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!
"Probably not, but I wanted to ask. The Fae used them like daggers, but I got the feeling it's not really what they are meant for." Red sloshed from her hands and arms. Dripped from her chin and tried to runnel down the chest until she wiped it away with the damp cloth. Red and black and a shimmering clear something that spread rainbows over the surface of the wash bowl stained the water, until all her sins lay gathered there. "They hurt pretty bad," she added, as if the shrieking terror of fluid igniting within her veins was nothing but an afterthought, a side note. It sort of helped, to think of it as something that happened to someone else.
"Do you think they are worth keeping? You can turn around now." Pulling a fresh shirt over her head, Maea sat down again and began the process of combing out the knots from her hair. Perhaps it was a little macabre of her to want to use the weapons that nearly ended her... and then there was that red-hot glow about them. Merely carrying them around in her pocket had been anxious business.
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Frowning, Amun twisted the strange discs this way and that, creating a notch in the metal he was holding the weapons in so they wouldn't slide down. "Yeah, I saw the damage."
Despite the sounds coming from behind him, he didn't look at Maea. "No idea. If you don't know how to use them, then don't try, but we can bring them to the Voice and she if she can transform them into something more useful." Sidestepping, he set the objects down on a table that wasn't his workstation.
Facing her again, he jerked his chin at the bandage. "Need me to change that out? And how's it feeling?"
Another item on the list of 'please fix this'. Did The Voice ever grow tired of such requests... or did it fuel her, to be able to lend aid? Maea admitted to herself that she was growing increasingly more curious about the new goddess. "It's worth asking," she replied.
Amun's question brought her attention back to the arm. Reluctantly. Unwilling to linger on the damage, or what caused it. She flexed her fingers again and felt them respond sluggishly, as if cogs and wheels had gone misaligned. She did an internal scan.
"It doesn't hurt, and I can use the hand. But I am losing fluid still, and too much tissue has been burned." Maea grimaced lightly, then extended the arm to her brother so he could wrap it up better. "Will Isla really be able to fix it?"
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Amun nodded at Maea's comment. For a moment, he paused. Then he spoke in a quiet voice. "So long as we are respectful, she is always more than willing to listen and speak with us when she has the time. Sometimes, her answer is I don't know, but at least she's honest about it." He shrugged a shoulder.
Pressing his lips together, he stepped closer. Reaching out to take the arm, he'd check the bandage he'd put in place. "No idea. But she is a medic, so either she'll fix it or she'll know who can." Glancing up, he met her gaze squarely. Then he reached out for a clean cloth. Unraveling the knot he'd made, he winced as the wound as it was revealed again. Still, his hands were steady as he rewrapped it.
Even though she wasn't in a mood for theological debate at that exact moment, Maea found herself listening all the same. Perhaps even with more attention than usual; it kept her from brooding over fading heartbeats, cruel accusations and the lingering sensation in her hands, of metal slicing through flesh.
"She did speak to me in the past," she admitted quietly. "Even when my questions were rude and spiteful, she still answered. I suppose.... it's not entirely her fault I didn't like what I heard." Though putting Maea's own face on that demonstration of a failed Ascendance still felt like a very unnecessary thing. The goddes had done nothing to try and sway her poor opinions. Quite the opposite.
This time, Maea did a concerted effort to look at her arm as it was tended to. Even if she wanted to cringe away from the gruesome cut. Even if she shuddered upon seeing what exactly she was made of, these days. Not until Amun was done did she look away. Down, at the comb hanging loosely in her hand. She leaned forward, until her forehead bumped softly into Amun's stomach.
"Just... give me a moment?" came a quiet request. "Then we can go find Isla." Just a little while longer, until she was ready to explain everything again. In greater detail, no doubt, because the leader of the Grounds probably ought to know about the attack. Even if it was a random thing, unconnected to the war. Maea really hoped it was, anyway.
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
"I remember you mentioning that." Amun chewed the inside of his lip as he gazed at Maea. Finally he sighed and shook his head. "Don't take this the wrong way but...what prompted you to antagonize a goddess?'
Nodding as she requested time, he bumped his forehead against hers. Then he drifted over to the washbasin. Lifting it, he winced as he saw the mix of oily fluid and Fae blood that had stained the water. Moving to the door, he dumped it out in the nearest drain. Heading back inside, he refilled it from the barrel with clean water. After that, he scrubbed his own hands and arms, which had picked up fluid and some dried blood as he ministered to her.
Her mouth twitched as he moved away to clean up the washbowl and himself, a downward tug at the corners of the mouth that evened out only when she tugged the feet up onto the edge of the chair. Curled up, Maea stared at the far wall as the memories of that night was dredged up.
"It was just after the breach of the Spire," she started quietly. "The group I was in had gone down into the basement. There was a giant turtle like creature there, and we fought it. When it died, a gas began to fill the chamber. The others went down from it. I was furthest back, and I knew there was nothing I could do to help them... so I ran. Back upstairs, to get someone else to go in there. My lungs... they were badly damaged. So I was brought to the Temple, and a healer patched me up. I was still there when the barrier fell."
Pulling at a damp lock of hair, she rolled it between her fingers and sought him out with her eyes, content to watch what he was doing as she spoke.
"I was in pain. And full of guilt, and fear. I'd just gone against everything I was taught, everything I had ever believed, to help bring the barrier down. When I went to the shrine to pray, she turned up. I told her that I wished I had never gone inside that Spire. And all she did, was shrug. It... annoyed me." Sucking on her teeth, Maea considered. Weighed the ebb and flow of a conversation she had never been able to forget.
"I think it was the way she so very kindly and patiently explained every question I threw at her that rubbed me the wrong way. I was so raw, so full of emotion, and she wouldn't let herself be riled. In the end, I said that I thought her mad. That I couldn't understand what she was doing, or why. Before she left, she told me to remember that. That 'whenever you think you have everything figured out, remember this moment and know that you don't.'"
It had certainly left a mark in her. Always prone to doubting herself, those words... they kept gnawing at her even now.
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
As Maea started recounting the tale that had prompted her to confront the Voice, Amun pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's not what I..." But she was already off, and he let his own words trail off as he settled in to listen.
When she finished, he sighed. "You've told me that story before," he reminded her with a chuckle. Reaching out, he gave her shoulder a squeeze. "All I was asking was why you thought it was a good idea to provoke a being that could squash you without trying." Snorting, he shook his head. "We really need to work on your conversational skills when it comes to spirits and gods."
Had she? Maea blinked, and got a rather sheepish look to her as he clarified. When he touched her shoulder, she reached for his hand to keep it there, craving the contact.
"Sorry. I thought you meant it literally." When he said it like that, it made her choice of words seem more than a little foolish. Reckless, even.
"I guess... I didn't really care if she squashed me? Maybe I even wanted her to. Then I wouldn't have to think and worry and agonize over things that were too big for me to ever fully understand." Things really hadn't changed one bit in all these years. She was still running away.
Shifting in her seat so she could look more closely at Amun, she wondered "What was your first encounter with her like?"
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Shrugging a shoulder, Amun's lips twitched into a smile. It only lasted for a moment as his gaze trailed to her bandage. "I don't mind hearing it again."
As she explained her recklessness, he pressed his lips together. "Well, as I've been patiently trying to explain to you in my own way, you don't need to agonize over every little thing anyway." Cocking his head to one side, he grimaced. "Technically, my first encounter with her was when she called the Ascended to assault the Mathair." He shook his head.
"My first individual encounter though? It was...odd. I was confused and maybe a bit angry at everything I'd lost when I came here. I told you I used to be semi-divine." He paused. "Well, she told me I could be every greater and brighter than I'd ever been. I guess I liked the sound of that." Moving forward, he slipped his arm under her uninjured shoulder.
A faint tug on the corner of her mouth was all the smile she could muster, quick and gone again. "I envy the faith others seem to have," she admitted. "Their certainty. How they act with confidence and do what they deem necessary without hesitation. Knowledge, courage, competence - it's all things I wish I had."
A faint shrug saw her shoulder rising and dropping, but for once she didn't elaborate. Just tilted her head aside and listened as Amun replied. The mention of the Mathair incident cast a shadow over her features - echoes of Nephele's voice whispered in the back of her mind. She shuddered away from it, leaning into her brother's arm instead. She gave him a questioning look.
"Would you... accept it, if she asked you to be her demigod?" It sounded like that was the implication. The unspoken offer.
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Amun arched an eyebrow. For a moment, he didn't respond to Maea's comments. Instead, he just turned to stare at the pottery lining the walls. "I think you're giving other people too much credit and yourself too little. Most of those you view as courageous and competent were just scared and doing what they could to survive the situation." Shrugging a shoulder, he scratched his chin.
This time there was no hesitation in his voice when she asked about ascending even more. "Yes. But I doubt that will happen." Arm supporting her, he would try to get her to rise from her position and head towards the door.
"Maybe. The end result is the same though, isn't it? And as long as I keep messing up everything I touch, I'll probably keep agonizing over it." Her shrug was listless, and she couldn't bring herself to pretend any sort of confidence. Not when she could still hear the Fae's words echo in her mind. Not when red still clung to her nail bands and she couldn't shake the memory of that last frantic scuffle.
The latest in a series of increasingly bad decisions.
Better to focus on Amun. Even if he seemed very keen on throwing her out, with the way he hauled on her to rise. The side-eye she gave him was surly, reluctant and far from eager; but she obeyed his urging anyway. Too bone weary to muster the energy it would take to object.
"Why? You're more deserving than anyone I know," she murmured, as she dragged her feet towards the door. Never mind that she wasn't sure what to think of his answer. It wasn't up to her - and she would support any decision he made, anyway. Unless he suddenly wanted to slaughter innocents; then she might want a word.
Light is easy to love Show me your darkness
BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Amun narrowed his eyes at Maea. Shaking his head, he gave her a squeeze where his arm wrapped around her, careful not to touch her injured side. "First of all, you haven't messed up everything you touched. Second, making mistakes is just life. You can agonize over it, or accept that you are not, will not, and should be perfect, and learn to live with that." He snorted.
Steering her towards the exit, he rolled his eyes. "In this particular case, your flattery is unnecessary." He shrugged his shoulder on the side not touching her. "I haven't done a single overwhelming act of service to deserve it like Wessex did. And the final battle is so close that I imagine the Voice is saving her strength."
