Having captured the mass murderer Countess Erzsébet Báthory but not her vampire servant Dorothea (alias Dorka), Palatine Thurzó and Reverend Ponikenus debate how to report (or rather, not report) the extraordinary scene they have witnessed. Considering Erzsébet, they speculate whether...
“...she would speak by the methods of the Spanish Inquisition? Perhaps you are right. Perhaps she would tell us who that demonic creature was that we saw tonight. But unfortunately, Countess Báthory still has powerful and influential friends who would not appreciate investigations or a public trial at all!”
“What do you intend to do, then?”
“I will punish with iron and purify with fire, Reverend. There will be a trial. And it will take place here at the castle. The Countess' accomplices will be executed for their crimes, and she will be locked up in her room for life.”
“Do you think she will tell us something about that cursed servant?”
“That is what I hope. And as for that infernal creature, whatever it was, I demand that no one utter a word about it again. I see you are surprised, Reverend. Perhaps you expected me to send a battalion of soldiers straight from Vienna to scour the woods inch by inch in search of Dorka?”
“Actually... that is what I thought.”
“As we climbed up to the castle, you called Dorothea Szentes 'the true daughter of darkness.' And God knows how right you were. What we have seen defies all human comprehension. If people knew of the existence of such creatures, panic would break out, fear would spread, and even the Holy Church would struggle to convince the people that faith in our Lord is enough to defeat evil. But nothing must leak out. Should you disobey, Reverend, you will be taken to the gallows, and you will find me as the executioner. We will say that Dorothea Szentes was brought to justice with the blade, her body burned on a pyre, and her ashes scattered to the wind. And this will be, by the will of the Emperor, the only truth that we will consign to history.”
The historical Erzsébet did indeed spend the rest of her life (a scant two years) under house arrest in her castle. Dorothea was burned alive after her fingers were torn off… or was she?
Here we are 18 pages into the issue, which for an American comic book would be almost an entire issue, and the prologue is just ending.
