Back to Chapter 10
Chapter Eleven � Lilith the Avenger
Jadranka, formerly known to the world as Danka, presented herself to her
professors. She recognized two of the instructors from the Followers�
celebrations she had attended earlier in the year. However, there was no
special interaction with them. The Cult of the Ancients had dissolved,
its members had cut themselves off from their pasts, and to the
committee she was just an ordinary student.
She spoke to a panel of academics to demonstrate which educational
topics she had mastered and which ones she would need to pursue over the
next year. After admonishing her for arriving a week late, the
university staff grilled her about her education so far. Although not a
word about her former life was mentioned at the hearing, the professors
were well-aware that Jadranka had been a prot�g� of the dean�s
associate, the Cult leader Bab�ckt Yaga. Therefore she would have a
foundation in field medicine, chemistry, botany, classical readings, and
Danubian history. It turned out she also knew archaic Danubian and had a
working knowledge of German and Slavic.
After having been forced to stand for several hours, an exhausted
Jadranka finally received her curricula for the next year. She would be
placed in the advanced course for chemistry and medicine preparation,
the advanced course for archaic Danubian, the intermediate course for
algebra, the intermediate course for German, the intermediate course for
field surgery, and the beginners� course in chronicles and report
writing.
Jadranka also would be enrolled in the beginners� course for a topic
referred to as �land studies�, which covered topography, soil and rock
identification, weather studies, astronomy, map-preparation, and
rudimentary structural engineering. Europeans were only beginning to
understand hard sciences such as geology during the 1700s, but in the
Duchy the study of the earth was enthusiastically embraced by a culture
which was trying to unlock the mysteries the Creator had left in the
Realm of the Living.
The professors handed the new student a list of books she would have to
retrieve from the library the following morning. She also received a
list of study supplies that included parchment, ink, quills, a lamp and
oil, and measurement instruments.
Dean F�toreckt showed up when the meeting was about to conclude. He
escorted Jadranka to the bed-chamber she had selected and told her to
move her things to an upperclassman�s quarters. Jadranka was stunned
when she saw the new room and realized it was assigned to her. It had a
bed with curtains, a wardrobe, a study desk, a bookshelf, a private wash
basin, and a private chamber-pot. The floor had a rug and the walls had
tapestries. However, the detail that made the room truly luxurious was a
glass window. Jadranka touched the glass. She had never slept in a room
that was graced by a glass window.
She remembered her bucket and the items she had taken from Bab�ckt
Yaga�s study. She handed the portrait and the two jars longevity potion
to her dean. He opened the picture holder and stared at the portraits.
His eyes became watery and he struggled to keep his voice under control.
�Bab�ckt Yaga was correct about you. It truly was your Path in Life to
bear witness to the demise of the Old World. It is a blessing�truly a
blessing�that you rescued these paintings.�
�Who�s the man in the portrait, if I may ask, Dean?�
�My uncle. From a long time ago�hard to believe it�s been so many years.
He married her, according to the Old World traditions. And years later,
I left my family and followed him into the Cult.�
�What happened to him?�
�Knowledge brings despair, Jadranka. It brought despair to him, just
like it brought despair to me and will bring despair to you. And yet,
you must pursue knowledge, just like I did�just like my uncle did. It is
your Path in Life.�
Jadranka knew better than to pursue the topic. Dean F�toreckt changed
the subject.
�You proved to the professors that you qualify as an upper classman, not
a beginning student. They made that determination, not me. So, like any
other upper-level student, you have the privilege of this room.�
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Less than a week after she saw her Mistress, her lover, and the forest
settlement for the last time; Student Jadranka started classes. There
was no settling in. The day after she arrived she picked up her books,
carried them to her room, and joined the other students in the lecture
halls. The university�s routine was structured to allow the students to
focus on their education and nothing else. The school had professional
cooks to prepare meals and collared penitents to clean the linens, heat
bath water, sweep out the rooms, and clean the chamber pots. The
schedule was grueling: Jadranka�s first class started at 7:00 in the
morning and her last class ended at 8:00 in the evening. Between classes
she read, wrote reports, and memorized course material. She struggled to
keep up with the deluge of new information being pushed at her, but she
was satisfied knowing the professors took her seriously. As long as she
could keep up with the classes, no one questioned her background or her
rough peasant accent.
Jadranka�s manner of speaking during her time at the university was
unique among the students. She still had the accent of a peasant, but
her vocabulary matched that of any leading intellectual. It was strange
for her listeners to hear complicated words and concepts being spoken
with such rough pronunciation. The student did consider trying to work
on her speech, but she was so overwhelmed with other subjects that she
did not believe softening her accent was a priority.
To counteract their sedentary lifestyle, every day the university forced
the students to engage in physical exercising. In the mid afternoon of
each day they had to run a full circle around the outer walls of the
city, regardless of weather conditions. Apart from special leather
running slippers, the students performed their laps completely naked, in
full view of the city guards and anyone else who cared to step outside
the city gates to watch. Failing to attend a run without medical
justification was a serious offense at the school, punishable by wearing
a collar for a week for the first offense, 25 strokes of the switch for
the second offense, and expulsion from the university for the third
offense.
The students received military training from the Royal guardsmen
stationed at the nearby defensive fortifications as part of their
education and as a responsibility for being residents in a town close to
the border. On Saturdays they had to perform drills that involved
manning the city walls, running over rooftops in the event they needed
to avoid enemies in the streets, using flags and hand
signals, and carrying injured patients. In addition to the Saturday
drills, weapons-training was given three days each week. Seb�rnekt Ris
was perilously close to hostile territory so, if the place were ever
invaded, it would be important that everyone knew how to fight in a war,
women included. The citizens of the city took it for granted that if
they were ever invaded, it would be best to fight to the death. The
Danubians understood, from the stories of the invasions in the early
1500�s, it was likely any prisoners would be tortured and any captured
women would be raped before being killed.
Along with the basics of operating a crossbow, a longbow, and a musket,
Jadranka also learned the basics of using a dagger and a sword. The
sword training was the only part of her new life that she truly hated,
because every time she picked up a sword she had to endure flashbacks of
those terrible last minutes in Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement and traumatic
memories of clumsily hacking men to death. However, she always forced
herself to pick up the weapon when it was her turn to practice. Whatever
trouble she might have had with nightmares or memories, she�d have to
keep those thoughts to herself and pursue her duties. Post-traumatic
stress disorder was still unknown at the time.
Discipline at the university was strict for almost every aspect of life,
not just military training and exercising. A student could not miss a
class, cheat or lie under any circumstances, drink alcohol, fight, leave
the city without a document signed by the dean, or disobey a professor,
city guard, or Clergy member. Failing tests and not completing
assignments was considered an act of disobedience against a professor
and thus a punishable offense.
The school maintained a punishment bench where offenders were switched.
Most of the offenders were young men who were first-year students, and
the most common offense was leaving the campus without permission.
Whenever a student was punished, the faculty posted a message in the
morning to notify the other students about the event. Switchings were
always administered at noon. 15 minutes before the punishment, the
student had to undress and stand on the punishment bench with his hands
behind his head while the audience gathered. At noon the offender bent
over the bench with his bottom facing the spectators. The strokes were
always administered a minute apart, which was timed with a small
hourglass.
The university women, especially the upper-level students, watched the
punishments for entertainment if they didn�t have any pressing duties at
the moment. They did not openly taunt the offenders, but they quietly
discussed the whippings and compared the young men�s bodies and how
bravely they endured their chastisements. Jadranka was fascinated by
seeing young men her age being forced to endure punishment, and then
stand facing the women with their naked bodies and teary faces. Very
rarely did she miss the opportunity to witness a switching.
There was one activity that was not restricted among the students: sex.
The students were free to engage in relationships and visit each other�s
bedchambers, as long as their sexual encounters did not interfere with
their studies. The alchemist�s shop maintained a steady supply of
birth-control paste, so there was little risk of pregnancy among the
women. The staff looked upon sex among their students as a legitimate
form of stress-relief, certainly better than drinking or gambling.
Jadranka was one of the most sexually active women at the school. Her
fantasies about being Lilith returned full-force within days of her
enrollment. Very quickly she forgot about the scandal that her behavior
had caused in Dagur�ckt-T�k. She made love to anyone whose Path in Life
crossed with hers, as long as the man was willing to lie on his back and
allow her to copulate by straddling him. She made love to professors,
senior students, and first-year students alike, only insisting that her
partners assume a position that allowed her to fancy herself as Lilith.
She especially enjoyed having sex with young students who had just been
punished. Disciplined men usually remained humiliated and submissive
when she approached them, which was precisely what she wanted. She loved
making them stand with their legs spread and hands on a wall while she
caressed the welts on their bottoms and slowly teased their penises
until they were erect. Then she�d make them lie on their backs and wait,
making them desperate before finally straddling them.
Jadranka never invited any of her lovers into her bed-chamber. That room
was her space, a place where she could be alone with her studies, her
body, and her thoughts. Also, she wanted to control how long she spent
with her lovers and did not want to deal with having to coax a man out
of her room once she was finished with him. So�she always went to her
lover�s bed chamber if he was a student; or to his study if he was a
professor.
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Jadranka was careful to avoid any mention of the Cult of the Ancients
whenever she was around the dean. However, she suspected that F�toreckt
had a final matter to settle before the Followers completely vanished
into the void; avenging the death of Bab�ckt Yaga and the elders in the
forest. She also wondered what would happen to places such as the Altar
of Blood Nourishment and the Temple of the Solstice. She could hardly
imagine those locations simply being left abandoned to be looted by
fortune-hunters.
The student received her first hint that the Cult of the Ancients was
not completely forgotten at the end of her first week at the university.
When she returned from her first afternoon of military drills, a package
was sitting on her desk. When she opened it, she took out a small jar of
blue powder and other ingredients needed to make the special tea. She
had turned over all of the mixture taken from Bab�ckt Yaga�s study
without giving any thought about keeping any for herself. F�toreckt had
secretly thanked her by returning a portion of the potion. She
calculated there were enough doses in the jar to last about 20 years.
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The Equinox came and went without any fanfare. The True Believers were
watching to see if the Cult of the Ancients was planning any special
events. They were deeply disappointed when the day passed without any
Followers showing themselves in public. That seemed very strange.
Perhaps there were far fewer Followers than originally estimated, or
perhaps more died in the forest than was evident from the dismembered
bodies that had been recovered from the witch�s burned-out settlement.
Through his network of informants, F�toreckt monitored the True
Believers. He noted they seemed much more relaxed after the Equinox had
passed. During the second week of October, the Priest of
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti felt confident enough to organize a group to go into
the mountains and locate the Altar of Blood Nourishment. It would be
destroyed and a cross built in its place, the first step in a plan to
eliminate all vestiges of paganism and eventually claim the entire Duchy
for the True Believers.
F�toreckt knew that he had to act before the True Believers had a chance
to locate the Altar. During the month following the raid on Bab�ckt
Yaga�s settlement, the surviving leader of the Cult of the Ancients had
not been sitting quietly: he had been gathering information on his
nemesis to retaliate. His most important informant in
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti was a laundress whose duties included washing the
linens in the Priest�s house. Although the Priest was not married and
did not have a partner, the woman frequently had to wash semen out of
both the bed sheets and the man�s nightshirt. The True Believer Priest
was very worried about the linens and had paid the servant in silver not
to say anything about them. Another informant who cleaned the town�s
church provided another useful piece of information; that each day the
laundress had to clean bed linens, the Priest was in the chapel
frantically praying to the Christian saints to protect him against the
evil female demon that was causing him to sin. F�toreckt figured out
what was going on: the Priest was having wet dreams and was terrified
that Lilith was paying him visits.
F�toreckt reflected about Lilith. He remembered the fascination that
Bab�ckt Yaga�s prot�g� had with her. The girl�s obsession with Lilith
was still a central part of her character, confirmed by gossip F�toreckt
was hearing about the way she insisted on making love. The dean put on
his Follower�s robe and sat at his desk to contemplate the final task
the Ancients had given him as the Cult leader and the clues they had
given him to accomplish his duty.
Interesting how the Ancients have asked me to avenge Bab�ckt Yaga. I
must do so through Lilith�and in my university I have a Lilith. That
girl will fulfill her Path in Life. Through her, the Ancients will avenge
the murder of our Mistress of the Forest.
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Jadranka received a note from the dean to visit his office at midnight.
She wondered what was going on, but figured the summons was related to
her sexual activity. Either she was about to admonished for her
behavior, or the dean wanted to make love to her. It would be
interesting to see which it was.
When she arrived and knocked, no one answered. She worked up the courage
to open the door. An ancient oil lamp was lit, emitting a red flame.
In the dim light Jadranka could see a Follower�s skull staff and a
folded black dress sitting on Dean F�toreckt�s desk. There was a note on
top of the dress.
You will serve the Ancients. Put on your dress and light your staff.
When your staff is lit, I will come to you and speak.
Jadranka did as she was instructed. She changed into her Followers�
dress and lit the lamp in her skull. F�toreckt emerged from the
darkness. Jadranka was both scared and happy to see him wearing his
Follower�s robe. So�the Followers weren�t completely gone after-all. Jadranka
saluted him, held out her staff in the manner she had been taught by her
Mistress, and knelt. It felt good to be a Follower again.
�The hour has arrived for us to avenge your Mistress. You will play the
most important role in our act of vengeance. Is that your wish, Follower
Danka S�luckt?�
�Yes, Alchemist F�toreckt. That is my wish. I place myself at the
command of the Ancients and I will do as you instruct.�
F�toreckt handed Danka a trader�s dress to wear as a traveling disguise. They left Seb�rnekt Ris with a
dozen other former Cult members, riding horses in the direction of
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti. The rode quickly, so fast that Danka had trouble
staying on her horse given that she was not an experienced rider. The
group traveled the same route she had followed two months earlier when
she was riding her mule, but they were traveling much faster. When they
approached the path that led into the forest, the other Followers veered
to the north, but F�toreckt and Danka continued in the direction of
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti.
The two Followers arrived mid-morning at a small farm house just outside
the town. The structure was humble on the outside, but much larger on
the inside. The place had a huge multi-chambered basement containing a
dormitory, storage rooms, and a study. F�toreckt ordered Danka to rest
and recover from her jarring ride. Shortly before sunset F�toreckt
showed Danka maps of the town and drawings of the layout of the Priest�s
house and its interior.
Danka and her mentor joined a couple of other disguised Cult members and
entered the town after dark. They scouted the area around the local
church and the Priest�s house to memorize access routes, practice their
escape plan, and make sure the items they needed for their ruse were
properly stored and well hidden. The trip included a trial run into
their target�s house. The Priest�s two dogs, which had been drugged,
peacefully slept while a terrified Danka snuck into the man�s sleeping
chamber and silently crawled up to his bed. She carefully memorized the
locations of all the objects in the room and crawled up to the window,
which would be her escape route. The Priest slept fitfully as she moved
about. Finally she returned to door and slowly backed down the stairs,
careful to avoid creaking boards.
Danka spent the next day practicing her lines and moving about wearing
nothing but a pair of shoes shaped like bird�s feet and a large pair of
fake wings. At sunset she unbraided her hair, combed it out, and hid the
back of her head under a shawl. She had long fantasized about being
Lilith. Now, to avenge the death of her Mistress, she would play that
role in real life.
Danka dressed in her traders� disguise to enter the town, but would
change into her Lilith outfit upon arriving near the Priest�s house. As
she emerged outside, four mounted men rode up to the farm house carrying
cloth sacks. The sacks contained human heads, taken from members of the
expedition of True Believers who had been sent into the mountains to
find the Altar of Blood Nourishment. It seemed there were a lot of
heads, at least 30. F�toreckt was extremely pleased. Even if they
accomplished nothing more that night, already their vengeance against
the True Believers had gone extremely well.
When she arrived near the Priest�s house, Danka was greeted by four
followers dressed in tightly fitting black clothing with their faces and
hands painted black. They took her trader�s outfit and handed her the
wings and bird feet shoes. Danka�s naked body trembled in the chilly
autumn air, but she forced herself to stay silent. She pulled off her
headscarf, trying to ignore the fact that three men and a woman were
seeing her with her hair undone. It was a gross indecency, but one that
was necessary for F�toreckt�s plan.
The three men snuck in first, lugging heavy sacks full of human heads. A
few minutes later they re-emerged, their sacks now empty. Danka went in
next, following the woman. One of the men followed her, holding her
wings to prevent them from brushing against any objects in the house and
making noise. Danka and the man waited silently while the woman
carefully uncovered the Priest and pulled up his nightshirt. She gently
and patiently masturbated him, managing to make him hard without waking
him up. He was still asleep when he climaxed and the smell of semen
filled the room. Danka marveled at what her companion had managed to
accomplish.
The orgasm was Danka�s signal to sneak up to the bed and straddle the
Priest. The woman quickly lit two green oil lamps, giving Danka a
completely surreal appearance. �Lilith� placed her hand close to the
Priest�s chest and grabbed his wet penis. He woke up with a start and a
terrified grunt. The �demon� placed her hand on his chest and pushed him
down, while her two companions reached up from under the bed and
immobilized his arms. The Priest started to scream, but Danka put her
hand over his mouth.
�You must be silent, my love. Do not be afraid. I am here for you. I am
your beloved, and the owner of your soul. So do not fear��
Danka uncovered the Priest�s mouth and brought her face close to his. He
was so terrified that he lost control of his bladder. Danka felt the hot
piss flowing against her thigh. She was totally disgusted, but relieved
that F�toreckt�s ruse seemed to be working so well. She continued.
�You have served me very well, my love. You have done everything I could
have wanted. I have had many men, but you truly are the good servant.
You have killed and betrayed for Satan without remorse�you have brought
the darkness into your city. We could not have asked for more.�
Danka caressed the Priest�s hair and kissed his terrified face. With a
wild look in her eyes, she stared at him in silence. He was violently
shaking from mortal fear.
�And, best of all, every night, just for me�you were my loyal lover. You
truly are special. I appreciate that you loved me and none other. I am
grateful�so the moment has come for me to show my face.�
Danka stood up, allowing the green lamps to illuminate her entire body.
Her wings swayed back and forth.
�I now leave you, my love. But remember who you belong to. Remember,
your soul is now sheltered in my womanhood, and there it will
remain�forever. The next time I see you, we will travel to the
underworld�together�and in the eternal darkness I will love
you�FOREVER!!!�
Danka jumped off the bed. The window flew open. She hopped onto the
windowsill, spread her arms, and fell forward. Outside, two black-clad
Followers were waiting to catch her. The men pulled off her wings and
the trio vanished into a narrow alleyway. In a well-rehearsed movement,
they dressed Danka in a two-piece set of clothing normally worn by
lower-class boys and quickly tied her hair. She hid her head under a
peasant�s hat and the three set out running along the back allies of the
town. Danka could hear maniacal screaming coming from the direction of
the Priest�s house.
As soon as �Lilith� flew out the window, Danka�s two bedroom companions
extinguished the oil lamps, grabbed them, and silently scurried down the
stairs and out the Priest�s front door. They ducked into a neighboring
house, changed clothes, and ran out the back door. They met up with
Danka and her escorts near the city armory. F�toreckt was waiting to
lead the group to safety.
A city guard opened a supply door as the Followers approached. They
jumped into the armory�s basement and followed a hidden passageway that
lead out of the town. A drainage gate, normally bolted shut, was open to
allow their final escape. A city worker pulled aside the grate.
�Everyone�s here?�
�Correct. No one else is coming.�
�Praise be to the Ancients. May the Old World protect you in your
journey.�
�Thank you. May the Ancients bestow their gratitude upon you. We won�t
forget what you�ve done for us.�
The worker knelt, took F�toreckt�s hand, and placed his forehead against
the leader�s fingers. The alchemist gave the worker a quick blessing and
the group ran through a wheat field. As they fled, the town�s church
bells started ringing and they could hear shouting. Meanwhile, the
worker bolted the grid back in place and tossed some branches to cover
it.
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The town of Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti woke up to the crazed screams and curses
of their Senior Priest. It was obvious to everyone that his soul was
possessed by Beelzebub the Destroyer. He was shouting incoherently about
the Roman Satan and having sex with a female demon. The guards tried to
calm him down, but when he saw several young women in the crowd, he screamed:
�Women! Satan sent the young women to destroy the world! Kill them! Kill
the evil harlots! Kill all the women! Must destroy them all! Burn the
witches!�
The Priest threw himself at his dumbfounded female spectators, but the
guards firmly held him and immobilized his hands. He viciously
struggled, foam forming in his mouth. The townsfolk didn�t know what to
make of the bizarre spectacle, but they certainly weren�t about to kill
all of the city�s women. Finally the chief councilman decided to enter
the Priest�s house. A moment later he came back out, with an ashen face
and his eyes wide with horror. Inside the house was an altar to
Beelzebub the Destroyer and two barrels full of human heads. They were
from the town citizens the Priest had convinced to go into the mountains
and destroy the Pagan sites.
It wasn�t hard to figure out what happened. The Priest must have been in
the service of Beelzebub the Destroyer all along, and he lured the
town�s best Christian men into the mountains so his could murder them
and use their heads for satanic rituals. When Beelzebub the Destroyer
took possession of his soul, the Priest went mad. Not hard to figure
out.
The councilman decided to confirm the Priest�s service to Beelzebub the
Destroyer, by having him interrogated by relatives of men who had
participated in the altar expedition. Sure enough, with the right amount
of �encouragement�, he confessed. The townsfolk were so infuriated they
burned him at the stake, the first time anyone in the Duchy had been
executed in such a manner since 1499. After failing to control the
enraged mob and the town�s leaders, the other Clergy members working at
the Church in Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti fled in terror. For two months there
were no Clergymen at all in Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti.
When the Grand Duke was informed about the situation in
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti, he asked the Senior Prophet of the Great Temple in
Dan�bikt M�skt to send people to replace the disgraced Priests from the
True Believers� church. The new Clergy members were Priests and
Priestesses from the Old Believers� faction. That was fine with everyone
in the town. After what they had been through, no one in
Nagor�nkti-Ser�fkti wanted anything to do with the True Believers or
their patrons from the Church in Rome.
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Alchemist F�toreckt wanted to believe that the Followers� revenge
against the men who had killed Bab�ckt Yaga was a sign that the Cult of
the Ancients could return and reassert itself as part of the Duchy�s
society. However, the answer he received was firmly �no�. The Old World
was gone and it was not coming back�ever. The Ancients had granted the
Followers their final wish, to avenge the death of Bab�ckt Yaga and the
settlement elders. Following that moment of revenge, there would be
nothing else. The Ancients were determined to no longer speak through
the Cult. Alchemist F�toreckt knew why; he had even explained the facts
to Jadranka, when she was still known to the world as the Follower Danka.
Time moved forward, never backward. So�it was up to Alchemist F�toreckt,
the last leader of the Cult of the Ancients, to close it down
permanently.
The Altar of Blood Nourishment was indeed destroyed, but by the
Followers themselves, not their enemies the True Believers. The Cult
members took apart the structure stone by stone and took all of the
pieces underground. They were careful not to damage any of the stones or
bricks and numbered them so the site could be rebuilt, should the
Realm of the Living ever want the Followers to return to the practices
of the Old World. However, as the Cult members sadly took down their
holy site, they knew they were dismantling the last vestiges of the Old
World itself. The Altar and the beliefs it represented would be reduced
to nothing more than a stack of stones and building materials buried
underground.
The Followers handed over their skull staffs and Cult clothing. The
personal items would be stored underground along with the stones from
the Altar; in the unlikely event they could ever be reused. The
Followers, standing outside in the bitter cold wearing ordinary winter
clothing, sadly watched as Alchemist F�toreckt rigged the explosion that
would cause the entrance of the passageway to collapse. The chambers
would remain intact, at least for a while, but the entrance would be
destroyed, buried, and planted over. Once vegetation grew over the site,
no fortune hunter would ever find it.
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Danka, now having returned to her new life as Student Jadranka, immersed
herself in her studies throughout the rest of the autumn and the entire
winter. She impressed all of the university�s professors with her
ability to remember detailed information and to grasp new concepts. She
also impressed the university with her willingness to help others. She
mentored new students and tutored classmates who were having difficulty
with course material. Helping others helped Jadranka develop her own
abilities to explain complicated subject matter, which in turn was of
tremendous usefulness when she had to take exams and recite her
knowledge of class material.
Student Jadranka spent part of her spare time during the winter
transcribing Bab�ckt Yaga�s unpublished research and editing texts for
printing. Apart from the dean, Student Jadranka had known Bab�ckt Yaga
better than anyone else at the university, so she knew how her Mistress
would have wanted to phrase and express the contents of her notes. The
work was important, but also very painful for the transciber. It seemed
that Bab�ckt Yaga was speaking for a final time from the grave. When the
transcriptions were finished, she�d have nothing more to say.
As the snow fell and the cold mountain wind whipped around the
university, Jadranka often sat by her window, contemplating the bitter
weather outside. She was extremely grateful her mind was being given the
opportunity to develop and be challenged with new information, but she
sorely missed life in Bab�ckt Yaga�s settlement. She missed the
late-night sessions with her mentor�she missed the chores and the rough
medical training�and she missed her lover K�loyankt. She had known from
the beginning that she could never stay with him, but she still deeply
cared for him and missed him. There had been an emotional bond with him
that she had not been able to find with anyone else. She spent the
winter making love to many men, but she couldn�t feel attached to any of
them.
She wasn�t sure why, but by the beginning of March, sex was starting to
bore her. After months of being as active as possible, it seemed that
every love-making session was like every other love-making session.
Worse, it seemed that the male students were indistinguishable from each
other. The professors were somewhat more interesting, but none of the
older men saw her as an intellectual equal. She wanted to talk, but
there was no one to talk to.
Fortunately, Student Jadranka�s academic performance did not reflect her
increasingly restless state of mind. As the winter months passed and the
days lengthened, she continued to perform extremely well in her classes.
She finished editing Bab�ckt Yaga�s final journals and wondered what to
do next.
Dean F�toreckt, anticipating a possible crisis over the sudden lack of
extra work, decided to send Jadranka into the city as a member of a team
of university doctors and medical students. The group also visited the
fortifications on the border and attended the needs of the Royal Guards
and the cannon crews. The student took special interest in the cannons
and how they operated, and in hearing stories about how King Vladik was
able to retake the area after the second invasion from the Holy Roman
Empire. The men talked confidently about their defenses, but seemed
worried about the military situation on the other side of the Duchy,
south of Dan�bikt M�skt.
In mid-March, Jadranka even had the opportunity to cross the border. A
foreign landlord, smart enough to not trust the medical practitioners in
his own country, had contracted the university in Seb�rnekt Ris to send
doctors to attend his wife while she had a baby. The landlord sent his
own escort to bring in the Danubians, so they traveled safely. While on
the man�s estate, the Danubians attended other medical issues of family
members and servants, including vaccinations, a couple of operations,
and disinfecting bedrooms. The trip to the foreign manor was
considerably more pleasant than the previous year�s trading expedition,
but when she returned to Seb�rnekt Ris, Jadranka and the others realized
they had brought back lice.
----------
On the first day of April, 1753, Jadranka abruptly stopped having sex
with her classmates. She had long been bored with her lifestyle and her
memories of K�loyankt and Ermin made her realize that she�d never find a
partner if she continued making herself available to every man who came
her way. What she had been doing might be acceptable for a Follower, but
the Cult�s Path in Life no longer was available to her. The Cult of the
Ancients was gone and Jadranka understood she had to find a new
identity. With no serious relationship and no group with whom she could
say she belonged, she did not have an assigned place in her country�s
society. She felt adrift, every bit as much as she had felt adrift
during those first days of traveling between Rika H�ckt-nem�t and
Star�vktaki M�skt. Her only consolation was that as long as she remained
a student, the problem of not having an identity was not as serious as
it would be if she were still wandering the country roads.
Jadranka was not only bored with sex. She became bored with the entire
university and its monotonous routine of classes, studying, military
practice, and daily runs. She knew that her performance would be
satisfactory through the end of the academic year in June, but she
pondered whether or not she really wanted to return for the 1753-1754
school year. Ironically, the visits to the fortifications and the
foreign manor made her less satisfied with her academic life by
reminding her of the world that existed beyond her bed-chamber, the
library, and the lecture halls.
Jadranka�s problem was feeling unable to talk to anyone about her
feelings. She fully understood that she needed to be grateful to Dean
F�toreckt for setting her up with free enrollment and residency in a
very nice room. For a young person from a dishonored and impoverished
background, her situation was ideal. But she was increasingly restless
and dissatisfied. Why?
Her thoughts returned to her heroine Lilith and the power she held over
the righteous. Power�that was one thing Jadranka did not have. As a
woman in Danubian society, she never would have any power, assuming she
wanted to lead a �respectable� life and marry a man capable of taking
care of her. She had been right about K�loyankt: at first glance he had
been perfect for her, but she could not have tolerated living the
restricted life of an upper-class wife, even if she could have
ingratiated herself into his neighbors� society, which was highly
doubtful.
She had hoped to achieve power through sex. Before scandal overtook her
in Dagur�ckt-T�k, using sex to control men seemed a promising Path in
Life. That belief seemed to be confirmed when she played Lilith during
the Cult�s final act of vengeance against the Priest who had sought to
destroy it. She had tried the same strategy at the university, with no
results. She pleased her lovers and for a while pleased herself, but
after months of continuous copulating, her standing in the university
was exactly what it had been the day she enrolled.
So�what did the university offer? Yes, she was developing her intellect,
but for what purpose? The best she could hope for upon graduating would
be a position as a scribe for a city official or being the doctor of a
wealthy family. In either situation she would live out her life as a
pampered servant, taking orders from some man or some woman whose social
status was higher than hers. Already she was taking orders, constantly
standing in front of her professors trying to satisfy them with how much
she had learned. The entire routine was irritating her more and more.
----------
Note: Geologists surveying the northern
mountains with seismic imaging located a series of caves and tunnels deep
under the location believed to be the former site of the Altar of Blood
Nourishment. However, after consulting with the Grand Prophets of the Danubian Church, Prime Minister Vladim Dukov prohibited any further
exploration and ordered the area to be incorporated into the National
Park System. The Danubian Church is now officially responsible for
administering the location. The site will never be excavated and will
never be made accessible to anyone, even archeologists. The only
existing map of the area based on the recent imaging is stored in the
vault in the Prime Minister�s office.
- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -
