Pov: Sofia Junker, Year 1437.
The sound of a distant bell arose from afar, its sharp toll rolled down alongside the riverbank and washed over the buildings of the village on the hill. The buildings were of simple down-to-earth constructions of hay and stone, prominently overgrown by creeping vines and blankets of green moss. Little thought was given to clearing the greenery away, cutting only these greens which started to block the entrances giving them an appearance that even a lowly farmhand from outside might have scoffed at. However, the humans of this village and their neighbours were accustomed to their humble homes and would politely ignore any snide comments made by a passing traveller, content with their lives as they were now.
The hill surrounded by an inconspicuous palisade also covered long ago by moss and creeping vines stood near the head of a long and meandering valley with high steep slopes at both sides. A small lazy tributary flowed down the valley northwards, around the fortified hill and through the narrow gorge beyond, flowing toward the Wetlands while the marshy floodplain covered most of the valley floor. All ways of entering the valley were treacherous and difficult to hide in not to add the many areas where the land swallowed men whole leaving little behind. Even at the border of the civilised world without any sophisticated defences, all but the most determined opponents stood little chance to scale the palisade and fight through the many-layered terraces which also functioned as effective ramparts.
A militant mind might have noted all these advantages plentifully stacked in the defender's advantage and inferred that the village and its subservient handful of hamlets were built with defence in mind and they would have been right. Hero's Vale lay in the shadow of the Spikeshield mountain range protecting the Minor Kingdoms in the Pass from inhabitants of the Wetlands. More specifically Hero's Vale was the only safe passage in the Spikeshield's northwestern region. It was the seat of House Junker, one of the noble houses that guarded the frontiers of the Kingdom of Athedale. Beyond the Vale lay an increasingly vast and dangerous wilderness, intrinsically hostile to civilised life, populated by bandits, deserters, Demi-human tribes, monsters, scalemen and many worse.
The bell inside the temple house stopped ringing as the sun emerged from below the horizon announcing the beginning of the day where eleven more times all the bells across the Edor would ring.
On the northern face of the hill near the top, a single house overlooked the valley below standing distinctly from the rest. The lord's manor possessed the same simple construction as the other dwellings built around it, except for its size thanks to the addition of multiple extensions added to the original humble house which jutted out conspicuously onto the widened terrace below it. The newest extension was built at the back out of well-worn spruce wood with windows overseeing most of the valley.
Its fragrant wooden walls did little to dampen the rumble lingering in the wake of the morning bell ringing not that far away. That might have not been enough to wake up the noble scion of house Junker sleeping soundly under a thick goose feather quilt but Sofia stayed awake all night. She tossed the quilt off herself letting the autumn air caress her boyish body before she slipped her small feet into a pair of fur slippers before slipping out of her nightgown and putting on her work clothes which consisted of a linen shirt, long brown skirt and a pale blue jacket which reached her waist. Sofia raised her head, turning to look out of the window through which morning light spilled into her room while she readjusted her jacket.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
"Lady Sofia the second bell just rang, you promised to be up by now." The muffled voice of the head maid pulled Sofia back into reality.
"Huh?" She shook her head from side to side not realising she had drifted off while looking at the valley. "I'm coming!"
With a squeak, Sofia pulled the door toward herself and was greeted with by Miss Marie, the head maid of her house. She was an older woman who was older than the Lord by a decade or two but no one truly knew her real age as no one would dare to ask such a rude question to a respectable member of their house. Her brown eyes examined Sofia from top to bottom before she tugged on her jacket rapidly fixing any folds in the fabric in exchange for making the scion dizzy.
"Master Roland had asked you to go to the Lord's office." Marie said in a warm way causing the noble lady to become unaware of a comb she pulled from a pocket on the back of her apron.
"This hurts." Sofia complained as her face twisted and contorted as the teeth of the comb forcefully straightened out her hair in the colour of golden wheat.
"Then you should be waking up earlier and doing it yourself, young Lady."
"I did wake as soon as the first bell rang. I spaced out a little bit, though." Sofia felt that telling Marie she hadn't slept all night wouldn't end well.
"I see," The venerable maid nodded. "I'm going to send Annette to clean your room so be swift don't make Master Roland wait for you." The grey-haired woman pointed at the piles of books Sofia had pulled from the family library scattered around her room haphazardly.
Sofia followed Marie who was heading toward another part of their house blocking the tight hallway. She was tempted to squeeze past the head maid but decided against it, catching goosebumps at the mere thought of Miss Marie scolding her.
The house was bustling with unusual activity even at such an early bell. House Junker didn't have many servants in their retinue, excluding the House's footmen who were currently moving heavy boxes out of the basement, they only employed Miss Marie, Mister Sebastian who was the butler and an old military friend of Sofia's father, Miss Rochelune and her brother Alaric and Miss Annette whose family was new to Hero's Vale having come from all the way from Catalina. For a normal person having five people as servants might have been too much but for a Baron it was a pityful number especially when considering that the head maid and butler were more of managerial roles with Miss Marie directing the two other maids having serving the house for a very long time and Mister Sebastian being Lord John's personal attache and helper. Thus leaving the number of servants actually working as servants equal to the number of nobles living in the house. This would have been an embarrassment if any other noble would have bothered to glance at their slice of the frontier.
Sofia and her three older brothers had daily tasks to perform which would normally be done by the house's servants like chopping wood or cleaning the dishes and those soft city nobles hiding behind stone walls from their subjects could stick it up their bum their etiquette and over the top manners, her family had the blood of a Hero running through their veins and decades of flawless records, that was all prestige and honour it took to lead.
Those words perfectly fitted the golden-haired frontier noble content to never step foot in a ballroom, remaining in her valley and fulfilling her family's oath to protect the Vale and its people while marrying another frontier noble and having a litter of adorable children with him. Yet now those words she and her brothers had said rang hollow for some time now.
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The head maid continued to walk forward allowing Sofia to speed up, she turned right and ran up the stairs. The old rooms of her brothers lined the corridor which led to her father's private office. It was her favourite room in the house since her mother had brought books all the way from Damestar and the books' perfumed pages always reminded Sofia of her. Although she had never actually met her mother who had died shortly after giving birth to her and the priest couldn't be brought in time to save her but she always thought that by reading those books she was honouring her in a way. Doing something she would have wanted.
Sofia's second favourite room was of course her own room which wasn't upstairs but she preferred being downstairs and being able to wake up to the intoxicating smell of wood.
Walking through the corridor Sofia stopped to appraise the family heirloom and what had raised them from simple peasants to nobility. A set of steel armour painted blue and yellow, the colours of their house. It was an odd thing to look at but as the descended of the person who wore it Sofia had to stop and marvel at it. The armour was incoherent, no part of it seemed to match. The helmet was of a heavy knight, the left pauldron was round and had spikes on it while the right pauldron was a flat plate which reached the cheek. Nothing on the armour made any sense but somehow, even after studying it all her life she couldn't see a flaw in it, there was no gap to slip a dagger through, no spot where the steel didn't cover. Its polished surface gleamed with powerful enchantments only her Lord Father and her oldest brother knew of. The armour belonged to her Great-grandfather the founder of her house and a Hero, Leonard the Warden who hailed from a small village in the Swan Kingdom.
"Thank you." Sofia nodded her head in reverence before continuing forward.
"Come in." A deep male voice of her father sounded from the inside of the office just as Sofia raised her hand to knock on the door.
"Lord Father, brother Roland." The youngest of Junkers greeted her father who was sitting behind an oak desk and the heir of the house leaning over the desk with his back turned toward the door.
"I'm glad you came Sofia, my dear." The Baron of Hero's Frontier and the Lord of the entire valley stood up for his daughter's entry beckoning her to sit on a chair next to him seemingly already prepared for her. She always wondered if her father's open show of affection in breach of noble etiquette even in semi-official circumstances like this one was because of him being a militant noble or her resemblance to her mother to who she was always compared too.
"Sofia, you probably had overheard our conversations over the course of these few months," Roland her oldest brother straightened his back and began to scratch his beard of the same colour as Sofia's hair, all of her family had the same blonde hair and sea green eyes, their subject said that their unusual hair and eye colours where the signs of their heroic bloodline and the land itself was bounded to their will but Sofia was sceptical about the second part of their fable. Her brother always scratched his beard when he was troubled by something so the already keenly listening scion straightened her back too and smushed her cheerful face into a serious scowl. "The Blacks had begun to pressure the King to ally himself with Dietrich of Anglas. There are rumours that Dietrich will march on Catalina soon. Our Lord Father but also John, Louis and I believe that this will set all seven Kingdoms ablaze as Whites and Blacks will fight each other for dominance. We together decided that it would be too dangerous for you to stay here in the Vale with our Lord Father or anywhere else in the Pass. You will travel eastward far away from the incoming bloodbath." Roland allowed his words to hang in the air letting his sister absorb the information.
Her older brother was absolutely right about her knowing that her family was preparing to send her off for some time not. It was difficult to hide secrets in this cramped house so the news shouldn't have shocked Sofia as much as it did but her brother's words echoed inside her skull. You will travel eastward, those words caused the noblewoman to blink in shock as her plans of secretly coming back to her home next year's winter when the campaign season ended crumbled into dust.
East? I thought they would send me to Athedale to spend time with family's friends in the capital not all the way to Vitas. Wait, I didn't know Father had connections in the Kingdom of Flinter or maybe Ronald means I'm going to Firmusa or Havenfall?
"Lord Father, what does my brother mean I will travel East?" Sofia looked at her Father trying to figure out where are they sending her and if her time studying noble etiquette from her mother's books to not embarrass her house was worth it, maybe she should have been studying theology.
"I know you will not like it but I pulled some strings and arranged for you to go to the Academy in Oriripol. Annette will accompany you as your personal maid."
Sofia felt something inside of her necrotise and wither into dust as she heard her father's gentle voice stab into her heart. He was sending her to the nest of the pompous mages who believed themselves divine. She could understand the reasoning for sending her to Oriripol, it was far away that was for sure. Also unlike her father and brothers who were all blessed by the System with the same class upon turning fifteen, Ranger. She hadn't been gifted with the class of a Ranger but rather accompanied by her Noble class she had since childhood she was gifted with Enchantress class which sat at level 2 for quite some time. She once overheard the priest talking with her father that her class was being wasted by not receiving proper training but unlike in the city, no instructors were willing to travel to their domain for a reasonable price.
Regardless if she was wasting potential Sofia had heard enough about the strange mage-led city from merchants that she felt like her Father was selling her like a whore.
"Father!" The noble lady knew that she had no chance of changing her faith but she was willing to fight her father and brother to let her stay.
"Sister, it's for your own good," Roland kneeled down beside his sister taking her calloused hands unfit for a daughter of a Baron no less a direct descendant of a Hero, between his large hairy hands like a knight comforting his princess. Even with the age gap dividing Sofia from her brothers, with Roland being almost forty and married while she was nineteen she felt that the heir to House of Junker somehow became reduced to simply her brother. "I want to be the first one to see you cast a fireball, little witch."
*Sigh*
The frontier noble felt powerless and defeated by a simple smile her brother offered her. She sank from her seat onto her feet before straightening her body like the soldiers she had spent her life around, ready to receive her orders and not allow any blemish to fall onto her house's name.
"John and Louis should be coming back from patrol for breakfast so go downstair and prepare Square, maybe you will win before noon." Roland stood up and saluted the soldier of House Junker in front of him.
Her Lord Father remained quiet, seemingly the most troubled by his sole daughter's departure but he gathered enough strength to stand up, his cold and disciplined facial expression moulded by years of war felt strangely timid as he said goodbye to Sofia before she disappeared behind the door.
The frontier noble walked back, noticing her brothers old rooms were open and inside, their armours, polished, cleaned and oiled to perfection glimmered in the morning light.
Sofia passed her ancestor's armour and instead of bowing to it again Sofia, gently and with a hint of fear of the precious armour coming to life and scolding her, hugged the heirloom. "Bye, I will not disappoint you and tell Mother I will return."
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The cold autumn wind caressed Sofia's cheek as she stepped out of her house and saw a carriage which didn't belong to her family but was borrowed from the Adventurer Guild standing in the courtyard. Just like her father had predicted the weather didn't allow for military operations and it was soon to get even colder. A perfect time for someone to slip out of the country with roads being empty but not completly buried under a blanket of snow.
"I... I will miss you Sofia." Louis, who was only ten years older than her hugged her.
"Me too ladyboy." John's long hair fluttered in the cold breeze alongside the brown cloak he was wearing underneath which his light leather armour stuck out off. He shook Sofia's hand firmly seeing no problem with the image of a man shaking a lady's hand so hard she barely managed to stay upright.
*Slap*
Next in line to say farewell, Roland slapped John in the back of the head making him almost fall onto Sofia.
"Bye piss pants." The young lady waved to her second oldest brother as he stepped back causing Roland to turn his eerie toward Sofia for a split moment before sighing heavily.
"We will see back when this mess blows over." Roland quickly hugged Sofia before stepping back allowing the small horde of people gathered to swarm Sofia, seemingly as a revenge.
The people were either villagers who were saying farewell or wives and children of her brothers who lived in houses nearby. It took over a bell for Sofia to deal with each person before her father who was almost sixty appeared in front of her like a ghost.
"I love you, and do not fret over us, we will manage. Remember we are heirs to Hero's legacy." Baron Louis said before blessing Sofia for the journey ahead. Finally freeing the freezing noble to scurry into a carriage inside which all items a young noblewoman might need were stored onto.
"Ready?" A man with curly brown hair sitting in the driver seat peaked inside.
"Yes." The shivering noble responded, managing to poke her hand out the window and wave to everyone before someone whose presence was barely detectable covered her in a warm blanket. "Thank you, Annette."
"Your welcome Mistress."
"You don't have to call me Mistress, Lady is fine." Sofia turned around, cocooning herself further with the blanket until she felt cosy enough.
"Lord Master said I'm to serve you as I did him." She watched Annette speak with a heavy Catalinian accent, her heavily tanned skin was unheard of in the frontier. She came from next to where her Mother hailed from Verravon, a region next to Damestar. Except for her name and basic information, Sofia knew little of Annette but it was clear to everyone in Hero's Vale that she and her parents were different, coming from more civilised world.
"Annette, can you tell me about yourself?" Sofia asked, learning about her servant while the world around her slowly changed.
"Annette?" The noble said as the world transformed from marshy mountains to flat fertile lowlands.
"How can I help my lady?"
"How do you hold this properly?" Sofia asked her maid who had been serving another noble family in her home province almost all her life as she poured her a drink.