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!
Amanda's eyebrows shot up. "You," she said, pointing at him, "want me," she pointed at herself, "to go jump out of a tree. On purpose."
She looked up at the tree, then back at Sah. She shook her head. "Look, I'm all for trying new things, but I already fell out of one tree today. Tell you what, you go jump out of the tree, and I'll catch you."
She grabbed him by his shoulders, turned him in place, and pushed him towards the tree.
She sighed. She appreciated Sah being so supportive, especially considering they barely knew each other, but there were limits to how far she would go to trust someone who was still a relative stranger.
Sah let out a laugh, digging in his heels so Amand was unable to push him even an inch. "Fine, fine. I won't make you." He sent a glance over his shoulder, "But seriously, don't try to catch someone with your magic. Not yet."
He twists out her grasp to level a serious look at his fellow Abandoned, "You're improving rapidly but you're not at the level you need to be to handle something as heavy as a person." From what he can tell, despite her control growing steadily, Amanda had yet to surpass the basic level of her magic. There is still far too much room to grow before she'd likely be able to do as she says
Stretching his arms over his head, Sah sends her a playful smirk, "How about this. You practice moving heavier things by trying lift those rocks over there? " He points to some rocks by the trees. They're various sizes, some small like pebbles, but others about the size of a small dog.
"I'll use a bit of magic to add resistance to each, increasing it with each rock size." Assuming Amanda agrees, Sah will latch onto each rock that his fellow Abandoned does. As she works her magic, Sah adds a bit of resistance to further test her magic. The largest rocks might be out of her capacity, but he thinks she can get the rest of them with some effort.
Amanda grunted and rolled her eyes. Lifting rocks? She had gotten better practice than that as a kid, when she would lift her toy blocks up with her magic. It had been, as far as she knew, the first time her parents ever saw her use magic.
Dad hadn't stuck around long after that.
Amanda sighed and headed over to the rocks. Sah did have a point that lifting heavier weights would help her powers grow stronger. But that still didn't mean she was going to play fair.
She started lifting the rocks, a couple at a time. The first few she telekinetically lifts and tosses aside without problem. Though she could immediately feel the difference in weight as Sah pulled them back downwards. So she figured that if he was going to mess with her by pulling downward, she'd find a way to use that to her advantage.
Telekinesis, she had learned, wasn't just about moving objects. It was about force. Most people, from what she knew, tended to just push or pull or lift with it. But force could do so much more.
When she lifted one of the slightly heavier rocks, she stretched out another thread of telekinesis, reaching around to find where Sah was focusing his power. She could sense his power as a sort of resistance to hers, like trying to push two magnets together. The opposing forces pushed against each other, making it impossible for her to push in harder against Sah's more powerful magic. But once she knew where his force was pulling, she could use it against him.
She channeled two weaves of telekinetic energy. One reached from the rock up to a sturdy tree branch. The other reached from the other side of the branch down to where she could feel Sah's telekinetic pull. She latched her two weaves together, like tying off a rope.
The effect was similar to a pulley. As Sah pulled downwards with his magic, she held onto his force with hers, but instead of fighting against him, she allowed him to pull her energy along with his. This pulled harder on the telekinetic "rope" of magical energy, over the tree branch, and turned into an upward pull on the rock.
As a result, Sah's own strength ended up lifting the rock for her.
She crossed her arms with a smirk. There were still limits to how far she could push this...even if she wasn't the one doing the lifting, it took a lot of strain on her part to hold the weaves together. But it allowed her to "lift" a rock that was heavier than she ever could have done on her own. Even if Sah was technically the one doing all the work.
Sah rolls his eyes and with a devious look, the pressure on Amanda's rocks increases exponentially. As such, all of them fall to the ground rapidly, leaving dents in the earth as dust rose up. "Clever work around. But as I'm sure you know, that won't always work." Outwitting an enemy was brilliant and using what resources were around you, even others' magic, was just that. Yet there were cases where such measures would fail.
Sah's little display was one of those times. Letting go of his magic once the dust settled, he approached Amanda, "I think that's probably enough for today." He reached out a hand for her to shake, tilting his head as he regarded her. "If you ever want more training, or even a spar, come find me in Halo."
With goodbyes given, he turned to head home, waving lazily over his shoulder.
