The Girl with No Name Ch. 04

She expected the Clergy to tell her to move out at some point. However, by the end of the summer it seemed that was not going to happen. She was doing what she was supposed to do and earning her keep. The seminary student rarely left the Temple grounds without having the penitent go with her, which pulled Danka away from the more routine chores in the house. If the other penitents resented Danka continuously leaving, they never said anything about it. It was clear she was following the orders of her mentor, not acting on her own.

During most of her time at the Seminary, Danka's only real interaction with anyone was with her mentor. The relationship was a strange one: Danka was not only the trainee's unofficial student, but also her personal assistant, sidekick, companion, servant, and confidant. She could never be completely sure how she would be treated when the trainee whistled at her to set down what she was doing and depart on yet another outing. Usually the seminary student was totally bossy and condescending, but there were other times she shared her doubts and frustrations, treating the penitent in the same way she'd treat a close friend.

For Danka the interactions were a welcome break from the silence of her companions and kept her from getting bored, even when her mentor was not being pleasant with her. More importantly, whenever Danka had to talk to any of the Clergy members, the seminary student took it upon herself to go with the penitent and speak on her behalf. Danka was still very intimidated by the Priests, so it was a relief not to have to converse with them.

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Right after the Path in Life ceremony for the 12-year-olds, the Church women's choir began practicing for important celebration that the "Old Believers" had revived, the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead was important to both factions of the Danubian Church, but all of the details, even the date on which it was held, differed. The "True Believers" celebrated at the beginning of November, the date it was celebrated in other parts of Europe. The "Old Believers" celebrated on the date of the September equinox, in deference to pre-Christian traditions.

During the mid-eighteenth century, the Old Believers held their version of the Day of the Dead in two places, the capitol Danúbikt Móskt and the provincial center Starívktaki Móskt. In both places Temple apprentices and penitents commemorated the equinox by painting their bodies with chalk and charcol to assume the appearance of dead spirits. The body painting was very simple, but the resulting appearance was totally sinister, halfway between a ghost and a skeleton. Starting in the mid-1800's the number of marchers and the length of the march would increase considerably when the Ministry of Justice mandated that collared criminals also would participate each year they wore a Ministry collar. However, the judicial reforms of the late 1700's had not yet taken place and during Danka's life collared criminals had little contact with the Danubian Church.

After sunset the townsfolk gathered in the Temple plaza and knelt in their traditional black prayer robes. There was a lengthy service while the penitents and seminary students slowly marched around the plaza carrying torches. The torches were the only light in the city that night, because all other fires and lanterns had to be extinguished.

It was common for the torch bearers to have visions during the march, and that night Danka had one. The fire from the torches merged into a massive fire in her imagination. It seemed all of the Duchy was burning...city after city. Among the burning ruins she saw thousands of bloody corpses. When she recoiled from them, they reached out to her. She screamed and tried to step back, but there were just as many corpses behind her as in front. There was no escape.

Suddenly everything went black. She was standing alone in a forest clearing. A large owl was staring at her.

"You know your true Master, Danka Síluckt. It is I."

"No. I don't. I don't know you."

"Ahhh, but you do, Danka Síluckt. Remember what the scripture says: ' The Destroyer enters the Realm of the Living through the mouth of the liar'. You will not escape from me, liar."

Danka woke up. She was still marching.

No...no...no... That was just a bad dream... had to be... no relation with reality... best to forget... yes... forget... not tell anyone... bad dream... just a bad dream... just stay at the Temple... focus... forget... try to forget...

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Note: The Danubian Clergy was completely unaware of the ruse being used by the Farmer's Guild involving counterfeiting penance collars to safeguard their currency couriers. Had anyone from the Danubian Church realized that Danka was wearing a fake collar, the resulting scandal would have huge. It is likely the Clergy would have taken Danka to the Great Temple in Danúbikt Móskt and she would have been interrogated until she gave up the person who gave her the collar. The Danubian Church then would have investigated the Farmer's Guild and tracked down the artisans that were making the group's collars. The Church leaders would have approached the Grand Duke to request the execution of the artisans and the dissolution of the entire Guild. By 1750 Public Penance had become extremely important to the Old Believers as they sought to restore ancient practices to the Duchy's faith. Even in modern times, wearing the penance collar with devotion and piety remains one of the most sacred tenants of the modern Danubian Church. Using a collar for something as worldly as moving money would be considered a heinous act of blasphemy in Danubia.

So, what motivated Farmer Tuko Orsktackt to give up his guild's counterfeit collar, considering the risk it involved? The answer was that there were some circumstances unique to Rika Héckt-nemát's society that set the town apart from the rest of the Duchy, most notably the inhabitants' tendency to fall into bouts of mob hysteria. The panic over the Beelzebub story was typical of the town's behavior at the time. The fact that Farmer Tuko Orsktackt was willing to take such a huge risk by giving Danka his collar indicates the extent of the danger he believed he had placed himself and his family in by rescuing her.

- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -