Life and Times of a Priestess: Ch.4: Prisoners Of Prancir (Part 2)

Life and Times of a Priestess

Chapter 4 : Prisoners Of Prancir (Part 2)

Her time with General Polad’s books had educated her already about certain aspects of Vanmarian history and culture.  She understood, unlike the other priestesses, about the need for a Vanmarian, and a man in particular, to earn money.  All the things he required in life, his clothes, his food and even the house or room he lived in had to be paid for out of money he earned.  He was not allowed just to exist, but had to pay for his existence, and therefore had to earn to exist. This was why the soldiers fought.  It was not just because his leaders told him it was necessary to protect his family and his people, although that was part of it.   It was also because he needed to earn money and soldiering paid quite well by comparison with other things he might do. For many soldiers it might be the only way they could earn money, she suspected.  Why else would anyone be encouraged to invade a foreign country, far overseas, and risk his life.  Fear of not having money forced them to conduct this miserable hell of a life, attacking and conquering innocent people.

She thought about what the soldiers said over some weeks and talked to the other priestesses about them.  Then she finally understood.  To see the priestesses the men had to give up some of the money they were fighting for.  It was a sufficiently large amount of money to encourage many of them not to come very often, and perhaps not at all after early visits after the conquest when it evidently had cost nothing at all.

         She now understood why soldiers were not allowed to walk straight into the dormitory, why guards always delayed them before they were allowed in.  It was not just to protect the priestesses and limit the number of men allowed in the rooms at any one time. It was also for the guards to collect money from the soldiers.

      Now she remembered how she had seen things changing hands in the entranceway on occasions.  They were not just shaking hands, a Prancirian tradition she understood.  The clink she had occasionally heard was the clink of the coins she had read about in General Polad’s books and the rustle of the notes she had also heard of.  It all made sense suddenly.  The numbers of men visiting the Priestesses had dropped quite suddenly when a change of money had been made.  The ordinary soldiers needed the money they were paid so much that they could not afford to visit the Priestesses as much as they would have liked if it had been free.

For the Priestesses, Danella realised this had been a good thing.  It meant they did not have to work so hard.  Their minds and bodies could be relaxed more often and they could enjoy the quality of their communion all the more.

        Danella told this to Sreela, who had become very much her friend now, even though she was a High Priestess.  Then she also explained it to the other Priestesses.  They all agreed it had been a good thing for them, protecting them from overwork, protecting their bodies and giving them more of what Danella called ‘balance’ in their daily lives.

However there was some process of thought, something further about this which Danella felt she still had not properly thought out or understood.

It ate at her and kept her awake for periods on a few nights as she considered what she knew about the Vanmarian culture and economy.  It was difficult for a ‘child of the Goddess’ to understand money.  It was something they as individuals had never needed or used while under the protection of the Goddess.  She talked to the soldiers also, careful to betray nothing of her concern about this but keen to understand what they understood about money.

The men seemed to be concerned about who had money. The officers had more than the ordinary soldiers and the Generals had even more than them.  It mattered who kept and held on to the money.  One day a soldier moaned about how much money he was paying to the guards.  He said he didn’t think the guards should get it.  Danella was able to ask “Are the guards getting it?”

The soldier seemed surprised at that.  “You mean you don’t know?  Well  I certainly don’t know if you don’t know.”

Danella was slow in thought, confused by the negatives in his language, working hard to try to translate what he said into sense.  When she had thought about what he said she said, “We don’t know, I thought you might.”  She felt confident to ask this man.  He was a regular.  She had been with him before a few times.  He was open with his words, critical of his officers, even critical of the war.

“I thought you were getting some of it,” he said, smiling as he said  it, as if about to burst into laughter.

“No I don’t think so”, she said haltingly.  “Who does get it?” she smiled, to make herself seem less stupid to this man.  She expected the man was laughing at her because she betrayed ignorance.  She did not mind his humour but she did not wish to be thought ignorant.  She wanted his respect.  She thought by smiling the man may be unsure whether her question was serious or not.  She wanted him to answer it, but she did not want him to think her stupid.  By smiling, she would encourage him to answer but there would be doubt in his mind as to whether she was really stupid or whether she was just making a joke.  Perhaps he would think that she knew about where the money went but would not know how much of it.  That was more intelligent and, as a kind of prisoner, and it was the guards collecting the money, why should she be expected to know who kept how much of it.

“Some of the money you earn keeps you alive and looked after,” he suggested,  “the rest of it I would have thought you would know more than me.  I am just the customer who gets exploited.  I thought perhaps you get some more, the guards and their officers, and probably the Generals at the top.”

When she had considered his words she thought she understood.  In a flash she did understand. Everyone gets a part, probably, at each level in the army from the ordinary guard, to Roger and maybe others like him, to the higher officers, to his General, Ravelleon, at the top, and perhaps to the other two Generals also.  Maybe the soldier was right when he said that part of it went to keep the Priestesses alive and looked after, but he was wrong when he said they got more.  Danella knew that none of them, not even Sreela, were getting any of the money.  She, Danella, was the only one, as far as she knew, the only one who had yet understood about the money.  Sreela evidently had no more understanding of money than Danella had until she had realised money was being collected from the soldiers at the door.

To a woman of the Goddess’s Empire this knowledge should not have been interesting.  They didn’t use money and they would not have known what to do with it, if they were given any, so the knowledge that others were profiting  from their labour would not be likely to upset them.  However Danella was beginning to think more clearly after the adventures and dangers she had been through.  She was living now in a Vanmarian world, and she knew their world was constructed on money.  She was a prisoner, unjustly.  Pirionite males were prisoners and they were being denied contact with their priestesses.  It was not right.  And now she discovered that the officers and commanders were using them to enrich themselves.  Not content with killing innocent people, conquering and imprisoning them, and controlling their bodies, they were using them to make themselves rich and bring themselves more power amongst their own people.

Not only were they exploiting the conquered but also their own soldiers who were forced to pay money which some should have sent home to their poor families for the simple enjoyments of life which were everyone’s by right in Pirion, but had to be bought dearly in Vanmar.

She asked the soldier how much he paid to come to the Priestesses, but the amount meant nothing to Danella.  She questioned him further and found it was worth  two days pay to the soldier, two days in which he might easily be killed.

Danella felt some anger now towards their protectors.  Roger had presumably been taking his share of this money, and his General Ravelleon who, it was rumoured,  did not approve of sexual communion, but who was quite content to enrich himself at their expense.