Erlenstar Mountain

Sims 2 Royal Kingdom Blog

Name:
Location: California, United States

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A Woman of Wisdom: round 4, episode 2

Aster Corbett had arrived in Erlenstar Mountain as a tiny child, crying for the mother she had lost when a huge wave, driven by the Sea People, swept through their seaside city. Her father, brother, and sisters did their best to care for her even while trying to establish their new home in the North. As time passed, Aster, as the youngest in the family, was a little indulged by the rest. Times had grown easier, and her father permitted her to sit and read in the corner, rather than working in the fields or weaving with her sisters. She attended school at the convent with Reverend Mother Grania, and continued to study even after she became a teen, unlike most peasant girls who left school when they put their childhood behind them.

As she approached womanhood, Aster felt no desire to marry or have children like her siblings were doing. Although a loving aunt to her nieces and nephews, her own desire continued to be to learn and study. Her special interest was in herbs and medicines, and she was becoming known, even at her young age, as a competent nurse and midwife.

However, when she was grown her father, indulgent as he had been, put his foot down. She was no longer a child, and either she needed to help with the house and the farm as they all did, or she must marry and make a home of her own. Despairing, Aster sought advice from her teacher.
To her surprise, Grania had a proposal. The work of running the convent and teaching the neighborhood children was becoming too much for her to handle on her own. If Aster wished to join the convent as a lay sister, taking over the physical labor of cleaning and gardening, Mother Grania would continue to teach her and guide her medical studies in the evenings. Aster was not enthusiastic at first, since it sounded to her as if this life of housework and farming would be little different from remaining at home with her father.
However, she trusted and respected her teacher, and in the end decided that it would be a fair bargain. She did insist that, since she felt no vocation, she would not be asked to take vows in the order, and that she would be free to leave when she was ready. It was harder than she expected to say goodbye to her family and the cosy farm where she had grown up.
Through the summer months, she spent her days working hard, scrubbing the flagstone floors on her hands and knees, preparing food for Mother Grania, and laboring in the convent gardens.
In her turn, Grania kept her word and tutored the eager young woman in the evenings. It was a pleasure to see how quickly Aster learned, how clearly and logically she reasoned.

It was a great help and relief to have someone else to share her hours in the big convent, and to sit in quiet prayer and contemplation with her in the chapel. As Mother Grania watched Aster grasping at knowledge with both hands, she came to feel that the community would benefit greatly from the help and advice such a wise woman would be able to offer.
As the dog days of summer approached, the weather became heavy with thunderstorms.

Back in Caithnard, Prince Tirunedeth was also studying feverishly, taking advantage of the last opportunity to solve the riddle of the Sea Folk.
At length, it was time to stop studying and begin to take action. Laying aside his scholar’s robes and setting down his books, Tirunedeth boarded the boat for the trip home to Erlenstar Mountain.
He returned quietly and without fanfare, walking up through the farms from the river on his own. No one, seeing his purposeful stride, could doubt that their child Prince was now a man, and prepared to go to war.

1 Comments:

Blogger Sally said...

Yey - my favorite character is back and he has a mission. Go, Prince!

10:28 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home