Colette Dumont
Monk | Focus on the body | It lets you do cool shit like punch fast and catch arrows | Elias is my older brother.
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Children
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The day Corsari was attacked, as I remember it.
Spring, 517
Word that Corsari was being attacked reached mother and father just as the beast arrived on the other side of town. My parents instructed Helena, the nanny, to help me flee. I believe they also asked Elias to flee with us but he wished to stay and fight.
We ran for a long time. I do not know if I was the only child that escaped the town although I was the only one who escaped in the direction that we went.
We eventually arrived in Ravenspeak, the nearest city to our village. I was left at the Redgrave Orphanage for Girls by Helena. She told me she would return in a couple days with my parents so I could be bought home.
I was taken in by Matron Winterson who bathed me, clothed me and cut all my hair. I could tell even that early on that she was a witch.
Helena returned in a couple days although my parents did not. Helena explained that their bodies were found - they would not be able to pick me up. I was to remain here.
Elias was the only villager not accounted for. A small few made it out alive and every other body had been found.
Helena told me that Elias may come and collect me one day, seeing as the likelihood was that he was alive.
From there, I was alone.
The Journal Entry’s title
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The Order of the Evermother while I was at Redgrave.
525-530
On the seventh day of the week all of the girls would be taken to the church for a service. The route to this church went past The Monastery of the Evermother, where the Monk Order of the Evermother would train.
Watching these monks train while walking to the church was my favourite part of the week.
After my 13th birthday, when I was allowed to spend my rec time outside of Redgrave, it became a habit of mine to go down to the monastery and just observe the monks. It was so amazing to watch, they were so graceful and yet so strong. I was enamoured with the idea of my body being a weapon as powerful as a blade (like Ilyana's dagger), and how, even though I was physically smaller than a lot of the older girls (that is true no longer, I spent time training my body), I could use my finesse to beat them physically.
After two weeks of watching the monks train in the gardens through a gap in the wall, a monk noticed me watching. I tried to run but he caught up to me with un-humanoid speed and caught my by the back of my dress. He introduced himself as Monk Julian and questioned why I was lurking.
When I explained that I was interested and had no ill intentions he lit up. He offered to let me step into the gardens to watch the training so I could have a better view. For the next two weeks this is what I did.
After that, Monk Julian started to let me join in with the fight training. I spent a whole year perfecting my unarmed strike.
When that was perfected Monk Julian offered me to join the monastery's training programme for real, as he believed I had what it took.
I would have to practice the spiritual side as well as the physical side, which I was not too excited about, but I agreed to join.
When joining I had to pick which monastic tradition I wanted to follow - the Order of the Evermother in Ravenspeak is very large, and they teach many different ways. I chose the way of the drunken master, being enthralled by the unique technique they employed. I was drawn to the idea of looking completely harmless then being able to strike very scary speed and precision.
The monks that follow the way of the drunken master all wear clothing that works as a recognisable tie to the Evermother while still being completely unique to the individual.
Due to other circumstances I was not allowed out of Redgrave for a week (luckily Monk Julian understood my situation and was always sympathetic when I failed to turn up to things, understanding that if it were up to me I would be there more and it was simply circumstance preventing me) but when I returned Monk Julian had prepared an official welcome ceremony for me, and had gotten me my own habit (what the monks call their outfit).
It is embarrassing to admit but when I put on the garments I had been given I wept with happiness. It was the first time I was able to wear something that was not Redgrave's ugly, uncomfortable uniform dress. For the first time I felt like an individual, and not a part of institution. The habit included: a plain green top with a high neck and no sleeves, a plain brown pair of harem trousers, and bandages to wrap my hands and feet (my habit has since evolved past this simple one designed for children).
I spent the next 4 years learning about unarmoured defence, honing my unarmed attack and understanding the spiritual side of the order. It wasn't until the last year of that section of training that I began to pay attention to, and really appreciate, the spiritual side. While I would now say I follow the Evermother I know I am not as devout, or regard her as highly, as many of the other monks do.
The teachings on my order focus largely around the self. They are about making sure the self is in top form, and is prioritised. You are expected to make your body, mind and soul all completely in tune with one another.
As my 18th birthday approached it was decided that when I left Redgrave I would move into the monastery full time. I was given a teacher, Monk Andreas, and was told that I would begin my journey with ki.
I celebrated my 18th birthday by swearing my vows to The Order of the Evermother. I picked the vows of Light, Courage, and Loyalty. I had elected Monk Andreas as my Trusted One since I would be studying ki under him. Since I would be spending the majority of my time with him, he thought it was the best idea for him to be my Trusted One.
The same day I moved out of Redgrave and into The Monastery of the Evermother.
My time with the Vipers
518-526
I was always a very petite child. This got me noticed by a group of older girls at Redgrave when I was 6. They called themselves 'The Vipers.' The group consisted of Harriette, Ilyana, Yazmine and was led by Clemencia initially. As I grew older the group evolved. Somehow I was always the youngest member.
Initially I tried to refuse and Clemencia had Harriette beat the shit out of me. I had the bruises for weeks. I was told that every time I refused to take part that this would happen again, but worse. I had to agree.
It became my job to help them rob people's houses at night. They find a house to target during the day. At night, I would be taken to the target house and given a leg up through an open window that they had found - most often a bathroom window. From there it was my job to unlock the backdoor to let them in to rob the place.
I never got anything back from them.
I actually tried to leave a second time when I was around 9, just after Clemencia moved out and Ilyana took her place as leader.
Ilyana proved to be an even scarier leader than Clemencia, mainly because she found a way to get and keep a dagger.
Ilyana and that attempt at stopping is how I got the scar over my eyebrow.
I fought, but she pushed me to the floor, held me down, and carved, just around the eye and over the brow, to remind me that she should do anything she wished to me.
When I reached 9 or 10 and was getting too big to be hoisted through bathroom windows they taught me how to pick locks. It became my job to pick the lock of the back door of the house they wanted access to since I was stealthier with a lockpick than the rest of them.
I only got caught a small handful of times. When I was very little I could get away with it, being a cute kid. By the time I was 11 I could not. It only once made it back to the orphanage, once when I was 13. That was when I received the worst punishment of my life. The other two times I was caught between the ages of 11-14 it was dealt with by the local authorities. Both times I was kept in the stocks for an hour. Much better than what would've happened at Redgrave.
When I was 14, after studying for just over a year with the monastery, I stopped helping The Vipers. They tried to make me continue helping them but by this time I knew how to defend myself. After that I was not bothered by them again. Nor were any other young children.
I did end up keeping my lockpicking skills sharp. Sometimes I felt like I needed a break so would sneak out of Redgrave to stay at the Monastery for a night.
Life in Redgrave Orphanage for Girls
517-530
I lived in Redgrave between the ages of 5-18.
Girls younger than 5 start life with a foster mother. I just missed that cap.
When I was taken there I was washed, dressed in the uniform and had my hair cut short. I do not suit short hair. They took my only possessions - the clothes I was wearing and my mother's necklace with the Dumont family symbol on the family stone (a rue flower on a piece of Amazonite). I did not think I would ever get these back, but when I left my possessions were returned to me.
Redgrave calls itself an orphanage, although I would liken it more closely to a boarding school.
We slept in dormitories. Redgrave had two - one for ages 5-13 and the other for ages 13-18.
In total there were around 100 girls. Redgrave catered to Ravenspeak and the villages around it.
Our days were thoroughly regimented. Awaken, clean, breakfast (if you were good), school, chores, dinner (if you were good), recreation, rollcall, bed. This is what we did five days a week.
One day a week school was replaced with recreation, although church was mandatory for the first hour.
We were all expected to wear uniforms until after dinner when we were allowed to change into common clothes. The issue with this, of course, is that basically no one had access to common clothes.
Despite the tight regime we were surprisingly free to do whatever we wanted during our recreation time.
Redgrave was a cold building built of ugly red bricks in the middle of a city. It had a small lawn, with a single tree with a swing on it. There was also a playroom, but time in there had to be earned. Once you reached 13 you were allowed to spend your recreational time in the city.
As children we had no access to money at all. Some of the older girls would get small jobs while allowed out in town. One in particular took pity on me and gifted me a small rag doll which I named Bella.
Redgrave was run by Matron Winterson. I knew from day 1 she was a witch. It always seemed to me that she knew the Dumont name and held a special place of hatred in her heart for me. That woman should never have been around children.
The rules were strict and the punishments harsh.
Rewards were few, and getting another child caught seemed to be the only way to get them. Winterson really understood how to pit girls against each other.
Growing up in a place like Redgrave does not prepare you for the real world. You grow up with no understanding of independence. Transition out of a place like that can be hard.
I left Redgrave on my 18th birthday and have not been back since.
My time living at the Monastery of the Evermother.
530-532
I moved into the monastery at 18.
I spent the next two years developing my relationship with ki and working with Monk Andreas.
I was taught all of the abilities that an understanding of ki will one day unlock for me. I started to become hyper aware of the force of ki in my body and in other's and learnt how to effectively use it.
Although I still spent plenty of time training with Monk Julian I learnt everything about ki from Monk Andreas - Monk Julian was an expert combatant whereas Monk Andreas was an expert at ki.
Monk Andreas was my ki master and Trusted One but I actually did most of my practising with Monk Laverna.
Monk Andreas was harsh but fair. He did not mistreat me the way Redgrave had. I was no longer physically punished for things and I ate better than I did at Redgrave. I learned that meals are usually eaten three times a day. I still slept in a dormitory but nights were easier, there was far less crying. Everything was going well.
Even though I was living and training there full time I was still allowed to make an income, I was still allowed to go to the town when I pleased. For the first time I had a solid collection of my own belongings. The life of a monk at The Temple of the Evermother is not the dreary, boring, spiritual life you think of when you think of monk.
The Monastery of the Evermother has a winery attached. The winery give out free wine to the people of Ravenspeak and produced fine wine for trade and export. The winery was aligned with the monastery but most of the employees were not monks. I worked there in my free time for a small amount of pay.
There had recently been another young girl from Redgrave who had been seen watching the monks who was invited in the way I had been. her presence (her name was Joy) had sparked a debate as to whether the monastery should open its doors to local children who wanted to learn, and people were leaning towards yes (I like to think it was because I had been such a success).
Around 4 months before Elias came back into my life everything changed for me at the monastery.
It was late and I was seeking out Monk Andreas to ask if we could dedicate the next day to training in the art of the slow fall, as I felt I was ready to start my new ki ability. As I approached I hear that he was already talking to someone. I was going to turn away when I realised he was talking to Joy. I stopped to listen.
I overheard Monk Andreas suggesting some unsavoury things to Joy. I interrupted (I didn't actually witness anything happen), and told Andreas I would report him.
The higher-ups were completely on my side. Monk Andreas was expelled permanently from the monastery and the plan to open the doors to the local children was delayed while safety plans were created.
Unfortunately for me, Monk Andreas was my Trusted One. By whistleblowing on him I broke my vow of loyalty. I had to give up almost all of the possessions I had accumulated. I was left with
My clothes
My short sword (one of a kind, its a special monastery one)
My coin purse (handmade and gifted by Monk Laverna) (it did have to be emptied)
My mother's amulet
My cloak (warm enough for winter, cool enough for summer)
I had to give up so many of my things, my travelling gear, all of my money, the clothes I was wearing when I fled Corsari, my dolly Bella. All of that was lost. I very had to quickly undo all of the sentimentality I had built up.
Learning what Andreas did broke my trust in the Order. I still believed, I still had my vows. I just didn't feel comfortable living there anymore. So I left.
Ricardo
Redgrave Girls and Redgrave Boys were the same institution from a high up level but were completely separate in the eyes of the children who lived there. Effort was made to limit as much contact as possible through the year. Both attended the same church on the holy day each week, the church to the Ameyla, Goddess of crops and labour, but the girls went in the morning and the boys went in the evening.
The only time the two sides were permitted to meet was at the Festival of Ameyla which happened twice a year, on the spring and autumn equinox. These were to celebrate the start and end of crop season. The festivities happened all day meaning there was no way to keep the two separate.
I met Ricardo at the very first one I attended. He was barely two weeks older than me, and was the only half-elf in Redgrave Boys. We became friends very quickly, and from the very first festival would make a point to meet up at every single one.
He was my closest friend and confidant and I was his. At seven we agreed to marry. By the time we were nine we realised we were too young to make that decision and called the wedding off, at least until we were old enough.
At the autumn equinox, only around a month from his 13th birthday, we snuck off to a secret corner and shared our first kiss. We made an arrangement t meet up as soon as my 13th birthday came and we'd be allowed to leave Redgrave in the evening. We planned to meet at the monastery wall (as that gave me a chance to watch the monks train) the day after I turned 13. We were both excited - I loved Ricardo as much as it is possible to love someone at that age and I have no doubt he felt the same way about me.
The day after my 13th birthday hit and I did exactly as planned. He wasn't there. I thought maybe he had misremembered by birthday so I kept going back to wait for him (and watch the monks train). Two or so weeks later he still hadn't shown up and everything went down with monk Julian, where I was invited inside the monastery to begin training.
I was pretty angry at Ricardo. I went to the next festival ready to confront him and ask me why he had abandoned our plans, but I could not find him. I summoned the confidence to ask one of the matrons of Redgrave Boys and they told me what had happened.
In the two weeks between his birthday and mine Ricardo had been hit with an illness of the lungs. It killed him quickly.
I still miss Ricardo. I wish to buy him a proper tombstone when I have the money. As far as I am aware the only memorial to him is in the book that holds a list of children who passed away while living in the orphanage, and I believe his body was cremated.
After the Monastery, before Barovia.
532
Just over 2 months after leaving the monastery I settled into a habit. There was an inn on the outskirts of Ravenspeak, The Ivory Deer Inn, which was cheap for board, food and drink, designed for travellers. I would spend all day sitting with a drink in the main part of the bar, challenging anyone who walked into the bar to a fist fight. 1sp bet.
Many people took me up on the offer. I was a small half-elf girl who didn't look like she could do much damage to you. Travellers are often cocky so sometimes I would win even more than 1sp. the biggest bet someone ever made me was 10gp.
Of course, I used the technique I learned at the monastery to win in the fight every time. Not a single person stood a chance.
You would think that they would have learned, but the inn attracting travellers means that I got at least one new person every day.
Even though it sometimes got bloody the barkeep didn't mind. He knew the money I earned would be funnelled back into his bar. And when blood was spilled I was always kind enough to mop it up for him.
When I wasn't fighting I would usually be drinking at the bar. I'll admit it wasn't the healthiest coping mechanism. But it was the one I adopted.
One day a half-elf man came into the tavern looking for a room. He looked the hunting type, a longbow on his back, and that sort of ruggedness that comes with spending too much time in the woods. I challenged to a fist fight but he refused. That's when I noticed the Dumont family sword on his hip. I demanded he handed it over, as it was rightfully mine.
He got angry, exclaimed it was his and accused me of being a swindler. He looked at mother's necklace and demanded I give it to him since it was his. Naturally I refused. I was getting heated about it, why was this man lying about being a Dumont?
I think it clicked for me seconds before it did for him.
This rugged hunter in front of me was Elias Dumont. My brother. I had spent 10 years waiting for him to come and get me. I had written off ever seeing him again 5 years ago. And yet here he was, in front of me.
'Elias?' I spoke first. His whole demeanour changed.
It was not the cheery reunion I was hoping for. It was actually a little awkward. We talked for the rest of that night. Only briefly about our separate histories, the rest was small talk. I knew, when we went to bed that evening, that I would never be leaving my brother's side again. If we split off it would be his choice and I would respect that.
But for now, I was no longer alone.
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