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!
There was a scent about the forest she had hardly ever smelled before. Fallen leaves kicked up by her feet raised an aroma that was both spicy and sweet, pungent and fresh all at once, and Seren inhaled in deep gulps. Somehow giddy with it, and with the colors of all the trees and shrubs - gold and red, every shade of green and the occasional splash of brightest yellow - she roamed the Greatwood rather aimlessly. There was no point trying to seek out a path. If there were any the leaves would have hidden them away, and the forest still wouldn't let her reach her destination even if she tried to follow one. Not until it had decided the time was right. That much she knew about this place, and admittedly not much else.
When the trees finally gave way, the young woman found herself standing on a riverbank. Frothy white waters rushed past before her feet, inviting and cautioning all at once. The sunlight was brighter here, and the crisp Leafchange air riddled with still new scents. Clean water and rotting logs thrown up along the shore... and woodsmoke.
Glancing up and down the stream, she spotted a distant plume of white smoke rising steadily into the bright blue sky. With little else to go on, the starchild shrugged and began to walk towards it. Maybe her father really would be there.
It's written in the stars above Exactly who we are is just enough
✰ 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 shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
Seren is right about the Greatwood, which probably explains why she appears on the riverbank when she does, at the precise part of the Stonesong that she does. The white plume of smoke is coming from a fire recently extinguished after breakfast; Remi is off doing Remi things this morning (something something leadership), and that means the Huntsman is free to make his own way in the world.
Sugar is draped about his neck like a scarf, though he has the collar of his coat turned up so her cold scales don't make him colder. Right now he's sitting on a makeshift stool next to the fire, ensuring that Emmett's axe is in tip top shape. It should be, given its enchanted nature, but it's always nice to make sure.
She didn't have to walk long before the firepit and it's guardian came into view. Seren paused for a moment and simply gazed at her father. It seemed a rare thing, to catch him off guard and at ease. He seemed a different man entirely from the person who had upended a table and stormed out of a room. More like the father she knew, whose steady hands had guided and tutored her, never failing to protect. Her mother's words came back, a whisper of duties and of the costs of failure, until Seren's insides churned with a complicated mixture of emotion.
Before she could get herself worked up all over again, she started forward, towards him. Deliberately stepping on a twig that snapped under her weight, her pace was measured and offered plenty of time to notice her approach. Not exactly wary... but then again, not not wary either. What mood would he be in? Would this turn into another row? Stars above, she had missed him, and it had only been a few days.
It's written in the stars above Exactly who we are is just enough
✰ 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 shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
The twig snapping draws Sugar's attention before it draws Ronin's, though one can surely be said to be linked to the other. Glancing up alongside the pale reptile, Sugar trills a good morning at Seren, and the Huntsman sets down his axe that he might rise to his feet, his coat flaring out around him. He doesn't waste any time, sweeping forward that he might slip his arms around his daughter and hold her close against him in a hug.
"Hey," he mumbles against her dark hair. "It's good to see you." And it is; the fires of his temper flare and subside all too often this season, it seems, but here in the Greatwood, Seren has caught Ronin in his element. "I'm sorry about what happened." It doesn't hurt to say it twice, right? "How are you doing?"
For a fraction of a moment Seren hesitated over accepting the hug. But all thought of drawing back or remaining stiff backed and stubborn melted away as she was so unceremoniously embraced. A sound somewhere sigh and sob was muffled beyond recognition against his shoulder, and she hugged him back, the grip of her arms rather fierce.
"Hi, dad. Same." For all that they had gone weeks without speaking in the past, the silence of the past few days had been long as years. And still, stubbornly, a snippy part of her questioned whether it was only the flipped table he was sorry for. Seren did her best to squash it down. She hadn't come to argue.
"I know. I'm sorry too." Withdrawing slightly, she gave her father a wan smile. "I've been better, to be honest. I went to see Mother... and ended up fighting with her too. Seems you're not the only one who's feisty in Leafchange." Perhaps she had inherited that trait too? Not that Seren was very proud of her constant seething as of late.
"What about you? Are you... alright?" She had never seen him lose his temper like that before, and there was concern in the searching look she gave him.
It's written in the stars above Exactly who we are is just enough
✰ 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 shouldn't laugh, but I know I'm a failure in your eyes
Sugar noses against Seren's hair and Ronin smiles to feel his daughter embrace him in return, not taking it for granted in the slightest. And as she withdraws a little, he tucks a lock of dark hair behind her ear and leans in to press a kiss against her forehead, raising a brow to hear about her conversation with Safrin. "I'm sorry if that's something you get from me," he says about her feistiness, managing a small smile. "At least maybe you can get all your fighting out of the way now, and then we can be cool for the rest of the year?"
As for how he is, the guilt in his expression says enough, Ronin clearing his throat and nodding. "I'm okay," he says. "Everything got on top of me, I think. It's not that I didn't think you couldn't handle yourself, it's more that the Grounds is the one place I can't go. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't help." He wrinkles his nose. "Add in the dragon and the luxere, and I was an accident waiting to happen."
