CHAPTER 297: LEARNING

Nights inside of these Sunstoian buildings of the far north were the same as usual. The only difference was that time Irene had far more entertainment than she had the nights before. Considering she had been familiarizing herself enough with the language, she felt comfortable tackling more difficult books.

However, what she drifted towards the most were the books that had to do with being a Volna. They contained the lessons she had hoped to receieve from her grandmother, but, in the worst case scenario where she wasn’t able to teach her, Irene was preparing herself otherwise.

Some books were a bit too intense for what she was hoping to achieve. With a bit more searching, she found something closer to the basics. At least, it was the introduction to that sort of figure in their soceity altogether.

What Irene learned was that this position acted as a guide to the girls as they grew from adolescence into adulthood. It was said to be a time when girls’ souls were most succestible to outer force.

That didn’t mean it was an inherent flaw of girls, but that the god in charge of the underworld, Emun, had predatory tendencies. He would lure girls in any means possible and, considering his position in the heirarchy of gods, he could go about it in all the ways he saw fit. After all, he was already being punished in the underworld, so what more did he have to lose after falling out of their afterlife in the clouds.

After reading a bit about the Volna of the past, Irene couldn’t help closing the book and laying there with the crackling fire casting shadows on her face as she mused over life and what it was like to be the first female knight for Chemois but the last Volna for the Sunstoian people.

It made her feel momentarily desperate to pass on her Sunstoian blood and beg the universe for a daughter one day. However, the thought of having to get close to a man in such an intimate way made her head spin. She wasn’t even sure if that was something she could ever accept in her life.

"How stressful..." she uttered. "Perhaps Arne will have to have a lot of daughters. He seems more inclined to pass on our genes. I will teach them..."

She patted the book and placed it onto the table that stood next to the bed, covered in furs and blankets to keep her warm. It was too burdensome to think about any longer. She was only here to be a guide to young girls, not figure out her entire life as she crept closer to adulthood with each passing month.

Her birthday was soon, she realized. But it was more of a passing thought. Even though she was of noble birth, it was more usual for someone like a ducal family or the Royal Family to pay attention to those sorts of dates.

With a confused journal entry surrounding her thoughts about one day becoming a mother despite having no idea how to do something of the sort, Irene rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

From a different time period, one wouldn’t think that sleeping on their side wouldn’t be a luxury, but it was only something she could do when she was laying in a bed. Otherwise she had to wear stiff armor and only lay on her back which wasn’t her preferred sleeping position.

The following morning, Irene was kissed with cold for the first time through the night and she opened her eyes to see smoke raising into the room as her fire finally burned out. Only once did she wake to put more wood on the fire, but even then, the fire was still plenty large.

She lay there for a few moments, desiring to be lazy for a while, but she knew that her duties would present themselves soon, and she would resume the pace she had taken to before.

Not only did she want to go through her grandmother’s things, she also wanted to explore the other parts of the village that were labeled on the map.

Once she had eaten porridge and had added extra sweet oats to Sammy’s pile, she got into warm clothing and made sure that not an inch of her except for the space at her eyes was visible to the elements. She knew that it was going to be a freezing morning based on how cold it was in the evening.

All she took with her was a canvas bag and map. Everything else could be left behind until she returned—even Sammy.

Irene allowed him to run outside for a little while, but she soon sent him back into the house because that was where he would stay while she was walking around. The village wasn’t large and she wouldn’t need to get anywhere quickly.

If she were to delve deeper into her thought process, she would realize she was being paranoid about the possible wyrm. If she were to go into a building and leave Sammy out in the open, there was no doubt something as dangerous as a wyrm would take that moment to eat her horse.

Not only would it be completely awful for such a loyal and kind horse to be taken, but it would also effectively leave her stranded because there was no way she could cover such a distance on her own. her feet would get too cold. It would end up turning into her having to wait until someone decided to come find her. At that point, who knew how long it would be until the limited supplies in the village ran out?

The girl shook her head, removing those paranoias until she was out of the small house with her few supplies in hand.

"I will be back later," she called as she shut the door.

Her green eyes turned to the amazing view of the south since that was the direction in which the door faced, most winds coming from the north as it was.

In front of her, she could see the mountains of Chemois in the far distance and the tall mountain that once stood north in the Sunstoian region was now west. While the monochromatic terrain made it seem like she wasn’t traveling far with each step to the north, she was realizing just how far she had gone.

Loneliness wasn’t at the forefront of her mind any longer. It had persisted for so long that she either had gotten used to it or had simply moved on. The reality was that she was unlikely to see someone for a long time and logically she accepted the fact.

With that pushed to the side, she could resume her adventure and explore the lands her family once roamed as she learned the lessons of Volna and all that it entailed. She had yet to find the information about prophetic dreams, but she also needed to bring a stack of books to her grandmother so she could tell her the most important parts even if she had earmarked and inked in her own thoughts through the entire process.

That morning, Irene decided she would head towards the final of the Litharion’s homes that she hadn’t explored yet. Since she found what was clearly her grandmother’s she hadn’t bothered going further as night closed in the day before.

With each step, the snow crunched underfoot and she knew that the latest layer of snow had finally settled. All that meant to her was that there was likely going to be another layer soon to blow around.

These things went in cycles in this region. It wasn’t like Chemois where the winter storms had no rhyme or reason, merely that the snow was usually settled by a certain time. There would be periodic storms but nothing substantial or predictable.

In this Sunstoian region, she could see how it would be survivable. Since the cycle was predictable, you could plan when you would be frozen in, buried in the snow, or able to travel freely. Perhaps there would be more books about this somewhere. It would make it easy to figure out when she should move or when she should stay put.

As she arrived to the last house, she realized she had her work cut out for her. There was snow piled in front of the door and seemingly only one way in.

What was particularly surprising, however, was the fact that this door was made with more metal unlike all of the others she had come across.

After clearing off the stoop and with a few thrusts of her shoulder, she was dropped into a place beyond her imagination.

"It was a good thing I didn’t decide to settle here last night," she muttered to herself as she looked around.

While it was much like the other houses in terms of size and the a-frame it was built in, weapons covered nearly every wall. If you got too close to it in a few places, there were battlements that could easily pierce you if you let your guard down for even a moment in a place like that.

For once, the hearth in the middle didn’t seem comforting, but more threatening.