Chapter 2: Joining the Church

February 2

The group wakes up when a gray-robed priest casts something on them. Neiia tries to ask questions, but the priest just looks at them with his head tilted.

Soon two black-robed priests arrive, one of whom is really large, both fat and broad-shouldered. The normal-sized one comments very formally and articulately, apologizing that the group was imprisoned like this. He mentions the reason being that some parties wish harm to the church. Today’s menu consists of fasting and meditation. Tomorrow, if things go well, we will become priest apprentices, which is the first of 31 levels. “Elevate your minds, for the future is good and rich for you.”

The group meditates almost the entire day, and become bored after about 2-3 minutes (except for Ertak, whom Kieron disturbs only after 4 minutes). Neiia’s extremely sexy posturing fails to move the gray-robed motionless sitter. Kieron explains the features of armor in great detail. At the two-hour mark, a white guard arrives who clearly has more trouble maintaining a statue-like form, moving around somewhat. The rest of the day passes in endless boredom (except for Ertak, who stares at the heavens), and by evening hunger begins to trouble everyone.

February 3

The next day, a black-dressed priest arrives, along with three gray ones and two white ones. The black one comments very articulately: now that you have meditated on Razmir’s holiness, do you still want to join as members. Ertak is the first to say that of course, how else would he become Razmir’s pope. This causes approving comments, and the others also state they will join. After this, the doors are opened and we are given white robes and iron masks. As a comment, one must wear the robes for the joining ceremony so that we cannot be identified. The group moves to the ceremony in pairs.

The ceremonial space is simple, yet refined. The only decorations are wall paintings where the god distributes alms to the poor, etc. (the god also wearing a robe). The floor is extremely well-made and even, the benches are of shiny black marble, but despite the good craftsmanship, there are no decorations of any kind anywhere. Present at the ceremony are three blacks, including the fat guy, two grays, and twelve whites.

As a note, the gray-robed ones have porcelain masks and the black-robed ones have gilded porcelain masks, unlike the metal masks of the whites.

A black-robed priest at the eighth level calls the group to approach the stairs (speaking with precise articulation), and instructs them to step onto the first and only the first step, one at a time. Neiia steps up hurriedly, first. When Neiia steps on the stair, the black robe presses three fingers to his mask and states “this mask is your mask, and part of your Razmir divinity, do not forget it.” And after this, she steps back. After this, the others do the same one by one, and although Ertak tries to tempt Kieron to step on the second step, Kieron refuses. Next, Ertak then steps on the second step, from which the priest pushes Ertak back to the first step and states “One penalty point.” After this, the priests chant glory to Razmir. The priest welcomes us and states that the routines will be explained to us; it is important that at the beginning we do as we’re told.

The fat priest will act as our advisor and implementer of disciplinary measures. The group will later hear rumors that his name is Grant. The fat one clearly belongs to a different school of thought, his speech is more mumbling instead of articulated. The daily routine is as follows: -Early in the morning the group is awakened and it’s better to wake up, and they get breakfast -Then they work, and Grant supervises. Chopping wood, cleaning rock, etc. -After this, just before noon is an hour of religion and prayer time. -At noon is lunch -After lunch is a cleaning session: cleaning the kitchen, dining hall, and temple. -In the afternoon is afternoon prayer -After that is a training session, where skills required of a priest are taught. -After training is dinner -After dinner is a prayer session. -After this, it’s time for copying holy texts. -If a punishment is in effect, after copying, those who have punishment continue cleaning, others are free and can go to sleep

Important: until given exemption, one must stay in the places that are assigned to them. The hierarchy is clear: blacks > grays > whites. Other whites are more senior, so it’s advisable to listen to other white-robed ones as well. If there’s an alarm, run to the armory where suitable weapons will be distributed.

After the presentation of the day’s activities, the group moves immediately to the normal daily rhythm, that is, to work. Agnarr is handed a large splitting ax and assigned to chop firewood.

Kieron’s turn is to clean the stable. Ertak receives a 15-centimeter hoe and is directed to take care of weeds. Neiia gets a broom with which she should clean the yard area.

After the work, they move to the lesson, where there are a total of 21 white-robed ones. From above comes a black-robed one, who steps on step 10. The priest drones on for a long time about Razmir’s divine quality. As a result of the interesting speech, Neiia and Agnarr fall asleep, wake up to a box on the ear, and get one minus point each.

For lunch, there is bread, very fatty meat, cheese, and potato soup, filling but boring.

After lunch, they are given mini-sized brushes and a bucket with soap and water. Ertak cleans quite skillfully, clearly gets too excited and becomes quite exhausted.

Next is an hour of prayer, where this time there are 4 black-robed ones, 6 gray-robed ones, and the same 21 white-robed ones present. The prayer is read from the holy book, which is excessively excessive, and after the verses, in unison, “glory to Razmir” is exclaimed, etc.

After the prayer, all the white robes, including the group, move to the yard, where they are trained. First, they are taught how Razmir’s priests appear externally: taught to walk in pairs, taught how to keep a straight face, and taught to answer questions neutrally and ignore other distractions (such as a knife thrown close by, jokes told, and similar tricks).

For dinner, there is vegetable soup and wine. Neiia drinks generously a full glass and ends up quite tipsy (second minus point).

However, Neiia survives the prayer session with honor, even though she staggers.

After this follows a two-hour writing task, from which the others survive in two hours, and Kieron fails to achieve anything, writes unsuccessfully throughout the night, and in the morning the operation is interrupted: The next evening, Kieron has a four-hour task waiting.