Chapter 2
20th Day of Early Winter 768 n.c.
Easthaven was situated in a valley on either side of North River. Wooden houses with thatched roofs, they all looked very similar except for the doors, painted different colours to distinguish their owners. We past some farms first, there were five in the valley all at the south side of town on either side of the river. The first main building we came to was the Pig and Wheelbarrow Inn, a great double story building with a painted sign hanging over the door. It must have been recently repainted, for the pink pig wearing a yellow waistcoat sitting in a wheelbarrow fairly gleamed in the sunlight. Missus Rose was sweeping the dust out of the common room into the street and we greeted her as we passed. Mari and I got back to talking as we passed the rest of the houses and shops lining the road towards the centre of town.
"I want to go off and explore the forest, next time you come to visit." I suggested to Mari.
"Oh no!" Mari exclaimed, "You know that we mustn't go in there. Father wouldn't even go in there to look for one of our lost sheep. Wolves and worse!"
"Live a little Mari." I admonished, "It's just a forest, there is nothing dangerous in there. Have you ever seen a wolf near the edge of the forest?"
"No", she hugged me a little closer, "But I heard them once last year. Their howls fair set my hair on edge. On and on they went, Papa even went out with a pitchfork just in case they came after the new lambs."
"But during the day?" I suggested, hopefully.
"No Sharein." Mari responded, "No. No. No. I shan't be going into the forest, and you'd best not either. Once we pass Name Day at least."
I let the issue rest, as I knew that there would be no convincing Mari. I half heartedly agreed not to go in there, but we both knew I would be. Once we passed Name Day at least.
We dismounted in the common's paddock, a fenced off meadow next to the grassy area often used for celebrations. It was the place that the farming families would leave their horses whenever they came into town. We let Aloise horse go and went over to the cart to help Darl and Jarl down. Master Meadowbroek unhitched their horse and we all made our way across Westbridge towards the church.
The church was a large stone building, imposing, it looked more like some sort of fortress than a place to celebrate the Earth Mother. Why did they insist on holding service there, instead of out in nature surrounded by the Earth Mother's creations? It was big, bigger than any other building I had ever seen. It had to be, of course, to fit in everyone from in and around Easthaven.
Us farmers were always the first ones to arrive, coming from a greater distance. The townies would often only leave their houses when they heard the church bells ring. Sister Tera and Father Mattias were standing in front of the Church door greeting the Coormans. Mother indicated to Sister Tera that she wanted to talk to her as we approached. Sister Tera said something to Missus Coorman and met us a short distance away.
"Missus Askilain, Miss Askilain, how good it is to see both of you. Blessings of the light upon you." She greeted as she always did.
"All hail the light." we responded, as we always did.
Sister Tera was a priestess of the Earth Mother and looked after the physical wellbeing of the people just as Father Mattias looked after their spiritual wellbeing. I remember Father Mattias teaching us that all towns that had a Church to Mithras had both a Brother or Sister and a Father or Mother to look after the physical and spiritual wellbeing of the town respectively. Every tenday sermon was followed by a lesson with Sister Tera. Sometimes the lesson would be on reading, sometimes about the world around us. Mostly it focussed on the Kingdom of Carn, but we heard about the Elves, Dwarves and other races as well. These were my favourite lessons. I'd love to meet an Elf, but as far as I know none had ever visited Easthaven. The adults sat listening to the rest of Father Mattias' sermon while we did this. I usually felt sorry for them.
Sister Tera was a bit older than Mother, but nowhere near as old as Father Mattias. She always wore the brown robes of a Priestess of Mithras and always had her brown hair up in a bun. Even when she rushes out to a midnight birth, her hair will be up. It wouldn't surprise me if she slept with it like that. She was always smiling, and loved talking to and playing with the younger kids. Although I thought that she often looked a little sad when she did. She was always calm, and serene. Even in the middle of a birth gone wrong, or the most stressful of situations. She could fix almost anything with "The things Mithras provides", but for anything else she could call upon Mithras' powers. She knew with a glance that was the reason for Mother wanting to talk to her, looking straight away at my hand. She reached out towards me, and I lifted my arm to show her. I winced slightly as she took hold of my limb to look at it.
"Oh my." she exclaimed, louder than I had ever heard her speak. Looking to my mother with a questioning look "You stitched this?"
"Yes Sister." My mother answered looking a bit worried, "I hope I did nothing wrong, I didn't know what to do."
"Oh no, Missus Askilain, finer stitches I have not seen even in the Healers College in Castlemere." Sister Tera reached out to touch Mother's arm in comfort. "However did this happen?"
Mother, relieved, looked to me and I explained simply "I cut it when peeling vegetables."
"Well, I'll have to get these stitches out I'm afraid, before I can do anything else. It will be a bit painful, but we'll have you better in no time." She said with a smile, gesturing for us to follow her into her into the Church.
Inside the entry, we took a door on the left that led to the Sisters rooms. She had a workroom first, then a room with a few beds for those that needed care and watching. Thankfully nobody was in there at present. Beyond the hospital room were her private chambers. The workroom had a large table with a stone top and a few chairs. Bunches of herbs hung from the ceiling and a whole wall was taken up by shelves of ceramic jars filled with herbs, powders and ointments.
"Have a seat and put your arm up on the bench." she instructed, whilst fetching a rag and a pair of scissors.
The process of cutting out the stitches was indeed painful, but nothing like the experience last night. The wound opened up and started bleeding again.
"Good, good." she murmured to herself, dabbing up the blood with the rag. "Just a few more moments and it will all be over."
I had witnessed the miracles performed by the priests on a couple of previous occasions, when Jera cut his leg it was healed by the prayers of the previous Sister Ana. I had never had them performed on me before though.
Sister Tera whispered a prayer to Mithras, the pain distracted me enough that I didn't pay attention to the words, and the palms of her hands lit up with a soft golden glow. These she placed over my hand and I felt a cold shiver run through my body, starting in my hand and spreading all out and right down to my toes. It wasn't painful at all, just a slightly uncomfortable feeling, like I imagined something out of the ordinary should feel. The glow ceased after a moment and she withdrew her hands. Sister Tera tsked and let out a quiet hmmmm, her brows creased in consternation.
I looked down at my hand and could see a long white line, as if my wound had scarred with all of the discolouration but none of the creased line one would expect.
"What's wrong?" Mother asked, her worry evident.
"It's okay, Mithras has healed the wound." Sister Tera explained, "But usually there would be no evidence. If the wound were cursed, or affected by magic it might heal with a scar or not at all. I have never seen a wound heal in between like this. It is no matter, though, the wound is healed."
"All hail the light." mother exclaimed, and I followed.
"Something strange happened when I stitched the wound." Mother began, "Something happened to Sharein."
"What happened?" the Sister asked.
"I could see the hurt, I had her drink a good portion of Rum first." Mother explained, "But just after I started, her face went blank. Empty. She didn't wince, didn't scream. She didn't do anything. The wound even stopped bleeding."
Sister Tera was listening intently to Mother up until she mentioned the bleeding stopping, then she looked straight at me. She wasn't smiling, I felt her studying me intently. Finally she spoke, "Sharein, has anything like this happened to you before?"
I grimaced, "When I cut my hand. I was standing at the bench peeling the vegetables and I felt everything… disappear." I baulked at telling her about the figure in the forest. Something told me that the Priestess might misinterpret it, or I might get into trouble for seeing her.
Sister Tera nodded and sat down, gesturing for us to do the same, "There are spells that wizards can cast that can do something similar, but it can happen without magic also. I've once seen a person in the College do something similar. It was a young man who had troubles with part of his intestines becoming inflamed. The best thing to do was to remove the part, quickly. They do a lot of this 'surgery' in the College and I am trained to do some of it but it is a specialised field and not suited to a town Priestess such as me. This young man put himself into a state such as you mentioned, he had explained that he could do it whenever he wanted to. The Priests were skeptical, but he demonstrated for us. We pricked his finger, and no blood came out, until he came out of that state. When the 'surgery' was performed, they did it without any of the usual herbs to dull pain or put someone into a sleep. No blood from the wound."
"What happened to him?" Mother asked, noting a hint of sadness or regret that had crept into the Sister's words near the end.
"Oh." Sister Tera smiled, "The 'surgery' went perfectly. Healed up in record time without Mithras' interventions even. Then he was run over by a horse on the way home. The College would love to get their hands on a similar case to study them, but never worry, I shan't tell them about you. Nobody would like to spend their time being poked and prodded all day long by those old Priests."
We were interrupted by the church bells ringing, indicating that the sermon would be beginning soon. We all stood up and Sister Tera came over to give me a hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Just promise that you will let me know if it happens again, yes?"
"Yes Sister, of course I will." I promised.
The main hall of the church was full, very few had stayed home today. Father, my brothers and sisters had caught up to us and we were all seated next to the Meadowbroeks, taking up an entire aisle. Mari was correct earlier, Tomas was definitely interested in her. I could tell this because he was sitting two aisles ahead of us and kept turning around to glance at Mari. I glared at him until I noticed the looks Mari was giving him in return. They were smiling at each other like fools.
The priest began his sermon and I sat to listen to the same story I had already heard hundreds of times before. Father Mattias repeated the same sermons over and over, once even doing the same one two tendays running!
"First, there was Mithras, the Earth Mother. From the mother sprung forth all of the animals and plants. But the animals and plants struggled in the darkness. For in the darkness lived evil and hate and death. Man cried out to the Earth Mother, and hearing man's pleas, Celestine was born. Celestine, the light above, banished the darkness and allowed life to flourish. But the darkness was not to be stopped so easily! It hid itself inside Mithras, in caves and crevasses, in the lost places. It could not abide the light of Celestine, but Celestine could not be everywhere at once. Once Celestine passed, the darkness rose up out of the lost places and took back over Mithras. Man cried out to the Earth Mother and she assured us, that even as Celestine leaves, she will return to banish the darkness. All hail the light."
"All hail the light" the congregation repeated.
