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!
Vi was vexed. When he was vexed he was restless, which was why one blazing dawn saw him skating down the rivulets and currents of the Stonesong, his bare feet a whisper on the water, lost in the haunting melodies of the river. Overhead there was nary a cloud, save for the one he had conjured to blot out the troublesome couple of stars that still irked him.
To disrupt the nature of things for the sake of some mortal emotions? What had Safrin been thinking? He doubted Rae would care, but similarly this did not sit right with him. Souls were one way or the other. They walked with Vi or with Mort. Not in the sky.
Brooding, he brushed a hand over one of the stones as he drifted by, causing the moss there to brighten and blossom.
04-10-2019, 06:01 PM (This post was last modified: 04-10-2019, 06:34 PM by Mort.)
"Have I mentioned lately how handsome you are when you're cross?"
Mort stood knee-deep in the Stonesong despite the fact that it was impossible for his feet to reach the bottom. Pants rolled up to his knees and a short rolled up to his elbows, the youthful looking god was the picture of endearment as he scattered bits of food to the aquatic life that made its home here.
Pushing an errant strand of hair from his eyes with the back of his hand, he regarded his stormy and stoic counterpart with a crooked smile that caused ripples of skin to form at the corners of his mouth.
"Only always. Have I told you lately how cross it makes me when you try to cheer me up?" Vi scoffed and glanced away, the faintest of smiles making its way across his face as he skated in a circle around his paddling counterpart, before falling to a halt beside him. He allowed his feet to submerge in the Stonesong until they were of a height, though Vi did not bother to roll up his clothes.
Instead, where the plant and animal life of the river brushed against him it seemed energised, renewed... full of life, funnily enough. "Feeding them will only make them expect it," he chastised. "You must let them learn to thrive on their own."
04-10-2019, 06:09 PM (This post was last modified: 04-10-2019, 06:34 PM by Mort.)
"Only always." Mort repeated with a low laugh.
Mort took a long and silent moment to look upon his beloved with darkening and adoring eyes. Vi did indeed look cross, one only needed to see the frenzied life his anger inspired to know it, but the god of death's soul was not such that the darkened taint of the living could tarnish it. Meeting Vi's prickliness with a widening smile, he turned his attention to the creatures below the surface of the water and considered.
"A little hope is not such a bad thing, is it? They know they must still thrive, but that perhaps occasionally the sky might open up and rain food down upon them. And what a wonderful thing that is for them to know!"
Looking up, Mort glanced at the solitary cloud in the sky, his lips twitching into an adorable downwards smile though he said nothing as he gave Vi a knowing sort of look.
"Hope is dangerous," Vi remarked, new buds starting to bloom in his beard as they spoke. Still, he could not stay this surly all morning, and he began to let Mort coax him into his normally jaded self, rather than this extremely jaded persona he wore. "I suppose you have a point," he said reluctantly, casting his counterpart a sideways glance and smirking.
He didn't miss the way Mort glanced to the clouds, Vi rolling dark eyes and gazing around at all that there was. All that Rae had created for them to play in. My herald is miserable," he said. "Over two stars. Not even two - just the one, in truth - but still they gaze down upon the world like gods." He scoffed. "Would that I could rip them from the sky and end the saga."
"Life is dangerous." Mort corrected with a whimsical shrug, reaching down to cup a palmful of water and letting it arc easily towards his counterpart. For a moment the droplets held firm in the sunlight, glistening and beautifully reflecting the light like so many stars, before crashing against the man the god of death so loved.
"I have heard." Mort said, pushing his sleeve up further to dunk a hand beneath the surface of the water. There an old and weary whisperfish lay, barely moving. "Ludo is not happy about her disobedience to place them there either." He added, lips turning into a knowing grin as he plucked the fish from the water. Though it was without its supply of oxygen, its gills pumped fruitfully and it seemed to be invigorated once more. "Though it rarely is content when it comes to Safrin's doings." Mort mused, bringing the fish to his lips. With a kiss and a whispered word, the aged scales dissolved and a prismatic dusting of energy radiated outwards from the small creature whose life was no more. Swimming upon an invisible stream, it lurched happily before darting upwards and into a realm that only Mort knew.
"You wouldn't really though, would you? Rip them that is? Their souls might be damaged beyond repair. The only way would be to place them back here, where they could leave their bodies properly."
"Yes, Mort. Life is dangerous," Vi agreed, his eyes still upon the clouds that drifted subtly but insistently over the two stars that burned above. Watching the interaction with the whisperfish out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't stop the smile that warmed his usually stony expression.
"Ludo speaks sense, for once," he mused, raising a hand against the water that splashed against him, casting rainbows here and there where it hit.
"I have been sorely tempted," he admitted, narrowing his eyes and wading to the riverbank to sit there. "You would have me breathe life back into the dead, Mort? How very you," he remarked. "And what then? I give them essence, only for you to take it again?"
Reaching out a hand to fold his fingers into the opening of Vi's pocket, the smaller god looked up into the face that had breathed life into a myriad of forms, and smiled. "I know you are upset with her." He said in a low but sweet voice. "She did they best she could. They all did. One of those stars died opening the Spire, though I believe it was Safrin's love for you that blinded her to the ramifications of allowing him to act as he did.."
Shrugging, Mort tried to pull Vi to him, to tangle his fingers into his lover's earthen beard. "So no. I would not take it immediately. They were pulled into a world they did not understand and fought in a battle they had no business being in." The god continued, the pads of his fingers infinitely soft, the shine of his eyes dark and dreamy.
Vi could only grumble an agreement with his counterpart, averting his eyes until the point where Mort drew him closer. He moulded against him as though they were two halves of one whole (and they were), a strong arm slipping around a slim waist to hold him.
"That is not the way though, Mort," he said softly, leaning into the touch and closing his eyes, weary. Life was hard, and Vi knew it more than all the lives in the world rolled into one.
"If I return them - even one of them - to this world, there is a broken cycle. A debt owed. It would throw things out of balance, and I will not stand for it." He sighed.
"No. But ways change. Hope can be given." Mort replied in a soft but affectionate tone. His fingertips roamed featherlight across Vi's face, and as the god closed his eyes, Mort gently rubbed his thumbs against the thin skin there, before moving out towards his temples and ushering away the looming headache that culminated like a thundercloud.
"Ah, a good point." Mort said with a knowing and playful sort of smile, linking his arms around Vi's much broader chest and resting his head gently against the powerful broadness of him, listening to the roar of life within.
"What if I paid the debt?" Mort mused with a hum of sentimentality, his tone almost casual as he suggested the near-impossible.
"You are playing me," Vi commented with a wry smirk, though he did nothing to prevent the other deity from exacting his fuss - proof that it was working, clearly. A quiet, rumbling groan thrummed in his chest, both at the affection and his troubling comments, and he let long fingers play into the thatch of messy curls of Mort's hair as they spoke.
Dark eyes snapped open, however, at the mere suggestion of his lover paying any such debt, Vi touching a hand to the pale, smooth cheek pressed against his chest. "What is that supposed to mean?" he inquired.
"Yes." Mort agreed with a silent smile. "I can't help myself."
Mort could feel the way Vi's eyes snapped open at the bare suggestion, but instead of being equally at attention, he merely collapsed himself against the larger man, his chin tilting upwards into the caress. "There is a soul that..." He hummed thoughtfully as he looked up, dark lashes parting. "A soul that has more than it ought. A soul that boasts of immortality. That too is an imbalance. Those souls together though...and the debt could be equalized."
"And I can't help letting you," Vi complained, though his eyes were sharp and wholly on the other god, even as he tucked himself so close and so comfortable. Right where Vi wanted him in truth, but it did not take away from the severity of the conversation.
But then he spoke, and the god of life near blazed with the prospect of another imbalance, and of restoring some sense of order to the world in righting that wrong. That it would also make his herald happy was a meaningless side effect. He told himself, fooling no one.
"Only for one, though. Life for life." He narrowed his eyes up at the clouds, which had parted to reveal the two stars. "The seabird chatters, sometimes, I feel," he muttered. "She and Safrin seem to be of the same mind. It is all beginning to give me a headache, Mort."
Mort looked up into Vi's eyes, reaching up to smooth his eyebrows down with both of his thumbs. Unlike humans, Mort did not need to relieve either of them of their clothing in order to be against his counterpart. Their souls were mirrors of the same truth; it would take more than cloth to keep the god of death from feeling the presence of the man he loved.
"Life for life." Mort repeated without argument. The mention of chattering only made Mort crinkle his nose with amused understanding. "Safrin is as you have made her to be." He said with a gentle shrug, arms falling to encircle Vi's neck and to gently tug at the hair curled low at the base of his neck.
"I will see to it." Mort chuckled, pressing a kiss to two of his fingers and then placing them against Vi's lips. And in the space of a sigh, he was gone.
