Legends of Belariath
Surinya Calen
Everyday it was the same thing. Get up as soon as the first rays of light tainted the sky, pray to the gods for wisdom and patience, learn more about healing others and attend to their needs, do the common chores of the village, pray some more, learn some more, work till you could think of nothing else, go to bed when the sun gave way to the moon.
Such was the quiet life of Surinya.
She did not remember her parents. She had been chosen amidst many to be a healer, someone devoted to others, to relief their suffering and pain, when she was a little child. She was kept safe from the outside world in that little healers village, sheltered, knowing nothing of the world and its vices. A clean, untainted soul, baring the grace and beauty of a high elf, but not its foolish pride. She knew nothing of love or its entrapments. Men and women were kept separate and met only for praying and learning how to heal. As for chores, men did one thing, women did other. They would not mingle much. A couple caught so much as holding hands in a manner deemed improper would be grounds to be exiled, cast away and never more spoken or thought of. Loosing one’s virtue would be unthinkable.
Still through all of this she was happy, always cheerful and sweet and kind, believeing the very best of people.
When she came of age and due to her caring, nurturing nature, and her true desire to help others, she was sent away, to not only help those in need, but also learn more techniques. She was to return home within the completion of three human years, which for an elf was not that long. But she was to remain true to her teachings and come back as pure and untainted as she left. Being the most gifted student and the most obedient on the village, her elders deemed her worthy of such an honor, and had confidence that she could do that succefully.
And so it came to pass that Surinya Calen of the Northern Elves went on a sort of pilgrimage, helping those she could on the way, learning about new cultures. All was well as she travelled through the elven tribes. She was greeted with respect and kindness proper of her kind. But soon she came to distant lands, different, more rough. More often then not, people paid her in chickens, which was not bad, she was not a healer for the money, she just wanted to help others and make them happy. Above all, she wanted to beat death, the only thing she truly hated. The only thing she refused to loose to. Still she was never mistreated on any place she went to. Until she reached Nanthalion.
For someone of her nature, knowing little to nothing of the world, Nanthalion seemed… odd at best. A strange place where people were the exact opposite of those on her village.
Upon her arrival she was quickly tricked into slavery, without so much as understanding what a slave was. She thought someone had hired her to be a healer to a family, which sounded rather nice. The truth could not be more far from it. Knowing just bits of common, she finally understood what had happened, but since she had shelter and was still treated with respect and care she thought it would not be so bad… Until one night, when she was raped.
When her Mistress did nothing to safe guard her honour, or even seemed to care that much for it, she realised she was all alone. She could not go back to her village now that she had been tainted, but being subjected to things she considered immoral and evil was not a way out either. The only person in the house who seemed to even remotely care for her was a torian… when she was offered by her Lady to him, as a gift, she thought things could get better. But the coldness of the torian and the way he pushed her away, despite her loving him simply destroyed her. When he left her behind and went away, abandoning her to her fortune, she wished for nothing but for her nemesis, death, to take her away. It was when all hope was lost that she met Devonix.
She did not trust him at first. She had come to fear all males and did her best to stay out of their way. And he seemed more of a menace then anything.
But slowly, trough much care from him and all his efforts to make her feel better she became a bit of her older self. And she came to respect him, then care for him… till she fell in love. Trully in love. Heart broken by the fact that he would not leave as long as she would, her present quest is to create a potion that will grant him as life as long as hers, so they never part.