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!
The recent fight in the Oerwoud had Sah doubling down on his training yet again. The Dreamwalker had shot that Attuned woman down in an instant; a sharp reminder of just how swiftly death could come. Feeling restless and in need of action, he sought out the most secluded outdoor training grounds at the Arcane Academy. The Wild Thunder didn't want to risk any passersby being caught up in the storm.
Once he ensured that he was alone, Sah took a deep breath. Calling forth his mastered air, water, and lighting, the Wild Thunder attempted to recreate the storm that he'd unleashed on the Dreamwalker. The wind quickly began to whip around him as the clouds darkened quickly. Soon heavy hail began to overtake the training ground around him and with a flick of his wrist, Sah forced lightning to strike from above.
Gritting his teeth, Sah attempted to push the storm outward and increase its radius across the training ground. It seemed to work for a moment before his concentration broke and the storm collapsed inward to a smaller form. Shaking ice from his hair, the Wild Thunder refocused and began to try once more.
Deimos didn’t frequent the Academy. His base was more inclined to the barracks, and histories melded and molded there usually meant Zariah, even if this was Ru’s turf now. So he studied it with a broad glance and wide berth, walking in and being advised in several directions towards the aforementioned Valkyrie – but curiosity always took an intriguing turn, and he’d ended up towards the outdoor portions of the training grounds.
His brow arched as he witnessed another in its midst – Sah – watching as the wind whittled and the clouds darkened, hail pouring downward upon the range, with lightning amplified. It seemed as if the Thunder had been working on it for some time, pushing the elements into his own control and command, before they seemed to pull apart and ceased; diminishing rapidly.
With a vague huff, and placing the note intended for Ru inside his pockets, he announced his presence over the vacant rumbling and roars. “Sah,” and he jutted his jawline in casual, Swordlike greeting. “What are you working on?” For it seemed the culmination of the storm had been just fine, and the aftermath…something else.
Sah glanced up at the sound of a familiar voice calling his name. "Hey, Deimos." Turning to look at his friend, the Abandoned explained his current predicament. "I've been working on trying to increase the radius of my storms and ran into a bit of a snag. It takes longer to form a large storm so I thought if I could create smaller ones and then expand them, it'd be more effective."
Calling forth his magic, Sah began to form a small storm over the center of the training grounds. In such a confined form, the storm raged with rapid winds and rapid lighting strikes. "But when I try to expand it, it loses structure and begins to break down. I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate more wind to grow it without disrupting the balance of the storm's energy." It was fascinating how fragile such a powerful fore could be.
To demonstrate, the Wild Thunder focused and began to add more air magic, causing the storm to slowly increase its radius. As it drew closer to the edges of the training ground, the winds faltered, and the storm broke down. "See?"
Sah’s explanations left the Sword’s brow arching once more, taking in the aspects described. While the elements were under the Warden’s control with little fanfare or issue, the Thunder had held these issues before, if he could recall, with the alternating flames and water. That the storms were haphazard and sometimes relenting didn’t surprise him either; though maybe the other Abandoned would have better luck asking Ru, considering her vast experience with lightning.
But Deimos could strive to use the knowledge he held and contained, years of wisdom and experience still instilled no matter the level or fixture of enchantments. “Are you having trouble concentrating again?” Uncertain if the issues were starting there, or if it was something else.
Long strides swept him forward, and he watched the building of the storm once more. “Perhaps it also matters which magic you start with.”
Sah shook his head, "I don't think it's concentration." The concentration break seemed to be happening more often as the storm was already breaking, a response and not a cause. He turned to Deimos as the man spoke, "It could be the layering. I'm wondering if I need to be adjusting different aspects at the same time to make it expand. I've been focusing more on the air first since it's the main body of the storm but maybe I need to be adjusting the water and lightning more too."
Letting out a hum he considered his options, "I'm going to try adjusting the water first. Maybe increasing the humidity in the air will help stabilize the wind as it grows." Sah had been studying a bit on the weather to try and fine-tune his storms, but he was far from an expert.
Rolling back his shoulders, the Wild Thunder tried one more. The initial combination of elements easily created a powerful storm in the center of the training grounds. Eyes narrowed, Sah then focused on the tricky part. Instead of working to speed up the wind first as he'd been previously doing, he tried to draw more moisture into the storm from the surrounding sky. He could feel the density of the storm shift, growing heavier and nearly slowing down. It was then that he increased the output of his air magic to try and speed the storm back up.
Sah grinned back at Deimos as the storm not only returned to its normal speed but began to expand outwards, "It worked!" After a few moments to ensure the stability of his creation, the Wild Thunder allowed the storm to dissipate and the weather to return to normal.
"Thank you. I never would have thought about the order of the elements. I thought it'd be the same for creating and expanding a storm." Sah tilted his head, "Is there anything that you're currently working on? I'd be happy to return the favor."
Deimos, ever patient, waited as Sah contemplated choices, concentration, and adherence to the necessary skills. While the Thunder had grown inexplicably, there was always much to learn in the ways of incantations; and sometimes it simply didn’t come naturally. Nodding at the plausibilities and possibilities, the Sword became a casual observer once more, eyes flickering at the breadth and combination of elements stirred again – snorting when the adjustments seemed to prevail. “It depends on the individual, I believe,” and with nothing more to back up the claim but experience, he shrugged his shoulders.
As for his own ventures in enchantments, he experimented frequently, and within the jurisdiction of the barracks, or along the Tundra, where the sweeping grounds weren’t impacted by his monstrous schemes. Here, though moderately confined, he pondered over potentials, brow furrowing for a moment. “Nothing in particular,” though…”however, we can always practice with storms and adding more to them. Like fire,” with a juvenile grin contorting over his features.
Within a moment, his own layers of Mastered Air and Fire began, swirling and swarming above.
Sah nodded in response to Deimos' words. The Sword had a point. Magic was truly individual even when it was the same form of magic. It was fascinating if one took the time to think about it. But now wasn't the time. Not when there was magical mischief to get up to.
The Wild Thunder eyed Deimos's brewing firestorm and a feral grin stretched across his face. "Oh, I like this. You're on." To counteract the rising storm, he created his own made of air and water. A swirling water tornado rose up and began to head towards Deimos' fiery one. Sah would love to try a fire or lightning one of his own, but Deimos' magic far surpassed his own. Water would give him a better chance with elemental advantage.
Any challenge spurred the Sword; an ancient and primordial provocation since he was a young child. Through wars and grief and heartache and death, there was still always some level of competitive and juvenile spirit encroached upon his mind, and with his specific goading, Sah seemed to be up to fanning the flames.
With water.
With an abrupt snort, his vicious cyclone amplified, bolder and brighter, stronger and infernal, gusting towards an expanded rotation of hellfire and brimstone. Barely satisfied, for he yearned for it to reign terror over Sah’s incantations, he pressed and cajoled, waiting to see, to hear, the potential and abrupt snapping and sizzling of water boiling and churning.
Deimos snorted and increased the strength of his storm. In response, Sah strove to do the same. More water, more air, faster speed. The Sword might have been hoping to hear the sound of boiling water, but the Wild Thunder was hoping to hear the hiss of fire going out. If not that, then the whistle of steam as the two storms caused the other's collapse.
The two storms met in the middle and there was the sound of whistling and popping. Both cyclones significantly weakened at the presence of their opposite but Deimos' stronger magic prevailed. The water tornado broke apart, but the inferno was only barely holding onto life.
Grinning, Sah's magic rose again. If water failed, then perhaps a dust storm would choke the flames. Channeling earth and wind, the younger Abandoned sent a whirling storm of dirt and quickly drying debris at the firestorm.
No – it didn’t dim, but rose and rose and rose, fanned flames on the potency of his power, minatory and malicious when it needed to be, protective and sheltering all the other times. For now they were restless plunges of elemental synapses, and he snickered, watching as the embers roared and lured, completely unbothered as he churned them into more and more, infernal materials snagging at open space.
Nor was he bothered by Sah’s dust and dirt, and in fact, strived to see if he could contort and control the Thunder’s too – pressing in on the prowess of his incantations, on the power contained and commanded within his figure. Perhaps he could alter the course of the earthen wares too. Perhaps he could minimize the efforts. A test, really, of how much could be bent and swayed.
As fire met dust, there was the sound of small cracks in the air. Some of the dirt solidified once more and fell to the earth, but Sah's storm still surged. A prickling on the back of his neck alerted Sah to Deimos' actions. If the Sword thought he could overtake the Wild Thunder's own magic, he was wrong. The older Abandoned was more powerful and experienced without debate.
Magic had been at the core of Sah's being since before coming to Caido. And he was stubborn. As such upon feeling Deimos' magic attempting to overtake his crafted elements, the young Abandoned snarled and ripped back control of the earth in the air before the Sword could truly grab hold. For a moment, Sah considered trying to reverse the maneuver and wrestle control of the Warden's fire, but he refrained. he knew such an endeavor was doomed to fail.
Sah commanded his dust storm to expand and reach around the swirling fire, attempting to smother the flames faster than Deimos could reignite them.
Deimos was much the same – born, embedded, and encouraged throughout modicums of magic from childhood. Inherent and traditional, expected no matter the danger aspects of things that ran through his blood, it’d been a natural occurrence for those in Isilme, and by extension Helovia, to be immersed and entangled within incantations. As natural as breathing, as easy as a stray thought.
But it still made him laugh as Sah refused to relent; entirely coaxed and cajoled into masterful exploits. A loosening of coiled, contorted fragments unfurled, encouraged and amused to unleash more of the boundaries of fire and flame. Where Sah might have wished for something within the Sword to be smothered, it wouldn’t be his soul nor his flames, and instead, he urged them higher and higher, out of the dust’s reach, climbing to maelstrom and infernal heights. Some even distorted, rippled outwards, striving to swarm and surround, overwhelm.
Deimos' laugh pulled an amused scoff from Sah, and the Wild Thunder grinned as the flames rose. Doubling down on his efforts, Sah tried to combat the fire from both directions. The dust storm rose as the clouds above darkened. Within the span of a few heartbeats, a torrent of hail rained down upon the fiery cyclone.
The elements collided and Sah's wind from below spun portions of the hail back towards the sky. The result was icy hail and frosty, dust-filled winds attempting to swarm Deimos' storm from all sides in an endeavor to stop the fire from doing the same.
Extended efforts in the two-fold range made his brow arch, but Deimos could do much the same. He could hear the scoff, but didn’t relent in the rise of his snicker, conforming the epitome of his flames and infernal haze into overbearing elements, while interplaying another of his own.
Sah might have had his storms, but the Warden cultivated water too; encouraging, unraveling, unfurling until there was a vicious, maelstrom of ice shield swarming his barbaric hellfire. A protective force, a legion of lined particles frozen in place, to absorb and intercede the blows of hail and frost, while the bastions of conflagrations still raged and razed to all their glory.
