Chapter 199 - Lady Eudoxia

Two days later, young Dallassenos was placed in a closed carriage, and guarded by Slavic mercenaries, to be taken to the Convent of Saint Mary, on the outskirts of Antiochia.

She didn't want to go, but she had no choice.

The Empress wished to create a bond of loyalty with the Dallassenos, and this bond was essential for them to achieve imperial forgiveness. If she wanted Alexa to stay hidden in a convent for a while, then that was all the girl could do.

But Alexa could at least assume to herself, that she was terrified.

Everything Alexa had heard of convents was frightening. Women who spent the day either praying and martyring themselves, or suffering from being thrown into the convent by greedy relatives, who just wanted to get rid of an heiress. After all, women were supposed to bring a dowry to their husbands when they get married.

At that time, Demetrios Saskia, when adopting her, had just told the Empress that much of his fortune would go to Alexa as a dowry for her wedding!

And the empress knew of the problems that Constantinople faced in the last years. Demetrios Saskia put his fortune at stake to help the Dallassenos and Alexa, and the maiden should be grateful for that.

And she was!

Her arrival at the convent took place on a misty morning, and that didn't contribute to her good impression of the place. The high walls and solid building weren't attractive enough to impress her favorably, and Alexa just expected suffering and boredom from the convent.

The head of the Mercenaries waited with her at the door when the bell rang to be received. Alexa wondered if she could run long enough and hide in the woods for a while, and then look for a way to find her brothers. That was what her heart wanted. But if she did, Alexa would be turning her back on Uncle Saskia, and maybe even missing out on the chance to see her family again.

After the exasperating wait and bureaucratic procedure until they reached the Mother Superior, and after the woman read the letters destined for her, the mercenary was gone. When Alexa heard the sounds of the gates closing behind the man, the maiden flinched instinctively, knowing she was cloistered and helpless.

The world of women was a world that she didn't have any understanding of, and at that moment, it terrified her.

She still had some letters with her to deliver to another woman.

Eudoxia.

The maiden only knew her name and that Lady Eudoxia was a cousin of her father, which was certainly a distant relation, since Alexa had never seen her.

Alexa had not been curious about the letters, but when the door opened and Lady Eudoxia entered, the maiden regretted not having violated the letters.

When Lady Eudoxia entered the room, everything changed.

It was as if the iconographies had become more colorful, and even the light from the lamp seemed to shine brighter. Something about how she walked, dressed like everyone else, and yet how she looked different, was ... mesmerizing.

Lady Eudoxia looked Alexa up and down, without changing her expression. Then she moved toward the girl.

"You are a Dallassenos ... But what happened to you to be sent here, girl?"

The maiden understood that the first part was easy to deduce, but ... was it so obvious that she was not there willingly?

"Ah, uhn, greetings, dear Cousin Eudoxia. How's your health? I'm Alexa."

"Eh?" Lady Eudoxia's piercing honey-colored eyes showed a mildly surprised annoyance, as if she had opened a box and found an insect inside. Then she looked at the scrolls in Alexa's hands, and held out her hand.

"Are they for me, young cousin?"

Alexa nodded, and extended the scrolls absently, still trying to understand what was the reason for the fascination the woman, who must have been old to be her mother, exercised just by breathing.

There was also an unclear hostility between her and the Mother Superior, transmitted by the latter only by the way she watched Eudoxia closely.

Eudoxia had sat down and started reading the letters.

The lady read the letters like literate people or skilled courtiers, not reading aloud. She read the letters at least twice, not caring about the time Alexa or the Mother Superior would be waiting. But then Lady Eudoxia turned to the newly arrived young girl, with red eyes,

"So you need education and refinement to become a potential imperial bride."

"Uhum."

"OH" Eudoxia also didn't seem impressed with the girl's resourcefulness. "Mother Magdalena, as I believe you already know, that little hurt thing must stay here. She will be under my care, and is here to learn how to be a suitable bride."

"You will certainly learn a lot from us. She will become a pious person, devoted to her family, and devoted to God and her husband."

Eudoxia looked at Mother for a moment, and then smiled,

"Understand, Mother Magdalena. They sent her to me, not to you. I told you I won't bring shame to this convent, and I won't go back on what I said. But this girl isn't here to be taught how to be a shadow. She is here to learn how to be a woman."

Alexa widened her eyes, when the two women in front of her faced each other with sparking glares, and smiles paralyzed on their faces.

But in the end, Eudoxia won.

In that famous women's convent in Antiochia, there was a brown eminence, who treated that place as an exile and a refuge.

Lady Eudoxia had a privileged room and many goods, and Alexa wasn't sure about that, but she suspected the convent was prosperous and comfortable due to donations from her cousin.

Eudoxia commonly said the convent was like a harem, and even that all of them had a very absent husband. Alexa believed it was a very sarcastic thing to say, especially when she got to know the Gospel better and heard words of Christ's Love.

She, however, had her oath and her greater mission, with which she was born. She was a Light Bearer!

And during the two years that passed there, Alexa felt caged like a bird whose wings were cut, and at the same time, free. Free for being a woman, for the first time.

At the end of the second year, at Christmas time, the interns were excited because this was one of the only opportunities to go outside the convent's walls.

There was the procession that they did annually during this period, carrying the standard with the icon of the V.i.r.g.i.n Mary from one convent to another, for kilometers. There was a stone tunnel halfway, and because of that, they called it the Procession of Light.

Many believed that this banner was capable of working miracles, and people used to take their blind relatives close to the tunnel. A legend said that blind people recovered their vision when the banner brought by the v.i.r.g.i.ns of the convent finally came out of the tunnel.

Lady Eudoxia, in those days, was not feeling well, and Alexa, despite being so excited to take part in the procession, said she would stay with her cousin. But Lady Eudoxia was adamant,

"You shall not miss a chance to get out of these walls, if you can. I don't want to walk so much, in the mud and the cold, and see the disappointment on the faces of those people on the other side of the tunnel. They don't lack faith, I don't think we should let them think they're blamed by their disgraceful fates."

Reluctant to leave her older cousin alone in the company of older nuns, Alexa joined the intern girls for the procession. Despite the cold, the weather was steady and they went out on the road singing, with torches and following the luxurious banner.

The crowd that gathered in that diocese also took part in the procession, so they moved slowly, and sometimes it wasn't even possible to see around them.

She looked back when she felt watched, and smiled.

"Lady Eudoxia!"

Her smile died when she saw that Lady Eudoxia did not walk like the others, but she was hesitant, standing among the crowd.

Another girl from the convent touched Alexa's arm with some truculence,

"Hey, Sis, watch your torch!"

They were entering the tunnel.

Alexa closed her eyes, anguished. It had been a long time since the Light Bearer had seen dead people. And she didn't want to see them. Not Lady Eudoxia!

The maiden took a few steps in the opposite direction of the procession, at the same time that her cousin's Shade came to meet her.

However, the crowd didn't open space easily, and Alexa was dragged into the tunnel. She felt Shade's cold hand grab her wrist,

"Alexa! Guide me!"

"... Lady Eudoxia!" her cousin's name came out as a whisper. Her Shade was so far from the convent! What was she doing there?

Tears blurred her vision as Alexa was relentlessly pushed into the tunnel by the procession. Her cousin's face showed an expression of horror and ecstasy that Alexa never completely forgot.

"Alexa! You are the Light Bearer! Take me to my beloved! Let me go to him, I beg you! "

The general whose cousin had been a lover to. The man for whom she abandoned family, pride, and honor, to be by his side.

Alexa didn't really understand love, but she could respect that feeling. It had made someone like the most imposing and fantastic woman she had known, willfully and unregrettably, leave anything else behind.

Alexa didn't care anymore, she didn't know if she would have another chance. The Light Bearer could not let this woman get lost again. She put her hands together, and summoned the light.

Alexa could not say what happened. The strength of that moment made her light an effulgent ball that momentarily blinded even the Light Bearer herself.

The intensity of the light cleared for a fraction of a second the interior of the tunnel as if it were the day, until it became unbearable to look at. Alexa felt herself scream, and closed her eyes immediately, trying to protect her vision.

She no longer heard the screams from the crowd, and the light faded over her eyelids and tear-soaked lashes. Alexa clearly heard her cousin's voice saying goodbye in a grateful whisper,

"I am grateful, my dear. Goodbye..."

The young Light Bearer's heart was filled with gratitude for her eccentric relative, who would, at last, be reborn to be beside her beloved. Or was that what Alexa wanted.

The light was dimming, and she heard a voice behind her ask,

"I found you, finally ... Please take me too!"

Turning over her shoulder, she was slow to open her eyes, this time afraid of what she would see.

Alexa didn't want to see her brother Iacintho's Shade.

She felt her body soften, and fall unconscious on the hard, cold stone at her feet.