Chapter 11: 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 protege of the dean’s associate, the Cult leader Babackt 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 Fitoreckt 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 Babackt 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.

“Babackt 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 Fitoreckt 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.”

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. Sebernekt 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 Babackt 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 Daguruckt-Tok. 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.

Jadranka was careful to avoid any mention of the Cult of the Ancients whenever she was around the dean. However, she suspected that Fitoreckt had a final matter to settle before the Followers completely vanished into the void; avenging the death of Babackt 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 Babackt Yaga’s study without giving any thought about keeping any for herself. Fitoreckt had secretly thanked her by returning a portion of the potion. She calculated there were enough doses in the jar to last about 30 years.

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, Fitoreckt 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 Nagoronkti-Serifkti 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.

Fitoreckt knew that he had to act before the True Believers had a chance to locate the Altar. During the month following the raid on Babackt 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 Nagoronkti-Serifkti 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. Fitoreckt figured out what was going on: the Priest was having wet dreams and was terrified that Lilith was paying him visits.

Fitoreckt reflected about Lilith. He remembered the fascination that Babackt Yaga’s protege had with her. The girl’s obsession with Lilith was still a central part of her character, confirmed by gossip Fitoreckt 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 Babackt 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.

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 Fitoreckt’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. Fitoreckt 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 Siluckt?”

“Yes, Alchemist Fitoreckt. That is my wish. I place myself at the command of the Ancients and I will do as you instruct.”

Fitoreckt handed Danka a trader’s dress to wear as a traveling disguise. They left Sebernekt Ris with a dozen other former Cult members, riding horses in the direction of Nagoronkti-Serifkti. 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 Fitoreckt and Danka continued in the direction of Nagoronkti-Serifkti.

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. Fitoreckt ordered Danka to rest and recover from her jarring ride. Shortly before sunset Fitoreckt 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.