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!
What young Everest was doing wasn't particularly wise, but then, with a friend like Mateo usually calling the shots, the boy had lost his bearing on what was and wasn't advisable.
Sitting on a blanket laid out just so, the Hart boy had his legs crossed so that he could use his knee as a brace for his notebook. Peering into the distance, just vaguely able to make out the Spire rising brokenly against the horizon, Ever took note of everything he could see, smell, and hear from his place on the border between the Greatwood and the Hollowed Ground. It was hard to tell precisely where the border was despite Remi's current best efforts, but so long as the grass was greener on his side of things, Ever judged he was still in the Greatwood.
Chubby-cheeked and hesitantly curious of the world, Ever paused as a tangleweed bumbled across the fields, bouncing and meandering with low-level sentience that had him cocking his head with keen interest.
Sam had been gripped by a sudden need to check on the Spire, as if he might approach it and find it levelled or somehow destroyed; it was after all somewhat of a monument to the Voice, where the Core had once been imprisoned - the destroyed top marked it as a revolutionary symbol nowadays. The portal was located there too, something which would be of import in the coming years.
Honestly, it was a miracle no one had tried to assault it.
He was just leaving the Spire, content that it was untouched for the time being, when a small figure in the distance caught his eye. Sat at the border between the Grounds and the Woods, where the barrier had once been, was...someone. At first, he thought the small stature had to mean a Fae (and he was therefore going to keep his distance), but then he realised there were no wings. Curious enough to check it out and confident enough he could beat someone that size in a fight, Sam walked over.
As he got closer, he saw it was a child (nice, now he could be sure he'd beat them in a fight). Not one he recognised. Clearing his throat, Sam approached with his hands in his pockets and knelt in front of Ever, sure to stay on the Grounds side of the divide. "Hello. Can I ask what you're doing out here all on your own?"
I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok I just want to be ok today
Ever, who had noticed Sam approaching given his studious drawing of the landscape, was frozen in place. The man was clearly coming toward him, and even though he was a good distance away, getting up and leaving would be both incredibly obvious, and likely just as rude. Even though the pale man was almost certainly an ascended, Ever couldn't fathom being rude. So instead he sat until Sam was kneeling before him, internally panicking while outwardly trying (and failing) to appear calm.
"Oh, I'm...not alone." Ever lied, poorly. "My friends are just in the Woods." He added, wanting to glance over his shoulder to reinforce the fib, but not wanting to pull his eyes away from Sam.
Chubby-cheeked and bright-eyed, the young boy tried to shrink into himself. "What are...you doing out here all alone?" He wonders in return.
Sam could see that the child was nervous - and well, who wouldn't be, when a strange man approached? Especially when said man was an Ascended, obvious from his fangs and sticking to the shadows: he was sure that even by Ever's young age, he'd heard hundreds of tales about the evils of the Voice and her children. Conscious of not wanting to terrify Ever, he took a step back and tried to speak as softly and non threateningly as he could (which might, in retrospect, have made him look more creepy).
"Oh, they are? Alright then, that's good." He nodded, looking into the trees to see if he could spot any Fae glaring back out at him, but for the moment it seemed clear.
Sam had to laugh a little as Everest, fairly enough, turned his question back around to him. "Well, I came to look at the Spire." He pointed at the large black structure, as if Everest could have missed it. "I was there when the top exploded...it has a lot of memories for me. It's where we saw the Core." Glancing back to Ever, Sam was curious to see if there was any recognition there in the childs face.
I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok I just want to be ok today
Swallowing hard, and hoping madly that Mateo or Fiadh might come screaming out of the trees at any moment, Ever doubles down on his lie and nods.
Ruffling his fingers over the pages of his notebook—he'd been drawing the Spire, so to hear Sam speak of it made him think he was peeking—Ever runs one hand through his curls in a soothing gesture. "Why...do you need to look at it, if you've seen it already?" He wonders, curious as to what Sam's fascination could be. Talk of the Core has his blue eyes widening all the more, intensely interested but appropriately wary of Sam. "I've heard of the Core. It exploded and now it's somewhere else and that's where all the ascended souls are kept."
Sam didn't look at the notebook, far too wrapped up in his concerns about not looking creepy (a goal which he was failing massively, but he'd never had much experience talking to children). Pleased to be asked a question, he looked back to the Spire and smiled, gesturing vaguely up and down it. "It's nostalgic. Do you know that word? It means I like to remember it. I mean, not everything that happened there was good, but...it was a simpler time."
Not that Everest would remember that. Growing up now, with the spectre of the war looming over his future adolescence. It seemed that the boy knew at least something of the situation and context in his world, because he mentioned Ascended souls without Sam saying a word. A little surprised, he turned and nodded. "Yes. Indeed. I'd love to know where they went...but that's for the Voice to know, not us."
He realised belatedly, as Everest's last words sunk in, that he was not familiar with the child's accent. An Outlander, perhaps? Was he without parents? As more time went on and no one came from the woods, his lie became more obvious. "Hey...are you looked after? Do you have someone to take care of you? If you need help, if you just came here, I know people who could help you."
I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok I just want to be ok today
Ever did know the word, but as Sam explains, the boy just nods patiently. He thinks Sam looks a bit like a child's drawing that someone has forced life into; too blue eyes, too much red facial hair, too pale and tall. 'Simpler like...when the barrier was up?' He asks, hesitant but curious.
'I think the Order knows.' He says, torn between being appropriately hateful of the ascended and his need to always be polite and informative. Ever might have walked the line a little longer, had Sam not made reference to his family. To becoming an ascended (that's how he interpreted the man's kindness, anyway). 'What? N-no! I mean, yes. I have a family. A perfect one, even if my mom and dad aren't married, and—" Well, it was probably false to say that he didn't need help, because he was just a child and so he would need help in certain matters, but he didn't need to tell Sam that.
Scrambling to his feet with his notebook against his chest, Ever points adamantly at the ground. 'Y-you can't cross this line." He says of where the magical barrier is meant to be. Only..it isn't, as the Greatwood hadn't finished their quest yet.
"Yes. I mean, it's...good that it isn't there anymore, but life was much smaller then." Sam explained, his voice far away and thoughtful; things that he'd found unbearable then seemed so simple now, yet on the other hand he yearned for the innocence of that time. He'd believed in peace, then. In all of them working together to improve the world. Somewhere along the way, he wasn't sure where, he'd lost that.
Hearing a child mention the Order was a shock and not a pleasant one; to hear the name of such a hateful organisation from such a young face was jarring. "The Order don't know half as much about the Voice as they like to think they do. They aren't very nice people." That was putting it mildly, but Sam was trying to tone himself down given the audience. Not that it mattered, because things swiftly fell apart, something that he said clearly upsetting the boy and making him panic.
"I...I'm not going to hurt you. I could step over the line, but if you'd rather I didn't, I won't." Sam said softly, staying back. While he couldn't go in the Greatwood, he was rather confident a foot or so out of the barrier wasn't worth the energy it would take for the Fae to catch him.
With a sigh, he looked Ever over - clearly, one way or another, the boy had been poisoned. Fed dogma and lies about the Ascended. "You really have nothing to be scared of. Is there anything I can do to prove that to you? Ascended are just people like you and your mum and dad."
I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok I just want to be ok today
'Oh..I...I think I can understand that." Actually, it resonated rather well with Everest. When he was only allowed to go around Stormbreak, his life had just been school, home, and wandering the Celestine with Mateo. But now? Now there was Torchline, and the Skyboats and all his trips to the Greatwood. Now there was so much, and so...yeah, he could understand how small could be nice.
"Oh yeah? How do you know? Did you quiz them on everything and then grade it?" Ever wants to know, sounding genuinely curious. The not being nice part was...well, a bit true, he supposed. Cian certainly didn't seem very nice, but then again, that didn't have anything to do with how much they did or didn't know.
Did it?
"N..no you can't!" Ever protests, frowning deeply, before Sam says something that rattles the boy to his core. "No!' He says, shaking his head hard enough to make his curls dance on his head. "The Voice is bad. She started a war. Rae and Vi and Mort made us all, but then she decided to make...all of you and that isn't okay. You can't even taste food or be in the sun! My parents can do both of those things!"
Just when it seemed he was making some kind of progress, Everest agreeing and asking calm questions, it all started to go wrong again. All he could really give was an exasperated shrug when it came to The Order. Clearly, they didn't know how everything worked, but without Everest knowing what the Ascended were like, it was difficult to make the argument.
Sam was surprised by just how strong Everest's reaction was to what he had said, but he had a response ready for that one. Gesturing up to the sky then to himself, he asked: "I'm outside right now, aren't I?" True, not all Ascended could be in light like himself, but that was a detail he could withhold for the moment.
"I don't need food and I don't miss it. But, listen--" He was losing this child's interest, he knew (Sam had never been any good with children anyway) but he had to try. "--I'm here now. Is it fair to hurt me just for being here? I'm not hurting anyone, am I?"
I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok I just want to be ok today
Frowning because yes, Sam was outside, Ever merely sucks in on his lower lip. "I never said I would hurt you," The boy protests miserably. "And...and anyway, you made it so that people like my Dad would die if they ever came into the Grounds. How is that fair? He's never hurt anyone, so...so there!"
Balling his hands into fists, not that he knew at all what he might do with them, the boy hastily gathers his things and then retreats from the scarred line in the earth. "I..don't think I like you very much. I'm going home." And with that, the boy sets his shoulders and marches off into the Woods.
