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!
Still close to his home, but once more banished temporarily from Cordelia’s side for all of his worrying over her. He would admit that he might have been suffocating his wife with his anxious presence, never letting her do anything on her own, but all he wanted to do was ensure that she was comfortable and that he was with her the moment she went into labor. But, she needed a break, and a nap, so Noah stepped out from the house. Her aunt and mother planned to come in the afternoon anyway, as they did most days, to work on things for the coming babies.
Noah took himself to an open yard that was once a house not too far from his own. It had been crushed by a dragon during the Second War, and the family chose to rebuild elsewhere rather than remember the attack. Now, Noah was using it as the open space he needed to stretch out his muscles without traveling across the Citadel to the barracks. He was working on his footwork and strikes with his spear as if no one could see him.
Tal trotted along the snowy lane with a big red-furred dog at his heels and a pale dragon soaring lazily overhead. His wrist cuff kept the Deepfrost temperatures within the Citadel from feeling more than pleasantly brisk as he made his rounds, pulling packages out of his Bag of Holding to deliver to doorsteps and businesses.
It was almost time for a break anyways when his shortcut through an abandoned lot was interrupted by an unusual sight. "Hey Noah!" he called out, surprised and intrigued to see the hunter there. Boreal caroled a cheerful greeting from above while the dog stopped, looking from her master to the demigod with bright, curious eyes. Tal dropped a hand to ruffle her ears before walking towards the older man, watching his moves with ill-disguised envy. "What're you workin' on?"
The dragon and the courier caught his attention by their voices carrying towards him. Stopping, Noah lifted himself out of a fighting posture into something a little more proper for conversation. He wiped at his brow with the back of one gloved hand, careful not to let the sweat settle at all to save from the frostbite of it freezing on him.
”Just blowing off some steam.” Noah said, twirling the spear and then setting the end of it in the snow, the tip pointed deliberately at the sky rather than towards the courier. ”You on a route?” Noah asked, gesturing towards the dog at his side by tilting the spear just a few degrees and two fingers uncurling from its hilt.
Tal grinned at the fancy spearwork and reached down to pat the dog's head fondly. "Nah, just goin' t'get lunch between deliveries." The big, furry hound's attention never wavered from Noah, nose twitching and Tal gave her ears a playful ruffle. "This is my lead dog, Bell." Though there wasn't much for the team to do in Deepfrost when it was too cold for the more usual dogsled deliveries to the outlying tribes of the Tundra.
"So, uh... d'you think we could maybe have a rematch?" He reached up to rub the back of his neck shyly, scuffing the snow beneath his boot with a conscious attempt at nonchalance. "I got this fancy Vest from Ludo, y'see... it's pretty awesome. Really good at keeping me safe an', uh... not dyin', mostly." He managed the words with a mostly straight face, trying not to wince at the memories of having to prove how good it was at protecting him from the various tasks he'd been set. "Saved me from a glotter attack, an' an angry luxere an' swamp rats an' shit." He cleared his throat, looking up to the sky to avoid seeing Noah's expression. "So, yeah. Y'don't have to worry about hurtin' me, basically." Gods, that was embarrassing.
Noah smiled as the courier introduced his dog, and Noah knelt down to one knee and offered a hand out to her. One of the things that was deeply ingrained in Noah was a love for dogs. They were such loyal creatures, and though Noah never had a canine shift, he felt akin to them in a way.
When Tal continued, Noah stood back up (with or without petting Bell, depending). ”Neat.” Noah said, bright eyes examining the vest that covered Talyson’s midsection. ”So we could really go hard.” A smile creeped across his lips and curled the corners, all of his features softening along with it. ”Let’s go for it, then.”
With that, Noah didn’t waste any time and got a defensive hold on his spear. He took a few steps in, and tucking his chin, invited the courier to the first move with his eyes.
Bell glanced up at Tal when Noah knelt, but he smiled and gave her an encouraging nod. "He's okay, girl," he assured her. With permission given and Noah marked as a friend the big red dog leaned forward to sniff the offered fingers politely and then leaned into the petting, tongue lolling in enjoyment. A jealous carol from overhead signaled the descent of Boreal. She didn't quite make it in time before the demigod stood up again, but Bell barked sharply at her, once, and then the two were tearing off across the snow in a game of chase-and-tackle.
The humans had a game of their own, and Tal managed a sickly smile at Noah's confidence. "Ha ha, we sure could..." he agreed, already filled with regrets.
But he pushed them down and drew his knife, trying to get his mind settled. Even if he got bruises along the way he usually learned something from these friendly bouts, and his face settled into its resting scowl as he concentrated on Noah's stance and grip.
He started to slowly circle his opponent, moving counter clockwise around Noah's left. When he thought he saw an opening he lunged--! ...Not forwards, but back, lashing out with his knife from almost ten feet away and letting the dagger's magic help the strike reach it's target: Noah's left sleeve.
As Talyson drew the knife, Noah smirked. It was a nice weapon that Frey had made for the younger man, and that paired with the vest might do well for him in the long run. Knowing that close proximity was not a prerequisite for the knife to inflict damage, Noah kept himself in the stance he had chosen.
Talyson struck and, with carefully focused and narrowed eyes, Noah dodged. He didn’t even feel a tug of fabric (thanks nat 20) as the knife’s magical reach missed him. He didn’t waste time on celebrating it, but instead moved ahead with the true focus of this spar: to test the vest.
Noah took a triple step forward and looked as if he were going to jab at Talyson with the spear, but instead a burst of sunlight erupted from its tip, aimed for the courier’s chest.
The knife really did work best when his opponent didn't know it was coming, but Tal wasn't about to bring a regular, mundane old axe to a spear fight. Given the situation the blessed Knife was the best thing he had to counter Noah's reach stupid tall people. And hey, at least he did have the Vest to protect him in case the Knife failed, right?
Which it promptly did, his opening stab unable to keep up with the demigod's speed. Tal's scowl of concentration deepened but he wasn't given time to try again just yet. Noah moved forward with a graceful swiftness that had the courier diving to the side to escape. He'd been trying to dodge the incoming spear tip but the sunlit blast erupted along the same trajectory and he was already in motion. It dealt a glancing strike to his arm and he stifled a yelp as he hit the snow and rolled, dousing the burn and popping up again fifteen feet away, this time with an underhanded stab towards the Sentinel's booted foot to slow him down a little while Tal tried to regroup.
Perhaps Noah had gotten too caught up in his attack, or a sudden worry overtook him for the younger man (he hadn't really intended to catch him on fire), but Noah took the stab to his foot with full force. He sucked a breath through his teeth and pulled his knee up quickly, using his spear to help balance him against the snow. The familiar warm feeling of blood was already filling his wool sock. Had it not been for the tough leather of his boot or his thick socks, he was certain he would have a hole in his foot. Instead, there was merely a cut, though he wouldn't tell quite where.
Balancing himself once more on two feet, Noah gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, running quickly towards Talyson and using his spear to attempt to knock him in the ribs and off balance.
Tal hadn't expected his attack to actually connect that solidly but he wasn't going to look a gift-stab in the uh... hm. That idiom was falling apart real fast, but not as fast as Noah was suddenly charging towards him, wounded foot be damned.
But maybe that wound had some effect, because the courier had time to dodge the incoming spear by dropping low into a squat and then launching himself up into an attempted tackle of the demigod, hoping to knock Noah back (and down into the snow, if he was really lucky) - and getting well inside the range of the pointy end of that spear so it couldn't so easily be used against him. "Yah!" he yelled as he jumped, a primal instinct to try and startle his prey more than any conscious planning on Tal's part.
Talyson was quick to dodge the attack, and his tactic was one that Noah was actually impressed with. And he would tell him -- but not now. Now, Noah wanted to win. The courier had said that the vest would aid an help in a way that made sure Noah wouldn't have to hold back, so the Sentinel did not.
As Tal came up towards him, screeching like a pouncing fox, Noah reminded him he was the bigger and scarier opponent. His jaw feathered and, wincing as he felt the slosh and squish of blood beneath his step, he pushed forward into Talyson with all of his might and height and power, intending to completely overwhelm the younger man.
Tal wasn't the scrawny little weed who had brought Morgan's body back from Whitebrim anymore. He wasn't as strong as the demigod, but he wasn't as easy to overwhelm as he had been before. He might not have had the muscle mass to knock Noah over, even with momentum on his side, but Noah wasn't able to knock him over, either.
Not, at least, without putting a bit more oomph into it.
Which left Tal pushing uselessly against his opponent in an awkward half-embrace as he slid back through the snow from the force of Noah's advance. A position which would have undoubtedly earned a catcall from Ru if she'd been there to see it.
Thank the gods for small favors that she wasn't!
"Sorry 'bout this," Tal grunted, not sounding very sorry as he twisted his wrist and tried to bring the knife into position to tickle Noah's ribs, attempting to take advantage of having a weapon that was meant for close-quarters fighting when its magic wasn't giving him the advantage in reach.
While Noah wasn’t totally able to overwhelm the courier as he would have a few years ago, Noah was still a force to be reckoned with. A wall of ice, a massive glacier, hard and strong and cold. Their wills braced against each other as much as their bodies, displayed from an outside point of view by the feathering of Noah’s jaw (or was that the pain from his bleeding foot?).
Noah sucked in another breath as Talyson went for a strike with his knife. Quickly, Noah jerked and twisted his body and rotated his arm and down his wrist. The spear came upwards and the Sentinel pushed himself back, off of Tal, and intended to use the butt end of his spear to catch the younger man’s chin before the celestial dome erupted from him and healed the stabbing and scratching, while dealing damage to the courier.
Tal didn't get a chance to learn if his threat with the knife worked or not. He'd been pushing forward against Noah, and when the Sentinel suddenly backed up the courier was left with nothing to brace against. With a stifled yelp he started to fall forward, losing his balance even as the demigod was bringing his weapon around.
He barely knew what hit him as the spear came up beneath his chin and knocked his teeth together, lifting him up and back, stunned even before the dome erupted outward and blasted him back into the snow.
Tal lay groaning from the combined seventy-seven and a half points of damage he'd taken in the course of seconds, but the spear didn't seem to have done more than knocked him a bit silly. The dome had done him the most damage by far, his Vest barely blocking half of the harm of the divine power, and this time the courier stayed down and contemplated the sky from his new resting place.
