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 light was fading from the sky and the mermanta was leaving the port with it. Although there were some merfolk who preferred the types of trades that happened after dark there, Hadama was not one of them. Still, the city did have a certain alien charm to it that was just different enough from Haulani to give it a hint of the exotic, and there were items there that he'd never seen in Torchline before.
There were wonders to be found among the chicanery of Kaiholo, if one were only wise enough to tell the difference betwixt the two.
Tonight the net attached to his harness floated along at his side, empty in the star-sparkling waters. Its contents had been exchanged for favors that he gathered carefully, a collection of modest size but increasing breadth as he made his thorough plans for the days and project ahead. Now he paused at the edge of the canal where calm, tamed current met the outgoing tide, shell-strewn moon-white sand on either side of the blessed waterway, and turned back to admire the lights of the city as they began to glow in the fading twilight, lending Kaiholo an ephemeral magic that would melt away again with the dawn.
She was supposed to be looking for musicians. Minstrels or bards or at least someone with a good voice and pair of spoons to clap together. She ought to be posting notes on the notice-boards too, inviting revelers to the Hollowed Grounds for a casual party. If anyone dared go there, these days, lest they be branded Ascended-aligned and scorned by their kin. She wasn't sure how deep the resentment had begun to run in these parts yet.
But as the sun set and she finally was able to move around freely again, the young woman found herself standing by the dockside, watching the stars come alive in the sprawling canals. The waters ran deep and swift, churning as they clashed with the tides and she watched tiny maelstroms appear and disappear on the surface. A paper boat came sailing down the canal, tossed in or dropped by some children, perhaps. She looked around, bracing for a horde of bare-footed youths to come tumbling by, shrieking with laughter... but there were none.
Not thinking much at all, she took to following the vessel. It was stark white and luminous in the gathering dusk, and the eddies tossed it this way and that, until it eventually poked a dark shape in the chest and ground to a halt.
Maea paused, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of the figure in the water.
"My pardon," she murmured, even though the boat wasn't hers.
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 ♦
Hadama looked down at the boat curiously. After a moment he cupped large hands beneath it and lifted it on the pool of water trapped therein so he could examine the construction further. He made no motion at Maea's approach until he was content that he understood the little vessel's design, and then he lowered it carefully to the side and set it free to continue its journey towards the nearby surf.
Only then did he look up to the pale woman who seemed to glow in the moonlight and tilt his head in greeting at her. "Good evening," he murmured in return, voice a low rumble like faraway longheat thunder, or the breaking of waves on a distant beach. Thereafter he was silent, simply regarding the strange, colorless drylander with courteous but curious eyes, patient and unhurried as he held himself in place against the gentle current of the starlit canal.
The sight of him in the gathering dark made her ache with nostalgia. So many of the features she could see could have been brother or kin to another she once knew. The ashen hair, the dusky skin, even the green eyes - all the hues were off and the voice was all wrong, yet even for all that she kept recalling the first time she met Jigano. That had been a night not so far removed from this one. Years ago, and bathed in firelight, not moonlight. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Not even when the boat was released to continue its voyage towards the sea.
His attention was turned on her after that, and for long moments there was only silence and the sigh of the surf.
"Can you sing?" The question was soft, breathless - she had to know. Had to find a difference that clearly set this person apart from the other. Before she began to doubt her own mind in earnest.
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 ♦
The mermanta didn't smile; his face held a calm stoicism that moved in more subtle ways. But there was a hint of dry amusement in the tilt of his head before he shook it once in a simple negative. "No," he said simply. It was, after all, a not uncommon skill among his people. And it was one drylanders tended to be curious about, since some mermaid voices held a certain power over them.
After a moment's contemplation he asked: "Do you?" It seemed only polite to return the question, and he watched the pale woman curiously for her answer. He had seen a number of different colors on the hides and hair of the humans, but they were more limited than those of the merfolk. This one, however, was memorable in being unlike any other he'd seen yet.
Relief mingled with disappointment, and the young woman sunk down to sit on her heels, right at the edge of the canal.
"I see," came a quiet murmur. The return question saw her shaking her head lightly. "Not really. I used to, but... " She trailed off, gaze steering away from the eerily familiar stranger in the water. How foolish of her, to even for a moment think that it had actually been him.
"You don't happen to know any who does? I'm in the market for a minstrel." Now that she had bothered him, might as well try to do what she came here for. Even if something hollow and aching gnawed in her chest and had Maea wishing for some quiet place to hole up in, until she forgot how to care.
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 ♦
There was no great hurry to return to the sea just yet, and Hadama swam a little closer to the side of the canal when the woman sank down. Eyes the color of emerald jewels considered her and the body language of two-legged creatures as she spoke, finding it not so different than that of the merfolk.
"Hmm..." He tilted his head at the question, giving it a gravity of thought. "There is one. Perhaps." The admission was reluctant as he thought of the merman in question. "But I have not seen him for some time." Perhaps for the best. Blik wasn't exactly... professional.
Huh. More success than she had expected. Even a maybe was better than nothing. "There is a party planned," she offered as explanation. "Nothing grand, but music would be welcome. It's in the Hollowed Grounds, though; I dont know if merfolk can go there?"
She paused, eying the man - or what parts of hum she could see - and tucked a stray lock of hair behind an ear. "You are merfolk, aren't you?" There was something other about him, that differed from any Attuned she had ever met. And not only for the easy way he parried the current of the canal. It was all in his eyes.
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 ♦
Ah. Parties were of interest; in people-watching, if nothing else. But the setting...
Her question brought a flicker of quiet amusement into emerald eyes, but he only tilted his head in a solemn nod. "I am." He lifted one hand free of the water, holding it high enough for starlight to shine through the webbing between his fingers before continuing. "I have heard of the Hollowed Grounds, but there is no coastline there." His shrug was philosophical. There were a great many places the merfolk couldn't go, and it was simply the way the world worked.
The raised hand he offered up on display was examined with eyes that became bright with interest, pulled for a moment from whatever shadows that lingered within her thoughts. Curiosity offered an escape from her own troubles, and so she roved his features with unabashed interest, taking in everything that was different from what she knew.
"Can you not go ashore at all?"
Shifting her position, the girl plopped down to sit on the edge of the walkway, her feet barely grazing the surface of the water.
"Oh, none, really. It's just an excuse to have fun. My brother asked me to arrange it, and because he is sad and very good at hiding it, I want to do something nice for him."
Kicking her heels against the stone pier, she considered the merfolk man. "You look a bit like someone I knew."
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 cannot," he confirmed. But there was a lingering hesitation at the end of his words and after a moment he added, slowly. "Not for longer than a drylander could hold their breath below water." A limitation he had only recently discovered in his life. Of course, there were others among the merfolk who weren't so constrained...
But they weren't here talking to the pale woman now, and he was.
He nodded in understanding at her explanation. Simple and straightforward, and as good a reason as any. At her comment, however, he paused and realized his discourtesy. "I am Hadama," he rumbled a late introduction. "Have you met other merfolk before?" It seemed the mostly likely inference to make under the circumstances.
It made sense, somehow. And also explained the canals. Maea nodded her understanding, even as her gaze trailed up the winding waterway that branched through the city. A new addition since she called this town a home, and sought to make a life for herself here, she remembered being surprised at how quickly the citizens adapted to the new trade routes. Boats and narrow canoes were already more common than carts when it came to transporting goods, and sometimes even people.
"I suppose land must be as strange to you as the depths are to us," she mused. "I went out pretty far with a - a friend, once. We nearly died, and he was attuned with a whale shift." As if that should have made it safe.
Inclining her head in belated greeting, she responded "Maea. I wouldn't call it meeting, exactly... I helped someone I know restore a shrine, once. Here on the coast. I think it was merfolk who had a fun time messing with us while we worked. The water was acting strange." Wry amusement glinted in her gaze for a moment. "I never had the pleasure of a conversation before, though."
And it was pleasant. The slow, measured responses from Hadama were quite soothing.
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 ♦
Hadama inclined his head in quiet agreement as to the strangeness of each other's worlds. At her mention of exploring the far reaches of the open sea, however, he met her eyes with grave solemnity. "Beyond the shallows, there are many dangers," he agreed. Even the merfolk who called those waters home took care.
As, he supposed, the land dwellers did with their own large, sharp-toothed fauna. Beyond the cities, above or below, safety was far from guaranteed.
A coastal shrine...? Hadama tilted his head in thought, but the mention of strange water brought a flicker of recognition to his eyes, resigned but understanding. "For most, it is a game," he acknowledged. Another pause filled the night as he contemplated his next words. "For some... it is not." The tales of drowned fishers and sailors were not without their grains of truth.
"Is this shrine near the water?" A curious question; most of the shore shrines were out of reach: in lighthouses, rocky geyser fields, or simply beyond reach of the canals.
She knew it well. Too well to enjoy lingering on the thought, on memories of dark waters and the crushing deep. Better then to focus on shrines, on merfolk and their antics. She tried and failed to recall exactly what they had been doing that time - it belonged to another life.
"Yes. It's nearby, actually. Over - " she looked around, trying to orient herself on the sprawling dockside. "Over there." Pointing down the coastline, she indicated a statue - unsure whether Hadama could make it out in the dark. To her, it was clearly visible. "It's dedicated to Mort and Ludo. You should be able to reach it, if you wish." Something wistful and melancholy ghosted over her face as she spoke the names of the deities.
Memories. She was drowning in them, here.
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 ♦
