The Gilded Ones

Back at the farm, Deka prepares for the ritual. She tries to cook without a knife, as girls are not allowed to use sharp objects for a year before the blood-letting ritual. Her dad gives her a dress and mask made by her mom before she died. He also gives Deka her mom’s old necklace. Deka, missing her mom, is determined to win acceptance from the villagers.

Girls line up in front of the temple while jatu prepare for the arrival of Elder Durkas. When he arrives and recites ceremonial words, Deka has a vague premonition (this turns out to be the deathshrieks trying to save her from the ritual). The rich girl Agda goes first, walking through a red door to the private cutting room, and returns bleeding red blood, the sign of purity. As other girls go, a mist appears, and they hear the sound of deathshrieks.

Jatu try to fight these creatures, but they fail due to being inexperienced. Deka tries to lead her dad away, but he–a retired soldier–wants to fight with jatu. The deathshrieks attack the jatu, pulverizing them, then attack the village men. While her dad is sword-fighting, he doesn’t see an attack from behind, and Deka cries out. When she yells “stop,” the deathshrieks freeze and return to the forest. After their retreat, Deka tries to speak to her dad, but he calls her a demon. Ionas stabs her with a sword in the stomach, and her blood and skin turn gold: the sign of impurity. Deka dies her first death (those with gold blood can heal themselves, which is why Deka dies numerous times but revives).

When Deka revives for the first time, she is shackled to a wall in a cellar. She can see Ionas in the dark, and eventually her dad appears with her mom’s necklace. He is disgusted by her being completely healed from her wounds. Elder Durkas blames Deka for the appearance of deathshrieks, and elders deem that it is her dad’s duty to kill her. He beheads her with a sword.

After her second death, Deka thinks she’s a demon (it is later revealed that she has divine not demonic blood). She prays, but Elder Olam says she has been rejected by the Infinite Father because she doesn’t enter the Afterlands. It has taken days for her to regenerate from beheading. Her dad is sick, and Deka asks to be cleansed and killed. Elder Olam suggests fire. However, she is able to revive after a variety of methods are tried (hanging, drowning, poisoning, etc.); she dies nine times.

Eventually, a robed woman appears wearing white gauntlets and a war mask. These gauntlets cause Deka to dub her White Hands. White Hands pokes and slaps Deka, calling her an alaki. Deka remembers her gold blood flowing in large quantities (the elders have been selling her blood, it turns out). White Hands offers a seal and asks if Deka will join Emperor Gezo’s army protecting the entire nation of Otera. When White Hands removes her mask, she also has beautiful dark skin, curly hair, and black eyes. If Deka does not want to join the army, White Hands offers to enact the Death Mandate as an alternative to the elders bleeding her repeatedly.

White Hands cuts Deka in the ritual place and touches her gold blood while explaining that the army needs help fighting the deathshrieks in an offensive in eight months. She offers Deka freedom and absolution (becoming pure again after 20 years of fighting). Deka gets excited at the thought of purity, but White Hands warns the training is rough (but not as bad as the torture she’s already endured). Deka agrees to join the army if White Hands tells her dad she’s dead.