Caiaphas had been plopped out in the plains after the ordeal with the magic portals and fixing the end of the world, but being injured and surrounded by strangers didn’t sit well with her. She’d slunk away without fanfare, limping off a sprained wrist and covered in bruises but otherwise nearly unscathed.
Nearly.
Enough to hide away until the pain subsided and she felt confident in walking tall again.

She was aimless. She’d never had nothing to do so long, and while at first it’d been freeing, it’d gotten boring. Caiaphas was a spy, a storyteller; she thrived in places of chaos, where history was made and legends lived on in the hearts of those she inspired with the tales. She needed adventures or those willing to share theirs. Having glowing bodily fluids sure was a good story, she supposed, and the one that earned her such a strange.... blessing?

She’d tried finding a way back home. If she’d found a way here, maybe she could return? But wherever she went, there was no shimmer of magic, no doorway that led her home. She’d even tried using the tunnels, desperately thinking of Thornhaven.
She’d only ended up back in the fucking cold. She’d gone right back through, frustrated, and ended up back where she’d started in this forsaken land. Better than the north, at least; it wasn't so bad now that the frostkill was over, and her joints didn’t ache with age anymore, but she still felt sour at the reminder of what she’d lost. The mountains and cold just made her think of having failed where she ought not have. Where she realized her powers were well and truly gone.
Well fine. She didn’t need them. Maybe the Fae Queen had finally bothered paying attention to her and given her what she’d always wanted: a normal life, free of her gilded chains, reborn to have a new life.

But that left her aimless.

She didn’t know what to do, if not to live in the service of Thornhaven. She’d never imagined that a bad thing; so long, she’d wanted to be free to travel. To meet others. To love freely and party hard, to not be tethered to anything and anyone.

They said be careful what you wish for. Caiaphas thought she understood that now.

She forged her way into the sprawling autumnal forest in the center of the land, reminded more of home than anywhere else in this blasted land. She'd been here since then, haunting the forest like the lonely little fae she was. Hunting, minding her own business, just... existing.
Remembering.
Thinking.

The moon was no more a claw-scratch in the sky, and the wind was fierce. Caiaphas perched upon a thick, gnarly branch of a tree, staring at the sky, chin up and ears back as the heavy breeze ruffled her fur.