The village has two systems of care — the church, which offers prayers and last rites, and Alena, who offers everything else. She practices the Old Faith openly enough to be known and quietly enough to be tolerated, which is a balance she has maintained for forty years by careful attention to whose child needs a fever broken and whose does not. She keeps a Lathander shrine on her mantel visible from the doorway. It has never been consecrated. She sells herbal remedies at prices anyone can pay and takes payment in trade when coin is not available. She was offered a Church post by Sister Anya via Alexei; she declined because accepting would mean giving up cultivations the Church would burn.

The cottage is small — one room, hearth, table, three chairs. Herbs hang from every rafter, layered thick enough to muffle sound. Alena is at the table, grinding something. She doesn’t look up.

Sensory

• Herbs — juniper, wolfsbane, willow bark, moonwort
• Grinding sound (mortar and pestle)
• Cat in the corner. Not the same cat every visit