Tynesday, 9th of Aprillia, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

  Serena had awoken early in the morning as she usually did. Her daily routine wasn’t one that was too spectacular, not especially on a Tynesday. If it were Lunesday, she might’ve woken up even earlier as she had to look over the hospital wing’s catalogue of supplies and cross-checking the storage for the weekly inventory. But none of that could be done before she helped out in making her and her father’s breakfast and morning tea.

  Her father had always told her time and again that she didn’t need to do those things, but it was something she wasn’t keen on stopping. Growing up, she saw how devoted of a wife her mother was and she had always aspired to at least be like her mother especially when it came to the more domestic aspects of life. Halak culture was infamous for being especially patriarchal in its way of doing things in that women were expected to do all sorts of household chores, child rearing, weaving, crop tending, and other such background activities.

  Well, at least on paper and principal it was like that. And while perhaps in some older households the rule still applied - or maybe even in most of the other realms of the Halaklands - Serena herself was never subjected to that sort of ideology. While her mother of course taught her so many things whilst raising her, she had never once felt degraded by her status. More than that, she always considered being able to take care of her own home as good practice for managing larger, more complex businesses. Besides, she was just far too active of a person that she would allow herself to laze around idly without doing anything else.

  All that to say, it wasn’t like her father was even still in the house. He had a peculiar habit of always waking up at the second hour of Tahuak Manuk, between Midnight and Dawn, to quietly pray his devotions to the Lord. It was a habit he had always done since before she was even born. Serena would sometimes join in with her father if she had awoken, but a lot of the time - unless she was still awake after getting back home from a night shift - she could hardly find the strength to even attempt to wake up at such an hour. Thus, she would only have to cook a modest portion of food for breakfast and maybe sometimes dinner, but even then, her father would mostly already have eaten either because he was at church or overseeing a banquet at someone’s home for a function.

  However, for the next foreseeable week or so, Serena didn’t even have to do that bare minimum as her father wasn’t in Goria at the time. Being the Archbishop of the Halaklands, recognised by even many of the foreign Kingdoms of the West, her father had many duties he needed to attend to. One of those duties being the structuring of the new churches in the Northern Realms of the Kings of Rumaparau and Hutangali. Her father must be supervising the organisation and foundation of the New Halak churches there. Her father had even overseen the mass baptism of those two kingdoms over a decade ago.

  All of that, however, did little to ease her mind as she had been absolutely against her father making trips like that, especially considering his far from optimal health. Serena had considered throwing a tantrum or resorting to other more extreme measures to prevent her father from departing for his work, but seeing his determination and absolute conviction in going about his duties as prelate, eventually she gave up and conceded though not without an entire day of argument. At the end of the argument, her father even came up with a comment about how he would be praying for strength upon Josias for the future she was about to give him. It was a snide comment masked as a jest and Serena found no amusement for it.

  So what if she was a little headstrong when it came to these things? She was a Halak woman through and through, and the women were the one who controlled household matters. At the end of the day, all of that headstrongness was for his own good. If it weren’t for her constant reminders for her father to take breaks, rest, and to regularly take his medications, she didn’t even want to imagine what might become of him. But, thoughts like that were to be put aside as they stand as a bad omen.

  With that being said, after making herself a breakfast of fried rice - using the leftover rice from last night’s dinner, sweet soy sauce, eggs, and some chicken meat - she made her way out of her Bolon house to her apothecary in the hospital.

  Though she wasn’t on shift to take care of any patients in the hospital, Serena still had the responsibility to make and deliver the King’s medicinal pills. When she entered the hospital, she was glad to see that at least for the day, they weren’t taking care of any patients within the wards as she saw the village nurses on shift instead gossiping amongst each other at the nurse station.

  “What seems to have you all so giddy this time of day, ladies?” Serena asked with intrigue as the nurses greeted her back.

  “It’s nothing, kak (elder sister). Also, good morning! What’re you doing here, by the way? I thought you were on break today.” One of the nurses answered. She was another cousin of Josias, Ruth Hutabaru, who was also a Malaok. Unlike the other Malaok, however, Ruth’s features were very distinct. A graceful type of beauty with long and straight jet-black hair and slightly slanted eyes, with pale skin that wasn’t quite as pale as Serena’s but still lighter than the average Halak lady. It was a trait she inherited from her mother.

  “I just came here to quickly make some medicines for the king. After that… I really don’t think I have any plans for today, now that I think about it. Maybe catch up on doing some reading?”

  “I see. Well, we were just talking about how infatuated Kak Safira’s been lately that it’s funny to see.” Ruth said excitedly which provoked some chuckles from the other ladies. Serena was quite intrigued by the topic of her best friend-turned-rival.

  “Oh really now? What part of that is particularly amusing?”

  “Well, just this morning, before I left for the hospital, I saw inangtua (aunt) and mother teaching kak Fira how to properly cook a dish. I don’t know what’s gotten into her as I know before recently she showed no interest in cooking whatsoever. When I asked mom about it, she said kak Fira wanted to prepare something for bang Hese.

  “Huh…” Serena nodded as she was processing the information that was given to her as it gave herself some ideas “Well, I’ll leave you girls to it then. But regardless, I’m glad to see that today’s been a real quiet day.”

  When Serena had said that, the smiles on the nurses’ faces had contorted into an expression of fear and shock. Even Ruth who was laughing earlier could now only don an expression of horror as she held her head and widened her eyes at Serena’s comments.

  “Kaaaakkkk!! What have you done…?!! How could you say that word here of all places?!” Ruth protested in frustration.

  And as if on queue, just as Ruth was protesting, as if out of nowhere half a dozen people came barging into the hospital to be admitted as patients with a whole host of issues that they were complaining about. One of them was a farmer who had a nasty-looking gash on his left shoulder. Another one was a mother who had brought in two of her children who had been suffering from fevers for the past few days. As the nurses were scrambling about trying to take care of each and everyone of the patients, Ruth couldn’t help but give Serena one last glare to which she responded by giving her a wink and sticking her tongue out.

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  “Good luck, ladies!” Serena quickly made her way to the apothecary at the back, leaving the hectic situation at the wards.

  It took about an hour to make the pills that would last the king several days as she had already neatly organised the required components of the medicine beforehand. But all the while she was making the medicine, she couldn’t help but be inspired by what she heard Safira was doing. Serena knew that Josias and some of the other young men had been seriously training for the Gotilon festival tournament that would be held in a few weeks. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that she won’t be shown up by Safira who had just recently been courted by Hesekiel. She was very confident in her cooking abilities to be one of the best among the peers and she knew Josias loved her for it - among other things. And with her plan for the day settled, Serena quickly tidied up her workstation before she left.

  After finishing up her work in preparing the medicines for the king, Serena quickly made her way out once more through the wards. She had quickly said her farewell to the nurses, but most of them now only gave her looks that could kill as in just over an hour, everyone already looked haggard from work. Serena didn’t care too much for it as she just laughed it off before going about the rest of her day.

  Her first stop was obviously the King’s Hall where she saw her grandfather - Elder Marasi - was discussing some things with a couple of the Hall’s guards. When he saw her, Elder Marasi had the biggest smile on her face as he embraced his eldest granddaughter. After handing over the medication to her grandfather to give to the king, Serena had quickly excused herself to go back home and prepare a meal for her beloved Josias.

  When she arrived back at her house, Serena quickly got started on cooking. She had stood for a good minute deciding on what dish would best be served to her lover and after thinking on it, she settled on not wasting too much time preparing for a completely new dish and just opting for making another complete dish of fried rice. Luckily for her, there was still plenty of chicken meat and other such spices to be mixed into the dish. Onions, garlic, and the all-important chilli pepper were very important to give the dish the taste it needed.

  It was about an hour before midday when Serena managed to prepare everything. She put the fried rice dish onto a banana leaf before wrapping up the dish inside of it and putting it in a basket. She had prepared three servings, one for herself, and two for Josias because she knew that despite his smaller frame when compared to the other warriors of the village, his appetite was a particularly large one. After preparing all of that and an extra canteen of water, Serena felt pretty satisfied with herself as she gave herself a reassuring nod before setting out to the place the men were training in.

  Serena had been told by Josias earlier in the morning that he was going out to train by the elevated spring just south of the village by the clearing which had a beautiful scenic view of a waterfall, beautiful trees and flowers around and the absolutely gorgeous and clear warm waters of the pool. She had been there countless times with the other girls and it was a popular destination for the young people to visit especially with their lovers, though considering it was used for training by the heirs of the Realm, there shouldn’t be any other people there besides them. And with that excitement to make a surprise for Josias, she had set off.

  But something amusing happened on her way out of the village as by the southern entrance, as if by chance, Serena had run into four other young women who, like her, were all carrying a basket that she assumed had food in it. Maria, Helena, Arta, and Safira looked like they had all come to the same idea of wanting to cook for their respective partners. For a while, the women only stared at each other before they breathed out a short sigh and even laughed. Witnessing this occurrence, another party had walked in and laughed out loud. When the young women turned their heads to look at who was laughing, they saw an old woman walking in on the situation, her back slightly hunched as she walked with her cane.

  “Oh, to be young and in love. What I wouldn’t give to experience that feeling again.” The old woman - whom everyone recognised to be Ompung Ester chuckled “I assume everyone here had the same idea of bringing the man they love some of their cooking that they made with all the love in the world stuffed into one dish? Hahahahah!”

  Serena and the other young women couldn’t help but blush when they heard her put it like that. Well, she wasn’t wrong at all, but of course it would be embarrassing to be called out so openly like that. Though, now that she thought about it, Serena was at least somewhat glad she wasn’t alone in having to give food to her lover. Especially if otherwise she was going to be the only other girl besides Safira as she would find that to be most awkward.

  “Would you perhaps like to accompany us there, then, ompung?” Serena asked her adoptive grandmother as she immediately walked up to Ompung Ester’s side to help her walk “The spring shouldn’t be too far from here, after all, and I’m sure you’d have no trouble walking there if we helped you.”

  “Hah! You smart-mouthed little whippersnapper! I’m not so old that I’d force the young folk just to help me walk!” Ester had affectionately patted Serena’s cheek away but she didn’t force herself out of the young woman’s grasp, preferring to continue on walking “Besides! I’ve known that old spring since even before your parents were born! In fact, I think that spring is where Helena’s mother was conceived now that I come to think about it…”

  “Pffft..!!”

  “Hahahahaha!!”

  “Wow, I did not need to hear that…”

  “Ompung!! That was highly inappropriate of you to say!!” Helena protested her grandmother’s comments about her mother’s conception. Serena could see that Helena’s face was already almost as red as a chilli pepper, but it was still quite amusing to see.

  And so it was decided that ompung Ester would accompany the girls to the spring as a sort of ‘Chaperone’. Both Serena and Helena walked with their grandmother on each side. While they were walking, Ompung Ester would regale so many interesting stories about the past and about their parents’ and grandparents’ generation while also making a comment about them.

  “You know, Maria, you are so very different from the Sigumogo women I grew up with…” Ester said as she looked at the quiet Maria who was just walking quietly while holding her basket in front of her “Just using your namboru (aunt) Pauli as an example, Sigumogo women are usually boisterous, outgoing, loud, and don’t know when to shut up. You’re so quiet, you’re almost as bad as Hesekiel. How that boy came out of that mother is beyond me.”

  “Oh, I still like to talk, Ompung…” Maria said with a reserved smile and a soft laugh.

  “You see! So very soft-spoken!”

  “Well, it doesn’t really help much that besides my namboru and my little sisters, I don’t know any other Sigumogo women.” Maria continued with a sheepish expression.

  “Ah yes. You’re right. There aren’t many Sigumogo left after all. Not especially after your clan decided to slaughter each other all those decades ago…” Ester said offhandedly.

  “You know, ompung, I’ve always been curious about that.” Serena finally decided to ask “Being one of the oldest clans as well as the royal clan of Goria, I would expect for there to be more Sigumogo, but besides the direct clan of King Parhal, I don’t seem to know anyone else…”

  “Oh it’s going to be a long story, child…”

  “I think we can get the gist of it, ompung. Besides, it’s still quite the distance to get to the spring…”

  “Alright then, if that’s what you want…”

  And so for as long as they’d walk, Ester had recounted the story of the ‘Sigumogo Tragedy’ of the ‘Night of Screams’. It worked well to pass by the time as the group were walking to the training area. Finally after walking for the better part of an hour, the group of women finally reached the spring as they caught sight of the young men messing about next to the pool. Serena couldn’t help but feel excited thinking about how Josias would react to her cooking. And with that, the young women had made their presence known to the men. Serena didn’t know why, but she couldn’t help but get the feeling that something exciting was about to happen.