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!
03-21-2023, 04:19 AM (This post was last modified: 03-24-2023, 09:52 PM by Alys.)
how did this asylum become where i sleep
The inn bustled with life and laughter, a fire crackling merrily in the hearth and patrons ordering food and drink to sate their appetites. It was a busy night. The barmaids were seemingly everywhere, making tending to everyone in the common room seem easy. Off in a corner sat a young woman with dark, wild curls and deep, brown eyes. She was, perhaps, the only one in the inn who was content not to be waited on, as she had told the barmaids several times. Eventually, they had given up on her and left her alone with her thoughts. Or, at least, seemingly alone.
She was never alone when she had her cards.
Alys Glasse leaned one elbow on the table, worrying a thumbnail with her teeth as she pored over an intricate spread of cards laid out before her. She ignored the din around her, focusing intently on the placements and meanings of each card. The High Priestess. Intuition, sacred knowledge, divine feminine, the subconscious mind. The Star. Hope, faith, purpose, renewal, spirituality. The Sun. Positivity, fun, warmth, success, vitality. She went through each card slowly, lovingly, contemplating its meaning in relation to its position in the spread.
Eventually satisfied, she sat back, pulling a journal from the bag at her side. She glanced at the cards one last time before she began jotting down notes. It was important to record all of her readings - even the ones she did for herself.
Tal didn't usually stop in at this inn after work; it was too crowded for his tastes, and too noisy. He'd spent too many years traveling the Tundra with only his sled dogs for regular company to enjoy the rowdy good cheer of most public houses, but after the day he'd had he was ready to fall asleep on his feet. He needed food and drink, and the inn had been right next door to his last delivery of the day.
Boreal was waiting outside, draped across the roof while her human went inside. It was too busy for a companion of her size to follow, so it was just the dark-haired courier who wove through the crowd, seeking an empty chair.
The bar was full, of course, but one of the servers pointed him towards a table in the corner that still had a seat open. Tal didn't recognize the woman playing cards at it, but he shrugged and gave his order to the kindly older barmaid before making his way across the room, dodging moving bodies and waving mugs with his scowl in full force.
"Sorry," he said gruffly to the stranger as he pulled the chair back and dropped into it. "Couldn't find another seat. Don't mind me." He stole a glance at the cards laid out in front of her, nose wrinkling in confusion. That didn't look like any solitaire he was familiar with, but maybe it was some weird Outlander thing.
At the scrape of the chair sliding across the floor, Alys jumped. The inn was so loud and she'd been so engrossed in her notes that she hadn't noticed the stranger approach. She clapped her journal shut, hoping that the ink was dry, and scowled at the stranger who had come to join her. He was a man about her age, with dark hair and light brown skin. And he most certainly was not welcome.
Alys gathered her cards quickly and resentfully, suddenly self-conscious. It was not uncommon for her gift to be scoffed at and looked down upon, and she wasn't in the mood for judgement today. "It is busy tonight," she conceded gruffly. She eyed the man warily, shuffling her cards absently as she thought. It had been a while since she had read for another, but she had no way of knowing if the stranger was interested.
Oops. Between the little jump and the slamming of the notebook it deemed like he'd startled her. Tal's scowl deepened with embarrassment and he reached up to rub at the back of his neck, looking away as she gathered up her game. Although instead of putting them away she started to shuffle them, and the courier glanced back from the corner of his eye and cleared his throat.
"Tal," he offered laconically. "Tal Seawright. Sorry t'interrupt. Y'can keep goin' with your solitaire, long as I've got enough space for my food when it comes." She seemed as prickly as he was, and about as eager for the unwelcome company. At least he could try and stay out of her way since she'd been there first.
But he was hungry enough to throw hands if there wasn't enough space on the table for his food when it arrived!
Her companion rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort, and Alys had the decency to feel embarrassed. It really wasn't his fault that the inn was so crowded. "I'm Alys Glasse," she said, continuing to shuffle her cards lazily. Then, she sat up, affronted. "This isn't a game!" She made it sound like a dirty word. "This is a tarot deck. It's a divination tool."
She set the stack of cards on the table and cut it, creating three small piles in front of her. Then, she stacked them up in a new order and began to shuffle again, almost as though it were a compulsion. These cards are my friends, she wanted to say, but that would be weird - wouldn't it. Instead, she paused. "Let me show you."
He hadn't expected her to take offense at his offer, and the courier's scowl deepened defensively at her indignant protest. Before he could ask what the hail else a deck of cards could be - though he'd opened his mouth to do so - she explained.
More or less.
Divination caught his attention, though not perhaps in the way she might have hoped. His mouth snapped shut with a click and his nose wrinkled up as he tensed, his annoyed expression turning wary. "Yeah, well, the last diviner I met went around killin' animals an' pokin' around their innards to 'divine' things," he growled, remembering his run-in with the masked Chaele in the Feverlands. That had gone over about as well as a lead balloon...
Not that Alys could have known. But Tal's pale eyes flickered over her, checking for weapons just in case. "So just keep your hands where I can see 'em."
Alys was many things, but violent was not one of them. She didn't even own a dagger - which, in all honesty, was probably not very bright for a young woman wandering the world alone. In any case, she generally regarded animals far more highly than people, and the look she sent Tal was wounded. "That's revolting. I would never hurt an innocent animal." she promised. "These -" and she held up her cards, "- are just cards. Special cards, but they've never killed anything."
She continued to shuffle. "Some people think that tarot cards tell the future, but that's absurd," she explained pragmatically. "They aren't magic - not really. They're... wise. They can provide insight and wisdom, but they only shine light on things that were already there." She flushed, not having meant to give a lecture. She'd just wanted to show that she wasn't like that other diviner, who she'd already dismissed as a fake. No one needed to hurt others to See.
"It's easier to show than to explain. Is there anything in particular troubling you? I can do a general reading, but sometimes people want to know about specific things, like love -" and she made a face, "- or money." Her tone had softened as she talked. It was easier to be friendly when she was in her element.
Her offense was oddly reassuring, but Tal couldn't help his skeptical look at the cards. Special, huh? He didn't say it out loud, but his poker face was notoriously bad.
Then again, maybe they were magic cards? A god-gift, or enchanted by someone like Deimos? Slowly the skepticism faded as he watched her shuffling the deck, but her explanation shattered his assumptions and his nose started to wrinkle again at the concept of bits of cardboard being wise
Maybe she sensed his suspicions, because she made an offer that interrupted his scowl and made him actually think. If the cards weren't really magic, what was the harm? His food wasn't out yet, and he didn't have a better way to kill time while he waited so...
His scowl turned thoughtful and he spent a minute contemplating a question that was troubling him. Reaching up to rub the back of his neck in discomfort at the awkward silence, he felt the band of his Goggles that were usually hung there and his expression smoothed over. "Actually... yeah. There is somethin' I've been stuck on. I need t'find someone who can do illusion magic t'help me out with somethin'. Can those cards tell me where I could find someone like that?"
Tal's skeptical look at her cards was not missed by the young woman, and she smothered a sigh. It wouldn't be the first time that someone had doubted her words, but it still irked her, all the same. They lived in a land rife with magic, after all. Was it so hard to believe that perhaps her cards could hold a little of their own?
But then at her question, Tal's look turned thoughtful, and Alys found herself hoping that he might give the cards an honest chance. So many people let their preconceived notions get the better of them, and it was such a shame; she truly did enjoy shedding light on others' lives and giving them things to think about that perhaps never would have arisen without her cards and their wisdom. Despite her annoyance at the beginning of their encounter, she hoped that Tal would let her help him in this way.
At his request, she couldn't help a small smile. "It seems you're in luck," she admitted, pausing her shuffling of the cards. "The cards won't help with that, but I can." Concentrating, she summoned a small red bird to perch upon the table, looking up at Tal with beady eyes. The cardinal hopped toward the courier, tilting its head to one side, before vanishing. "I'm not very good," she admitted. "But I can do illusion magic."
She paused for a moment, considering. She wasn't usually one to offer help to a stranger, preferring to keep to herself unless she was offering someone a reading - and, if she were being honest, she wasn't sure she was going to get to give one to Tal. He didn't seem to quite grasp the purpose of the cards. Still, she had drawn the Fool only a few moments before he arrived. She'd thought that perhaps it was time for a new adventure outside of Halo, but maybe...
"I don't know if I can help, but... what is it that you need?"
So maybe the cards were a little magic after all, no matter what Alys said. If nothing else, at least they were lucky if they'd somehow brought the two of them together, and the courier's pale eyes widened with surprise and relief at the little bird as it winked into existence and then winked out again.
"Hey, it's good enough!" His dour scowl lifted until it was perilously close to a grin. "I just need to study 'em," he explained, tapping the goggles that hung around his neck and then, after a moment's hesitation, lifting them over his eyes. Sure, it made him look pretty weird, but he'd done stupider things on quests before. "Illusions. With these, t'strengthen the enchantment on 'em. I don't s'pose I can get you food or a drink or anythin'?" Barter came as easily as breathing to the courier as he peered eagerly at Alys through the smoked lenses of his snow goggles.
A server slid up to the table at that moment and set a steaming breadbowl in front of him, filled with a hearty ningo stew. A mug of ale followed and Tal nodded to the man, already familiar with the usual price he paid in service at this particular inn.
Alys was unprepared for the rush of pleasure that she felt when Tal proclaimed that her magic was good enough. She was so used to thinking of her magic as silly and useless that hearing someone tell her that it - that she - was enough brought a lump to her throat. She bit the inside of her cheek, silently chastising herself for being silly.
Tal lifted some goggles from around his neck and placed them over his eyes. It looked rather strange, and Alys's lips quirked up in a half-smile, the urge to cry receding for now. "That sounds easy enough," she said. "I can do that. I don't need anything, though," she began, although her stomach, at that moment, let loose a rather aggressive growl. "On second thought, perhaps food would be nice," she added shyly.
As a server slid Tal's food and drink onto the table, Alys concentrated again. The same cardinal she'd summoned moments before appeared, hopping over to peer at the food with interest. She smiled at the creation as it pecked at the breadbowl. Nothing happened, of course - it was just an illusion. But she was practicing making them more realistic, and she thought that perhaps that was how a bird in this situation would behave.
He might not have noticed her happiness at his innocent compliment, but he caught her unexpected smile when he put his Goggles in place and his own lips twitched, caught between a rueful grin and a self-conscious scowl.
In the end the grin won out, if barely, and he looked up at the server with his goggle eyes and made a small gesture towards Alys. "An' whatever she orders, on my tab," he let the man know. The waiter blinked and put a hand over his mouth to bite back his reaction, and struggled to put a politely neutral expression on his face as he turned to Alys to take her order.
The appearance of the cardinal drew a moment's surprise from him, but Abandoned were common enough in Halo that he shook it off and ignored the little illusion, waiting until she told him what she wanted to eat before he headed off. Tal, meanwhile peered with as much interest at the cardinal as the little faux bird had for his bread. He lifted his Goggles up to squint at the cute creation before looking through them at it again. "Okay, that's pretty neat," he admitted, reaching out a finger to poke at the bird and looking a little disappointed when he didn't feel anything. "How far away can y'make 'em go?"
Her stomach rumbled again and Alys flushed with embarrassment. Just how long had she been alone at her table, absorbed in her cards? She should have left ages ago - but then, she wouldn't have met Tal and had the opportunity to practice her magic. Everything happens for a reason, she reminded herself, and glanced at the server, who struggled to hide his surprise at her magical display. "I'll have what he's having," she said, and the server trundled away.
Her little illusion had flickered as her attention shifted; she wasn't particularly good at multitasking, and she really needed to improve in order to use her illusions how she wanted to. But now that her attention was back on it, the illusion strengthened until it looked almost real - at least, until Tal poked at it, his finger passing right through the bird. At his compliment, she beamed with pride. It was only recently that she'd begun to think of her illusions as anything other than useless, so for someone else to compliment them was truly marvelous.
"Not very," she admitted. "I have to keep them pretty close to me. I'm trying to practice more, though." To prove her point, she sent her bird flittering across the dining hall, above the heads of the many patrons. Most paid it no mind, appearing not even to see it, but a few ducked and sent withering looks her way. The little bird didn't make it far - perhaps five feet at best - before flickering out. Bored of the bird, she summoned a new creation: a tiny mouse, which scurried toward Tal, lifted itself up on its hind legs, and peered at the courier with interest.
"My sister's got magic, too, an' she said it was th'same with her early water stuff," he agreed, be-Goggled eyes following the cardinal's flight. He drew in a little gasp right before the illusion reached the edge of Alys's power, his voice a distracted murmur. "Oh, so that's how it works..." And then the bird faded away and was gone. Tal shook his head ruefully and looked back at his tablemate with a lopsided grin.
"If you're gonna be in Halo awhile, you should check out the Academy. I don't think Ru or Sah have illusions, but they can probably help you with general magic trainin' an' stuff." A flicker of movement caught his eye and he glanced back down at the table to see the mouse looking up at him. He squinted through the goggles and then made out the outline of the magic, seeing both the illusion and the reality beneath. It startled a laugh from the courier and he broke off a little bit of bread from his bowl and offered it to the illusory rodent. "You're already good at makin' 'em move right," he said admiringly. "Say, when you were a kid an' y'had t'go t'bed early, did y'ever use it to make it look like your eyes were closed when they were really open? So your folks would think you were asleep when y'weren't?"
