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!
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun paused with the teacup at his lips, peering at Sam over the rim. After taking a sip, the potter set it down in his lap. "Have you practiced with it at all? You'll want to get to the point where using it is instinct." His finger tapped the edge of his cup.
"I'm glad you think so. And I'd be happy to have you, obviously." However, he found himself frowning. "What do you mean things in the Ground aren't great? I hadn't seen or heard anything." He leaned forward, fixing his gaze on the bookmaker.
Chuckling, Amun nodded. "Wessex always have plans for everyone. Doesn't mean we have to always follow them completely." Smiling now, he tilted his head to one side. "What about less lofty goals? And more personal plans? Are you...seeing anyone?" He bit his lip as he waited for the redhead to answer.
"I haven't used it once." Sam admitted, shaking his head and tucking a little hair behind his ear. "I knew I received it, but...well, there hasn't been anyone I need to hurt since. It seems unfair to spring it on a random customer." He laughed at the thought, an intense stare and burning mind given to someone just looking for a new novel.
As for things in the Grounds...he rubbed a finger over the rim of the teacup in his hands, lips moving without words for a moment. It was hard to grasp at what exactly it was, but recently there had been an atmosphere in the Grounds that had unsettled him. Tense, waiting for the start of something awful, everyone feeling they had to prepare and run... "A lot of people have left as it's become the...'Ascended place', I suppose. And I just...it's hard to pin it down, but it's just...depressing, here?" Sam laughed, but this time there was no humour there, just the awkwardness of not knowing how to express what he felt. "Like we're just waiting for the other shoe to drop, all the time."
Wessex did always have plans. That observation brought a smirk to Sam's lips, then the question turned it a little shy, a little warm - though immediately he told himself not to think anything of it. Amun had just returned from a nightmarish journey. "No, I'm not. Lonely as ever."
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun let out a huff of laughter at Sam's comment. "I've met some fairly belligerent customers, but I can see how that would be bad for business. Still, I'm sure there are people at the training ground you could spar with." Arching an eyebrow, the potter leaned back in his chair.
"Nothing wrong with a place for us Ascended and us alone," he observed with a smile. "And if that's really the case, perhaps I've come back for a reason. To remind all you mopey, maudlin, morose people that it's okay to smile every now and then. Your face won't crack, I assure you. His voice and features both softened. "The world's not ending, so we should stop pretending it is or fearing it will."
He stilled and stopped breathing for a moment. Then he smiled and winked at the other man. "Well. That's not entirely true. If I recall, there was a time where you were slightly less lonely. Or at least, I like to think you were." Amun took a sip from his tea, but his eyes never left the redhead.
"Oh, it would be very dangerous indeed if I decided to use it for bad customers." Sam agreed. Still, Amun probably had a point. "I'll practice it soon. Maybe Nate or Wessex could help; someone who I know I can't hurt too badly."
Amun's positivity was a surprise. Sam had grown very used to pessimism living in the Grounds in the last year, had taken it as a given that they were all slowly marching to their dooms. He realised the smile on his own face was genuine, the laughs real, and shook his head at Amun gently. "You're quite amazing. A whole year away like that and you still want to come back optimistic. It...certainly feels like the world is going to end, but...maybe we do need some more hope." Bastien provided some of it in the Grounds, but he'd never much cared for Sam.
Their eyes met and didn't part, Sam blinking as he tried to work out if the conversation was going the way he thought it would or not. "You're right. There was. And it was...I...heh." Embarrassed, he finally dropped the gaze and with a face that would have been red had he the blood for it, smiled at the bottom of Amun's chair. "I was very much enjoying the time I spent with you. I missed you, while you were gone. But I don't expect anything, not when you've come back from..all that."
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
"Ouch. I'll try not to be offended I'm not on the list." However, Amun laughed and waved a hand at Sam. Then the potter paused as his brow furrowed. "Hang on, why is Nate being mentioned in the same breath as Wessex?" He narrowed his eyes at the bookmaker.
Shrugging, Amun finished off his tea and set the empty cup on the table. He ran his finger along the rim slowly as he spoke. "I've...I'm a lot older than I look. Time gets odd when you're my age. So when I was trapped...like I said, I thought about the future a lot. And what I know better than most is that we can't predict what's going to happen in it." His lips twitched upwards for a moment as he spoke.
Taking a deep breath, he clasped his hands together and leaned forward. "All I know is that we have to make the most of the time we're given." He smiled, grinned even, and shrugged. "I don't know if that's optimism or selfishness, but I'd rather be enjoying myself than waiting for that damn shoe to drop. Let's grab it and dance with it instead."
The smile turned into a smirk as he watched and heard the redhead's reaction to the potter's comment. "I'd have been happy for you if you'd found someone. But, hey, like I said, selfish." He shifted so he was leaning on one elbow, chin propped up on his hand. "I don't know if I'm ready to jump right back to how things were," he admitted. "But maybe...a do-over? A second first date?"
"Because he's a Demi God. Did that happen after you left?" Sam asked, tilting his head a little as he tried to remember. It felt like it was a long time ago, but with all that happened and changed regularly in the Grounds, his sense of time was admittedly a little muddled. "I assume that makes him stronger than the average Ascended."
Amun spoke like he was an old man, and Sam remembered then something that he'd been told a long time ago by the potter: a life before as a God, immortal or something like that...only to be given the same gift (or curse) again in Caido. "I don't think I've ever asked...how old are you? Actually? You look around the same age as me, so I don't really consider it." Suddenly, he wondered if Amun saw him as young and stupid. If the man had hundreds of years of experience, it wouldn't be a ridiculous impression to have.
The play on his earlier shoe metaphor made Sam grin with a laugh; he'd never had that kind of positive attitude, but he found it fascinating, attractive and bright like the sun. "I...would love that. I really would. What would you like to do?" It had been so long since their time in the Atheneum. He remembered it fondly, though until this day it had been tinged with heartbreak and loneliness.
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
"Uh...yes. Yes that happened after I left," Amun admitted with a laugh. Arching an eyebrow, he leaned towards Sam. "Don't tell me he's actually tried to challenge Wessex for leadership or anything like that, though." Still chuckling, the potter shook his head.
Sighing, he waved a hand back and forth in the air. "That is a...complicated question to answer." He found his gaze slipping away from the bookmaker. "In this lifetime? Only a few decades. Half a century at most. The people that adopted me didn't keep time accurately so it's hard to say." He rested his hands in his lap as he looked at nothing in particular.
"But in a previous lifetime, I was such a devoted follower of the god of the moon that upon my death he placed me in the heavens. The night sky, specifically. I was a star." He sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment. Honestly, he couldn't say exactly how long he paused before he spoke again.
"I don't know how long I was like that. A long time though. A long, long time. Unfortunately, there was...a cataclysm of sorts. No one is sure what, exactly, it was, but it left the cosmos torn." Opening his eyes, he looked back at the redhead. Amun smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "And from that day, people like me, the blessed of the sun and the moon, well, we slipped through the cracks. I literally fell from the sky, plunged into an ocean. I had some trace of my divinity left, but not much. Still, I remember my time as part of the celestial order, and even fragments of previous lifetimes, but...it's fuzzy."
Shaking his head, he stood up and moved towards Sam's side of the table. The potter hopped up so he was sitting on the surface. "Well, since I was just talking about it, would you like to go dancing?" Shimmying his shoulders a little, he waggled his eyebrows at the other man.
"Oh, absolutely not." Sam said with a laugh, shaking his head. "He doesn't want anything like that, I don't think. He began having...visions...and I think that in of itself is enough responsibility for him." The word 'visions' was said with hesitancy, but Sam couldn't deny they seemed real enough for now; Nate had sworn their truth to him and he had trusted that.
He'd heard bits of Amun's story before but it had been quite some time and it was, in any case, extraordinary. Had Sam heard it a few years ago, he might have struggled to believe it, but by now he'd seen enough strange and divine happenings to nod along calmly. "I...see. I'm quite honoured someone so holy would speak to me." He said first with a self-deprecating chuckle, then his finger tapped on his chin as he thought. "So would it be ridiculous to assume you might be hundreds of years old?"
As Amun got closer he bit his lip and looked down at the floor, suddenly very interested in the whirls of the wood there. "Oh, um, I can't--" Sam stopped himself. The instinct was to insist he couldn't dance, that he'd be awful, but...he was finding he was better at more than he'd thought, and he had danced recently. He looked back up to meet Amun's eyes. "I'd love to. Where do you have in mind? You'll just need to promise you won't be mad if I step on your toes."
my whole life is mine, but whoever says so will deprive me,
for it is infinite.
Amun narrowed his eyes at Sam. ”Visions? What kind of visions?” Leaning forward, the potter gestured for the bookmaker to elaborate.
Laughing, Amun shook his head and waved away the redhead’s praise. ”Please. Holy-holey jokes aside, I am hardly a divine figure. You know that. I’m just…me.” The potter smiled at the other man. ”And no, not ridiculous at all. Just hard to say.” Amun shrugged
”Let me get back to you on that?” Letting out a huff of air, he waggled his eyebrows. ”I’m still reacquainting myself with the Hollowed Ground and I need a bit to find someplace suitable.” Pausing for a few seconds, his eyes searched Sam’s features.
Then the potter reached out to try and take the bookmaker’s hand a give it a little squeeze. ”I’m looking forward to it though. Toe stepping and all.”
"You'd have to ask him for all the details, but...phrases and images that end up being related to things that happen later. The last one I think he said included a storm and paper changing hands? It seems obvious it's to do with the war and the political motions of it, but..." Sam gestured before himself vaguely, unsure what real conclusions to draw from it.
It was hard to not regard Amun with some amazement after remembering his divine origins, but Sam tried to put them to one side, nodding as he looked over the potter's features. He was very fond of the man just as he was, a man, after all..and still reeling from the relief of seeing him alive. "Alright. Just let me know. I'll be waiting." With a soft raise of the corners of his mouth he took the hand offered and stroked over Amun's knuckles with his thumb.
