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!
They’d been planning to meet for so long, and get so much had happened in the time between that she feels like she has an entire library worth of information to share with her friend as she stands on the shoreline. The waves are choppier than normal, but it’s still far warmer than Halo, so Evie doesn’t mind the water rushing around her bare legs despite the abnormal force.
Though she holds a formal letter in hand, it’s a formality at best given she will be sharing the news directly. As she sees Hadama surfacing - easier now with how his hair contrasts more readily against the darker, stormier waters - Evie waves her hand overhead with a smile fit for the sun. And if she can’t help but step deeper into the ocean, well, she’s impatient.
“I have so much good news for you,” she blurts immediately, before any hellos can be shared. It makes her laugh at herself, cheeks pink but ultimately unrepentant. “But hello, how are you, I’ve missed you!” Evie practically vibrates, clearly wanting to plunge straight into the happy announcements she has to share with the Tidebreaker.
a golden cage, for all its worth and beauty is still just a cage
It had been too long since their last meeting, but then Hadama always felt that way, whether they'd parted for a week or a season. Evie's gentle warmth and light were a balm to the mermanta in times of trouble and a bright, buoyant bubble of quiet joy when things were peaceful. Recent events had pulled him towards the former, between weather, flowers, and politics, and so he had written back to his friend with relief and welcome, looking forward to her visit with more than his usual anticipation.
He swam to the meeting place, cautious about aquaporting into the Isles with their eternal shifting, and when he surfaced Evie's hair made her a bright and vibrant flame amidst the choppy seas.
Choppy seas which quickly smoothed over around the Evergreen as Hadama approached, and he felt some of the tension that had been strung so tightly within his chest ease a little as he met her smile. Her joy was infectious, and the Tidebreaker inclined his head in welcome, a small smile finally curving his own lips for the first time in what felt like weeks. "Evie. I have missed you as well. What news?"How he was could wait. This was clearly a celebratory occasion, and he suspected he wouldn't have to wait long to discover just how much of one it was.
To either side of them the unusually high waves may have crashed upon the shore with concerning force, but the sea was as gentle as a lagoon around where the two friends met.
The angry seas calm the moment Hadama approaches, giving Evie all the confidence she needs to wade further into the water - grateful as always for her Academy blessing and the way it wards off the worst of the chill. Though she usually lets him come to her first for any kind of physicality, respecting his personal space at all turns, Evie can't help but move to fling her arms around his shoulders in a quick squeeze-and-shake to try and purge herself of the electric feeling in her bones that has her bouncing backward with a bright laugh and a newly damp shirt.
Brandishing the invite at him, Evie bounces on her heels as she waits for him to pop the golden wax seal on the back, but she can only manage to wait long enough for him to get through, We request the pleasure of your company to celebrate the marriage of Deimos Ignatius and Evie Wordsworth on the evening of -- before she breaks. "Deimos and I are getting married!" It flocks from her lips like twitterpated sparrows, her now free hands clasping eagerly in front of her chest.
"It will be in the greenhouse, and there's an entire aquatic section that will hopefully be large enough for you to port into or transported to," she assures, attempting to fend off any concerns or rebuttals ahead of time. Desperate for him to agree, to be equally excited, because he's the only person she has who she can invite, and this means so much to her in a way she can't readily express to him. "I was hoping you'd be my best man?" Her eyes are soft and vulnerable as she asks it, smile slightly tremulous. "My friend Alys will be helping me with my dress, but...you're my closest friend. I'd really like you to be there." And though she's the type to wear her heart on her sleeve, the Evergreen shakes herself slightly, cheeks pink as she soldiers on. "It's going to be a really small, intimate ceremony. But there will be a much larger reception after!" If, for some reason, he chooses to decline and only attend as a dignitary.
a golden cage, for all its worth and beauty is still just a cage
There were some people who had earned Hadama's trust and comfort such that he welcomed such displays of affection. After his family, Evie was the first among them, and as she braved the chilly waters to approach he used his magic to pull himself up on a column of seawater so he could better return the embrace. He might not know the reason for her joy, but he shared it with her regardless, giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze before freeing her to share her news.
And oh, what news it was!
His eyes had barely skimmed the words before she spoke them aloud, lending reality to the abstract text and he looked up to see her face. His chest swelled with quiet joy for her, nearly bursting with bright emotion that had been far too lacking in his life of late. He savored it, holding onto his dignity only long enough for Evie to make her request before he abandoned it to swim forward in his personal column of sea, opening his arms to offer a second hug in as many minutes. Without a shared Attuned bond he had no other way to show his happiness for her, but he gathered her close, his voice a soft and fervent rumble in her ear. "My deepest congratulations. Evie, I am so happy for you."
He held the embrace longer this time, finally pulling away when the lump in his throat had subsided enough to speak. He bowed his steel silver head deeply over her hands, which he took in his webbed fingers, the invitation carefully tucked in his two smallest fingers so it didn't blow away. "And it would be my greatest honor, if I could. But I can only survive in natural bodies of water if it is not the full moon." And that had only just passed an aching few days before.
He squeezed her hands, his touch as light and careful as ever in spite of his strength. "My heart will be with you. And if there is time to quest, I will ask a god for a favor to allow me to be there. When is the day?"
The chill of the water, what she can still feel of course, has nothing on the warmth of her spirit and Hadama’s firm but gentle grip. Laughing brightly as the news hits and he swims forth to embrace her of his own accord this time, she throws her arms back around him gleefully, ecstatic to share in this bright and shining moment. “Thank you,” she manages to squeeze out past the joy in her chest.
Looking into his eyes as he takes her hands, she tempers the flash of perceived rejection with understanding, even as something sorrowful encroaches around it. “There is still so much we don’t know about you and your people,” she mourns, wishing she’d thought to ask this sooner. Given the ease he’d visited Halo for the Academy, she’d simply never thought about it, which feels unfair and inaccessible to her.
“Mid-season, on the solstice.” When the day would be longest, and promising of a bountiful spring - a bountiful future. Squeezing his hands, she rubs her thumbs over the backs of them, trying to project reassurance. “Even if you cannot come, I wanted you to know. And to see you that morning at the beach, or perhaps after my honeymoon.” As an Abandoned, the notion of questing for a boon seems monumental and certainly something she cannot ask him to do. While the reception would have to be held in the Citadel for the visitors who could not handle the cold beyond the gates, it would keep her friend from her side, and it breaks her heart - but she won’t let it show. “Or - if you had something I could hold onto, so I might feel you’re there all the same?” Her friendship and love have never been beholden to physical presence, and she won’t have that changing today.
a golden cage, for all its worth and beauty is still just a cage
"Yes," he agreed with how much the Mer were still a mystery to most humans. Not entirely without design, as the old insular ways lingered, but they were beginning to give way to the new bridges that had been built in times of peace. But for those outside Torchline the Mer might as well still be as strange and alien as the Fae and the Ancients, and Hadama's smile turned a little sad as that strangeness raised a reef between them on a day when he would have most wanted to celebrate his best friend's joy.
A season, even a full month to prepare, and he might have been able to be there for her. But now... "I will be at the Bay," he promised. As close as he could come to her home when the moon was less than full. "Whenever you need me there." That much, at least, he would not miss for the world.
Her request brought a light back into his eyes and he squeezed her hands again. His head tilted to the side as mischief warmed his eyes, bright and warm and glad that here, at least, was something he could do. "Indeed. I have been waiting to give it to you. I will be back soon."
He drifted back, disengaging before he let the water around him drop him back into the waves which returned to their energetic froth a moment later as he teleported back to the Underwater City and his rooms there.
It was less than ten minutes before the Tidebreaker returned, soothing the waters around him and swimming up to Evie with a twinkle in his eye and a large polished shell in his hand that he held out to her proudly. "An early wedding gift," he rumbled. "So I will be there in spirit."
Evie already has so few people to accompany her on the day of the ceremony that the prospect of visiting Hadama at the Bay is far from a hassle. It would in fact be quite nice to have a private moment out on the beach to breathe and center herself amidst any pre-wedding nerves, with Hadama there to ground her and share in her happiness. Squeezing his hands, she nods fervently. "I'll be waiting there the morning of the ceremony. Our usual training spot." It has the most accessible pathway given the frequent treading of Academy students, and would ensure they wouldn't lose valuable time trying to find each other across miles of sand.
Mischief is an expression she rarely sees on Hadama, though she nevertheless preens at the frequency she is permitted to do so as compared to what others might know of the man. It's difficult to wait when the promise of a surprise is at hand, but it's worth it when he emerges with a beautiful shell in hand, ceasing all idle jitters as Evie takes in its beauty.
Her hands shake slightly as she reaches out to caress the polished exterior, little tears pricking in her eyes and darkening the ginger shade of her lashes. "It's beautiful Dama," she murmurs, gently taking it into her own hands to rotate it and brush her fingertips over the bumps and ridges. Then she presses it to her chest, smiling radiantly despite the sheen in her eyes. "I'll keep it with me the entire time. Thank you." And this time she leans into a hug with him, refusing to part with her gift even when it makes it difficult to embrace.
a golden cage, for all its worth and beauty is still just a cage
He nodded, and there would be no emergency so great that he would not be there for her on the morning of the happiest day of her life.
Or at least, the first of many happiest days, he hoped for her.
He regretted the need to leave her, and if he'd suspected the reason for their meeting today he would have brought the gift with him. As it was, he was relieved that he had worked to prepare it in advance so that it was ready now, with so little time before the wedding day.
The shell he handed over proudly, hinged to hide its secrets, was beautiful in its own right, but he realized when Evie accepted it that he had been a bit too clever in hiding the opening. His smile slowly spread into a grin, bright and joyful as white teeth flashed from dark skin as they embraced and then he pulled back a small distance. "There is a trick to it," he rumbled, the mischief shining fully in his eyes as he pointed to the small inset sapphire on one side of the shell. "Press... here."
And when she did the shell would pop open a hair's breadth, enough to lift the top from the bottom half, revealing the pair of blue pearl drop earrings within, set in gold and matching the light summer-sky blue of Evie's own eyes.
Evie would have cherished the shell alone, given how rare they are in Halo - and rarer still in the Grounds, where they only had the Oasis - but she flushes all the same when Hadama gently points out that there’s more to gift than meets the eye. At least his grin, wide and mischievous, is worth the slight embarrassment.
When she obligingly presses on the inset sapphire, a small noise of surprise escapes her when it opens, and a strangled gasp follows directly after as the earrings within are revealed. Her eyes go wide, and then misty thereafter. The exactness of the shade is not lost on her. Her ensuing laugh is choked, clearly an attempt to dispel the emotional tears with only moderate success. “They’re so beautiful. Thank you, Dama. Thank you. I -” her mouth hangs soundless for a moment before she shakes her head in a whirlwind of red, no words coming to mind that could possibly encompass the weight of how much this means to her. Instead, she closes the shell gently once more, too scared to pull the earrings out and try them on by the water. Then she hugs him once more; tight, lingering this time. “I’ll wear them and know you’re with me,” she promises; though she knows she’ll see him the morning of the wedding too, the earrings will be a grounding reminder of her dear friend when he can’t physically be there at her side. Her tears are warm against his ocean-chilled skin, but she’s smiling all the while.
a golden cage, for all its worth and beauty is still just a cage
It was always a give and take between land and sea; the assumptions and norms of one place far less common or downright outlandish in the other. Even so, there was genuine delight in watching someone discover the trick of a shell box for the first time and remembering his own amazement and fascination with the lovely contraptions from his childhood. He made no attempt to hide his pleasure either, beaming with rare enthusiasm on this most auspicious of days as Evie discovered the true treasure within the shell.
And her reaction was everything he had hoped for.
He opened his arms barely in time to catch the second hug, folding his friend into an embrace that was damp but warm in spite of the cool waters. "Be happy," he wished her, his voice a murmur of warm and quiet waves upon a peaceful shore - so very different than the current state of Torchline's sea but echoing the smile that still curved his lips. "And afterwards, tell me every detail."
