Even in the lands of the One Faith, there are those who dream of greater things. So, Lillian Bordeaux, youngest child and only daughter of Simon and Lisette. Born in the bloom of summer, she was a quick and agile child, with a mind to match her body. As often as she found herself trailing after her father and brothers, as they trained at arms, she found herself at her mother's skirts, learning the woman's trade of medicine. Because it was so divided within their line of the family. The men to the noble calling of knight, the women to the equally respected calling of the apothecary. The family had a small concern in the center of Rikton, a house of healing not far from the Cathedral. And into this tradition of honor and healing, came Lillian, who, for all her skill with poultice and ungent, longed to see the fields of battle, to serve the Faith more militantly than was the calling for the women of her House.
Despite the misgivings of her mother, who was unwilling to lose Lillian to the vicissitudes of war, she secured for herself a place as her uncle Kellan's, himself a member of the Order Reliant, page, despite being perhaps two years older than most children would have come to the task. Perhaps Kellan saw something in the young girl that went beyond his family's needs, for, when she came of age, he accepted her as his squire, and the pair traveled to Fortress Benide, where Kellan was set to begin a new term of service to the Church. For Lillian, it was truly a trial by fire, as the garrison at the fort faced constant engagement with the foreign Icenaila forces. Lillian proved her mettle, hardening, as most metal does, in the heat of the forge. She worked hard to master skill at arms, and the command of military tactics, while also continuing her studies as a healer and apothecary. There was need of both, and the Order Reliant was a perfect fit for the girl. She seemed, for the most part, through the years, content to serve, following the direction of her uncle. She was nearly to her twenty-first year, when Kellan decided that she was ready to take the trials to become a knight in her own right.
Little did the woman know how well and truly her life would change, when she received her spurs, early in the spring of 1870. She was called, and sent to serve on the battlefields in the War of the West. Strange to consider Fortress Benide a place of safety, but it had been so, despite the constant ring of battle. It was the place where Kellan, who, over the years had become more a father, mentor, and confessor to her than her own father, lived, where she had come into the idea of herself. Where she had come to understand what was required of her, and where she knew and understood the pace of life and battle. And now she found herself in Galenthia, a place which seemed to her as foreign as if it were a thousand miles from her homeland, and not a mere hundred. And she went without Kellan. And yet, what began with trepidation became a time of honor and staunch resolve, as Lillian came into her own, serving the Faith and the Order well and faithfully.
And yet war…was ever the death of dreams, and the endless campaigning took, in its course, father and brothers, leaving the family bereft of their strong right hand. Lillian's mother, having allowed her daughter to have her head, pleaded with her to return to take up the reins his husband had left behind. She was, after all, now the only surviving heir to their holdings. She begged her daughter to return, to take her father's place, her brother's place, to preserve the family's life and livelihood. And so she did. Lillian returned to her family. She set aside her martial calling for the greater good. And if there are moments when she found herself wishing for other horizons, what of that? Was that not the heart of Faith? So sacrifice in the knowledge that the reward would outweigh what was lost?