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!
05-30-2023, 05:11 PM (This post was last modified: 05-31-2023, 03:10 PM by Safrin.)
Patient and undaunted, Hadama returned to the shrine to pray to his goddess once more beneath the Longheat stars. His faith remained strong as he set the wet Owlbear hide upon the shore of the light house island, and beside it on a flat rock that extended into the sea he placed a simple offering of baklava that he had made at the Tidepool Bar's mer-accessible kitchen and brought in a waterproof container. A modest offering on the surface, but one he had learned how to make and practiced at specifically to offer to Safrin.
The addition of a human leader had eased some of his duties so that he had time once more to pursue the things he enjoyed, such as cooking... and seeking the favor of his patron.
"Safrin. I seek your help to make armor. A protection from physical attack, please," he beseeched, raising his eyes to the star-strewn sky above.
Type: Light | Style: Defensive | Level: Basic
Owlbear Down | Dense hide layered with thick feathers. Good for armour. Can only be crafted with by a god.
Though Safrin had seen Hadama recently - at the conclusion of Torchline's most recent island-wide venture - it had been a long while since she'd been able to devote herself to him properly. Perhaps that's why she appeared more quickly than usual, rising out of the midnight seafoam that formed on top of the crashing waves.
"My, my." In a gown the colour of sun-faded lace, Safrin moves toward the Owlbear pelt with a look of soft amusement on her face. "Someone has been doing some travelling." Flashing a smile toward the king, the goddess reaches down to pluck a piece of the dark and sticky treat he'd brought along. Inspecting it for a moment before popping it into her mouth, Safrin breathes a sound of indulgence as she nods her approval.
Though he had been looking up to the stars, her presence drew his gaze back to the waves and seafoam from which she stepped like iron to a lodestone. As effortlessly beautiful as always, Safrin took the Tidebreaker's breath away - a much more practical proposition when he was at her surface shrine. "Safrin," he murmured again, bowing his head briefly, but raising it again in the next moment to gaze upon his goddess with quiet gladness that she had answered.
"Yes." To the Greatwood and even the Bay in Halo in recent seasons. "Peace has made it easier." Though a lack of War did not necessarily mean a lack of danger. The pelt that he had brought was proof enough of that, and Flora's concerns about future threats to Torchline had not gone unheeded.
"Have you been well?" The last time he had seen her at the consecrating of the Bubblestream she had looked radiant - but it had been an official occasion. Now, when it was only the two of them, he could relax some of his formality and ask after her own well-being as one of her devoted, rather than as a leader.
"Peace, yes. But your efforts in ensuring open communication with the leaders of the other regions is no small feat either." Safrin points out, her perfectly painted lips twisted into a small smile.
"Well as a deity can be." Safrin replies, the words perhaps predictably vague. She did not seem cross at having been asked, but nor did her expression invite elaboration if only because on such a cosmic scale as the one in which she lived, such questions didn't always make sense. "There have been a few stars in the heavens which have needed my attention as of late." She adds with a small shrug.
Turning toward the Owlbear pelt, Safrin tilts her head as she reaches out a finger to gently touch the creature. "Do you plan on wearing this under the water?" The goddess wonders, sliding her gaze back to her king. "I wouldn't want to give you anything which would be cumbersome beneath the waves, as even feathers could be, but if you don't plan to we could always add something else?"
Safrin's praise was a warmth in his chest and a point of pride for one of Torchline's quieter leaders in recent years. He inclined his head, basking in her approval before inquiring after her well-being. Her vague answer caused him no concern. So long as she was well and had nothing to ask of him in return he trusted to her words and the rightness of the stars she tended.
The pelt, however, brought with it several intriguing possibilities. "I do..." he agreed slowly to the prospect of wearing it underwater. It had been enough to ask her help in working it into a protective armor to reduce harm done to him, he had thought. Now, with the offer of it being able to do more, he had to pause and consider the best shape for it to take. "It would be convenient if it could be worn as an armlet until it was needed." It would significantly reduce its drag while swimming, and be far less intimidating than wearing full armor all the time.
And turning it into an adornment appealed to the vain mermanta.
Smiling, Hadama's vanity was a thing the goddess appreciated rather than judged him for, Safrin nods. "Very wise." She murmurs, not needing to read his thoughts to guess at the sorts of considerations undergone behind the king's deep whirlpool stare.
"Just a few things first...?" It wasn't as though the Tidebreaker didn't know the drill by now, and so without pomp, Safrin lays out the sorts of things he'll need to do before she can grant him the item he seeks.
Hadama has been given a quest! He must:
Find something small which can be made big
Find something big which can be made small
Bring Safrin the best thing he can fit into his hand
Source whatever sort of item he'd like the armour to fold into (i.e., bring a necklace if you want it to be a necklace, etc).
Indeed he did know the drill, but his expression grew even more thoughtful as she listed what would be needed to craft what he requested. No simple shopping list of ingredients, this. It was a challenge worthy of the armor he sought, requiring serious thought about what would satisfy the descriptions he had been given.
"Yes," he said after a long moment, ideas beginning to churn slowly, deep beneath the surface of his conscious mind. "Thank you." For hearing his prayer and answering it, giving him the chance to gain a great boon from her.
As he was preparing to take his leave, a final thought occurred to him, and he removed the Kraken's map from his pouch, unrolling it to show the goddess. "Does this place look familiar? I have been unable to find it," he admitted. But then, the map had a bird's-eye - or star's-eye - view the merman could only imagine.
Thinking that their palaver was nearly at its end, Safrin begins to rise. Already the hem of her dress is disappearing back into the waves as she turns to look at the map. Though it was only a fragment of a whole, indeed the goddess thought she did know where it was referencing. "Looks like a bit of Stormbreak to me." She says with a light shrug. "Possibly one of the floating islands around the main one."
Chuckling to herself as the bottom of her gown, and seemingly the bottom of her being is dissolved by the surf, Safrin smiles fondly at the mermanta. "Looks like you've another adventure to get to." She says with a wink, before the ocean greedily tugs her down into its depths.
