Chapter 9: That winter. Edited*

Ana barely knew about the events that took place that day. How they have given birth to Alice's secret desire to potentially become a magician. She only knew that the cleric arrived and performed a ceremony, praying to the gods that the disease would go away. And that's exactly what happened, a miracle. What she didn't know, as she was unconscious most of the time, was the exact sequence of matters that took place that week. Something that Alice has tried to describe on countless occasions, although she herself did not understand it very well. Restarting the story repeatedly during the past year, strangely, more frequently as the date of her 15th birthday approached.

The story goes something like this, not as Alice tells it:

It started like any other cold season. As every year, people in the rural areas of the empire gathered during the most challenging and coldest part of winter. Even though Palo Verde had no difficulties of its own, that didn't make its people selfish monsters who only fend for themselves.  They shared food and drink with others, ensuring the survival of as many rurals as possible. 

During such meetings, it was customary for a clergyman of the holy church to always be present, regardless of whether such meetings were held in the most remote villages, or whether these were extremely devout or not. The clergy offered a prayer and their blessing to the people who gathered during this period. "Under the light of the gods, winter will never be eternal," they always said. But that year no one went out to meet him, like in the previous ones. This time he had to search, go to the houses, and knock on the doors.

But it all started a couple of weeks before the cleric's arrival. The few witnesses of the beginning of the tragedy tell that one of the hunters was returning from the forest after a night hunt. Unusual activity for the residents of Palo Verde, but carried out in a presumptuous attempt to put some additional meat on the table. Unfortunately, a little extra prey was not all she came back with. The next morning, she started showing symptoms that something was off. 

At first, it was just a cough, nothing out of the ordinary for someone who spent a cold night in the woods. As the hours passed, she began to show signs that it was not only the result of the weather. The cough became more aggressive, she soon began to have a fever, chills and eventually could not even stand of her own volition. 

It wasn't long after the hunter had to stay in bed when her family began to show symptoms. Not only the family, but those who visited with herbs and food in support of the family began to show signs that something was wrong. It was then that people in the village realized it was a highly contagious disease, but by that point, it was too late.

When the cleric assigned to the area arrived in Palo Verde and learned of the situation, luckily, it had not been long since the hunter showed the first symptoms. However, three-quarters of the population of Palo Verde had already fallen ill. Among them, Ana. She was being cared for by Alice, who was in extreme proximity to her and other sufferers but did not seem to show symptoms. Although she did try her best to make them better, unfortunately, it was without much success.

Alice still remembrance how despair and helplessness she felt. The simple herbal remedy, that her mother sometimes gave her when he got sick, did nothing more than soothe the symptoms. Wiping the sweat from her mother's forehead with a damp cloth, again and again in the hope of lowering her temperature, to no avail. Alice could only watch as her mother's condition worsened.

When she heard of the clergyman's arrival, Alice came to him immediately. Alice knew one thing in particular about the clergy who visited rural villages, and it was the only thing she cared about and needed at the time; Clerics could heal.

Although she didn't really know what was a cleric or what he looked like. Her knowledge about the gods was scarce, especially since the most profound teachings on the subject were reserved for their people. Besides that, her mother, for reasons that she never explained, was always very sturdy in keeping her away from them. 

Alice was unaware of the method by which the clergy performed such feats, which the villagers called miracles, but she was desperate for help. For the first time in her life, she consciously ignored her mother's wishes. A constant that she made very clear on every visit from the cleric, about being discreet and on her best behavior around the servants of the gods. 

Alice could still remember the kind-looking and calm man, who stood out like a ray of light in the darkness. She ran as hard as she could to his encounter. He received her with a smile, as if he had known her all his life, and reassured her as if it was the most natural thing to do. His countenance reflected that there was nothing in the world that could disturb him, not because he didn't care enough, but because he had an unshakable faith that the goddess, to whom he prayed, would not give him anything he could not handle. 

Alice didn't even have to beg or insist. Although she could barely explain the situation, the clergyman knew exactly what to do. First, he gathered all the healthy people with Alice's help and asked them to help him move the sick to the center of town. There, the man, who never revealed his name, began to perform some kind of religious ritual that Alice nor the others understood. 

The man began by burning some herbs, making an offering, and a prayer. Then an intense radiant light, evidently out of place, emerged from the religious symbol that the man carried in his hand. In an instant, it burst into a gentle wave, which could only be described as peaceful warmth and spread throughout the place. 

As the light advanced, it could be seen how it made its way to the living beings in its path, enveloping them in its warmth. When it came in contact with the sick, they seemed to absorb it more strongly than those who were healthy. 

The man's actions, though incomprehensible to Alice, were forever etched in her memory. Not only because of their peculiarity or because their nature awakened something in Alice that could not be described, but because when she saw the immediate result, she was amazed by the possibilities and scope of something that seemed so simple but gave such great retributions.