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!
Overtures of battlefield antics coinciding with mischief always lured him like a moth to the flames – even more so if he had to utilize strength of mind, calculations, and machinations. While it certainly wasn’t a test of caliber, it was to show an extent of force, ferocity, and challenge, all with some seditious goading to counter her pursuits.
So he laughed, loud and wild, when the tree trunk fell, snapping at some of his amassed branches and brambles with sickening crunches and broken smithereens. Not to be outdone, he snagged at the newly-formed kindling, nettles, thorns, and needles, reforming and conforming them to a potentially-newfound beast no one would ever want to see – misshapen at its best, permitting it to stomp towards the Evergreen with newfound determination. And maybe some of his incantations spiraling back through the earth, intending to snag at her feet with some elongated roots.
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
His laugh makes her grin, freshly energized by his joy and appreciation for her grandiose display of power. Her own comes in chorus moments later, tickled pink in the cheeks by both his stubbornness and the hilarious image of the deformed mass of needles, twigs, and shredded bark that comes stomping her way like some half-sized monster. She startles at the feeling of roots near her feet, exercising her own magic back at it - his is stronger, so they emerge regardless, but as she springs out of her crouch she is able to at least slow them enough to dance backwards away from them.
Holding her shield aloft and backing up with firm, slow steps in a calculated retreat, Evie grabs at the fallen trunk once more. Rolling it swiftly across the snow like the world's widest, most wooden bowling ball, hoping to take the nettle-monster out at the...knees? Or perhaps simply spray it into a thousand more scattered pieces, for Deimos to scrape together into form once more.
Don't look up, just let them think There's no place else you'd rather be
Good – he’d rather have grins and laughs than the looming tension or trepidation. Years before, he might not have even amassed those singular notions – too content to loom in the disquiet, in the unholy barrage of his own contempt and self-loathing. Alterations that had taken lifetimes and years felt like beckoning throngs of what could be, rather than some disjointed disillusion – even if it all came together in forms of stupidity and foolishness.
Smirking as she heaved the trunk, he watched as the monster bent at its knees, stumbling and fumbling, incapable of truly keeping itself contained. While the roots snagged back at Evie, utilizing the strength and foundation of his magic over her own, he shifted and culminated the powers into the unfortunate fir beast into another form. Reforged and reshaped into splintered bird parts – quite literally, for there were pieces jumbled together into nettled conjunctions – they took flight with the aid of his Air whims; intending to make Evie strive for another maneuver.
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
Laughter is far more preferable, and it is the best kind of medicine; distracting her even more fully than the onslaught of his persistent attacks. The roots manage to snag at her legs this time, but Evie doesn't bother resisting them for right now, letting them climb and pull at her ankles to keep her in place. She doesn't need movement right now.
As the monster turns to birds, Evie summons all the stones and pebbles hidden in the snow around her, and with a combination of her earth and telekinesis, sends them spraying like bullets from the ground to tatter and take down the assailants - all while she hunkers back down under her shield, head and shoulders hiding beneath it and forearm holding strong overhead to hide from any falling debris. And all the while she laughs, and feels better for it.
Don't look up, just let them think There's no place else you'd rather be
A barrage of stones assaulted, conforming and transforming her incantations into something else – differentials, variables, alterations, for the elements always offered such benefits that others may not. His makeshift birds, piled deftly into thrown sticks, fell apart and made a dramatic, outlandish death knell, spiraling in rolls and zeal, before crashing into the ground. She was subsequently released from the roots, with enough of a snort from him on the sidelines to follow with a rumble of his tones. “Another monster felled,” came with a boyish grin and a wrinkle of his nose. “Much improvement though.” Machinations and calculations, even in the silliness of whims and capricious efforts – all serving and lending to a greater moment searing on the horizon.
His head tilted, a vague notion circumventing through his mind, before asking outright – better communication than simply aiming to appease or guess. “Feeling better?”
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
She preens both for her success and for his praise, pulling her legs from the now motionless roots and shaking her hair to dislodge any stubborn pine needles that had made it past her defenses. It doesn't work for all of them, but it's enough until she gets back to the Citadel.
Removing and holstering her shield on her back, Evie closes the distance between them, rising on her toes to gently kiss him before she even considers answering anything. Words mean less than lingering there with her mouth to his, gloved hands balanced on his shoulders. When she withdraws, she is pink-cheeked, eyes calm blue waters once more, free of the turmoil he'd found her with. "Much better. Thank you, Deimos." For coming after her, for proposing solutions to her nightmares, for helping distract her from the shadows they'll never fully rid themselves of. She brushes their foreheads together for a quick moment, driving home her sincerity, before she pulls away and gestures to the wood and pine needles scattered destructively around them, laughing. "That's two monsters now, think I qualify for the Guild?"
Don't look up, just let them think There's no place else you'd rather be
He made no mention of how many pine needles stuck to the top of her head – though his eyes pinpointed several as she neared, deciding it best to leave them there for the sake of amusements alone. Acceptance of affection was a given thereafter, bending to meet her halfway, content that the tempestuous edges had seemingly pilfered away – no stranger to their cyclical currents. “You are welcome,” he breathed in her space, meaning it wholeheartedly, half-tempted to bite at her ear for the juvenility of it all, but her next words stopped him.
With a thunderous snort. “If you promise not to ride any others,” with an arch of his brow. “I have enough of a time corralling the rest.” And perhaps, with after resting so thoroughly on the majority of them, he could spend more moments tending to the guild too, instead of everything else laden in between.
She could note that as assent too – as they wound their way back to the Citadel, the sun pressing eagerly into the morning sky.
{FIN}
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
