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!
an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth a knife for the ribs
Ronin had arranged Remi's letters - the one he'd written himself, the one Ronin had written him, and a few other pieces of comparatively pointless mail which had arrived on the wings of a raven as the alchemist was leaving, placing them neatly on the bed for him to peruse once he came home. And then, to pass the time, Ronin had begun to construct a lantern.
A simple affair in terms of structure (it is for Sera and he thinks she would approve), he is just about to paint it in vibrant inks when Remi's screams ring through the houseboat's open window. And, knocking a pot of blue ink across the kitchen table, the Huntsman is an instant slave to instinct in response to the sound.
And, in short, that's how he finds himself tearing through Ludo's woods in pursuit of his husband, black scales flecking his face and neck and glowing antlers curving from his forehead. "Remi!" he calls, giving not one single fuck about who hears him.
There is pain, and agony, and a horrifying vastness left in the spaces a field medic once held. Now Remi's mind is a pockmarked thing where billows of black smoke rise up from the scoured earth. Quite when the pain stopped the Lullaby doesn't know, only that as it began to ebb, so too did the cavern-like ache in his heart. It lessened and eased until there was nothing at all but fire.
When Remi opens his eyes, the fire remains.
Like a self-contained wildfire the Lullaby blazes. Only, as he turns inward to try and understand what is happening, do tendrils of fire begin to bleed away from his body to lick the grass beneath his knees. Where before there was no smoke, as Remi's concentration shifts, he begins to burn-in exactly the way one might expect of a fire.
Every shade of hurt you know From the deep blue to the marigold
It's gonna make sense someday lookin' back
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth a knife for the ribs
The amber glow in the darkness is a literal beacon that Ronin aims for, paying little attention to the branches that scratch at his arms or the moss and dead leaves that squash underfoot. "Remi!" he calls again, shredding his way to the source of the light with dragon claws and bared fangs. And when he does see his husband, gods, at first it's sheer panic that squeezes around his chest - which probably explains what happens next.
"Fuck--" Ronin manages, even as he activates the Aquarius constellation on his forearm. A cosmic flood heaves forward and towards the alchemist, aiming to douse the flames that are surely causing terrible burns right now. Little does he know that Remi is the source of the fire - but he's about to.
Though Remi's own flames don't hurt him, the steam that superheats the air around him as a tidal wave of water is thrust down upon him, does. Crying out in surprise—how strange that his throat was so sore—Remi shies away from the steam, rolling to the side. Temporarily doused, the fire that is his body at the moment, reasserts itself with a baleful hiss. For anyone else the steam might have peeled back a layer of skin or two, but the Lullaby is made of sterner stuff.
With eyes made all the more green by the maroons and yellows curling around him, Remi looks up into his husband's worried face, before his gaze is pulled down to his hands, which aren't really hands at all anymore. Not unlike his wraith form, Remi is only just on the side of corporeality (is that a word? well it is now); his hands are vague shapes that waver with heat and light.
"Ronin?" Looking up at the Huntsman as if this was his doing, Remi shakily gets to his feet, looking back and forth between his hands, and his husband.
Every shade of hurt you know From the deep blue to the marigold
It's gonna make sense someday lookin' back
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth a knife for the ribs
Already trying to draw close enough to pull his husband into his arms, it's only the sudden realisation that Remi is not only still on fire, but he is the fire, that prevents him from getting some nasty burns of his own. Skidding to a stop a foot or two away from the other man (and luckily the ground, at least, is doused enough that the alchemist won't cause an impromptu forest fire), Ronin blinks, dumbfounded.
"What... is this you? You have a new shift?" Or something like that, at least? "Or did Ludo curse you?" Again a hand comes up, tempted to touch Remi - and again Ronin forces it away again. "Can you turn it off...?"
'Of course it's me.' Remi replies, and despite having likely been the cause of a few new horror stories amongst the fae about the creatures that lurk in the Greatwood, he smiles. True, it's only the fire making his eyes bright, but it's a genuine smile just the same. 'Why would it curse me?" There were a hundred reasons why, of course, so if Ronin could just be a bit more specific...
Like any new shift or ability, there was always some innate sense of control, and it was on find that, that Remi focused. Tilting his head and closing his eyes slightly, within the wellspring of all that he was now capable of, he found the burning thread of this new ability and gave it a gentle tug.
Opening his eyes to find that everyone was now quite dark. 'Any idea what that was?' So casually asked, there can be no doubt that whatever Remi asked for or whatever Ludo did, had worked.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
It's a slow, quiet thing, as Ronin comes back to himself, his pulse slowing to see that Remi is alright even if he's still on fire. Wrestling back the immediate echoes of his husband screaming his agony through the night, instead as Remi smiles, the Huntsman has to resist throwing himself at the other man. His eyes prickle because he does carry the knowledge of everything that the Lullaby has lost, and yet as the fire around them dims, it's soon replaced with starlight that emanates from Ronin's body.
"It was angry at you for something that happened at that meeting with Sunjata and Wessex, about Nate's body," he explains, though he's already stepping forward to clasp Remi close, however warm he might still be. "No idea what it was. It looked a bit like that wraith shift you have, but you were still... you. Just made of fire. I guess Ludo wants you to warm its toes."
Straightening, Remi frowns. Quickly his look of confusion is swamped by an adoring smile that dimples his cheeks as Ronin tugs him close. "Huh." He murmurs against one side of the Huntsman's neck. "I thought it all went fine."
As for the purpose of his shift, the alchemist grins crookedly as he pulls back a fraction that Ronin might see the mischief in his star-bright gaze. 'Or hug some ascended.' He suggests with a laugh that devolves into a cough. "Sorry" Raising one of his hands to rub at his throat, Remi shrugs apologetically. "My throat is killing me. My eyes, too, and my..." He could see the bones of his knuckles glinting dimly with every flex of his fingers.
Strange..?
'Would you mind?'
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"It went fine in that we got the result we wanted," Ronin says softly, smiling despite himself as he winds his arms around his husband. His embrace is gentle and warm, offering the sort of comfort that Remi has no idea he needs (because he doesn't, anymore), and it makes the Huntsman want to weep for him both out of relief and out of sorrow.
"Or that," he says with a half-hearted chuckle, drawing back enough to brush his fingers across Remi's cheek, shaking his head at the apology. "Of course," he murmurs, pulling the alchemist against his chest again even as a tell-tale glow begins to build within him.
Covering Remi's eyes instinctively by now, it's only as the supernova fades that he speaks again, and he doesn't release the other man. "Remi," he says slowly, "I'm going to tell you something, and I want you just to listen until I'm finished, okay?"
Kissing the Lullaby's cheek, he lets his hand drop from his eyes. "You came out here tonight to find Ludo for a reason. Something happened at that meeting, and you made a decision to forget something. I know it's confusing, and I know having your memory messed with is horrible. But before anything else, I want you to know that this is something you decided. You didn't like it, but you decided that it needed to be done."
Letting his eyes slip shut beneath Ronin's fingers, it's only that he's pulled closer that he's able to feel something. It isn't the strange sense of displaced melancholy budding out of the Huntsman, nor the bittersweet relief. No, nothing at all like that. It's the buckles of Ronin's pants that he feels, quite unhappily too, and that's what clues Remi in to the fact that he's naked.
'Alright.' Remi agrees, perplexed, but willing enough. As Ronin explains—really, he's just scratching the surface—the alchemist's naive and weary smile begins to fade, and when the Huntsman is finished, Remi's lips are set in a thin line. "My memories..." Fire flares from Remi's bare shoulders, though is quickly doused if only because this—allgedly—had been something he'd decided. And with no reason to doubt the truth of his husband's words, Remi accepted the explanation surprisingly quickly.
'I forgot something that happened at the meeting...I must have come here, or was summoned by Ludo, in order to have those memories taken. Is that why I felt like I had been screaming? And why I was on fire?" The fire was presumably why Remi was naked, which was at least one mystery solved.
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
A sudden bout of mist begins to swirl rather charmingly around your heels. It’s gone nearly as quickly as it came, followed by the indistinct sound of faraway laughter.
The small amount of fire is expected at a bare minimum, and honestly, Ronin is surprised that there isn't more. He's glad there isn't, of course, because he doesn't want to be on fire, but still. "Something, and someone as a result of that something," he confirms with a gentle nod. "You decided to come out to seek Ludo. I don't know why you were on fire, but I can only imagine that Ludo had something to do with it. But yes, it's likely why you were screaming."
Which is about when things get misty and inappropriately funny, according to nature, and Ronin glares around Ludo's Woods but does nothing more than that. Of course the herald finds it funny.
"It's also why I came running out here to you. In retrospect, I should have come with you any way." He smiles apologetically. "You left yourself a letter to explain everything. And I left you one as well, so that you wouldn't feel so foggy. Shall we go home? I've got wine chilling in the ice box."
"Someone?" Remi winces at that, but there's no flash of fire to accompany it. Instead, he can only sigh and sadly shake his head. "I hope past me knew what he was doing." He murmurs, before frowning at the sudden—and apparently brief—bout of mist.
"Maybe I did not want you to?" Remi suggests; it seemed like exactly the sort of thing he'd do. "But I am glad you are here now, and wine sounds wonderful." As for the letters? Taking Ronin's hand and making no attempt at all to conjure something to clothe himself with (it was late, and honestly most of the Greatwood had likely seen him naked by now), Remi gives his husband's hand a soft squeeze. "Can I wait to read them in the morning? I'm exhausted from whatever it was that happened."
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"He did. I can absolutely tell you that much," Ronin says, trying not to remember the state of his husband because the emotions will ricochet into Remi. Instead he tilts his husband's chin up to deliver a soft kiss against his lips. "I'm glad I'm here, too. Should have snuck out after you, but you'd have known I was there right away," he murmurs, drawing back and squeezing Remi's hand in return.
"You can read them whenever you want to," he says, turning to lead them back through the tangle of branches. "For now we'll go home relax and have some wine. I was also making a lantern for everyone who died when the Tower fell. Or... I started to, but then I realised that I only really knew Sera properly. Do you want to help?"
