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!
"The rubble is mostly clear now," Ronin says softly, quietly, as he lights the candles at the Celestine shrine. "Some of Sera's sculptural work survived. We saved that, so we could make a memorial." He's speaking to Safrin, whether or not she replies, but that isn't such a surprise. Even were he not here on Stormbreak's behalf, since what happeend at the Tower he's felt closer to his goddess than he has in seasons.
"The rest went into the Falling. I've made a small base of operations at Judgement's Needle. People aren't recovering, exactly, so much as they are getting used to what happened. Making room for it, I guess you could say." Sweeping dead leaves away from the shrine and its statues, Ronin finally kneels before it in prayer.
"Thank you, for everything you did that night. I don't know that I would have been able to do it without you," he whispers. "But this city needs you more than ever, Safrin. We can't... I can't let the Ascended get this close to those people again."
Like a rush of water, Safrin is within his arms. She is small, no larger than a tangle of fabric at first —not unlike a scarf—that she might fill the spaces left by Ronin’s hunched posture. Rising and growing, she expands, forcing the Huntsman to rise from his knees until she is embracing him properly. With her arms wrapped around his neck and her cheek pressed against his, Safrin’s embrace is tight, warmth, and total. “Ronin,” She whispers against him. “I am so very proud of you, sugar.”
So saying the goddess pulls back, sliding her arms until she can rest her palms on the Huntsman’s cheeks. “So very proud.” Safrin repeats emphatically.
Ronin rises with his goddess, his arms encircling her to hold her close, eyes slipping shut as if the brightness of her presence is too much compared to the shadows and ruin he's been staring at for days. "You're too kind," he rumbles, though there's no denying the smile on his face to hear her praise. He blinks a couple of times as she draws back, leaning into her touch as though her light might transfer into him somehow.
"The Tower still fell," he says sadly. "And many people died. It doesn't feel like much of a victory, you know?" Which is why he's here, the Huntsman feeling as though he ought to let go of Safrin but not quite finding it in himself to do so. "But Stormbreak is yours now," he admits quietly. "More yours than any other god's."
'And you are too wonderful.' Safrin replies, almost defiantly as she smoothes her thumbs down the side of his cheeks. "No, it was not a victory." She agrees softly. "While the Tower might have fallen, you did not. The light you emanate never once failed no matter what it might have felt like at the time."
Letting one of her hands fall from his cheek to lay instead against his heart, Safrin regards Ronin for a long moment. "The power the Order held came mostly from ignorance on the part of their enemies. Cian with his knowtbook was able to remain enough steps head that he could make monsters out of his own shadow. It took years for the ascended to even try to enter Stormbreak, and all because they believed they couldn't. But now that illusion has been shattered and I fear that we cannot rely on trickery and misdirection as we once did."
Smoothing the fabric over his heart, Safrin tilts her chin upward slightly. "What would you ask for Stormbreak, Commander?" Her eyes twinkled a touch mischievously at that.
Having a goddess call you wonderful feels exactly as one might imagine, and Ronin is quite literally dazzling in Safrin's embrace, his body relaxing even as his mind refuses to do such a thing. "I must be more stubborn than I gave myself credit," he admits with a small chuckle.
His heart skips a beat beneath her hand, Ronin's brows furrowing together as he listens. "I was good at trickery and misdirection once, but I prefer a more direct approach these days," he says quietly, nodding, and as he meets his goddess's eyes, it's with fresh determination in them.
"I would ask that we give the Ascended and their ilk - demigod, hybrid, however they might present themselves - the same treatment that the Hollowed Grounds showed the Order," he says. "Whatever they believed once should be true now. They set foot in Stormbreak, they perish."
How far Ronin has come from the boyish and ever-charming man who stumbled upon her in the glade all those long years ago. Just as handsome as he was, now his body tells an entirely different story than it once did, and his eyes hold the storms of so very many tragedies. Even so, Safrin finds him just as remarkable now as she did back then. Moreso, truth be told, but that should come as no real surprise given how many of those storms and scars were born in serve to her.
Straightening, Safrin regards Ronin solemnly, before rising onto her toes to press her lips against his cheek. "Then you have some work to do, my love."
There is no time limit. There are currently 5 active Stormbreakers. This means 4 unique characters have to participate (SCs do not count - they can participate, but they don't count toward completing tasks). Characters can participate more than once. Ronin must participate twice.
1. 3 threads: one collecting fluid from a pure Ascended, one collecting fluid from an Ascended hybrid, one collecting fluid from an Ascended demigod (either natural or raised up by a god, doesn't matter).
2. A thread finding silver ore (From the Climb, or somewhere else minerals are prevalent)
3. A thread mixing the fluid together with the silver
4. A thread seeding the clouds above Stormbreak with the mixture, either using Skyships or other flighted means!
"Don't I always?" Ronin murmurs, his tone warm as he leans into the kiss pressed to his cheek. He'd felt Safrin at his back when he'd taken on the Ascended alone, and there is no doubt that she's here now as well. And of all things in the world, Ronin is definitely not workshy. When she steps back he offers her a bow fit for a baron (some things you just can't unlearn), straightening up to smile at her.
"I will be back to see you soon. Hopefully nothing terrible happens in the meantime, right?" He's only half joking; Ronin doesn't know if trouble follows him around or if he follows it, but either way, peace and quiet are never on the cards for long.
