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!
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
Blissfully unaware of relic searches, of other friends disappearing into the midst, Lena chose semblances of normalcy. Routine. Procedures. Serenity could come easily to her then, rather than reflecting on…everything else.
Her eyes didn’t glance at the empty portion of skyline. Her glances didn’t dart towards distant rubble. If anything, her vision was kept ramrod straight, threading through some crowds, intentions on the market-square in the distance. One hand clenched around her basket tightly, before clutching it a little closer to her side.
The only thing that distracted her from her task happened to be a creature. While certainly not an experience out of the norm, the beast itself was - for she’d never seen a wyrm cloaked in such elements. Ceasing her progress immediately, the Caretaker lifted her unoccupied hand to her brow, shielding her eyes from any sun, staring at it in wonder and disbelief. “Well, well,” she murmured, wondering if Frey or Rae had gifted them with a newfound creation – not bothered by some of the grumpier passersby having to cut around her.
Could she lure it closer? Her hand dropped towards the basket, instinctively beginning to rifle through its containments for treats.
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
"You're asking to be walked into, you know," Ronin almost croons to Lena as he comes to sidle up beside her. He had seen her halt more than walk, and it was the way the crowd ambled around her that drew his attention above all. "What are you looking a- oh, that's interesting." He's followed her gaze by now, naturally, up to the wyrm snowing on them overhead.
Ronin, of course, is clad in clothes befitting Deepfrost, his rosy cheeks rounding beneath his scarf with his smile. "They remind me of Sugar," he confesses, wondering whether he needs to scour the sky for his dragon in the meantime. "Have you ever seen them before?"
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
“That’s fair,” she managed a little sheepishly, head tilting back towards Ronin as he approached – but a majority of the people sidled around her, going about their business as she shrugged. Her glance went skyward again, tracking and following the airy, listless, and yet still ethereal motions of the wyrm. “Not this sort before, no.” Extracting a treat from her basket, she placed it flat along her palm, wondering if the animal would be able to smell it from this distance, and be enticed to come closer as she raised her arm.
Humming under her breath, and only watching the plumes of warm air pool and plume around her for a moment, the Caretaker’s gaze went back and forth, between wingless beast and demigod. “I’ve seen the cloud and lava variations though,” back in the Celestine, for any myriad of ailments. “Very mischievous creatures. Maybe they’ll add something here.” For Stormbreak hadn’t been amusing or diverting in a while. Her voice gentled, a soothing inquiry to follow. “How have you been?”
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
"Oh? I don't know if I have seen either," Ronin admits of the cloud and lava wyrms, though his own gaze is pinned on the snowy creatures above them now. It's less that he's hypocritical and more that his attention span is sorely lacking, because now people have to weave around the two of them. Oh well. Glancing at the treat nestled in her palm, Ronin grins. "I think they like it up there too much," he suggests as they're joyfully snowed upon. "Maybe if you toss it into the air...?"
Then Lena ruins it with questions like how have you been, and the Huntsman lets out a heavy sigh. "Oh, the usual. Preparing for war, hunting relics, hoping Stormbreak stays standing... How about you?" It's likely just as much of a can of worms to ask Lena as it is to answer the query himself. But such is etiquette, Ronin supposes.
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
“I could compel them,” and she wrinkled her nose, put off by the action. “But that feels like cheating.” And so she took note on the distance, and the people milling about, though apparently they were distinctly in the way enough that now others had given them a wide berth, forming new pathlines around the Caretaker and demigod.
Then she gave the treat a formidable toss, waiting to see if there was any other movement, besides the snow gliding downwards. “The lava ones tend to inhabit the Climb. The cloud variety can be here, in Torchline, or in Hak Etme,” rattling off the information readily, easily, content with spreading the sagacity, in case Ronin should ever find Sugar’s wayward cousins amusing.
Politeness extended back and forth, and she tucked a half-smile along her mouth, knowing, understanding, some amount of the implications. Not about wars, or hunting relics, but certainly the last notion. His sigh was followed by her own, though she stifled most of the proportions, permitting them to wander into warm puffs of air in the winter scape. “Keeping busy.” Staying distracted. Trying not to fall apart at the seams. “I found another apartment,” but without her sister nearby it felt incredibly lifeless – and her eyes wandered back up towards the wyrms. “Do let me know if you need anything else done here.” Because it’d fill time, and leave her less likely to come unraveled.
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
Ronin does indeed find interest in Sugar's snowy, fiery and cloud-breathing cousins, though he isn't so sure that his companion will feel the same about it. She tends to be frosty, ironically enough. His head tipped back, snowflakes fall on his face and settle in his eyelashes, and he grins as Lena gives the treat a toss into the air.
One of the wyrms trills and twists to catch it, and a flurry of snowfall dances down around them. Naturally, more begin to writhe and gather in the same patch of sky after that, expectant of more morsels. "Food motivated," Ronin notes with a bob of his eyebrows.
Nodding gently to hear that Lena has been keeping busy, Ronin finds himself pleased to hear it even if it's only in the name of politeness. "Oh - actually," he says suddenly, smiling across at her, "there might be something. Remi mentioned that you have a vial of Ascended fluid - would I be able to use it? I am working on something with Safrin. I might be able to use your help again later, too..."
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
“Hm. Aren’t we all,” she murmured around a laugh as the first flakes began to fall and persist from the wyrms themselves; clinging to dark hair and tresses, an inspired moment of delight. Digging around in her basket, she continued to contribute in the silliness, lofting two more treats with a decent throw, waiting to see if they were quick, swift, fast enough to snag once more.
The Ascended fluid wasn’t something she thought would occur in the topic of conversation – eyes widening vaguely as she glanced his way again. “Oh, yes. We got it in the Temple,” grimacing slightly at memories of Gideon’s ill-fated notions and plans, and how she’d kept it tucked away, buried and rooted along that same basket. Her fingers followed the same path as before, but then further along the container, until her hand came across its cool, glassy surface, and yielded it to Ronin quickly. “I never had any use for it anyway.”
The last statement, and the way it trailed off, gave her further pause, attention no longer quite on the hovering animals. “All right. In what regards?”
And to ensure the notion didn’t go quite astray, or that voicing it out loud somehow made it more permanent, her features turned thoughtful, mulling, musing. “I’ve been thinking about asking Frey for something for healing.” Humans, animal, or otherwise. “Would that be helpful?”
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
Ronin doesn't need to reply to that directly, he thinks; the bob of his eyebrows is plenty enough to confirm that yes, we are. Lena has seen him at large in a sweet shop, after all. Watching with keen blue eyes as more treats fly skyward, the Huntsman finds himself grinning to watch the feats of acrobatics performed by the snow wyrms. "They're quite beautiful, aren't they?" he murmurs, half to himself.
But Ascended fluid and more serious matters bring his gaze back down to the woman at his side, Ronin surprised to see the vial held out so readily for him, but he accepts it with gratitude nonetheless. "Well, it will be useful now," he promises her. "This should help to keep the Ascended out of Stormbreak for good."
And the other task knits quite nicely into that as well, another smile trying to creep across the Huntsman's face. "Well, I need to use this fluid to create a mixture. Once I've done that, I need to seed the clouds over Stormbreak with it. Since you're the Celestine caretaker, I figure you wouldn't have an issue riding a dragon to help a guy out?" He's the dragon, in case she's missed that.
Burying his cold fingers in his pockets, Ronin raises his eyebrows as Lena continues, nodding encouragingly. "More helpful than you could ever know. Since October left, the infirmary has been struggling."
and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm
“They’re lovely,” but then again, she found even the most monstrous of beasts held in the same regard. Bemused by the acrobatics, the shifting and turning, the swift urgency in regaling themselves with multitudes of food, she gave one last toss of another wave of treats, watching them scurry about in the sky.
Her features didn’t fall when discussing Stormbreak, but they held a certain masked, veiled proportion to them, the smile not quite reaching her eyes. “All right.” Maybe by way of comfort, or warmth, the youth tucked her arms against her chest, folding them in on herself. “I met Amun. Before. I wouldn’t have thought him capable.” Perhaps that made her a fool.
Listening to the other tasks at least steered her away from any other moroseness, brow arching as she turned her head to regard him – checking to see if he was serious about the matter. “Oh, I wouldn’t have any problem with that,” and she managed a quick laugh, permitting a grin to reinvigorate the brightness on her face. The encouragement thereafter might have been all she needed then, tucking it in the back of her mind for a little sojourn to the shrine before restarting her work. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm
They are showered with another flurry of snow as Lena tosses a final treat into the air, Ronin grinning as he watches the wyrms flail expectantly for a moment as if waiting for more, before starting to weave away elsewhere. "Ah, their affection is so easily won and lost," he murmurs, glancing back at the Attuned. "Still, at least you know how to get their attention if you ever want an impromptu snowstorm."
Mention of Amun's name is so unexpected that Ronin has to take a second to realise he's heard it, the Huntsman letting out a long sigh. "I felt the same about a lot of them," he admits. "It's hard... but we have to think of ourselves now. It's not often that I advocate for selfishness, but that's the world we live in now."
Selfishness that expands to the whole of Stormbreak, as it turns out, and Ronin relaxes to hear that she'll help with his task - and try to ask Frey for some help, too. "Thank you," he murmurs, and he means it. "I'll let you know when I'm ready to fly. Until then, I'd better get going. Look after yourself, Lena."
With a final, gentle touch to her shoulder, Ronin ambles forward, his footsteps crunching on the freshly fallen snow as he disappears back into the city.
