Mihai

Mihai is the patron saint of Svartrau. According to stories I heard while growing up, he was a dragon-slayer who lived hundreds of years ago. As a child, I never questioned that, or gave it much thought at all... But it turns out the stories weren't true. He wasn't a Christian saint, but a pagan. He didn't slay 'dracones', but 'vrakhones', meaning: 'vrakhiri'.

And he wasn't dead. I met him – and almost died by his hand. Right before he passed, he told me he had been betrayed, chained up and left to rot in Svartrau Cathedral's catacombs. He also called himself a 'dawnwalker' and claimed that I was one myself. I don't know what that truly means for me… but when I think about him, suffering for hundreds of years, unable to die or to break free of his chains... I can't imagine enduring such a fate.