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!
Darkeye listened carefully and nodded when the saw the lanterns. "These look very nice Deimos." He admired them. "Can we maybe bake together? I know it sounds strange but baking is not my strong point and I want to understand the traditions of Caido better." Darkeye smiled and hoped that Deimos would help him.
Darkeye nodded. "Thank you Deimos that would be very kind but I can also find a tavern to stay in." He hesitated on the last question and looked up at the ceiling for a moment to get his thoughts in order. "There's been an attack on Stormbreak. Gideon was near the edge of the Hollowd ground and got killed. Sam, was killed too and that made some Ascended not think and act. There were other deaths, but the names are not known. Bastien was killed by a land shark. Yes, there are many more dead and it will get much worse." Darkeye wanted to tell more but held back a bit.
Darkeye grinned broadly back and would make sure he got something.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
“Thank you,” at the notions and acknowledgments of the lanterns – trying to associate them with kinder, better memories, than sticking immediately to the somber and forlorn. Steadily chopping up the meat, he only paused momentarily to signify a nod. He’d intended to do it alone, without some bittersweet semblances clutching to the bones in his spine, but perhaps this would be better. “That would be fine.”
Whether it’d be barracks or tavern could be up for debate later, because the entire segment felt disjointed as soon as the announcement came. His head lifted in a very quick, rapid pulse, eyes widening briefly, and then his entire body stilled – much like a predator before an attack, as his mind began to absorb the information. Attack on Stormbreak. Gideon dead. Samuel killed. Ascended launching their own strike, others faltering. Bastien gone by way of a landshark.
He could feel his brain wanting to process the information, the grief that would build up later for people he’d once considered friends, or for the distant thought that at least Rexanna wouldn’t be alone now. Trying to decipher what all this meant for the war (and perhaps that’d they been mistaken all along; it thrived and lived much closer than they’d all perceived). “Give me a moment,” he uttered instead of anything else, placing the knife down, and quickly scrawling down the information on a nearby piece of paper. Within an instant, he was in a flurry of movement, stepping out of the house and snagging at a nearby courier, ensuring the note would be delivered to Noah and Sah.
Darkeye walked closer to the lanterns and looked at them from all sides without touching them. Then nodded again and praised the work with a loud approving hum. "But first we'll eat and then we can bake."
Darkeye tried to stop him but it was already too late. "I wanted to find out more and send a full report to all the leaders." Deimos had the right to share this information, it was just a question of how the other fronts would evaluate this attack. "I will try to gather more information in this regard. But everything seems to have happened at the same time, and that worries me. Someone is stoking the fires of war, and I need to find out who. Someone is manipulating here on a large scale but not the gods. Someone human is doing this. He must be stopped Deimos! So please let me know as soon as you know more about this situation." Darkeye's look was very serious and anger was visible in it. He hadn't slept much since then and had been racking his brains about it.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
Well within his right, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat. How many times had sagacity not been passed through the proper chains, until it was too late? How many knee jerk reactions had taken place over insignificant manners, and much less than what was going on now? Understanding Darkeye’s yearnings for a full and complete report – especially the daunting task ahead where there would be a thousand and one sides to detail – was noted, but experience and life in Caido had taught the Sword a multitude of things. And it was that time was quite fleeting. “My primary concern is the safety and security of the people of Halo.” He paused, then picked the knife up once more, finishing up the last pieces of meat and tossing them into the boiling water. “We have been attacked by Ascended before.”
Already his mind was off the deaths, saving those moments for later, listening to Darkeye’s insinuations. “Things move fast here, and I am not sitting on important information.” Especially if he needed to start preparing defenses. His jaw feathered and clenched, an inward flex on suspicions grinding away in his machinations. “Do you know which Ascended are responsible?”
At the statement that the Ascended had attacked before, Darkeye looked surprised. "They have already attacked once I thought they were just defending themselves. You didn't mention that during our last conversation. I understand that you need to take care of defense. I just don't want to give you false information." Darkeye thought of the conversation with Wessex and wondered. He was aware that she had not told him all of them, but this was more than just defending himself. "Please tell me more when you have time. This information changes a lot." Darkeye was angry that he had believed Wessex.
"I'll check the information for truth, I'll go to Stormbreak today and try to find out more and then inform you." The tiredness suddenly disappeared from Darkeye's eyes. There was no uncertainty. "I don't know for sure, but I think you can guess that I'll try to get the information from Stormbreak to you quickly. Amun and Wessex I can already confirm, but nothing more."
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
Defending themselves in Halo, where no threat had been brought to them? He almost laughed, muffling it all together in a rancorous snort, chopping up more of the vegetables in his reach. “Because their last attack had been political.” Intermingling of Halo needing to remain neutral, when it never had been in the first place – not with Morgan’s insistence and backhanded schemes. The Voice’s kin coming to her aid, beck, and call had been telling enough. “Things have changed then.” Perhaps it’d been vengeance, despite Gideon and Samuel taking one another out. Maybe it’d been frustration, in this long legion of deaths. But they’d been the only ones to ever step into other lands’ boundaries and try to enforce their rapacity and vehemence. This would make the third: the Greatwood for portals, Halo for machinations, and Stormbreak for…what?
Unaware Amun was even still around, his sharp gaze rounded back to Darkeye with some modicum of brief surprise. He hadn’t known the Ascended to be of the vehement degrees. Wessex wasn’t even remotely a flicker of consternation. She was usually at the forefront. “Are they dead or alive?”
Darkeye exhaled and rubbed his nose. "Deimos, I need more information to understand. An attack is always political. What were the reasons for it? I need to understand why people act the way they do! Why they attacked." Darkeye took another part of the vegetables and began to process them. He was very displeased but didn't want to be rude.
Darkeye pondered Amun's words. "I only met Amun he said he had to retreat when he fought Ronin. I haven't been able to speak to Wessex yet. I'll tell you more as soon as I know more. Amun is alive but he is grieving for the people he lost." Darkeye wanted to tell more but he wanted to check for himself before telling Deimos.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
“Not always,” he half-muttered under his breath, the way he might’ve wrinkled his nose signifying some other level of frustration, or juvenility coming through. Sometimes it was revenge.
The explanation was pinpointed and occasionally undercut by the fierce slices through several carrots. “Morgan claimed neutrality, but lied to the public. It was all a farce. She took Neron, an Ascended, as her lover, and admitted to praying to the Voice for guidance and direction. She might have done so with the spirits or Old Gods as well, but had no means, as she had angered them before.” He slid the vegetables into the stew, before reaching for more. Something to do. Easier to tell the story with a blade in his hand. “So we forced her out. We did not want the Voice’s influence running deep into Halo, considering LongNight, diseases spread, and any other machinations. There was no violence. Gave her an opportunity to leave with Neron. Noah and Ru took the Warden positions.” And the deep regrets of not following through on earlier plans. “She returned with a dragon, Wessex, Neron, and Nate, and attacked her own land and people. Noah and Ru surrendered for the sake of the Halovians, and the Ascended tried to catch us to become political prisoners.” Or worse, he supposed – though they didn’t make it that far.
His piercing gaze flicked back to Darkeye, figuring that was enough. In truth, maybe on another day, he might’ve felt sorry for Amun. Knew what it meant to grieve loved ones lost; but the cold, chilling anger residing under his skin only permitted a nod to rankle through the other information.
Darkeye wondered about Deimos' behavior but he didn't want to be rude and let it go at that.
"What's wrong with following the voice if other people don't suffer for it?. Yes, it is understandable that the dragon attack is another matter and inexcusable to attack his own people. But love is something to be encouraged, or do you consider it sacrilege when she loves someone of a different faith? Or do you think that just believing her could cause these things to happen in Halo? Can you say that with absolute certainty or is it the fear of uncertainty that made you act here? I know I'm going out on a limb here. But I want to understand it better when I sit across from people and explain why I'm doing this. I'll talk to Noah about it. But then why were you so down at her funeral? When she did all those bad things?" Darkeye wanted to know so much more. But there was still time.
Darkeye feared for Wessex she was strong yes but strong enough to take on a whole city and there was also Ronin what might have happened.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
The bout of steel and resolve had flickered over the edges of his spine now, toying with the anger buried and brimming underneath. How many times did he need to explain it? What was difficult to understand? The rumble sat lower in his throat, and were he in his Attuned skin it might’ve come out as a growl. “But they do suffer for it. I have told you before.” About LongNight. About the blight. About everything else curated and coaxed by the Voice herself – not about her Ascended kin, but her machinations. “I have nothing against who people choose to love, but I believed him to be a massive influence on her political decisions, and therefore, how she ran Halo. How she protected her people.” Or didn’t – considering the state of things along the mountains. Other than defenses that had come to a standstill at her demise, there was nothing signifying much had changed at all. Had she been resting on the airs of neutrality and hope?
His stare sat on Darkeye again, a flicker of irritation evident as he finished with the last vegetable, the water increasing to a massive, rolling boil. “Can any say with absolute certainty? I lived in the Hollowed Grounds. I experienced all of it. The illness. The deaths. And I did not want it to happen again in Halo.”
As for the melancholy at Morgan’s death? He snorted, uncertain if he even understood it. “She was a good friend once.”
"I understand that you have to be careful and want to protect your people Deimos I know what you told me and I haven't forgotten it but would she really have brought all this upon Halo? But you didn't want to take the risk it sounds like to me. But if you are only guessing, it is difficult to judge. But if her orders became strange and she then goes on the attack, it's more than questionable. I'm just trying to understand the whole thing, Deimos." Darkeye tried to calm Deimos down.
Darkeye just nodded. "I wasn't there you guys be careful. I really understand that. You are afraid and pre-damaged but don't they deserve a second chance or what is necessary for them to get your trust not all but some who mean no harm. Or has so much happened in this regard that you don't want to give even the innocent a chance?" Darkeye understood, but at the same time, he was angry.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
Deimos took many, many, long, slow, even-keeled breaths, solidifying the knots and gnarls embedded in his chest, trying to pacify the discontent walling its way through his bones. The voice that rumbled through was calmer, if not still slightly irked. “They already had a LongNight monster come here.” Something that might’ve been preventable – with fire, with removing portals, with reaches of anything other than complacency. “At some point, I do. I think if given an opportunity, the Voice would have taken hold of Halo, and allowed it to become another fortress.” For beings who couldn’t feel the bite of the cold. Who could exist in the plains of frigid air, who could drift outwards across the tundra without forethought or care.
Watching the water boil, he leaned against his kitchen counter, placing the knife down along the cutting board. “We did not kick any Ascended out or incite violence. That was Morgan’s, and those who went along with her, choice.” He paused, arms folding across his chest, wondering just how many of the innocent were left. Neron certainly wasn’t amongst them – not after all the other actions he’d brought upon the mountains and summits.
But for his own measures, the Sword had no part in the Sea of Glass debacle. Stormbreak and its assaults were between vengeful roots and dispositions. He’d made no move against any of them – save for when they intended to capture and imprison him. “I bear no ill will upon the guiltless. Only for the Voice and all her schemes.”
03-14-2022, 05:37 PM (This post was last modified: 03-14-2022, 05:37 PM by Darkeye.)
Darkeye
Nine strikes
"The LongNight monster thing I will investigate soon I plan to talk to Voice if you are interested in a conversation I will ask you some things. As for the arm reaching out, that she would try to take the fortress would be logical from Mititärischer's point of view. According to Amun, they don't feel temperatures that much." Darkeye put his hand on his thumb and thought.
Darkeye nodded at the comment only his brow was wrinkled. "I can't agree with that but I don't doubt your words. But didn't that show that she was also interested in the city when she threw out those risen ones who sought violence?" Darkeye tried to find arguments where there were not many.
"Then you would have reacted differently to my question, Deimos, you bear a grudge. The question from your words is whether there are innocent people. If the experiments spread to Halo then we have other problems." Darkeye understood the situation but couldn't think of a solution in the short time available.
the ocean does not apologize for its depth and the mountains do not seek forgiveness
His eyes went to the stew, watching it boil and rumble, extending the heat and prolonging its temperature so that it may be the fuel and ichor to his irritation, rather than anything or anyone else. A snort followed through on Darkeye’s lack of agreement, indifferent and nonchalant at the thought, because the other man hadn’t lived it. “I do not understand your meaning,” to the last bit, brows furrowing slightly again, struggling to decipher what he was declaring.
As for grudges, the Sword could readily admit that. Rancor, grievances, and bitterness had been the way of life in Helovia, animosity tightly bound to nearly every individual just as much as their bones and blood. Isilme had been much worse. “I bear experience and memories. Do you expect me to forget and forgive all of the Voice’s crimes and transgressions?”
