Of Love and Shadows
Part One
On December 7th, a harrier dog bit four people. Three were slaves, and the other was Mary Servant of All Angels, the only daughter of the Marquis de Casalduero. That same day, a shipment of slaves arrived, suspected of carrying a plague, but later revealed to be poisoned.
Bernarda Cabrera, Mary Servant’s mother and the Marquis’s wife, was a wild, seductive woman with a rapacious appetite for honey, fermented snuff, and tablets. Once shrewd in the slave trade, her excesses left their estate in disrepair. Previously, the slave Dominga de Adviento had governed the house and raised Mary Servant, mediating between the Marquis and his wife. But Dominga had recently died, leaving Mary Servant in the company of the slaves. For her twelfth birthday, the house slaves painted their faces black, adorned themselves with Santeria necklaces, and celebrated Mary Servant’s uncut red hair, styled in braids.
Mary Servant was emaciated and timid, with pale skin, blue eyes, and auburn hair. Taciturn like her father, her nature rendered her almost invisible.
Bernarda learned of the dog bite two days later. Seeing the ankle wound healed, she dismissed the matter. The following Sunday, the slave who had accompanied Mary Servant witnessed the same dog die of rabies. Bernarda, still unconcerned, kept the incident from her husband.
In early January, Sagunta, a wandering Indian woman, informed the Marquis of the rabies outbreak and his daughter’s bite. Sagunta claimed to hold the keys of St. Hubert, healer of rabies. The Marquis, oblivious to household matters, dismissed her. Bernarda, however, confirmed the story.
The Marquis, though believing he loved his daughter, had always neglected her. Fear of rabies forced him to confront his self-deception. Bernarda, fully aware of her lack of love for Mary Servant, felt no remorse. Their mutual hatred for the girl seemed justified by her existence.
Consumed by worry, the Marquis visited the Love of God hospital to observe a rabid patient. Leaving the hospital, he encountered Dr. Abrenuncio, a Jewish scholar, beside his dead horse. The Marquis offered him a ride and inquired about rabies. Abrenuncio recommended euthanasia as a Christian act of mercy, admitting some bite victims remained unaffected.
The Marquis dropped the doctor off and, upon returning home, ordered his servant, Neptune, to retrieve the doctor’s horse for burial, offering Abrenuncio his finest horse in return.
Bernarda soothed her ailments and excesses with enemas. Nothing remained of her former self. She had become infatuated with Judas Iscariot, a slave she purchased on a whim. Lavishing him with gold, she was devastated to learn of his infidelity but ultimately accepted his affections.
Dominga de Adviento had discovered their affair but was forbidden to speak of it. The Marquis remained ignorant, and Mary Servant was so forgotten that Bernarda once mistook her for a stranger.
Returning from the hospital, the Marquis resolved to reclaim control of his household. He moved Mary Servant from the slave quarters back to her grandmother’s bedroom.
He intimidated the slaves, threatening punishment for unsanitary habits and gambling.
Mary Servant resisted her father’s efforts, declaring her preference for the slave quarters. The next morning, she had returned to the slaves.
The Marquis tasked Caridad del Cobre, the mulatto woman who had accompanied Mary Servant on the day of the bite, with her care. He instructed her to report on the girl’s behavior and forbade her from crossing the barrier he erected between the slave quarters and the main house.
The next morning, the Marquis summoned Dr. Abrenuncio to examine Mary Servant. Bernarda disapproved of the Jewish doctor, but Abrenuncio examined the girl nonetheless. Mary Servant lied throughout the examination, appearing healthy except for a peculiar onion odor. Caridad revealed to the Marquis that the child had been subjected to slave rituals, locked naked in the onion cellar to dispel the dog’s curse.
Abrenuncio believed the wound’s distance from the brain offered hope against rabies. The Marquis opted for both hospital and home care. The doctor advised indulging the girl’s happiness, believing no medicine could cure what happiness could not.
Part Two
The reasons for the Marquis’s neglect and the dysfunction of his marriage remained unknown.
Ignacio, his heir, showed no interest in anything until, at twenty, he sent love letters to Dulce Olivia, an inmate of the Divina Pastora asylum. This prompted him to learn to read and write, but his family disapproved, intending him for a Spanish noblewoman. He married Doña Olalla de Mendoza, a beautiful and musically talented woman who remained a virgin, refusing to bear a child. Neither she nor the Marquis appreciated music, but after Ignacio took up the theorbo, they practiced together in the garden. On November 9th, lightning struck Doña Olalla dead as they played.
The Marquis arranged a lavish funeral and discovered a message in the garden, implicating Dulce Olivia in the lightning strike.
He relinquished his properties, retaining only the mansion and the Trapiche de Mahates, and dismissed Dominga de Adviento. Fearing his slaves’ vengeance, he ordered the lights kept on constantly.
Dulce Olivia found solace in memories, sneaking into the mansion at night to clean and tidy. Dominga died unaware of the mysterious order.
Shortly before the first anniversary of his wife’s death, the Marquis rediscovered Dulce Olivia. They resumed their friendship, talking until dawn like an old married couple, until one of them spoke amiss, angering Dulce Olivia and causing her to disappear. She offered comfort and submission, but he vowed never to remarry. Yet, within a year, he secretly married Bernarda, the daughter of his father’s foreman, who seduced and impregnated him.
When Mary Servant was born, Dominga vowed not to cut her hair until the girl’s wedding night. Bernarda despised her daughter from the start, raising her according to her own beliefs. The girl’s secretive nature prompted Bernarda to attach a bell to her, but Mary Servant still moved like a ghost, leading Bernarda to send her to the slave quarters.
Bernarda’s vices began with Judas Iscariot. She experimented with various substances, from snuff and coca leaves to cannabis, turpentine, peyote, and opium.
Judas became a thief, pimp, and occasional sodomite. He died in a brawl with galley slaves. Bernarda sought refuge in the Trapiche, her life adrift.
Rumors spread of the Marquis’s delirium. He had declined so much that he didn’t recognize his wife upon her return from Mahates, shortly before the dog bit Mary Servant.
By mid-March, the rabies threat seemed to have passed. The Marquis embraced the doctor’s advice, taking his daughter on walks and sharing music. Dr. Abrenuncio, during a visit, overheard Bernarda complaining of liver pain. He predicted the Marquis’s death by September, expressing regret at the delay.
One day, Caridad informed the Marquis of Mary Servant’s fever. Abrenuncio advised observation, but the Marquis sought every possible cure. Mary Servant endured herbal baths, enemas, emetics, and other treatments, suffering convulsions, delirium, and pain. Even the boldest healers abandoned her until Sagunta reappeared with unconventional methods. She stripped Mary Servant and applied ointments, scrubbing her naked body. Mary Servant resisted, but Sagunta persisted. Bernarda, hearing the screams, intervened, striking both with hammock ropes.
The Bishop of Cáceres and Don Tonibio de las Virtudes, alarmed by Mary Servant’s condition, summoned the Marquis, suspecting demonic possession. The Marquis, no longer religious since his first wife’s death, reconsidered his daughter’s spiritual well-being.
The Bishop and Father Cayetano Delaura accused Abrenuncio of heresy, advising the Marquis to send his daughter to the Convent of Santa Clara for exorcism.
Returning from his meeting, the Marquis heard Mary Servant singing and playing the theorbo. Entering her room, the girl fell ill. The Marquis kept vigil and, the next morning, dressed her in one of Bernarda’s old gowns, packed a suitcase, and took her to the convent.
The nuns whisked her away, leaving the Marquis with the image of her dragging her injured foot across the garden gallery.
Part Three
The Convent of Santa Clara was a three-story square building facing the ocean. It housed eighty nuns, all servants, thirty-six from prominent families.
In a remote cell, a lone nun had served sixty-eight years of imprisonment by the Inquisition. It was here that Mary Servant was confined, ninety-three days after the dog bite, still without rabies symptoms.
The novices guarding Mary Servant coveted her Santeria necklaces. When they tried to remove them, she retaliated. Two black slaves arrived, recognizing the necklace and speaking to her in Yoruba. Mary Servant responded, revealing her slave name, Maria Mandinga, and joined them in the kitchen, where she helped slaughter a goat and played with the slave children.
Abbess Josefa Miranda, resentful of the Bishop, was perturbed by the demonic child’s arrival, though Mary Servant had gone unnoticed on her first day.
The next morning, Mary Servant was discovered singing with the slaves and forcibly taken to her cell.
From then on, every misfortune was attributed to Mary Servant’s curse. Nuns reported seeing her fly with transparent, buzzing wings. When they again attempted to remove her necklaces, she escaped through a window, disrupting the beehives and livestock. It took two days to restore order.
Convent life became unusually lively. Nuns gambled, drank, and whispered about the demonic girl.
Groups of nuns visited Mary Servant at night. Once, they removed her necklaces, but one of them later fell down the stairs, fracturing her skull. Fearing the curse, they returned the necklaces.
The Marquis mourned his decision. He confided in Abrenuncio, who advised retrieving Mary Servant immediately, warning that exorcisms were no better than Santeria.
The Marquis requested an audience with the Bishop.
The Bishop was informed of Mary Servant’s readiness for exorcism. Father Cayetano Delaura, intrigued by the case, had dreamt of Mary Servant eating grapes in a snowy field, symbolizing death. He associated the snow with Salamanca, where lambs had suffocated in a blizzard. The Bishop offered him the case, but Delaura, hoping for a Vatican librarian post, hesitated. He had remained in Cartagena as the Bishop’s protégé after his ship to Yucatán failed to arrive.
The Bishop insisted, believing success would secure Delaura’s desired position.
Thus, Father Cayetano Delaura entered Mary Servant’s life and the city’s history.
The next day, Delaura arrived at the convent, armed with holy water and oils. The Abbess recounted the supernatural occurrences attributed to Mary Servant. Delaura cautioned against attributing unexplained events to the devil.
Before reaching Mary Servant’s cell, he passed Martina Laborde’s, a nun imprisoned for murdering two companions. She had spent eleven years there, known more for escape attempts than her crime.
Entering Mary Servant’s cell, Delaura noted the stench of feces. The girl lay bound on a mattress-less bed. Delaura thought the environment itself could induce possession. He examined her, noting the festering ankle wound. He informed her of his purpose, suspecting a demon within. Mary Servant remained unresponsive.
Returning the following Monday, Delaura found the cell even fouler. When he untied Mary Servant, she bit his hand. He managed to place a rosary around her neck.
Martina Laborde, however, encountered no resistance from Mary Servant. They formed a bond, promising to watch the upcoming solar eclipse together.
On Sunday, Delaura brought Mary Servant candy, noticing his bandaged hand. He claimed a rabid dog had bitten him. Mary Servant touched the wound, laughed for the first time, and declared herself worse than the plague. Leaving the convent, Delaura protested the inmates’ poor conditions.
That night, Delaura believed he saw Mary Servant in the Bishop’s library, dressed in her prison garb, placing gardenias in a vase. She recited a verse from Garcilaso de la Vega. He closed his eyes, and the vision vanished, leaving the scent of gardenias.
Part Four
Father Cayetano and the Bishop observed the eclipse together, but Delaura injured his eye. He expressed doubts about Mary Servant’s possession, attributing the nuns’ accounts to ignorance. The Bishop urged him to continue.
The next day, Mary Servant told Cayetano of her impending death, learned from Martina Laborde. Delaura comforted her with confession, realizing he was her exorcist, not her doctor. He confessed his love for her.
Later, he confronted Martina, who denied mentioning death. Delaura realized Mary Servant had lied, creating a morbid atmosphere.
The Bishop delivered a letter from the Abbess, complaining of Delaura’s favoritism towards Mary Servant. Delaura retorted that the Abbess was the one possessed. The Bishop reprimanded him but understood his feelings.
The new Viceroy, Don Rodrigo de Buen Lozano, arrived with his entourage. Related to the Abbess, he requested lodging at the convent. His youthful energy and curiosity disrupted the convent’s routine. The Abbess tried to keep him from Mary Servant, but this only fueled his interest. He begged Martina Laborde’s forgiveness upon seeing her. He became fascinated with Mary Servant and resolved to redeem her.
During a dinner, the Viceroy presented Mary Servant, dressed in one of Bernarda’s gowns. Unconvinced of her possession, he consulted his doctors, who concurred with Abrenuncio’s assessment. However, no one dared question the demonic possession publicly.
The Viceroy discussed his plans with the Bishop, including Mary Servant’s case. The Bishop assured him she was in good hands. The Viceroy refused clemency for Martina.
The next day, the Bishop ordered improved conditions for Mary Servant, granting Delaura freedom of action and requesting him to visit the Marquis.
Delaura rushed to the convent, commissioning a portrait of Mary Servant as a queen, radiating light amidst demons. He fell deeper in love.
Mary Servant recounted a dream, identical to Delaura’s premonition. She confessed her fear but promised imminent freedom and happiness through the Holy Spirit.
Meanwhile, Bernarda, mistaking Dulce Olivia for Mary Servant, learned of her daughter’s situation. Despite her hatred, she was relieved Mary Servant lived. The next day, Bernarda left, taking her belongings and money. The Marquis knew she was gone for good.
Delaura visited the Marquis, who lay alone in his hammock, assuring him of Mary Servant’s well-being. The Marquis showed him Mary Servant’s suitcase and asked him to retrieve her. He also requested Delaura to consult Abrenuncio about her health.
Despite knowing Abrenuncio was wanted by the Inquisition, Delaura visited him. Abrenuncio welcomed him, showing him his library. Cayetano was amazed to find a banned book from his childhood. They discussed Mary Servant. Abrenuncio denied her possession, suggesting Delaura’s interest stemmed from personal feelings. Cayetano felt exposed and left hastily. The doctor gave him medicine for his eye.
Delaura went to the convent, returning Mary Servant’s suitcase. She received him with contempt, expressing her hatred and wishing for death. She began spitting green slime. Delaura turned the other cheek and prayed, but only succeeded in attracting Martina with his piety. He fled to the library, where he took Mary Servant’s belongings from the suitcase, sniffing them, caressing them, and speaking obscenely to them. He then stripped and flogged himself. The Bishop, who had been searching for him, found him covered in blood and tears. Delaura claimed it was the devil himself.
Part Five
Cayetano confessed his desires. The Bishop stripped him of his duties and assigned him to nurse lepers at the Love of God hospital. Dignitaries interceded, but the Bishop remained firm, concealing his reasons.
Martina devoted herself to Mary Servant, offering to negotiate with her demons in exchange for her soul. Mary Servant listed six demons, identifying one as an African devil that had plagued her parents’ home.
Cayetano humbly submitted to the hospital’s harsh conditions.
During his penance, Abrenuncio encountered Cayetano, inviting him to visit and discuss his situation. He also gifted him a book of philosophical letters in Latin. Cayetano, touched by the doctor’s kindness, promised to visit.
One night, Delaura escaped the hospital to visit Mary Servant, guided by a leper’s instructions through a sealed tunnel.
Initially resistant, Mary Servant eventually conversed happily with Delaura for two hours. He returned the following night, and they exchanged verses, kisses, and declarations of love, but remained chaste, intending to wait until marriage. Cayetano pledged his devotion, and Mary Servant tested his love with childish cruelty.
Mary Servant decorated her room like a bride-to-be, spending nights with Cayetano until dawn. One morning, the keeper brought breakfast, unaware of Delaura’s invisible presence.
Mary Servant gave Cayetano her Oddúa necklace and he taught her to read, write, and worship the Holy Spirit, awaiting their freedom and marriage.
Mary Servant urged them to elope, but Cayetano insisted on waiting for the exorcism.
On April 27th, the exorcism began without warning. Mary Servant was dragged to a trough, washed, stripped of her necklaces, dressed in a heretic’s gown, and shorn. She was then placed in a straitjacket and taken to the chapel. The Bishop, assisted by prebendaries, conducted the ritual. Mary Servant cried out in terror. The Bishop suffered an asthma attack, and the ceremony ended abruptly.
Cayetano found Mary Servant shivering in her straitjacket, distraught over her shorn hair. She recounted the ordeal, expressing her desire to die. Delaura comforted her, replacing her missing necklace.
The next day, Father Tomás Aquinas de Narváez, a former Inquisitor and pastor of the slave quarter, chosen to replace the Bishop, returned Mary Servant’s necklaces and spoke to her in Yoruba. She trusted him instantly. He seemed to understand her best, promising a swift resolution.
Mary Servant recognized him as an archangel. After discussing her demons and correcting the Abbess, he promised to resolve the matter within days, or even hours.
The next day, Father Aquino disappeared. He was later found drowned in the convent well. The Abbess declared it proof of the devil’s curse.
The news reached Mary Servant, who had awaited him with innocent enthusiasm. Cayetano couldn’t explain his death but conveyed his gratitude and trust. Until then, he had believed love sufficed for their happiness, but Mary Servant realized freedom depended on them alone. One morning, after kissing, Delaura begged her not to leave, but she bid him farewell and jumped out of bed, determined to seek refuge in San Basilio de Palenque, a village of escaped slaves. Delaura considered it providential but preferred legal means. When Mary Servant offered him the choice to stay or leave with her, he hesitated and fled.
Mary Servant’s reaction was fierce. She barricaded herself, threatening to set fire to her cell. She ignited the mattress, but Martina intervened, sedating her.
Cayetano anxiously sought an appeal, attempting to contact the Marquis without success.
Meanwhile, the Marquis, in his loneliness, reconnected with Dulce Olivia, who blamed him for Mary Servant’s plight, claiming the Bishop’s son (Cayetano) had corrupted and impregnated her, echoing Sagunta’s rumors. The Marquis, heartbroken, felt defeated. The rumor, amplified by Sagunta, spread: Mary Servant had been abducted to satisfy Cayetano’s lust and had conceived a two-headed child.
The Marquis never recovered, consumed by the desire to find Bernarda. They confessed their mutual hatred, and Bernarda revealed her father had orchestrated their union to secure an heir and then eliminate the Marquis.
They watched the sunset in silence. The Marquis, realizing he had nothing left to lose, departed without farewell. His remains were found two years later, devoured by vultures.
Martina Laborde escaped the convent, leaving a note for Mary Servant, promising to pray for her happiness.
The Abbess declared them accomplices, while Mary Servant claimed Martina had escaped with five others, using bat wings.
The nuns discovered the tunnel Cayetano had used and sealed it. Mary Servant was forcibly moved to a cell in the Inquisition’s wing, effectively buried alive.
That night, Cayetano tried to break through the tunnel wall. Driven by desperation, he ran to the Marquis’s mansion, but Dulce Olivia, enraged, refused him entry and threatened to unleash the dogs. He left.
On Tuesday, Abrenuncio learned of Cayetano’s plight, his punishment, and his secret love affair. He tried to dissuade Cayetano from returning to the convent, but Cayetano, believing himself invisible through prayer, entered the convent through the back door. He ascended the stairs, passed Mary Servant’s new cell without noticing, and tried to reach her old cell, but the nuns discovered him and turned him over to the Holy Office. He was convicted of heresy, causing public unrest and church disputes. He served his sentence as a nurse at the Love of God hospital, living among the sick, but achieved his desire to contract leprosy.
Mary Servant waited in vain. Three days later, she refused to eat, exacerbating her perceived possession. The Bishop intensified the exorcisms. Mary Servant fought back with satanic ferocity, speaking in tongues and screeching like a bird. On the second day, an earthquake struck, confirming her demonic possession. Back in her cell, she was given an enema of holy water.
The torment continued for three days. Despite not eating for a week, Mary Servant remained strong.
Mary Servant never understood Cayetano’s disappearance. On May 29th, she dreamt again of the snowy field, where Cayetano would never return. In her lap, a bunch of golden grapes reappeared as she ate them, but this time, she kicked them away, one by one, until the last grape was gone. The keeper, arriving to prepare her for the sixth exorcism, found her dead in bed, her eyes sparkling, her skin like a newborn’s. Her hair flowed, seemingly still growing.
Characters
Mary Servant: The protagonist. Raised among Yoruba slaves, she adopts their customs, language, and lies. Energetic, tormented, and dark, beneath her demonic facade lies a frightened girl yearning for freedom and happiness.
Cayetano Delaura: The protagonist. A devout priest with a passion for reading. He shares a strange connection with Mary Servant, falling in love with her despite his vows. His adherence to church formality leads to their ruin.
The Marquis: Supporting character. Mary Servant’s father. A good man, but weak, fearful, and apathetic.
Bernarda: Supporting character. Mary Servant’s mother, who hates and fears her. She leads a life of debauchery, marrying the Marquis for his wealth. Shrewd in business but ultimately consumed by her vices.