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!
Loner. Wanderer. Outsider. He was new to being leaned on. There were few enough he was close to who might have chosen it, and to almost all of them he was a younger sibling, by blood or otherwise. It was expected, unspoken but tacit, that he would lean on them and not the other way around. He had never questioned it, but when the world shattered and all that they had known was turned upside down he discovered that he had taken that support and stored it deep inside until he could return it to someone who needed it as much as he ever had.
And maybe it was a promise he had no business making, but he made it with a whole-hearted intensity that spoke of his own losses over the years. He wouldn't do to Hotaru what his parents had done to him. He would survive and come back to her.
As long as she did for him.
Probably longer, stubborn fuck that he was.
Tears slowed and resolved back into words and Tal drew in a shuddering breath of his own, nodding jerkily. "Yeah," he murmured, voice ragged and arms aching with how hard he had held on to her. His embrace gentled finally and he drew in a larger breath as the mundane needs of bodies and minds worn to burnt-out candle stubs intruded on the grieving needs of hearts. "Yeah," he repeated, and shifted his arms to support her as he reached for the door. "Can we stay here with you? Just... for tonight? Boreal an' me? In case you or Flora need anything?" In case her exhaustion finally forced her eyes to close, so there would be a guard at her door and a friend near at hand to wake her from the nightmares until her sleep was dreamless and healing.
She's in a long black coat tonight Waiting for me in the downpour outside
The relaxing of his grip does nothing to sway her own, though her claws recede and curled, blunted fingers drag lower down his spine to rest more comfortably at his lower back. This exhaustion is so much more than physical. The dragons had not been of any particular difficulty to her after all. No, this is a weariness that lives somewhere in the borders between mind, heart, and soul. Even the hours of twilight vigilance shrinking her sleep to nearly nothing cannot hope to overshadow or dwarf such a drain.
He asks to stay before she can. It spares her pride as fully as it recements her surety of his loyalty to her. “Please,” she whispers, throat more akin to ribbons after the outpouring of her grief, even as contained as she’d forced it to be. She so desperately doesn’t want to be alone tonight. Doesn’t want to be the only one holding the weight of the world on her shoulders in the vain hopes of keeping it from crushing down upon her daughter. Doesn’t want to close her eyes and see her sons face bloodied and slack, and wake up cold and alone as she has for so many countless seasons now. The pain of an empty bed had long been a reminder of Nate and Sunjata. Now, it only cruelly reminds her of days nestled in a thick comforter, a twin on each side, sleeping the hours away in the safety of her arms. The memory hurts freshly once more, and Ru makes a low, painful whine. “Please stay.” And she rips herself painfully from Talyson’s chest to grab at the door handle, needing to move them inside but uncertain of the strength left in her legs.
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
He had wandered out into the night seeking solitude, he'd thought. It hurt too much, beneath the numbness, being around his blood sisters who didn't understand what he had seen. His subconscious had known better, however. Feet and dragon both had led him to Hotaru's door. Someone who understood the raw pain of loss and the guilt of surviving. And, though he hadn't known it at the time, someone who needed him, when he had needed to have a purpose and a kindred soul to cling to, even if just for a few hours.
Her voice bled on the plea and his heart broke again as between them they pulled the door open and slipped inside. Boreal shook the snow from her scales and whuffed a warm breath over Hotaru's hip before she padded on quiet talons back towards Flora's room to stand guard over the Valkyrie's daughter.
Tal closed and locked the door one-handed, keeping the other wrapped firmly around Hotaru lest she unravel and fade into the shadows if he didn't assure himself that she was still there, still real. "C'mon," he murmured, pulling he gently towards the fireplace. "You're almost frozen solid. Warm up. An' if you fall asleep out here, that's okay too." He wasn't used to carrying anyone. He wasn't used to being strong enough. But he figured he could manage it the short distance to her room, if he had to.
She's in a long black coat tonight Waiting for me in the downpour outside
There is an instinctive rise to the woman's shoulders as Boreal heads towards Flora's room, danger prickling at her nape until familiarity and kinship registers and has her coiling energy dissipating in a rush that leaves her freshly exhausted. It feels wrong to not be at Flora's bedside herself, but she scarcely has the energy to walk, and only Talyson's arm around her keeps her propped up.
The fireplace still flickers - in Halo, it always will, and things would have looked far more dire from the outside if its light had not been visible from the windows. Tal may not be strong, but Hotaru has always been a mere slip of a woman, her power an unexpected and invisible entity. She is easy to carry, perhaps easier than normal given how little she has eaten since losing Enzo. Between lingering blinks she finds herself curled on the long couch, huddled in the corner like a beaten dog. And yet she lifts her hand to cling to Tal's coat. Already she'd asked him to stay, but her eyes beg silently, lit by the restless flames as she gazes up at him. There is room aplenty for the both of them on the cushions, and she can't bear to be apart from him right now. Sleep is already swiftly closing in on her, and she doesn't want to be alone as she goes into that darkness.
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
Hotaru has a passive magic that makes her glow with an internal golden light; it makes her appear youthful and her hair seems to look like moving sunlight. Can only subtly illuminate dark spaces.
He drew them first to the hearth where the fire danced but burned low, moving to tend to it before all else. It was automatic, as easy as breathing, to take the poker in his free hand and carefully break apart the old wood so that it flared anew, hot and bright. It was harder to settle fresh logs atop the vivid coals with that same hand, coaxing here and there until the new fuel caught and started to crackle, but he wouldn't release the arm around Hotaru all the while.
With warmth assured for the next several hours, then and only then did he tuck her tenderly onto the couch. He hesitated after, a moment's uncertainty as to where he should stay, but before he could worry overmuch about propriety her fingers caught at his coat and he sighed in relief. The night was dark and full of memories he didn't have the strength to face alone, but the couch was soft and he shrugged out of his torn coat to lay it over the two of them as he stretched out beside Hotaru, settling her against his chest and resting his chin on the crown of her head.
He wasn't Enzo, and she wasn't the people he'd lost, but for tonight, in that moment, all that mattered was that they had each other.
