Novaris. Novem. 901. AGC.
Jasmine woke up on her birthday and, like any other day, went about her usual morning routine. However, today already felt different, as it would be her first birthday without Rose being present. Her absence saddened Jasmine, but they had already celebrated on their own the previous day, so it wasn’t as bad. And it’s not like Rose could do anything about it, as the entire group of initiates had some sort of special training that began today and would last for the next month or two.
Another yet more minor oddity was that while going about her routine, it looked like her eyes and hair were changing color. She could swear her blond hair seemed lighter while her dark strands were a tinge darker. Even her brown eyes were affected as both seemed lighter. However, that couldn’t be right, so she assumed the lighting in the room was playing a trick on her mind, or maybe her newfound loneliness was getting to her.
So, not worrying about it, she walked through the empty house and headed to the dining room, where she knew everyone was waiting for her. Like all the previous years, as she stepped into the room, she was met with shouts of “Surprise” or “Happy Birthday.” Then she would be dragged to the front of the room, where she stood before a small cake with the number 14 and Happy Birthday written on it. This was then followed by a happy tune celebrating her birthday.
Unlike many of her earlier birthdays, where she had to truly pretend she was enjoying the celebration, this time around, she actually felt some genuine happiness. Even so, she still felt a bit detached from the present celebration and was just hoping it would come to an end soon. However, before she was released for the day, she was expected to pray to the God of Parties, Joultri, and make a wish. The idea being that the god, on a whim, might decide to grant it. The craziest thing was that it was possible, and some had, under a spell of truth, admitted to being granted their wishes.
So, Jasmine made her wish. And unlike previous times when she hadn’t actually wished for anything, this time, she wished for a happy future with Rose. Naturally, she wouldn’t tell anyone about this, and when asked by the other kids, she would just tell them what everyone always wished for—lots of gold or being adopted by a wealthy family.
After making her wish, she took the first slice of cake before finally being allowed to leave and go about her day. To her, this was the only good thing about birthdays as the older children were tasked with helping around the orphanage every day but on their birthdays.
On their special days, they were free of chores and allowed to do as they pleased. Thus, with a full day ahead of her, she did what she always did with her free time and would head to the library.
Though before leaving, she had asked Aunt Emy if she noticed her eyes and hair were any different, and Aunt Emy had said everything seemed fine. This caused some conflict within Jasmine because she knew the woman was under the same weird spell where she ignored anything strange Jasmine did. However, simultaneously, she had raised Jasmine and would have noticed any changes and acknowledged them even if she forgot about them the next day.
So, without further worry, Jasmine left to begin her day of reading. She was looking forward to continuing her journey in a series of books written by a dragonkin. The books were all written in Draconic and spoke about the dragonkin's travels as he met a variety of dragons throughout the world. The dragonkin even hinted about the dragons that might be found in the Realms, though she hasn’t gotten that far yet.
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The day after her birthday, Jasmine, like all the other kids before her, sat down with Emeline to speak about her future.
Emeline found herself in Jasmine’s simple room, which she had once shared with Rose. The room was one of five given to the orphanage's older kids to provide them with some level of privacy in their growing years. Two kids shared one room, often the ones who had become close friends, but that wasn’t always the case, as the orphanage only had so much room.
The rooms were essentially identical and divided down the middle by a simple rug. Each side had a bed, a small chest for belongings, a drawer table, and a simple wooden chair. Like the rest of the orphanage, the rooms were all lit by a soft pulsing light emanating from the ceiling.
Jasmine sat on her bed, and next to her sat Emeline.
“I don’t understand. What exactly do we need to talk about? You already know all of my plans, Aunt Emy.” Jasmine spoke up, a bit of worry in her voice.
“I know, Jasmine. I wanted to speak with you to see if you had any plans to find your brother?” Emeline responded, instantly seeing the tension in Jasmine’s body disappear.
“Honestly, no. Aunt Emy, you haven’t found anything about my name or any of my family. And if you haven’t found anything, how is someone like me, who is just starting out, going to find them?”
This answer seemed to appease Aunt Emy, who responded after a long sigh.
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“You’re right, Jasmine. Maybe it’s better if you try to make your own way in the world; maybe you will stumble into each other at some point.”
After some more small talk about life, work, and Rose, Emeline left the room.
Seeing Aunt Emy leave, Jasmine let out a long sigh of her own. Honestly, she was glad Aunt Emy didn’t push more. After all, in truth, Jasmine didn’t really care about her long-lost family. She already had problems feeling anything for those whom she had known her whole life, much less some unknown brother.
In fact, other than Rose, the only other person she had come to care about was Aunt Emy, as she felt more like a mother to her than anything else. The woman had already done so much for her that Jasmine felt like she couldn’t repay her in a thousand years. One of the most recent things that Jasmine was grateful for was Aunt Emy helping her get a job that she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Emeline somehow convinced Heledth, the owner of the Smiling Sun Inn, to hire her. The woman had been reserved about hiring Jasmine due to her rather shy and unspoken nature. However, after speaking with Emeline, she relented, and Jasmine was to start her first job later today.
Novaris. Unus (January). 902. AGC.
The New Year had come and gone along with its various celebrations. At this point, Rose had already come back to the city from her outing, and life had returned to a new normal. The two friends, now having some form of independence, were able to go out and explore the city to their hearts' content. Much of their time was spent taking strolls through the various gardens and parks, as well as exploring all the many shops and restaurants that the capital city had to offer.
They also began planning for their futures, as, according to Rose, her training was going rather well. Now, midway through her training, she wasn’t as bogged down and could enjoy a bit more of her time.
Rose also explained aspects of her training and how it was split into different parts.
The first consisted of sheer physical training and endurance building, which was one of the times in which the trainees were the most isolated. Their isolation was caused by the fact that they were always tired from training, and any free time was spent resting. However, once the initiates got into adequate shape, they would be set into a rhythm of constant exercise to keep their physique in top condition while also beginning to learn various topics.
The most common of these topics covered the planet's history in more depth, explaining the various momentous occasions that had shaped their world. Another important topic introduced the basics of magic and helped initiates understand the very basics of the universe. These magical topics helped give future warriors an idea of what they might face out there and the best approach to dealing with it.
The other important topic taught was about the gods and the World Crystal. This gave each initiate knowledge about how the gods worked and a basic understanding of how followers operated. This topic, in particular, was vital as it would eventually move on to Sol's teachings and the clergy's roles in their deity's machinations.
Rose was starting this learning stage, which would take at least another year and a half before moving on to the next stage. Which she said was when the real work began.
The third stage consisted of taking the initiates from the peak of what a humanoid's ability could reach and moving the initiates to become proper rankers. This particular stage would last multiple years as they were taught how to forge their bodies with mana and call upon Sol’s powers. In fact, out of all the stages, this one was the most important as that was when they took their Oaths and were truly connected with their deity.
Once all that was complete, Rose would be mid-D Rank and be sent out into the world to hone her skills properly and thus reach for the higher levels of power. This rank climbing was the last step in the training program and, more often than not, the most challenging to overcome, as you weren’t considered a paladin until B Rank. Which meant many warriors met their ends before truly gaining paladin status.
After learning all of that, Jasmine reworked her plans as she would be in Aloy for much longer than she had initially thought. However, it was no issue, and the only thing that would genuinely need to change was her sleeping arrangement because there was no way the orphanage was going to let her stay there for that long.
For her part, Jasmine didn’t have much to tell Rose because the redhead already knew about her best friend's plans to begin working at the Smiling Sun Inn. The only exciting thing to have happened at Jasmine’s work was that the customers seemed to like her shy and quiet persona more than she had thought they would. The only other thing she might have brought up was about her hair and eyes, but seeing as Rose had not pointed anything out, Jasmine convinced herself that she was just imagining it and had chosen not to breach the topic.
Novaris. Quin (May). 902. AGC.
The thing Jasmine had written off as simply lousy lighting began to pop up again a couple of months into the year. She hadn’t even noticed at first, but by the end of the month, it was obvious that her hair and eyes were changing color. Everyone else didn’t seem to notice as the progress was gradual and had simply waved off any change she was seeing as part of her maturing. Which she had to admit made some sense; maybe her lineage was finally showing its colors. After all, no one truly knew how her parents had looked, so there was no way to know what kind of traits they had passed down.
Novaris. Octus (August). 902. AGC.
Everyone finally noticed. It took them way longer than Jasmine thought was reasonable, but at least they finally acknowledged that her hair, eyes, and even skin tone were changing color. Her blond strands of hair were grey, while her darker strands were a darker brown, almost black color. Her eyes had gotten lighter and were becoming an odd grey color. Even her skin tone, which had once been caramel in color, was now much lighter.
After some back-and-forth arguing, everyone decided that something was definitely amiss, especially once Jasmine told them that her hair had been slowly changing in color. It wasn’t just all of a sudden.
This caused them to all believe she had caught some weird disease or a fey was playing around. Otherwise, there was no way they could have all missed the change that had been going on or dismissed it so quickly. So, after way too long, Jasmine was hurriedly taken to the temple.