It was still a real compass. It worked just like a compass should, although it was looking a bit battered and scratched after having been a plaything. Her uncle had given it to her when he had replaced it with a newer model. Berna’s memory of the moment and her uncles kind and loving words when he gave her compass felt like a memory of a mysterious dream to her now, enigmatic and surreal.
One day Bernadette, one day you may become an explorer just like me and travel to the unknown and still unchartered corners of the world. Who knows? If you just study diligently and put in effort to learn and memorize everything your teachers tell you to learn, you can become anything you want to be. The sky is the limit, child, only the sky is the limit. The whole world is open for an ambitious galdor. See this little device I have here? It’s a compass. The compass can seem like a very simple instrument, but it’s actually based on one of the most mysterious and unexplained powers in the world: magnetism. Just like galdori have fields of magic, the earth has fields of magnetism, and the compass detects those magnetic fields and uses them to tell you which direction you are going in. Here, you can have it! I have bought a new one for myself, but this one still functions perfectly well even if it’s a bit outdated. It will show you the way wherever you want to go.
Berna held the compass in her chapped servant hand and watched the small needle point to the north, as always. It trembled slightly. She knew that the nearly invisible trembling of the instrument would stop and the needle would become totally still and stable if she would put it down on the table. Although the table had once been a tree vibrating with life like all organic beings, it was dead wood now. It would be totally still and the compass needle would mirror the stillness of the dead materia. Her hand would never be that totally still as long as she was alive. All living beings were constantly in motion. Whether they were awake and aware or not their bodies or were never sleeping. Berna’s heart was working night and day and so were her lungs and other inner organs, the part of her which was always in motion even when she lay sleeping, seemingly motionless, exhausted after a day’s hard work.
Life trembles inside us as long as we live. This affects the compass and makes the needle tremble too. It not only reads the mysteries of the earth’s magnetic fields, but also differs between the fields of the living and the dead. If you use it on a ship it will move with the waves, if you use it a wagon it will move with the wheels as they move over cobblestones and gravel and if you use it on an aeroship it will dance with the winds. But it will always point to the north. You will always know where you are headed.
"Like right now" Berna thought sarcastically to herself and put the compass back into the drawer.
She didn’t need a compass to tell her the way. She had been gated in Brunnhold for fifteen years and she wasn’t going anywhere at all, ever.
Her red hair was braided and by looking at her uniform for the day people could see that she was a housemaid on cleaning duty. The dress was black and the apron was white, both were of simplistic cut and lacked any hint of elegance. She was going to sweep and wash floors, dust off and polish furniture and trinkets, and clean windows until the glass was so spotless and clear that it was nearly impossible to see it.
“You coming Bernie?”
Berna’s bunkmate Mary was her constant companion at work as the passives always worked in pairs. Mary waited impatiently and had already opened the door. She wore the same attire as Berna but was twenty years older and looked way more gruff and tough than her younger serf colleague. Unlike Berna, who had been gated in Brunnhold since they had found out that she was a passive, Mary had been dumped in Old Rose Harbor on a dark and stormy night thirty-five years ago. She had lived as a so called free passive for thirty-two years, until she had been sentenced to servitude and sent to work in Brunnhold, so she had only been a serf for three years. The lion’s part of her life as passive had been totally void of the repetitive routine of their life in Brunnhold. Sometimes in the evenings, if they weren’t too tired, she entertained Berna with colorful stories about her past as Mary “The Lamb” Lambert.
Berna had a perfect track record as paragon servant and was informally supposed to supervise Mary. The idea was that the example of an ambitious and reliable high performing servant would inspire the less reliable convict to improvement and reform her. That wasn’t how it really had turned out, but both housemaids kept the appearance up when other people could see or hear them.
“Coming.”
Berna rose from her bunk and walked the very short distance over the floor, went out through the door and closed it behind her. She continued silently towards the stairs, Mary following behind her like a lamb. After quickly swallowing the morning porridge in the servant’s diner, they continued to the room where they could fetch brooms and scrubbers, buckets, dusters, floorcloths, mops, soap, towels and all other things a proper housemaid could need for a day of hard work in the cleaning brigade.
Berna and "The Lamb" would soon be on their way to work, feeling pretty well prepared. They were going to clean someone’s house or perhaps a public location. Exactly where they were going still remained to be revealed to them, as there was no reason for telling servants about next day’s chores in advance. The uniforms they had been given indicated the nature of the coming tasks so they could prepare properly. That was enough. They joined the line of servants waiting for their working orders without any signs of enthusiasm, expecting to just be told where to go and what to do.
“Before I give you your work orders for the day I have an announcement for you.” The matron in charge spoke to the passives in a self-important tone as she unfolded a sheet of paper and started to read the content aloud.
“Professor Daalton Gilardioni is looking for a servant of a more permanent nature. Those who want this position may ask to be assigned to work for him for a day, so they can apply for the job personally ... on my recommendation. ”
She continued to read. A personal application was desired, not only because the passives weren't skilled enough in intellectual matters to be able to put together a decent application letter, but also because the professor saw no reason to waste time. The requirements on the applicants was that they must have a good track record of loyal and reliable service in Brunnhold. They must never have shown any signs of volatile diablerie. Although being passive, with what foul and cursed nature this indicated, they should be among the relatively better passives. If they had been raised in their parental home to be well-behaved and well-trained servants it would be seen as an advantage, although it wasn't necessary.
A profound silence descended over the room. All the housemaids stood like statues in the line, gazing emptily out into the air. Daalton Gilardioni was a well-known ultra-racist. The matron looked annoyed. She consulted the paper again and added the last sentence, which she had taken for granted she wouldn’t need to say.
“Good prospects for the right applicant.”
Compact silence. An insect buzzed in a corner. I was nearly the only sound, because the servants were doing their best to breathe soundlessly. Nobody stepped forth. Nobody even moved, for fear of any slight movement being mistaken for interest in the job. Nobody ...
Thoughts started to rise in Berna’s brain. Nobody wants the job. At least not right now. The competition is zero. None of those “home-raised” ones want to apply, at least not among the women, don’t know if there’s competitors stepping forth in the men’s section, but ... judging from the silence this can be my chance to advance. Daalton Gilardioni? Oh my, that man’s reputation for racism, how can I even think of this ... but what if it is my best chance ever to advance and become more than a general housemaid?
Regardless of the reasoning which continued to spin in her mind, regardless of reason and common sense, Berna stepped forth like carried by an unknown inner power and said that she wanted to apply. A loud clanking sound behind her indicated that Mary had dropped a metal bucket on the stone floor.
The matron looked relieved. Berna and Mary were promptly sent to professor Gilardioni.