During the Great War, our peace was shattered. The comfortable, pleasant life that I had been leading in Portland as an assistant to an apothecary shop was destroyed when Mortos’ army invaded and sacked our coastland. I saw my mother’s grave desecrated by the stamp of wild men and orcs – that accursed race that was kin to the Orchans which had raped and killed her all those years ago. Our city guard was unable to stop them. Weeping, I boarded the fleet that had been organised to evacuate the civilians from the town amidst the shouts and cries of the soldiers who died so that we could escape.
The last picture I had of my home was of the city going up in flames.
The passage across the ocean was horrendous. We were cut adrift from any hope of safety – a thousand or so civilians aboard a hundred ships, with no home to return to and limited food supplies. Children and women used to cry themselves to sleep at night, as storms raged outside the battered hulls of our refugee ships.
When plague broke out amongst the lower decks, the captain of our ship asked me to assist in combating it. I readily assented, requiring work to keep my thoughts occupied from the gloom and despair that pervaded the ship. Quickly, I set to work, visiting the sick, creating curative potions with what limited items we had, and exhausting myself every day by expending all my healing magics until I was drained. It was a ragged, heart-breaking journey. Every day, I lost another patient. Every day, the food became lesser and lesser, and we all grew gaunt with hunger.
Desperation set in. My greatest enemy, death itself, was slowly taking away the people I cared for one by one. And I could do nothing to stop him. My greatest weapons – food, shelter, security, and hope – were all stripped away from us.
By the time we came into sight of the shores of Tirnym, I had caught the plague myself.
I remember little of what followed. Antalya, the human woman who had assisted me during the voyage, told me later that I had been feverish and delirious, often babbling about Orchan cruelty in my sleep. I could recognise no one. However, she also told me that my patients gathered around me in a show of care and support that was unprecedented.
“It was amazing,” she said. “Each and every one of them took turns to watch over you, even when they were sick themselves. They loved you, Lyanna, and wanted to repay the favour.”
It was at Tirnym that I recovered, along with the rest of those struck by the plague. The presence of our great Goddess Aluwen was sufficient to banish all death and disease from us, and we regained our strength. When the final battle came, I was far away from the frontlines, helping to care for the sick and elderly at the south port. I had had my fill of slaughter and bloodshed. However, I too was witness to the cataclysm that tore Tirnym apart and ended the war. No one in the region could miss the earth-shaking sound and the sudden stillness that ensued. But more than that, as all Elves knew, the presence of our Goddess had vanished.
For one agonising moment, I had thought Mortos victorious, and our beloved Aluwen destroyed by forces unimaginable. But that was not to be. A still, small whisper in my soul told me that our Goddess was still alive, but merely bereft of all her powers in the mighty struggle that had taken place. It would be many more years before she would regain sufficient strength to manifest physically once again.
…
As the remnants of our surviving peoples scattered across the lands to rebuild their lives and homes, I pondered my course. The home and place I had made for myself in Portland was gone. My employer had been killed in the war, and many of my clients had lost their lives. I briefly considered trying to return to my mother’s people in Tirnwood Vale, hoping that perhaps our shared sorrows might create a new future for us. But that was only a brief dream. Having lived in cosmopolitan Portland for so long, I could no longer remain in the quiet solitude of the Vale and be content.
It was Antalya, my erstwhile aide, who gave me the answer I was searching for. She approached me, telling me that she and her husband were planning to join a caravan to rebuild Corren Town, and that they could use someone of my healing talents to help take care of the minor ills and complaints along the way.
I saw then a useful occupation for me, and a purpose for my life. I could travel the lands, freely assisting the rebuilding efforts and healing the sick and the wounded along the roads. I would require no pay but the thanks and gratitude of others, as those on the ship had demonstrated. My fight with the plague on the ships had taught me that there was much I still did not know about disease, and I meant to travel the world in search of knowledge to increase my understanding of the healing arts. How many more could I have saved if I had only known what the most effective remedies were? One day, perhaps I would visit the great magic libraries of the world, and aid in the research efforts to discover new cures for the problems that afflicted all of Seridia.
But for now, my course was set. I would be an itinerant Healer, and travel the roads to aid the sick, the wounded, and the weak as they began the great task of restoring order to the Lands.
