Back to Chapter 7
Chapter Eight � The Student
Danka
and her fellow initiates eagerly awaited the Fall Equinox, when they
would give up the title of �Initiate� and become fully accepted members
of the Cult of the Ancients. To mark the change in their status, they
would wear the Cult of the Ancients� skull on their formal outfits. They
handed over their dresses and tunics to the group�s most experienced
seamstress, who carefully embroidered the skull that would tell the
world that the wearer was a fully-accepted Follower.
Equally important was the skull-staff. Following the sacrifice of the
five fortune-hunters, one of the elders cut off their heads and took
them to a secret chamber under the Altar of Blood-Nourishment. He spent
several days cleaning the skulls before soaking them in a special
solution to harden the bone. He drilled holes at the base that would
allow the skulls to be mounted on staffs. Finally, he coated the skulls
with a special sealant that would prevent them from getting stained and
make them as sturdy as a hard piece of wood.
The skull-staff issued to a new Follower was nothing more than a simple
wooden pole, but most Followers learned wood-carving and eventually
carved designs or pictures into their staffs during their free time. One
way for a Christian to tell how long a cult-member had been a Follower
was to look at their staff. The most elaborately carved staffs belonged
to Followers with the most experience.
However, the season did not give the Initiates much time to think about
what life would be like after they became fully accepted Followers. The
first three weeks of September were an extremely busy period for
everyone in Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement. It was the last opportunity to
bring in food, harvest a final batch of alchemy ingredients, and haul
wagonloads of mysterious cave-charcoal.
The final cave-charcoal trip took more than a week and was the most
unpleasant event in September: the roads already were muddy, the wagon
wheels were constantly getting stuck, and the loads were unbelievably
heavy. K�loyankt reminded Danka that as bad as lugging the black rocks
might be, the trip would save the Followers from having to spend the
winter chopping wood for fires.
The activity in the kitchen was frenetic, the final chance to preserve
food that would allow the Followers to survive the winter. The kitchen
had been in an open building all summer, but just before the
cave-charcoal trip, the settlers enclosed the structure with a set of
ingenuously-made wooden panels. The building would become a warm refuge
from the bitter weather outside: not just a place for cooking and
eating, but also a place for study and singing practice.
----------
The trip to the Altar of Blood-Nourishment was an unpleasant slog along
muddy trails passing through endless groves of trees obscured in cold
fog and mist. It was hard to believe that just a few weeks before the
area had been so green and pleasant. Danka and the other initiates were
hugely relieved when the Altar finally came into view. The Followers
went through the secret door and into the underground labyrinth to rest
and change into dry clothing.
The ceremony took place at midnight. The Followers were arranged just
like they were during the sacrifice: the men immediately around the
altar and the women standing around them in a circle, holding
their staffs and chanting. Everyone, with the exception of Bab�ckt Yaga
and the five initiates, was dressed in their formal black clothing.
Bab�ckt Yaga was covered in her black and white ceremonial paint, while
the initiates were naked. The newest members trembled as they waited in
the cold night air, but the equally-naked alchemist didn�t seem bothered
by the temperature in the least.
Danka expected Bab�ckt Yaga to spend a long time shouting prayers and
incantations, given her normal penchant for ceremonial flare and drama.
However, on that night Bab�ckt Yaga seemed very humble and subdued. One
by one the initiates knelt in front of her while she took their hands
and silently prayed.
Danka was the first of her group to pray with her mentor. As soon as she
knelt and took the old woman�s hands, her world went black. The large
hostile eyes from the forest re-emerged. As always, the eyes took over
her world and were only thing she could see.
�I have returned, Danka S�luckt. You see, I didn�t forget you.�
�Of course you didn�t forget about me. I never thought you would. Now I
know you won�t leave me in peace. But I�ve accepted it.�
�Perhaps, Danka S�luckt, perhaps you have accepted my presence. But that
doesn�t mean your Path in Life will ever be any easier. Learning brings
knowledge, and knowledge brings despair. I have blessed your Mistress
with much knowledge, more than any other living mortal. And yet, she is
no happier for it. I granted her many extra years of life, but those
years have brought her no joy. Like your Mistress, you will be blessed��
�I wouldn�t call anything from you a blessing. And my Path in Life is my
own, not yours or anyone else�s. Now�I call upon the Ancients to cast
you out��
The eyes slowly faded and vanished. Danka knew that it was nothing more
than a reprieve. The Profane One would return�of that she could be sure,
but at least now she knew it was possible to fight back.
When her consciousness returned to the Realm of the Living, her eyes met
those of Bab�ckt Yaga. The old woman�s expression did not change, but it
seemed that she was fully aware of what had just happened in her
initiate�s inner world. Somehow, she knew.
With a slight tug of her hands, Bab�ckt Yaga silently ordered Danka to
stand up. An elder brought her the black dress, now complete with a
finely-stitched image of a skull.
�You will dress. You now have earned your rightful place among the
Followers of the Ancients. The Ancients will bless you with knowledge,
and burden you with responsibility.�
Danka was extremely grateful to get dressed and finally cover her body
against the chilly wind whipping around the open meadow. Bab�ckt Yaga
picked up a newly-crafted staff, complete with a real skull, the skull
of a man who had been alive, just three weeks before. The skull
contained a finely crafted oil lamp, which was vented through the eye
sockets and designed to be resistant to being blown out unintentionally.
An elder lit the lamp. The alchemist held out the staff.
�In much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in
increasing pain. This staff brings burden and responsibility into your
life, not peace and happiness. Perhaps the Ancients will allow you a few
moments of happiness as you progress through your days in the Realm of
the Living, but happiness is a gift, and a very fleeting one at that. Do
you accept that the Path of Your Life is not the blind pursuit of
pleasure?�
�I accept that, Bab�ckt Yaga. The blind pursuit of pleasure is not my
Path in Life.�
�Then you will take up this burden. Everyday, for the rest of your time
among the living, you must earn the right to carry it. Learning is never
finished. Acquiring knowledge is never finished. And the struggle to
serve will never be finished.�
Bab�ckt Yaga handed the staff to Danka. The women let out a long wail.
When the eerie mournful noise finally died down, Danka left the altar
and took her place among the Followers. She waited for her fellow
initiates to receive their outfits and staffs. As each of her companions
took up their burden, she celebrated by wailing along with the others.
The Followers spent the night sleeping in the underground passages
before closing them up for the year. The next day they took precautions
to hide the entrance and to clean the holy site to remove all evidence
of their most recent visit.
----------
As soon as they returned to Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement, most of
Danka�s companions prepared to leave the mountains for the entire
winter. Within days they departed, taking with them pack loads of
alchemy ingredients and medical equipment. The majority of the Followers
took up residence in the houses of wealthy provincial citizens instead
of constantly making the arduous trek up and down snow-covered mountain
trails. No matter where they went, the Followers could always rely on a
patron to provide free room and board, which was a small price to pay
for having a doctor readily accessible to their families and friends.
Hosting a Follower also provided honor and prestige within the
community, because the Followers attended the medical needs of anyone
nearby who needed their services.
----------
Winter came earlier, stayed longer, and was much harsher in the northern
highlands than in the cities in the Duchy�s western valley. As the
nights grew colder and a storm of sleet hit the compound, Danka realized
that she would miss the comparatively mild climate of Star�vktaki M�skt.
While the valley-dwellers still enjoyed the gentle sunshine of the early
fall, in the mountains the tree leaves already had turned with the cold
frosty weather.
The colder climate forced the Followers to give up their habit of not
wearing clothing in the settlement and while wandering in the nearby
mountains and streambeds. However, even during the winter the Followers
sought to set themselves apart from conventional society. They didn�t wear their formal Cult clothing,
but instead wore fur-lined leather shirts and boots. If the temperature
outside remained above freezing, they wore nothing else, which meant
they remained naked between their knees and their waists. Danka thought
the cult members looked very odd, their bare thighs and bottoms
contrasting with their fur-covered feet and torsos. Even in the coldest
weather the settlers rarely wore any type of trousers, but instead
protected their bodies with outer robes that were black and similar in
appearance to the hooded prayer robes used by worshipers in the Danubian
Church.
Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement was quiet after her doctors departed for the
winter. The only people remaining were the ones who most recently had
joined the Cult and still needed training, and a few older members who
had retired from travelling. The older members spent their days
educating the younger ones, making sure their knowledge and skills were
passed on before their Paths in Life ended.
The medical training over the winter was intense and often depressing.
The camp kept a supply of preserved headless bodies from sacrificial
victims for the young Followers to practice on and dissect. The young
members also practiced on live animals such as pigs, which had to be
deliberately injured. Sometimes the senior Followers cut the pigs with
swords or daggers, and sometimes they pushed an animal off a platform
onto rocks to break its bones. Then it was up to the younger Followers
to anesthetize the struggling and squealing subject to evaluate and
treat its injuries. Any animal about to be butchered for meat was
injured and operated on several times before finally being killed. It
was cruel and unpleasant work, but at the time there really was no other
training method available. Bab�ckt Yaga could not afford to place her
group�s reputation in jeopardy by having her newest students train on
human patients and risk making a mistake.
Training for operations and attending injuries was only a small part of
Bab�ckt Yaga�s education for her newest subordinates. She left the
physical training to the elders. For her, understanding alchemy was much
more important than being a good field surgeon. She already had
introduced the newcomers to creating basic medicines. Now that they had
their skulls and were fully accepted in the Cult, they could be trusted
with preparing more sophisticated medicines and working with the most
expensive and hard-to-obtain ingredients. One of the first recipes that
the three women learned was preparing the Followers� much-coveted
birth-control paste.
�No matter where you go, with this knowledge every woman, from harlot to
baroness, will seek your favor and friendship.�
As the snow fell and the cold wind whipped around the settlement,
Bab�ckt Yaga gathered the five newest members of her group into her
laboratory and library. Over the years she had collected a copy of every
book on medicine and alchemy known at the time, including ancient texts
written in Arab, Greek, and Latin. She had inherited part of the
collection, but during her life had greatly expanded it. She also had
translated many of the Greek and Latin texts into Danubian and wrote
commentaries on the effectiveness of the medical procedures and how to
improve upon them. Whenever she finished a translation, she had a
Follower make a copy and had it sent to an associate who maintained a
library and printing press in Seb�rnekt Ris.
As an example of her work with translations, Bab�ckt Yaga directed her
students� attention to a couple of old books lying on her study table.
The titles were in a foreign language: Historia Plantarum and De
artificiosis extractionibus liber. The books were in horrible condition:
very worn and with the pages covered with annotations handwritten in
Danubian.
�Two hundred years ago a young man called Valerius Cordus conducted
research on plants and their medicinal uses. He wrote extensively and
recovered much of the knowledge that was lost during Humanity�s Great
Rebellion against the Ancients. My Path in Life included translating
these works into the language of the Duchy to ensure his knowledge is
available to our people. The Paths of the Followers� Lives calls upon us
to expand upon what people like Valerius Cordus discovered. I say
expand, because there are many plants unique to the Duchy that Valerius
Cordus did not know about. So, we�ve studied his experiments and applied
them to Danubian plants. Also, we�ve imported and cultivated the most
useful foreign plants described in his works and refined his medical
research. Year after year the Followers have built upon his knowledge,
and in doing so, we are acting in defiance of the Profane One. The day
will come when the Profane One will tire of my efforts and end my Path
in Life, but until that day comes, I will continue my work to recover
what has been lost, and your Path in Life is to assist me in that
effort.�
So�during her first winter as a Follower, Danka�s duties included
copying translations that would be
sent to Seb�rnekt Ris, where they would be printed for further
distribution. She perfected her penmanship and continued to expand on
her vocabulary. Strange to think, just two years before she had been
completely illiterate, and now she was transcribing complicated medical
studies.
----------
An important arrangement that the settlement�s remaining residents had
to make for the winter was sleeping. There were three sleeping houses,
but at any given time only two were occupied. Every month the houses
were rotated so that one could be left �fallow�. That meant the
structure was evacuated, swept out, and the windows left open to freeze
any insects or rodents that had taken up residence inside. The Followers
took clean bedding, bathed, and set up in the house that had previously
been unoccupied.
Danka learned why Bab�ckt Yaga took such extreme precautions. In a
country where fleas, lice, and bedbugs were still extremely common, the
alchemist was determined to keep such vermin to a minimum in her
settlement. She was convinced that blood-sucking insects carried many of
the �Profane One�s� curses; most notably bubonic plague.
By the mid-1700�s the Danubians had figured out that bubonic plague was
associated with rats, hence they started calling the sickness �the rat
plague� and began measures to reduce the number of rats in their
settlements. After decades of observations and reading, Bab�ckt Yaga
suspected that it was not the rats that directly brought the plague to
humans. She had figured out that both rats and humans were affected by
the same disease, and looked for a possible common cause. Finally,
through a series of experiments with groups of sick and healthy rats,
she determined that the rat plague was caused by a blood-poison that was
transmitted by fleas, not the rats themselves. Ridding an area of rats
certainly helped control the plague, but what really mattered was
ridding an area of fleas.
She researched other blood-poisoning curses of the Profane One, and had
decided that insects, especially fleas and mosquitoes, were the Profane
One�s messengers that carried blood poison from one person to the next.
Thus, the way to stop the Profane One from poisoning blood involved
minimizing the number of blood-sucking insects.
----------
Each sleeping house was heated with a metal stove for cave-charcoal.
However, the heating was inadequate: during the coldest months it was
just enough to keep the rooms� temperature from falling below freezing.
The beds helped, because they were enclosed with thick covers on top and
around the sides. All of the beds were large enough to fit two people
comfortably, so to conserve warmth each Follower slept with another
person, either their closest friend or a lover. So�a final detail that
Danka needed to arrange was finding a person to share her assigned bed.
Danka knew that she needed to take K�loyankt as her sleeping partner.
After having spent the previous winter enjoying a bed to herself at the
Church Temple, she was not thrilled at having to return to sharing one.
Unfortunately, the cold did not give her or anyone else a choice in the
matter. She had to have another person to keep her warm while sleeping,
and K�loyankt was the logical choice. It was what he expected and what
everyone else expected. Rather than risk hurting his feelings and
spurring possible gossip among her companions, Danka announced that she
would pass the winter with K�loyankt.
K�loyankt was, of course, elated. Now that she officially shared his
bed, he considered her as �his woman�. During the long winter nights he
was guaranteed sex whenever he wanted it, because Danka acquiesced
anytime he touched her and sought to arouse her. Danka and K�loyankt
were young, vigorous, and in excellent health. Under their dark canopy
they practiced every sexual position imaginable many times over.
K�loyankt was under the impression that sharing a bed and having sex
with Danka would solidify their relationship, with the end result being
marriage whenever they were ready to leave Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement and
venture forth into the world. Danka fully understood her lover�s
expectations, but the more time she spent with him, the more her doubts
about the relationship increased. She couldn�t understand why, because
K�loyankt was the type of man she was looking for. He was educated,
intelligent, and the son of nobility. He was a good sexual partner and a
vigorous lover. He respected her and did not seem to hold her peasant
upbringing against her.
And yet�and yet�Danka spent many sleepless nights troubled by her own
illogical emotions, even as she lay in her lover�s arms and felt his
breath on her body. She couldn�t imagine staying with him past the
spring. He was a part of her present, but if she couldn�t force herself
to love him, how could he be part of her future?
----------
The daily routine of studying chemistry and medicine, learning new
alchemy formulas, preparing potions, practicing surgery on cadavers and
injured pigs, spending several hours copying translations, and
practicing hymns and chants in archaic Danubian left Danka�s companions
mentally exhausted at the end of each day. Apart from learning, the
Followers had to attend to their physical needs in a hostile
environment. They had to prepare meals, care for their livestock, and
keep their living area clean. There were time-consuming setbacks, such
as the day four pigs escaped and only two were re-captured, and the
night an extreme cold snap killed a third of the settlement�s hens and
burst a cistern. Even in a well-run settlement, winter was a time of
hardship.
As the months went by and the winter solstice approached and passed,
Bab�ckt Yaga noted the progress of the newest Followers. If they became
tired or discouraged, she eased their training or shifted their
responsibilities. She did not expect the same results for everyone,
knowing that different people learned at different paces and had
different strengths and weaknesses.
The alchemist was most impressed by Danka. She seemed to be the most
promising recruit to enter the Cult of the Ancients�ever. The peasant
girl was used to physical hardship, so the challenges of winter life did
not trouble her in the least. She did not flinch or hesitate when
confronted with an injured animal: she calmly sedated the subject and
set about sewing up wounds or splinting broken limbs. She could evaluate
internal injuries and tell if there were wounds that were untreatable.
The girl was extremely smart. By the beginning of 1752 her vocabulary
matched that of many people who had years of formal education. During
those darkest months, the young Follower transformed into a different
person. She was determined to erase her identity as a �peasant girl�.
Her Pagan beliefs and newly-acquired knowledge gave her confidence in
her own abilities, which pushed her to pursue increasingly challenging
subjects in her studies. Bab�ckt Yaga calculated that, at the rate she
was progressing, within just a year Danka would fully understand all of
the subjects needed to be an alchemist; including botany, chemistry, and
working with mathematical formulas.
The detail of Danka that impressed Bab�ckt Yaga the most, however, was
her desire to learn for the sake of learning. She never tired of
spending time alone with Danka because she saw so much of her own
personality as a young woman in the new recruit. Whenever Danka showed
up under the alchemist�s laboratory, she could count on the ladder
dropping and receiving a call to climb up. She was desperate to learn
and Bab�ckt Yaga was eager to teach.
After her companions had gone to bed for the night, Danka visited her
mentor to receive instruction in archaic Danubian. She didn�t just want
to sing in archaic Danubian; she wanted to be completely fluent in the
dialect of the Ancients. She also wanted to learn Latin and German. She
became interested in maps and in learning about the countries
surrounding the Duchy. She wanted to know about history and understand
why times changed from generation to generation. Bab�ckt Yaga, whose
memories went back a century, appreciated the opportunity to share
stories of a forgotten lifetime with a person whose journey in the Realm
of the Living was just beginning.
----------
At the beginning of February Bab�ckt Yaga began the process of preparing
a new batch of longevity potion from her supply of dried mushrooms. The
first step in that process was deciding how much of the potion to make.
For the first time in her life, alchemist had a huge supply of specimens
from �The Joy of the Ancients�. Although the stock of the potion�s key
ingredient was enormous, it was destined to be the final harvest.
Because of the way the mushrooms grew, the species was
unlikely to ever recover from the
previous summer�s slaughter.
There was another consideration. The potency of preserved specimens of
�the Joy of the Ancients� peaked about six months after they were dried,
but then gradually weakened. Bab�ckt Yaga was not sure how long finished
potion would last, because she had never tried keeping it in storage for
more than a year. Well, she would just have to take that risk. She
decided to convert most of her mushrooms into longevity potion.
The next decision she would have to make was determining who would be
given the potion over the following year. When taken properly, the
potion�s effect on a subject was to slow down the normal aging process
by three fourths. That meant a person taking the treatment over a
four-year period would only age one year. If the patient stopped, the
aging process resumed at a normal rate. Over the years she had
administered the potion to herself and others, Bab�ckt Yaga had not
noticed any negative side-effects.
She would continue giving the potion to herself, of course. There were a
couple of elders working on medical research who also would receive the
potion, to give them time to finish their work. There were some
researchers in Seb�rnekt Ris, and her old friend F�toreckt, who was the
Followers� leading alchemist in the northwestern part of the Duchy, who
also would continue with the treatment.
After giving the matter some thought, Bab�ckt Yaga decided to add her
student Danka S�luckt to the list. The girl had her faults, but those
faults were the result of her having to come to terms with the conflict
between her talent and the limitations she was facing. Of all the young
people who had passed through the settlement over the years, Danka
S�luckt showed the most potential, by far. With her gifted mind and
hunger for learning, it made sense to give her some extra time to
develop herself. Maybe�maybe Danka S�luckt could even take over the
settlement some day. Even with the longevity potion, Bab�ckt Yaga wasn�t
getting any younger. She had been able to delay the inevitable, but
death would come to her, potion or no potion. She had to think about a
successor. Maybe the peasant girl was that person, the one who would
guide the Followers into their uncertain future.
On the night of February 14, Danka ascended the ladder to receive her
extra hours of instruction from her patron. As usual, she brought with
her a kettle of boiling water, expecting to serve tea to the alchemist
and to herself. Instead of the normal mint and herb mixture, Bab�ckt
Yaga ordered the student to open a ceramic jar and remove two spoonfuls
of blue powder. The concoction tasted bitter, but left a pleasant
sensation that would last several days. After finishing their drink,
Bab�ckt Yaga commented:
�The Realm of the Living is changing, Danka S�luckt. For many years I
have pondered where our Path in Life is leading us, and I asked for a
sign to illuminate the future. I did not request the illumination
because I harbor any illusions that I can benefit by seeing what will
be. I am old and my Path in Life will end shortly. I asked for
illumination so I could understand in what direction to point those who
will come after me. I received my answer last summer, with my failure to
protect �the Joy of the Ancients�. The Realm of the Living�s connection
to the Old World is fading, disappearing little by little. That process
has been going on for many centuries, but I am convinced you will live
to see its completion. The Ancients have decided to no longer speak to
the Realm of the Living through the Followers. They will continue to
speak, but it will be through others, not us.�
�Do you have any idea who �the others� might be, Bab�ckt Yaga?�
�Yes. You might think I am discouraged by the passing of the Old World,
but really I am not. I think the Ancients will eventually speak through
the Danubian Church, or through the Old Believers, to be more precise.
Many Christians are looking at us�the people who represent the Old
World, and are taking interest in what we have to say. They don�t want
our rituals, but they do want our knowledge. So, when the final Follower
puts down his skull for the very last time, and the Blood of Life
Nourishment flows no more, we will continue to contribute. The riddle is
how to make that transition.�
Danka pondered how to respond. At the moment she intensely disliked the
Danubian Church. Now that she had experienced the relative freedom that
came with living as a Pagan, she was disgusted by the restrictive
lifestyle of the Christians, even if they were Old Believers. However,
deep down she knew the real reason of her dislike of the Church stemmed
from her memory of Bagat�rckt and his father�s failure to control him.
Did she really have the right to judge the entire Church based on a
single traumatic event in her life? Her thoughts jumped to a strange
question:
�Do you think that maybe�the Followers would join the Church?�
�Some already have. Two years ago I sent two young men to the Seminary
in Star�vktaki M�skt, and last year, just before my Path in Life crossed
with yours, I sent a young woman to the Great Temple in Dan�bikt M�skt.
I will send another one of your companions to the Great Temple in the
spring. So�we are trying to make the transition.�
�You...are you telling me�that maybe I should study for the Christian
Priesthood?�
�Not at all. You�d never make a good Christian. You have the heart of
the Old World beating in your chest. But in your lifetime, you will
experience the transformation that is coming among our people. You
belong to the new era, but the Ancients will grant you a glimpse of the
old. You must bear witness to everything you see and teach anyone who
wishes to learn. You must remember everything the Ancients choose to
show you and acquire the skills needed to serve the Duchy. However, your
Path in Life is not to just stand around learning, watching, and
remembering. You have the Power to heal. You, Danka S�luckt. Your Path
in Life will be to fix what seems broken beyond repair; to restore what
no man thinks can be restored. You will carry the knowledge of the Old
World with you so you can re-build part of the new one. That is why I
have started giving you the blue tea. I need to hold back the Profane
One and buy you some extra time to learn as much as you can. When you
have learned what you need to learn, you will leave this settlement and
fulfill your Path in Life.�
�Among the Christians?�
�Yes, among the Christians, but not as a Priestess.�
�Bab�ckt Yaga�I don�t want to live among the Christians. I�m really
happier here. I like being a Follower.�
�Who said anything about your happiness? It�s not your Path in Life to
seek happiness. As long as you pursue happiness, it will evade you.�
----------
As long as I pursue happiness, it will evade me.
Yes, that was indeed the reality of Danka�s life. She thought about
those harsh words as she returned to the sleeping house. She made love
to K�loyankt, before spending yet another sleepless night in his arms.
I�d be happy with this man. He loves me and would give me the life I
always wanted. I really want to love him. I want to stay with him�and
yet�I can�t. I know I�ll never love him, because the Ancients wouldn�t
allow it to happen. I know I could be happy with him, but it is not my
Path in Life to be happy. Instead of bringing him joy, I�d be destined
to bring the Destroyer into his life�to make him miserable.
Danka had only one consolation: she had no reason to break up with her
lover for several more months. She�d have to wait until the summer, when
they�d be sleeping in separate beds. Then she�d follow her Path in Life
and disengage herself from a relationship that offered her the life she
had so desperately sought just two years before.
----------
The days were getting longer. The sun came out occasionally, giving
Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement a welcome break from the dreary mist and
snowstorms of winter. Patches of bare ground appeared and the snow
disappeared from the trees. The nights were still cold, but they were
not so long, so heating became much less of a problem. Shortly the
trails would start to clear and the Followers� isolation from the
outside world would come to an end.
Whenever she had time, Danka continued her studies. By the early spring
she became interested in learning what she could about religion and
mythology. As a Follower, her first priority was understanding her own
religious heritage. She became familiar with all of the stories of the
Ancients and could recite them from memory. She was able to read and
understand archaic Danubian, but was determined to master speaking it
and writing it as well. She wanted that connection with the Old World,
to know that had she lived thousands of years before, she would have had
the skills to fit into the ancient culture.
She also became interested in the faiths of the modern world. She
finished the studies she had started the previous year in Star�vktaki
M�skt by memorizing the texts of the Danubian Church, and fully
understood the theological differences between True Believers and Old
Believers. She examined the information that Bab�ckt Yaga had on other
religions such as the faith of the Ottoman Empire, which the Danubians
referred to as �the Followers of Mohammed�. Danka began forming opinions
on the various religions and assessed their strengths and weaknesses.
Danka even became interested in the mythology of non-Danubian people.
She already was familiar with the Danubian Church texts including the
Christian Bible, the Book of the Ancients, and the Book of the Correct
Path, but now she had the opportunity to learn some more about Pagan
times throughout Europe. She read Bab�ckt Yaga�s translations of Norse
sagas, Slavic folk-tales, and the mythology of the ancient Greeks. The
Greek stories didn�t impress her, because it seemed the Greek gods were
nothing more than ordinary men gifted with extraordinary powers they
didn�t know how to use properly. But then�Danka did come across a
mythical figure that caught her attention: the Hebrew demon Lilith.
Noting her student�s intense interest in Lilith, Bab�ckt Yaga directed
her attention to the sources and references she had available on that
topic. The direct mention of Lilith in the Old Testament book of Isaiah
was frustratingly brief, but there were other sources in Kabbalistic
writings such as the Zohar that provided additional information. For a
woman to have that level of cosmic power, to terrorize pious men and
actively defy and confront the Christian God, made Lilith into an object
of admiration and fantasy for Danka.
�That�s what I want. To do what Lilith did. I want the power to
terrorize the pious.�
�That is not your Path in Life, Danka S�luckt. I know what you seek. You
would seek pleasure through vengeance against those who dishonored you.
And just how do you expect to do that? The man who most dishonored you
is already dead. As for the others, you have no way of knowing whether
they continue to live, or if they have already held up their mirrors
before the Creator. You have no way of knowing. Since you fancy yourself
following a being who defied the Roman God, then I will quote passage
from the Roman Bible:
So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the
man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?
And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise
man�s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I
know that one fate befalls them both. Then I said to myself, �As is the
fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely
wise?� So I said to myself, �This too is vanity.� For there is no
lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the
coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool
alike die! So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the
sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving
after wind.
�I recite this to you, Danka S�luckt, for a simple reason. Nearly two
years have passed since you left Rika H�ckt-nem�t. What news have you
received since your departure? How would you know if anything in that
city remains as you remember it? How would you know if anyone there
remembers you? And, whether or not anyone does remember you, what
difference does it make?�
Danka wasn�t sure how to respond. She thought about saying that she
understood and would give up on her thoughts of revenge, but to do so
would entail lying. She had learned never to lie to Bab�ckt Yaga.
Finally the old woman broke the silence.
�You have done well, not to speak the deception that is in your heart.
You ponder seeking power over the pious so you can seek revenge. I fear,
eventually you will take action. I can see that very clearly. I cannot
dissuade you: only you can dissuade yourself. However, remember my
words�the day you act on your fantasies, your life as you know it will
be ruined. Your Path in Life will change, and you will have to begin
anew. Remember my words when that happens.�
----------
Note 01: During my research I came
across seven manuscripts that I believe were handwritten by Danka
S�luckt. There are two journals in the medical school in Rika
H�ckt-nem�t that are directly attributed to the founder Vesna
Rog�skt-Orsktacktna. I also found two translations in the Church
library in Seb�rnekt Ris and three more translations in the Royal
archives, that appear to have been written by the same hand. I had my
theory verified by handwriting experts, who studied handwriting samples
from all seven books and confirmed they were scripted by the same
individual. The manuscripts show a clear progression in the author�s
penmanship, with the works in Rika H�ckt-nem�t being the most recent and
with the best handwriting.
- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -
Note 02: The final known samples
of �the Joy of the Ancients� (amanita danuvius-caeruleum) were harvested
by scientists working at the university in Seb�rnekt Ris in 1811. Along
with six specimens of �the Joy of the Ancients�, scientists collected
many other fungi, including numerous samples of the highland green
moon-cap (amanita danuvius-viridis), which is �the Joy of the Ancients��
closest living relative. Because of their appearance, the two species
were mis-classified at the time and have yet to be re-named. In reality
they are not closely related to any other species of mushroom. Both
species grew and reproduced extremely slowly, but unlike its extinct
relative, the highland green moon-cap has the good fortune to be
poisonous and to not possess any medicinal value.
The last alleged sighting of a specimen of the �the Joy of the
Ancients�� living in the wild was in 1820. It is hard to say whether the
1811 scientific expedition contributed to its extinction. I doubt it,
because only six specimens were collected and amateur fortune-hunters
were hunting for the mushrooms as well.
In 1935 the Danubian government ordered the transfer of the remaining
dried specimens to the National Museum of Natural History for better
preservation. More recently, the Danubian Ministry of Science sent the
samples to geneticists in Germany to see if the plant�s genetic code can
be reconstructed. There are some DNA fragments that do not appear in any
other plant, including the highland green moon-cap. It appears some
genetic information has been permanently lost, even from the
best-preserved specimens. Efforts to fully decode the genetic make-up of
�the Joy of the Ancients� have proven unsuccessful.
It is hard to over-emphasize the tragic loss resulting from this
extinction. I did not go into details in the main narrative, but prior
to the late eighteenth century, the Followers of the Ancients conducted
extensive research on various medicinal properties of �the Joy of the
Ancients�. The plant had other benefits to humans apart from longevity.
For example, the Followers used a mixture of spores combined with ether
to cure several severe cases of tuberculosis. One of Bab�ckt Yaga�s
journal entries also claimed one of her elders had been able to reverse
cancer development. Unfortunately, the Followers� research was held back
by the dwindling supply of dried mushrooms, which became completely
unavailable after 1800.
- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -
