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!
It is dark when he emerges, dark when he goes anywhere. He has taken Isla’s warning to heart, afraid deep down to find out what might happen should he try to go out during the day. But he hasn’t seen Isla, he has heard rumors of her departure from the world, and somewhere deep down in a place where he wasn’t certain he had feelings pertaining to this place, he realizes he’s angry at it. Angry that someone — no, the only person he’s met here — has already departed the world. He struggles with it for a bit, but realizes he can’t stay in the Infirmary or the Rathskeller for the rest of his hideous life in this world.
So he ventures out, steel hued eyes glancing from place to place, from rubble to rubble of the effects of Longnight. And with a heavy sigh does he find himself in the Underground, aimlessly wandering until he comes across something of interest. A cave system of sorts that intrigues him immensely. But he’s wary, uncertain of what lingers in the dark after Longnight. And while Isla’s words linger in the back of his mind (not-quite-human, but better, stronger, human but better) Aedion finds he doesn’t want to find out how much better they are.
So he sits in front of the cave entrance, wondering if maybe he should try to find the voice, whomever it was that Isla was planning on taking him to, and if here was a good place to start. But he doesn’t know what hides in the dark, in places people shouldn’t go at night. He knows little of this place, and even little about himself since he’s quite literally fallen into. Maybe some kind of terrible bloody ritual takes place in the Underground at night? He finds that he’s still sluggish, but healed from his fall. The clothes he wears are still torn slightly on the arm, but he hasn’t found the need to find different clothes yet. These ones work fine, and he tells himself that he is a creature of habit.
He runs a hand through his hair and waits for something — anything to happen.
Out of a deeper darkness than the nights in Caido, a pale, blonde figure emerges from the bowels of the Earth. She is renewed, invigorated, and walks with a strong sense of purpose. Before Aedion could see her, before she could see him, her senses told her someone was out there, waiting. So Wessex had stopped and assessed and crept closer, and when she determined the person was an Outlander, but also Ascended, she continued on as she had before.
He may hear her coming, turn around and see her, or any variation thereof - she isn’t trying to hide herself.
As Wessex steps out into the cold night of early Flowerbirth, she takes a much better look at the man sitting outside the cave entrance. After a moment, she crinkles her nose a little bit at his appearance. Judgey McJudgerson over here is in full swing. “You headed to the Lady? Ya look like shit.”
If so, why is he still out here? Don’t tell her he’s chivalrously waiting for her to clear the entrance. Wessex doesn’t entertain that kind of selective misogyny.
black as the pit from pole to pole i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul
He can tell, a split second before he sees her, that he’s not alone. His head shifts toward her, hair falling across his face with the movement as he surveys her with his steel-hued gaze. She isn’t trying to hide herself, and he notes the air of confidence that seems to waft off of her. As she steps outside toward him, he notices her gaze – almost predatory that he can relate to, only he hasn’t figured out just how in this form to do it. And he listens to her voice as it drifts to him, speaking of a lady and about how he quote on quote “looks like shit”. He offers a small gruff chuckle in response and a small shake of his head.
“Someone was going to take me to her, I think. But she, uh, died I guess.” He offers a bit unhelpfully, his shoulders raising in a quiet shrug. “I arrived just before Longnight and this is really the first time I’ve left so any direction you might have would be helpful.” His head turns from her to look toward the tunnels again, raising an eyebrow before placing a hand on his knee and pushing himself up. He sighs quietly to himself, feeling like garbage as well as looking like it. He doesn’t know where to start, and he had hoped that someone might be able to show him the way.
He wasn’t much of the adventuring sort, mostly kept to himself the most he could. He wiped his hands together to rid them of any dirt before he glances once more to the tunnels and turns his head back to Wessex with a fanged grin. “I’m assuming it’s through here?” He offers, gesturing to the tunnel with a hand perfectly healed beneath the torn fabric. But he waits for an answer before moving. There are a few tunnels down here, and he’d rather not make a fool of himself and choose the wrong one.
“Right,” she says, running a hand through her hair. “So you’re new.” It seems she’s duty-bound to help him now, if only because he is literally at the New Gods’ doorstep and he may be a useful ally later. A lost hour shouldn’t inconvenience her too much. Wessex pivots back to the tunnel entrance and then gestures for him to follow, her steps all but soundless on the packed dirt floor. “Come on, I’ll do you one better and take you.” Can’t have one of the bright ones winking out of existence because they wander endlessly in the Underground and eventually fade away to nothing.
Down they head, Wessex following the paths by instinct now, not bothering with a light at all - after all, they can see in the dark. At a split, she takes the left fork, and then after a moment returns to something she should have said back at the entrance. “I’m Wessex, by the way. Who was supposed to bring you here?” Was it the new Outlander Ascended? The healer lady? She’d heard rumors that one of them had crossed over to the dark side.
black as the pit from pole to pole i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul
Her tone changes ever so slightly and something within Aedion brims with thankfulness. He realizes that he hasn’t pegged himself a threat to her, and as he looks at her as she speaks of him being new, he knows that she is someone he doesn’t want to fuck with. Unless he feels the need to have his ass handed to him. But she’s right, he looks like shit and he feels like it too, but he had absolutely no idea where to go from there to help himself. He feels sluggish and tired, exhausted physically and mentally, and he’s not sure what would happen to him if he remained in that state.
Standing, he brushes off the dirt and debris that had collected on his rough worn pants and makes way to follow her. She seems like him, but far better, and he wonders if she is the machine that Isla had said when she said they were better than humans. She looks like the perfect weapon, someone that Aedion wants to know and keep on his good side. She mentions that she’ll take him there and he breaths a quiet sigh of relief. “That is one better.” He says with a deep and rough chuckle, but follows her nonetheless — still mostly unaware of what he is now and where that puts him in this strange land.
He follows her as she makes her way through the tunnels as though she’s done it a million times before, and he uses the better sight he’s been gifted to try and mark it to remember how to get there for future reference. Perhaps then he won’t be as useless as he feels now. It took him what seemed like forever just to get down here in the first place. But then Wessex introduces herself and he memorizes her name like he did Isla. Then she asks who was the one to take him here and he lifts his head a bit to stare down the tunnels they walk. “I’m Aedion.” He says at first, pausing before continuing. “Isla the woman at the infirmary. She found me when I came here, literally fell into a statue and thought I was dead.” He says with another quiet and deep chuckle. “She helped me figure out how to read my… systems I guess they’re called.” He offers, shrugging again but not knowing if she could see it. “Then Longnight came and she didn’t come back, I heard about her in the Rathskeller after it all.” He says eventually.
“She tried to explain what we, err, I am? It’s nothing like what I was back home and I still don’t really understand if I’m being honest.” And he is being honest, he has no clue what the change had done to him. He didn’t even know which questions to ask.
Aedion might be surprised to find that is rather easy to stay on Wessex’s good side. Step one: don’t be an idiot. Step two: don’t insinuate the Ascended are a plague that should be wiped out. Step three: don’t be excessively weak. Step four: be smart. Repeat ad nauseum, or until you fuck up.
“Isla,” she repeats with a bit of a head tilt. So that was her name. The bright one who was too quickly, too foolishly snuffed out. It’s a shame, really. Most of the Ascended are men, and though Wessex often exhibits more traditionally masculine qualities, it would have been nice to have another female in the mix. 108 barely counts as… any particular thing. “I’m only a couple of seasons old, and I’ve never read my own systems. That’s a good word for it. Perhaps you can teach me? Later.” she requests, with a look back at the younger man. He doesn’t know what he is? How odd. Even the Outlander Ascended, though they had another name for themselves, knew full well what they were.
But then if it’s different than what he was… of course he wouldn’t know.
The tunnel begins to level out from a gentle downward slope into more flatter terrain. The air is much, much cooler - even cold - down here, though he probably can’t feel it either. “You are… inorganic now. You will not age. You will not die from natural causes. You need not eat or drink or even breathe. You are better at night, and perhaps most importantly, you are one of a few.” She sighs, ever so softly. “Most of us made chose to Ascend to the brightness, for various reasons. I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to make that choice, but I don’t think you’ll regret it.”
There is a sort of blue light and a bigger room ahead. She stops him before they can enter. “You should know that there is a lot happening right now. Your presence may be very important. Make sure you’re ready.”
black as the pit from pole to pole i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul
He listens as she repeats the name, and continues to speak of being only a few seasons old. She questions if he can teach her how to check the system, and he nods at first though he’s uncertain how to explain it. Isla had told him before how to do it, and he had simply followed her instruction and seen it for himself. Perhaps he has the capability to say the same thing and Wessex would understand. After all, Aedion upon his arrival felt a bit like a child, someone telling him what he could and couldn’t do, but deep down too afraid to try the things he was not supposed to do.
Like going out in the sunlight, which he still doesn’t have any plans to tempt.
“Sure.” He offers, giving her a fanged grin. But they continue to walk, and his steel eyes leave the back of her to the rooms around them and how the ground slopes away. And Wessex begins to answer his question in a more detailed answer than before. Isla had said they were better than humans. Wessex actually has the details of how and he finds himself gobbling up the information like a fish out of water. He nods, but pauses as his eyes flicker back to her as she mentions a few. An eyebrow raises ever so slight.
But then she seems to apologize and Aedion shakes his head in response. “I’ve never had great luck.” He offers, a roll of his shoulders. “Might be the luckiest thing to happen to me yet.” He adds with a gruff chuckle. But his eyes capture a blueish hue and his head turns to focus more on it as Wessex continues, mentioning that he should be ready. And he nods in response to her. “Ready for anything.” He answers. He has nothing, anymore, and finds that direction for his life and his being are lost.
This is a new purpose, a new beginning that he didn’t see coming. And he finds himself excited for it. “Let me know how and when I can help and I’ll be there.” He offers, mostly because Wessex despite the short amount of time with knowing her, has helped him far more than anyone else aside from Isla has. And somehow he feels like he’s almost in her debt.
