We spent the next three days after that for Vera to completely be comfortable around Lady Artanis. She was now able to smile as frequently in the presence of Lady Artanis as she does whenever we were alone. Lady Artanis' kindness and caring attitude towards Vera was definitely the biggest reason for that.
Vera's fear and anxiety to other people weren't limited to snow elves, but it was undeniable that the root of it all was primarily about fellow snow elves. Having the very first person we get to know outside be a snow elf who was completely accepting of Vera should go a long way to alleviating those emotions and eventually completely get her used to being with other people.
The next few days afterwards was spent touring the small village of Forostar with the help of Grimwin who was all too happy to talk our ears off about life in the village which really wasn't a lot.
Forostar was the northernmost frontier village in Lumisade with a population of around 120 people with the primary source of income being lumber. While Forostar was a frontier village, it did not mean in anyway that the village was poor. Far from it, the village was quite prosperous with everyone being able to have their fill. The abundant livestock, cleared woodland for farms, and the somewhat sizable lake east of the village proper ensured enough food for the village nearly twice over. The lumber produced by the village was well worth their weight in gold. They practiced regenerative forestry in addition to limited mana supplementations in order to enhance the growth of the trees.
The village itself was quite diverse, which was rare for how deep in Lumisade the village was. Around half of the village were snow elves, a quarter were humans, and the last quarter being made up of various beastmen and forest elves. One thing all the villagers shared was their deep-seated appreciation for Lady Artanis. Grimwin practically spent the entire first day of the tour talking about Lady Artanis and everything she did for the village and the villagers. He shared his own personal anecdotes and the anecdotes of the villagers we met, all about Lady Artanis. It was bordering idolatry.
All the various anecdotes about her was nearly too good to be true. They made her out to be some sort of saint. But considering just how much help she's given us the past week, it would be extremely remiss of me to doubt their experiences. There really was a good chance that Lady Artanis was just one of the kindest people in the world. When we noticed that she didn't leave her house in the entire time we were there and asked Grimwin about it, he just naturally shrugged and accepted it, saying: "Eh, the village chief gets 'ike that sometimes. When she's busy 'elping someone, she buries 'erself in books."
Just as he said, Lady Artanis spent every day and all hours of the day when she wasn't talking to Vera, just reading. All the books she read were titled in Elvish so I had no idea what they were about. I was fine with not knowing anyways, since I didn't want to bother her. Her claiming that we could ask questions any time was limited to Vera alone, or so I think it is.
Today was now the day for the ritual of Vera's naming and we still haven't decided on a name that felt right for her. I couldn't help much since I didn't know Elvish and Vera's Elvish wasn't that good. Yes, she could understand a bit, but not enough to come up with a name suitable for her. We were at wit's end. The naming was set for after some time after breakfast, so we really only had a few hours left.
"Dina..." Vera's voice broke me out of my thoughts. We were all washed up and ready to go, and was now just waiting for breakfast. We had offered Lady Artanis to take over cooking, but she denied us saying she needed to be a good host and that she enjoyed cooking.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think it'll be fine if I ask Miss Artanis to decide on my name?"
Honestly, it wasn't a bad idea. Lady Artanis hasn't done anything to cause doubts in her intentions. "Yeah, I think so. It should be fine. I think Lady Artanis would be happy to. She spoils you a lot, you know."
Vera's smile turned even more beautiful. "I know."
We went to the dining room just in time for Lady Artanis to start serving the food. A comfortable silence filled the room as we ate breakfast.
"So? Have you decided on the second part of your name, Vera dear?"
Vera took a deep breath. "Yes."
"What is it?"
"I'd like you to name me, Miss Artanis."
Lady Artanis' eyes widened almost imperceptibly. I wouldn't have caught it if I wasn't looking for her reaction. "Yes, that's no problem dear."
But Vera wasn't done. "I want you to name me because you're the first... you're the first person aside from Dina to care for me like this. I... I want to commemorate it the same way I did for Dina."
You didn't need to be eagle-eyes to notice Lady Artanis' next reaction. She quickly moved closer to Vera to hold her in her embrace. Vera really was just too precious to not hug.
"Yes, of course. I know the perfect name for you dear. We can start the naming as soon as we finish breakfast."
With the naming imminent, it was kind of exciting. Lady Artanis regaled to us throughout the week how the naming process worked. In concept, it was as simple as Lady Artanis said it was. She just had to make Vera as Vera's real name. Doing it, however, was another thing entirely. Apparently, there were old banned records of such a process of changing an elf's name.
Since an elf's name branded itself into their body and mana, the process only worked before the elf's mana fully developed. This limited the process to only be applicable to elves who were 16 years old or younger. Any older than that and the process quickly turned dangerous. The change in severity of the dangers when applied to someone who just turned 17 was extreme. They could lose the ability to use their mana, they could lose their memories, or their sense of self. But when done to those younger, the dangers were extremely minimal.
We went into the room Lady Artanis specifically set aside for the naming and started the preparations. Vera was dressed down into just a tube top, shorts, and ever-present sunglasses. Lady Artanis made her lie down on the table and then started transcribing a complicated spell formation written with Elvish on Vera's body with ink. It took her nearly an hour of careful strokes to finish transcribing.
"Now, for the last touch. The characters for your new name." When she finished, Vera had nearly her whole body covered with ink, the black lines lined her body like blood vessels.
Lady Artanis urged Vera to stabilize her breathing as she started chanting.
"Essëlyë Véra Maia."
And... nothing extreme happened. There was no explosion of mana that a layman like me could feel, there was no sudden gusts of wind, nothing. Maybe if my mana was activated, I would've been able to feel the changes, but I was not.
Lady Artanis breathed out and smiled. "It's done."
I came closer as soon as she gave me the okay to see Vera. And there she was in all her glory, lying down on the bed, tears running down her cheeks from under her sunglasses.
"Vera, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"You... you knew who I was." But I wasn't the one she was talking to.
"Yes." Lady Artanis, having given way for me to approach, was walking away from the two of us.
"But you still helped me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She stopped walking. She pivoted on her front foot and looked at Vera.
"No one is born evil. No one is born as an enemy. It is not the mana you hold nor the features you have that defines you, it is the choices you make. While an elf's name can act as their providence, just as much can it be a poison slowly killing them from the inside. However, overcoming the path fate wove for you is a difficult prospect to consider. Yet it is because of the difficulty of such a thing that I find it incredibly gratifying. There is no greater pleasure in the world than placing fate in a choke hold. And today is one of those days where I achieve the greatest victory of them all.
I — Artanis Elentári — as chief of Forostar, pronounce that the person you once were is no more. All that remains, as of today, is Véra Maia of Forostar. The [Private/Personal] [Beauty/Angel] of Forostar."