"The past few years have been… a trial for us all. There had even been word of separatist movements brewing in the north, the former Junoran lands, and it got bad enough that father had stationed the newly rebuilt second templars there to maintain order after having taken a personal look at the situation.

Sentiments against Death affinity mages - mother, Diarmuid, Kestera, and Éirynn especially - had also ramped up again, the same sentiment I was told to be the reason Uncle Caelleach went to find new lands, blazed anew, often amongst the old Junoran populace.

After the raid, many had also held sentiments and hatred against elves, and it was already a near miracle that there had only been three attacks made on Kestera over these years. Two of them were not truly attacks, and were just parents and wifes who lost children and husbands that had let grief overtake their minds, and she had consoled and won them over in the end.

It was the third attack that made us up our precaution however, as the attacker had straight up knifed her in the ribs without preamble. Kestera had retaliated by instinct and the only reason her attacker lived to be interrogated was because I was nearby, while her own injuries were fortunately less serious.

We only later found out that the knife was laced with deadly poison, but between Akeshia and me, the poison never stood a chance. Had we not been around however, it would have certainly turned ugly. That the assailant later comitted suicide in prison whilst keeping his silence had not bode well either.

For now, mother and father's efforts had kept a relative peace in Vitalica, but just the fact that mother has had to discreetly "remove" at least three charismatic provocateurs who worked behind the scenes and were advocating armed rebellion far too loudly in the past years were not a good sign at all.

Neither Diarmuid or I were viewed upon kindly by these people, as they viewed him as merely another user of death magic, while I was just seen as an undead puppet in their eyes. If brother Faerghus were still alive things would probably be more stable, but as it is now… I only hope that mother and father could hold the line until Maebh comes of age." - Diary of Aideen Fiachna, the First Unliving, circa 55 VA.

Fiachna Mansion, La Fiachna, Theocracy of Vitalica, second day of the first week of the eighth month, year 55 VA.

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The clash of metal on wood resounded in the backyard of the mansion, as Aideen sparred with her niece Maebh - now thirteen years of age - while Akeshia watched over them with some reluctance. Maebh had been using her late father's old axe - something she insisted upon - while Aideen trained the little girl with a simple wooden staff instead.

As her niece grew up, Maebh had insisted that she wanted to follow her late father's footsteps, and it was only with some reluctance that Akeshia finally gave in to her daughter's will. Ciarran personally taught the girl some light magic whenever he had free time, while Aideen and Diarmuid were entrusted with her weapons training.

Aideen herself had rarely gone out of the mansion in the past few years. When she did, she went out only after she covered herself in a hooded cloak. How inhuman her current state of unlife had made her began to show, as while Akeshia - who was of an age with her - and Diarmuid showed their age as they hit their forties, she remained as she was. Like her time had literally stopped when she was twenty, which in a manner of speaking, it had.

Kestera had actually been a source of solace for her, as the elven woman was after all, used to how people of short-lived races look at longer-living ones like hers. She looked not a day out of her late teenage years - and for her race, is still considered one - despite being well over a hundred. She had shared some of her past experiences with Aideen, which had made her feel better.

Aideen deflected an over extended swing from Maebh's axe handily and pulled it over, which threw the girl off balance, before she punished the girl for overextending with a painful rap of the staff to her shin. Akeshia winced as she heard the sound of a bone cracking, as Aideen didn't really hold back when made to train Maebh.

"Okay, that's enough for now, Maebh," Aideen said as she helped her niece up from where she fell. At the same time, she circulated her magic through her niece's body and repaired the damage she just caused. She was somewhat proud of her niece's strong determination, and how she had never cried or complained despite the hard training she chose to go through in her tender age, yet at the same time wished she could have had a normal, happy childhood instead. "Mother should be about done with lunch soon, we will adjourn for that first. Go take a bath and get cleaned up."

Maebh nodded sullenly, but obeyed as her mother brought her inside. The past few years had been hard years for the family, though Ciarran and Aoife still somehow kept everything in place with their combined efforts.

Aideen wished she could have done more to help, yet her condition itself made it a demerit for her to even try. She had even heard news from grandpa Aarin that a few more Unliving had been found, because they sought refuge in Ptolodecca after their homelands utterly refused them.

She herself wondered how long would her own homeland accept her. The current rising of sentiment against death magic and the undead, coupled by the envy of those whose time is limited to those who never aged like her… made her wonder.

When Aideen helped her mother plate their lunch on the dining table, she felt more keenly how her parents had aged. Both Aoife and Ciarran were in their seventies this year, and yet it was their efforts that had kept the stability of Vitalica of late.

What would happen when the time comes for them to inevitably pass on, Aideen did not even dare to guess.

If by then Maebh had come of age, and managed to hold her own following as the next generation to look up to, things would probably be fine. But if that was not the case…