1975th Year, 1st Day

It was Aniani’s 5th birthday, and they decided to make the day special by spending some quality time with their beloved mother. So after preforming their various morning ablutions which started off by preparing and then eating a lot of different kinds of bitter disgusting medicine in the form of a variety shapes, colors and amounts. There were pills, syrups, and powders to name the three main types.

While some of the medicine could be taken as given, some had to be first mixed with water or another medicine first and others needed to be heated or cooled, most needed to measured and portioned out and all needed to be taken in a very specific order.

Aniani had special jars, boxes and ovens to provide the temperature effects, they also were given clean plates, bowels and measuring implements by the servants every day so the methods were easy to accomplish. As to the memorization and attention to details of the specific order required, Aniani had that covered as well.

As far back as they could remember, someone had always been preforming the methods in order in front of them. At first it had been their nanny, later on it had been the clan’s apothecary master, and both would eventually Aniani try to do the order themselves under their supervision after doing it in front of them quite a few times.

Aniani being quite the clever child was quickly able to memorize every single one of the hundreds of steps and methods required, and it wasn’t long before the apothecary master stopped wasting their time supervising every performance.

Probably because of the large amount of practice it could probably now be said that Aniani had gotten proficient enough that they did it better than the head apothecary master.

Aniani only made and ate all the medicine with in only a brief hour’s worth of time.

What was more impressive was that they maintained the exact neutral expression throughout the entire complicated process. Their expression really didn’t change it at all, even after tasting the most smelly and disgusting of the medicines. They just faithfully, carefully and without a single complaint consumed each and every one, and of course in the correct order.

While some children would probably full of complaints for doing this just once and would be full of endless protests against ever doing it again. Not only had Aniani never complained or protested doing it they had also been most obedient and never tried to rebel in other ways.

This was even after doing it so many times. And this was comparatively quite a bit of time as Aniani had been doing it or having others do it for it, every day for almost as long as they had been alive.

After filling their insides with medicine they then proceeded to cover their outsides with medicine as well. They first took a warm herbal bath and then a cool mineral one. For the herbal one servants filled a tub with ‘tea’ made in the kitchens and then added a few drops of special oil.

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For the mineral one, Aniani would walk by themselves through the complicated maze of underground passages that was the clan’s home to the area with the cool mineral spring and there they would bath by themselves.

After the cold bath, another servant would appear with a large bottle filled with a special lotion make specifically for Aniani’s skin. They would then proceed to help them rub the lotion on all the places the child couldn’t reach themselves.

After all of this bother which took an additional two hours of time Aniani would finally be done. After slipping on their silk robes and socks and putting their dark black hair up in the tight bun that all the children wore. Aniani would put on a sachet of healing aroma herbs and head out to go visit their aunt.

The visit would almost always begin with Aniani asking this aunt if they needed anything. Sometimes dear Aunty would give them small unimportant chores to do, that she didn’t want to bother the servants for, but some days including today Aniani’s aunt would just return their greeting impatiently and shoo them away.

Somewhat unsatisfied that they were currently not needed, though one couldn’t tell it from the child’s blank expression and calm though graceful posture, Aniani quickly moved towards their destination. As it was quite far from their rooms, and they were quite the frail creature, they had to take a rest break several times.

But they were far from lazy and had a strong determination. So despite getting progressively tired to the point that their breaks got more frequent as well as longer they finally made it to the destination.

It was the clan’s tomb. It was the norm for their clan to cremate their dead and then put some of the ashes in an urn with some of the details of the deceased written upon it. Aniani’s mother’s urn was located not that far back.

The tomb was quite bright and full of light, shockingly different for anyone who expected the stereotypical gloomy cemetery. As was common for the clan there were also many mirrors on the walls, columns, and basically gracing almost every uncarved space including the ceiling.

These mirrors enhanced and shared the light which usually came from a hard to see source that was actually a glass window in the ceiling that had a tunnel behind it that pulled in light from the outside as well as storing it in some special crystals. Of course besides enhancing the light they also acted like any normal mirror.

And so as the child Aniani walked their figure, would be divided into many figures copied on the various mirrors. And several of the mirrors reflected in a an odd way making it look like the Aniani portrayed was moving in a different direction then the original, or even showed multiplies of various slightly different shapes and sizes.

A different child might have gotten lost or confused. This was not so for Aniani, they had only needed their aunt to show them the location they sought once, and ever after they had been able to find their way back.