Freeday, 22nd of Marcia, 470th Year of the 5th Era
Serena had just returned to the village after an entire morning out picking herbs and sourcing ingredients for use in her studies of medicine and ointments. The sun was high in the middle of the clear blue sky and its rays of light were assaulting her very pale skin as if a wave of heat and intensity were fully intent on melting her and killing her. Clear signs that the dry season was sure to arrive sooner rather than later. Serena had been born in the village and had lived the entirety of her eighteen years of life there and while she herself was accustomed to the heat and the weather, her body's natural response and constitution still betrayed the foreign blood that flowed in her veins. As she walked through the village to make her way to her apothecary, she returned the greetings of the other villagers who passed by her. She considered everyone within the Village of Goria to be her family, but it was clear just from a glance that she was quite different physically from the others in the village.
Unlike the children who were currently running around chasing each other in a playful game of tag, her hair was of a dark auburn color while theirs was pitch black. What made her stand out the most from the rest of her village, however, was her very pale skin which contrasted the majority of the villagers who had varying degrees of tanned brown skin from very dark to very light. Her facial features also differed somewhat, with a higher nose bridge, smaller lips, and her most striking features were her blue eyes. All of this she had inherited from her father which often made her joke that her mother's blood - who was a native of the village - didn't even try when she was born. But despite the marked difference between her and the rest of the population, it didn't cause her too much discomfort. In fact, the elders of the village and many of her peers considered her to be particularly attractive with some even going so far as to give her the appellation of ‘The most beautiful among the Halak', though she hated the title and found it an annoyingly useless source of envy and bullying among her female peers. But regardless, that was the life she had been given to live and she was very content with it.
The village of Goria itself - though it was called a village - was very large and the last she heard had almost reached four thousand people in terms of residents. It wasn't surprising at all considering it was the most prominent settlement in all of the Halak lands and it exerted direct control over several other surrounding villages. The Halak people organized themselves into tribal clan structures and the village itself was under the rule of the Sigumogo Clan. Serena’s own mother was a member of one of the village’s other most prominent clans, the Sinatua with her maternal grandfather - Tuan Marasi Parlindungan Sinatua - acting as the second most Senior Advisor to the King of Goria, second only to her father, the Bishop and Head of the Halak Church.
Her father had arrived in the Halak lands over two decades ago as a missionary for the Christian faith from a land far away of which she personally had only been told stories of. She always felt in awe when her father would recount to her his experience of living as a citizen of the Lowereich Empire and having been a native of the Imperial Capital itself. A city made of stone and towers that reached the sky, housing nearly a million people within its walls. A number so mind boggling to her she could scarcely even imagine the scale. Many times she was convinced her father might be lying to her and teasing her naivety but deep down she'd always wonder about it. It had always been a dream of hers to one day visit her father's homeland. Though she loved the village, she wanted to spread her wings at least once in her life to avoid living like a frog in a well, unaware of the goings of the outside world.
Despite all that, though she had never personally ventured too far outside the Realm of Goria, the influence of the outside world could indeed be felt creeping inside, partially due to the influence of her own father and his cadre of foreign missionaries. Though most of them had learned to embrace the Native Halak culture and way of life - many of them taking native wives as her own father had done thus giving birth to many ‘Halak malaok’ or ‘Mixed Halak’ like her - some foreign-influenced stone structures could be seen standing among the sea of traditional native wood and Rumbia-leaf-roofed Bolon houses. After a while of walking, she had finally reached one of the stone buildings of the village. It stood towering over the other buildings of the village with a tall tower of about ten meters - the unit of measurement the missionaries had brought over to the Halaklands - which contained a bell in it and on top of the tower was a bronze cross which signified the most important building in Goria was the church.
Though it's architecture was essentially foreign, the trims of the roof and walls were decorated in an undoubtedly indigenous style of patterns known as the ‘Gorga’ which were colorful and beautiful. That coupled with the two statues of angels in a prayer position placed around the main door to the church gave the building a majestic feeling to it. Attached to the main building of the church was a smaller wing which acted as a hospital for the village where the members of the church who specialized in healing magic and medicines would help take care of the sick. The smaller wing was where Serena was headed as the hospital area had a specialized backroom that acted as an apothecary where she would help make medicines, potions, and ointments for all sorts of ailments.
As Serena opened the door and entered the building, she greeted the nurses that were taking care of the few patients within the wards. Most of the nurses were local women who were trained by the missionaries and also acted as deaconesses within the church structure. Her father, the Most Reverend Ephorus Ludwig Rappmeister, was also officially the head Doctor of the village, being one of the only two trained Imperial Physicians among the missionaries with the other being Sir Andreas who was currently away from the village to treat people from some other nearby settlements. As the nurses exchanged greetings with Serena, she made her way to the apothecary room where she quickly unloaded her herbalist's bag and started to organize the alchemical ingredients she had gathered into their proper places in accordance with each of their medicinal properties.
As she was busying herself with the ingredients, Serena couldn't help but start feeling a little melancholic as she allowed the scents of the room to enter her nostrils. If she were being completely honest with herself, just being in the room still felt somewhat uncomfortable as it had only been a few weeks since she returned to work in it. Everywhere she looked she saw images of herself and her mother flash before her eyes as memories of her mother teaching her all she knew about medicines, plants, and herbs started playing in her mind. Without her noticing, her eyes were beginning to moist again as her nose was beginning to clog up. She shook her head to focus herself as she leaned against the main alchemical table in the room before she walked to one of the cabinets and took out a small satchel of powder before pouring some into a clay bowl filled with some oil and burning it with a small ember from her fingers. The smoke produced from the concoction helped to relieve her clogged nose every time she inhaled it. Now with her nose starting to clear again, Serena resolved to focus herself on her duties for the day. She knew it would simply do no good for her mulling over her mother when there was work to do. It wasn't what she would have wanted anyways. As if to help get her mind back to focus, Serena was startled as she slightly jumped when the loud sound of the bells from the church tower could be heard marking that noon had passed. She shook her head once more as she laughed at how the bell that rang regularly at least Three times a day managed to startle her. She must've really been out of focus.
However, it was of no matter as Serena shrugged it off and donned on her work apron before tying up her long hair into a ponytail to make it more comfortable for her to work in the heat, setting up ingredients for medicines and processing the many raw plant ingredients first into either powders or pastes. She quickly got to work as she grabbed a mortar and pestle and started grinding away at some leaves, mixing them with some animal fats in order to produce ointments and pastes for medications. While she was working on that, she also began boiling some water in a pot to help in making some tonics as well. All of this she did while singing to herself some of her favourite hymns that her father taught her and had translated into the Halak tongue.
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As time began to fly while she worked with the golden sun starting to set in the west, the door to the apothecary opened and through it she saw a tall yet skinny foreign-looking man with slightly depressed cheeks who looked like her albeit with a hair and beard full of grey walk in. The man was wearing a simple black long-sleeved cassock which was tied at the waist with the traditional Halak ulos cloth, though what was peculiar was that the ulos pattern he was wearing was called the ‘sudung’ which was grayish blue in colour and usually worn on occasions of mourning. Serena smiled as she saw the man enter.
“Ah! I didn't realise you were back, daughter…” the man, Serena's father - the bishop Ludwig - said as he scratched the back of his grey hair.
“Father, I've been back since three hours ago…” Serena smiled as she came over to give her father a quick peck on his cheek to welcome him back “You're the one who took longer than expected…”
“Ah ja… Bitte verzeih Sie mir, Serena. (Forgive me, Serena.)”
“Nein, nein. Schon gut, papa! I'm not blaming you or anything, hahahaha.” Serena hugged her slumped father as he took a seat at a chair near one of the table counters in the room “But papa, you look tired! Is… is the King's condition that bad?”
“No it's… I mean he shouldn't be too-*AHEM! AHEM! argghh-!!” Ludwig only shook his head as he gave a sigh before he erupted into a violent fit of coughing as he held his chest in pain. Seeing this, Serena immediately rushed to one of the cabinets which contained some pills which she quickly administered to her father. After he swallowed it and was given a cup of clean water that had been boiled and put in a cauldron, his coughs started to settle down as his breathing stabilised. “Danke, meine Prinzessin… hehehe.” Ludwig gave a weak laugh as he sighed once again while continuing to drink the water his daughter had provided him.
Serena only gave her father a stern pout as she crossed her arms while staring him down with her large blue eyes. Ludwig could only shake his head as he gave a slightly pained smile before slumping down on the table.
“Please don't give me that look, daughter. You're reminding me too much of your mother and it pains me so…” Ludwig said in a low and slightly raspy voice.
“Father, you need rest and a lot of it. You should take the rest of the week off to recuperate and have one of the other priests take charge of the liturgy on Solsday.” Serena’s eye slightly twitched at the mention of her mother but she continued to speak anyways in a serious tone “It's not funny seeing the sick taking care of the sick…”
“You know I can't afford to do that, daughter. This Solsday we'll be ordaining the first batch of native priests. It would not look well if the head of our church isn't the one personally ordaining them. This is a major step in the journey of our mission and an assurance that God's Word will remain upon these lands even far after my death or the deaths of all the other foreign missionaries-!!”
“NO! NO! NO! NO!!” Serena grew slightly hysterical as she placed her hands over her ears in a dramatic fashion while shaking her head “I will not hear you speak of such things!! No!! Not after mother!! You have to take care of yourself! You have to-..!!”
Serena didn't notice that tears had once again started forming in her eyes as her nose clogged while she was holding on to her father's collar in a slight panic. She immediately went back to the cabinet where she kept her inhalant medication but not before wiping her eyes.
“I’m.. I'm sorry… that wasn't what I meant…” Sere said while trying to recompose herself from her outburst “Just don't speak of such things in front of me. Please.”
“Mein Engel, you know such is the wages of our sins and it is something we all have to come to terms with.” Ludwig stood up as he brought his young adult daughter into his embrace
“You say that but look at you! You're still wearing the Sudung even after a year has passed… and I know you've secretly been smoking again. Don't even try lying! Josias told me he saw you smoking with Lord Parulian over a week ago and I can smell it on your cassock even now. How can I even pray for you or look after you when you refuse to look after yourself?”
“Oh Lord, I thank You everyday for giving me such a loving and caring daughter!” Ludwigh chuckled a little as he continued to caress and console his petulant daughter “Please, I promise I'll stop and I'll take better care of myself too. I will still ordain the men but I guess Reverend Steinmann can fill in for me on the pulpit and for the divine liturgy… besides I promise you I won't keel over until I at least see you give me a grandchild or several! Hahahahaha!!”
“Well then I just won't have any and die an old crone if it means I can be with you always!” Serena said defiantly as she nuzzled her nose on her father's shoulder. This time it was Ludwig's turn to hold her and give her a serious look with a raised eyebrow.
“Don't say that! I pray the Lord breaks any such curse you place upon yourself. You will be blessed with many beautiful descendants and that is that, young lady!”
Serena only pouted before giving a smile, “Then you'll promise me that you'll be the one to confirm all my children when they come of age or else no deal!”
“Dear Lord, my daughter drives a hard bargain. Though age is in the Hands of the Lord, it won't stop me from praying. Besides, it'll break poor Josias’s heart if you don't plan on having kids.”
Serena only gave a bitter smile as she was reminded of the young man's name. Many things went through her mind when the name of the young warrior was mentioned like that by her father. It had already been more than a week since she last saw him and she was beginning to grow worried. She remembered nagging him endlessly to remember to bring all he proper supplies he would need on his journey but the young man was always brash and half the time he wouldn't even be paying attention to her when she spoke, preferring to just gawk at her, getting himself lost as he had that stupid grin on his face.
“Awww… look at that adorable smile on your face! Lord bless me with many grandchildren!!” Ludwig let out a hearty laugh until he coughed a little which managed to settle him down. His comments however managed to make Serena visibly blush.
“Father!!” Serena said as she covered her face with both her hands “Watch what you're saying!! We aren't even properly betrothed yet…”
“Oh that's nothing to worry about! The King and Lord Parulian and I have basically come to an understanding anyways. Your fates have been sealed since long ago hahahah!! We were just lucky you two hit it off since you were young without us really even trying. The Lord works in mysterious ways as always but all for good.”
“Well whatever it is, it would all be for naught if Josias doesn't come back safely. The Lord knows I'm in constant prayer for his safe return.”
“As we all are, daughter…”
Just as the two continued to chat, the door to the apothecary was opened once more as if on cue where they saw a boy of about twelve with similar features to Josias, having light brown skin and black hair but with a lighter shade of brown eyes as well as a missing tooth in his mouth. The boy came in a with quite the excited look plastered on his face.
“Jakobus? What's the matter? You look like Christmas’ come early, hahahah-!” Ludwig had started before the young Prince immediately cut him off in excitement.
“My Abang (Older brother) and his party has returned! And they brought a huuuuuge monster back!!” As soon as the young boy Jakobus had said that he immediately rushed back out not even willing to wait for the news to sink in.
Serena and her father merely glanced at each other before finally fully realising what the news meant. Their expression turned into surprise before Serena jumped in excitement as she clasped her hands together while her father made the sign of the cross to thank the Heavenly Father for watching over his future son-in-law. As Serena turned to look at her father once more, Ludwig merely laughed before nodding.
“Go and see him before the other young women of the village beat you to it!” Ludwig said as he got up from his seat “I'll be heading back to the Great hall shortly as I'm sure everyone's just as excited to welcome back our newest heroes.”
“Danke papa!... Jakob wait for me!” Serena jumped in excitement and hugged her father once more before rushing out to meet with her beloved.
Ludwig merely laughed as he saw his daughter go. He shook his head ash e grinned and muttered to himself, “She's not my little princess anymore, hahaha…”