.
As for Cameron? They will find the inside of the Spire dull and utterly ruined. There's little to be done other than to sweep a pathway around the available space, and to move some of the stone towards the edges to create a little more room. It'll take all of them to do it, but it doesn't actually look too difficult!
Final round! All in the Spire to sweep out the space and try to move the larger pieces of stone towards the edges of the ruins. Use whatever tools you like. :)
There was a small degree of satisfaction, albeit maybe some smugness, when Mabel could complete her task without it all falling apart. The obsidian loaded, she took her direction towards the Spire, snagging at some tools on the way by.
It didn’t look any different from the last time she’d been in here, parsing through her flutterspy’s abilities. A bit broken, a bit damaged, a bit like it’d been carved from the inside out. Thereafter, she shrugged, because there was no use getting caught up on the Spire’s innards; intending to maneuver some proportions of rock, clearing out a space.
Even thought they didn't quite know what they expected, Cam was still disappointed by the inside of the Spire. Well, of course it wasn't going to be anything dangerous, they reminded themself; Isla would have warned them if there was any risk. But still, it could have been something a bit more interesting than piles of rubble.
They put their disappointment aside, though, because there was still work to do. Picking up a rake, they started to rake the smaller debris towards the edges of the room. Just like sweeping the floor at home, they told themself, though to be honest, they did that less often than they should have.
Cam sweeps away the smaller debris with a rake.
cameron ?
"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
We are only haunted by the things we refuse to accept -Bridgett Devoue
Nikolai gave a sigh of relief as Isla tended to his foot. As someone who knew nothing about healing, it was comforting to know that Overseer was able to step in. Once his foot was tended to and the young Ascended was able, he returned to work. Seeing Mabel and Cameron get a head start, Nikolai decided to start sweeping as well. There was one spot that currently wasn't being tended to and he decided to start there. The Ascended had done his fair share of cleaning over the years, helping out his mom and such. So he was confident that he could at least get this part done without hurting himself.
Nikolai grabs a broom and starts sweeping.
Resilience is born even when we feel like we are dying -Alex Elle
Like the others, Isla also picks up a broom and sets to sweeping, though she does stop by when she's able to help Mabel with a few of the more cumbersome rocks. The going isn't tough but it does take much of the rest of the night, although by the time they are done the medic is satisfied with all that they have achieved. The Spire is clean, the area around it is clear and there's a cart full of valuable obsidian for them to take back.
"Thank you so much for all of your help," she breathes, smiling between them all. "This will be a huge step forward in achieving what we want to with the Spire. Let's all head home now and get some rest." She doesn't necessarily need help with the cart - if push comes to shove she can always ask Varus to push it along with her - but any assistance would be appreciated.
~FIN
Thank you very much everyone! That's this PQ and this part of the Regional Quest complete!
