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!
How one manages such a thing is beyond him, given that the city is literally floating and it's not like he can wander off the edge of it or anything. But it doesn't make it any less true, and as he ducks around a section of overhanging roots and rocks, he almost concedes defeat and resorts to shifting to fly out and make his escape. Almost.
But with the dying light of day bleeding through the gaps in Stormbreak's tangled underside, the earth is painted in shades of rich copper and gold; it's unexpectedly beautiful, and Ronin allows himself to linger a bit longer to watch the rise and flow of light on the stone.
Places like the Grotto hadn't existed when he'd been Commander of the Storm - a time that feels like forever ago now, when the city had been rooted firmly on the ground and war loomed on the horizon like an impossibly tall shadow. Stormbreak feels more whimsical, these days, an opinion that is further cemented in Ronin's mind when he spots a sparkle of something on a makeshift ledge nearby.
It looks as though it has been wrapped up, but animals or the weather have torn the brown paper somewhat, revealing an intricate and entirely impractical tea set nestled against the rock. Eyeing the cups and saucers as if there might be a genie hiding in them, Ronin finally sighs and starts to make his way over. Fine - colour him intrigued.
It's a saying for good reason, and right now she feels it's true, except for the part of her which isn't free.
Nearly every day since Rae hooked the linnet inside her and reeled her in from the depths of her soul, Eden donned her avian cloak for some amount of time. It's a fair tribute, she reasons — why wouldn't using the gift her God gave her be seen as a form of worship? Doesn't she owe as much? Perhaps more? Lacking admission to an Old God's motives, Eden often ponders why one would bestow such a favor upon her brothers and herself without asking anything in return. That is the part of her which isn't free, the part which is still on the hook; Eden doesn't like owing favours to anyone, even if that someone is a God. She wouldn't mind returning the favour, not at all.
The perks make up for that debt, though. At least for now, free and exuberant in the Grotto's tangle.
Sometimes when she comes here, she hops from one twisted root to the arch of another. Sometimes she flits between them with agility, testing how long she can weave through the net of Stormbreak's foundation before she tires. Sometimes she spends the time as she does now, spinning her mind around and around her theological questions without an answer in sight. Sometimes she loses herself completely in the currents of air billowing against her wings.
Today is a day for thinking until she spies something unexpected: a man. Eden bounces sideways along the gnarled root for a better view. What is he doing here? What has he found? She flies closer, landing on a curled root overhead with her head curiously cocked.
What's that?
Not that she really expects an answer.
do you know, the wind once whispered to me: "you're going to be amazing."
Teasing away the parchment paper from the tea set, Ronin is enthralled to find it almost entirely intact. Sure, there's a small chip on one of the saucers, but the rest looks pristine. There isn't, however, a note to describe the whys and who's it fors of the parcel, and he looks around (somewhat dumbly) as if the courier or recipient will conveniently appear nearby.
That isn't what happens, naturally. But a voice does trill to life in his mind, and Ronin blinks and turns to seek out the source. There are no animals about other than the small bird perched somewhere above him, and so the Supernova offers the linnet. "Do you mean that?" He gestures to the object on the ledge behind him, his smile pleasant enough.
"It's a tea set. I'm not sure how it got here, though. You... you are the Attuned who spoke to me, right?" Otherwise Disney has just added a very beardy new princess to its roster.
A swell of amusement tickles her tiny belly as the man searches for the one who spoke to him, along with a soft wave of pleasant surprise that he heard her at all. Eden tilts her head the other direction in a swift movement rather than answering at first, catching sight of the porcelain's patterns and the chipped saucer.
Ah. A tea set...? Curious! And... in good enough condition that perhaps it would sell for a decent price. Except, this man found it first, and finders keepers and all that. It became a necessity, then, to fabricate some reason he should not want it, and barring that, discover his asking price.
Maybe I am, she sings with mischief. Or maybe this is all a pretty daydream. But the teasing in her voice is obvious. With a flurry of wings she breaks from her perch and takes a position beside the mysterious items on that makeshift ledge. You weren't about to touch it, were you? Chances are it's cursed.
Though she presents this possibility with a motive of her own, there's a chance that it's true. Why else would somebody leave a perfectly valuable tea set in a place this isolated and inaccessible? Short of throwing it into the sky, this is as far from civilisation as one can get in Stormbreak.
do you know, the wind once whispered to me: "you're going to be amazing."
bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones.
You've encountered the OG random event! This allows you to skip one levelling requirement with the character in this thread. (Unfortunately does not count for characters over level 10, how sad.)
Unaware of the machinations taking place in the linnet's mind overhead, Ronin remains happily innocent in the conversation (maybe there's more to that Disney princess analogy than we thought, huh buddy). "Mm, as daydreams go, I've had worse," he agrees; bathed in sunset with the world spilling away beneath them, he's got to applaud his imagination if this is all happening in his head.
Anyway, back to the cursed tea set. "You think so?" Flashing the Attuned a lopsided smile, he peers a little closer at the porcelain. "It would explain why it's been abandoned out here, I suppose." Great minds, and all that. "I do feel pretty lucky, though. And it seems a bit of a shame to let it get broken or blown off the ledge in a storm." All that is to say that he fully does intend to pick it up - which doesn't reduce the likelihood of it actually being cursed.
