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!
Alys clenched her hands in her skirts as Tal looked over her cards curiously, suddenly nervous to have made her offer to look at them. She didn't think he would do anything, of course, but there was the fear of rejection that lingered in the back of her mind. Perhaps he wouldn't like them, or would say something that made her shrink with embarrassment and shame. It wouldn't be the first time someone had judged her and her cards, after all.
But to her pleasure, he picked up the deck she'd done his reading with and began flipping through it, complementing the art. It made her feel warm and happy, and she smiled shyly at the praise. "That one was gifted to me," she said in reference to the one he looked at. "There was a traveling Seer that would stop in our village every once in a while, and she saw that I was interested, so she gave me a deck of my own."
She fingered her dress shyly beneath the table. "The second deck, I bought from her a few years later. There was something about the art that resonated with me. Reading the cards is, at least in part, about the imagery and symbolism of the deck, so it's important to find a deck that makes sense to you. The third one, I made," she admitted. Sure enough, the third deck was a bit more crude in its construction, and the lines of the artwork spoke to a less experienced artist. It was a surprisingly difficult admission, and it felt as though she bared part of her soul to the man across the table.
Even Tal couldn't miss Alys's tension, but he assumed she was afraid that he'd damage or smudge the cards with rough fingers. He made a conscious effort to be gentle with them; as careful as he would be with one of his deliveries. And if he still wasn't sold on their fortune-telling powers he could still admire their craftsmanship and designs.
Dark brows rose in surprise at hearing that the deck in his hands had been a gift and he finished flipping through it respectively before setting it back across the table.
He hadn't been intending to look at the other decks, but something in the way her voice changed made him reach for the third one after all. He shuffled through it slowly, looking at the art with more curiosity than critique. "Is that why it's, uh... blunter?" he guessed, pausing to look at the World in more detail.
Alys could tell that Tal was trying hard to be gentle with the cards, and she looked on, relieved. They were, after all, irreplaceable - if they were damaged or lost, it would be like losing a dear friend. Like losing a part of her. It was why she always kept them on her person, hidden in her belt-purse, each wrapped carefully in handkerchiefs of silk.
She remained silent as Tal picked up her third deck, the one she'd made herself. The drawings, though dark and eerie at first glance, were mesmerizing in their hidden complexities. There was something deeply personal about designing a tarot deck; she had put a piece of herself into those cards, and they were uniquely hers to interpret. Seeing someone look at them as closely as Tal was made her nervous, but she swallowed hard and resisted the urge to snatch them back. After all, if she'd given him a reading with them, he'd have been able to see them anyway.
It was just different to have him look so closely at them, that's all.
Alys looked up sharply when Tal guessed that the deck was blunter because she had made it, unsure if there was an unsavory implication in the question about her personality. She knew she could be gruff and off-putting - she didn't need him to tell her that! But there seemed to only be curiosity behind the question, and she slowly relaxed, her metaphorically ruffled feathers smoothing out. "Maybe," she admitted. "It's, um - well, it's like it forces me to really look in the mirror. I'm not sure what it would be like to read for someone else with it."
The courier finished looking through the cards and carefully reached across to set them back in their original precision, almost fussy in how precisely he lined them up with the other two decks. He didn't entirely understand what Alys meant about mirrors, but he thought he was starting to get an inkling after their conversation and he nodded slowly. "Sure, an' I can see why it'd be weird t'tr--"
His voice cut off mid-word as an eerie basso howling arose from outside, somewhere above them. Other people in the tavern looked startled for a moment before most of them relaxed with rolled eyes. A few shot annoyed looks at Tal and the courier winced sheepishly.
"Ah... guess that's my cue." He stood up and reached across the table as a second mournful howl broke the air, sounding like a lost soul that had been locked out of Mort's Halls. He offered his hand to Alys for a shake, flashing her a rare grin. "Been good meetin' you, Alys. If you stick around Halo for awhile maybe I'll see you again, yeah? An' if y'need anythin' delivered somewhere, just stop by Seawright's Sundries an' my sisters'll make sure I get your message!"
Alys jumped as a strange howling sound rang through the tavern. She noticed more than a few annoyed looks shooting suddenly toward their table, and she glowered back at them sourly. It wasn't as though they were making the noise, now, was it?
But then Tal was standing up and reaching across the table, and Alys gave him a quizzical look as she shook his hand. Apparently he did have something to do with the eerie howling from outside. She'd have to ask him about it next time. "It was nice to meet you, Tal," she said. "Thanks for -" For letting her read for him, for not judging her too harshly, for not destroying her cards, for... the list went on. Her ears turned red beneath her dark curls. "- well, thanks."
