Characters tend to be either for or against the quest. If they assist it, they are idealized as simply gallant or pure; if they obstruct it, they are characterized as simply villainous or cowardly.
角色往往要麼支持這個任務，要麼反對它。如果他們協助這個任務，他們被理想化為簡單的英勇或純潔；如果他們阻礙這個任務，他們則被描述為簡單的惡棍或懦弱。

Hence every typical character . . . tends to have his moral opposite confronting him, like black and white pieces in a chess game.
因此，每個典型角色……往往會有與之道德相對的對手，像棋局中的黑白棋子。
-Anatomy of Criticism  批評的解剖學
Northrop Frye  諾斯羅普·弗賴

Montglane Abbey, France  蒙特格蘭修道院，法國
Spring 1790  春天 1790
A Flock of nuns crossed the road, their crisp wimples fluttering about their heads like the wings of large sea birds. As they floated through the large stone gates of the town, chickens and geese scurried out of their path, flapping and splashing through the mud puddles. The nuns moved through the darkening mist that enveloped the valley each morning and, in silent pairs, headed toward the sound of the deep bell that rang out from the hills above them.
一群修女穿過馬路，她們的清脆頭巾在頭上飄動，像大型海鳥的翅膀。當她們穿過城鎮的大石門時，雞和鵝急忙躲避她們的路徑，拍打著翅膀，潑濺著泥水。修女們在每個早晨籠罩著山谷的昏暗霧氣中移動，成對默默地朝著從她們上方的山丘傳來的深沉鐘聲走去。

They called that spring le Printemps Sanglant, the Bloody Spring. The cherry trees had bloomed early that year, long before the snows had melted from the high mountain peaks. Their fragile branches bent down to earth with the weight of the wet red blossoms. Some said it was a good omen that they had bloomed so soon, a symbol of rebirth after the long and brutal winter. But then the cold rains had come and frozen the blossoms on the bough, leaving the valley buried thick in red blossoms stained with brown streaks of frost. Like a wound congealed with dried blood. And this was said to be another kind of sign.
他們稱那個春天為血腥春天（le Printemps Sanglant）。那年櫻花提前盛開，遠在高山的雪融化之前。脆弱的樹枝因濕潤的紅花而彎向大地。有人說這麼早盛開是一個好兆頭，是漫長而殘酷的冬天後重生的象徵。但隨後寒冷的雨來了，將花朵凍在樹枝上，留下山谷裡厚厚的紅花，帶著棕色的霜痕。就像一個凝固的傷口，沾滿了乾涸的血。這被認為是另一種徵兆。

High above the valley, the Abbey of Montglane rose like an enormous outcropping of rock from the crest of the mountain. The fortresslike structure had remained un-
在山谷之上，蒙特格蘭修道院如同一塊巨大的岩石從山頂上升起。這座堡壘般的建築一直保持著未被破壞的狀態。
touched by the outside world for nearly a thousand years. It was constructed of six or seven layers of wall built one on top of the other. As the original stones eroded over the centuries, new walls were laid outside of old ones, with flying buttresses. The result was a brooding architectural melange whose very appearance fed the rumors about the place. The abbey was the oldest church structure standing intact in France, and it bore an ancient curse that was soon to be reawakened.
被外界觸及近千年。它由六或七層牆壁一層層堆疊而成。隨著原始石材在幾個世紀中侵蝕，新的牆壁在舊牆外側建造，並配有飛扶壁。結果是一種陰鬱的建築混合體，其外觀本身助長了對這個地方的傳聞。這座修道院是法國現存最古老的教堂建築，承載著一個即將被重新喚醒的古老詛咒。

As the dark-throated bell rang out across the valley, the remaining nuns looked up from their labors one by one, put aside their rakes and hoes, and passed down through the long, symmetrical rows of cherry trees to climb the precipitous road to the abbey.
當低沉的鐘聲在山谷中響起時，剩下的修女們一個接一個地抬起頭來，放下手中的耙子和鋤頭，穿過長長的對稱櫻桃樹行，攀登通往修道院的陡峭道路。

At the end of the long procession, the two young novices Valentine and Mireille trailed arm in arm, picking their way with muddy boots. They made an odd complement to the orderly line of nuns. The tall red-haired Mireille with her long legs and broad shoulders looked more like a healthy farm girl than a nun. She wore a heavy butcher’s apron over her habit, and red curls strayed from beneath her wimple. Beside her Valentine seemed fragile, though she was nearly as tall. Her pale skin seemed translucent, its fairness accentuated by the cascade of white-blond hair that tumbled about her shoulders. She had stuffed her wimple into the pocket of her habit, and she walked reluctantly beside Mireille, kicking her boots in the mud.
在漫長的隊伍末端，兩位年輕的修女瓦倫丁和米蕾攜手而行，踩著泥濘的靴子小心翼翼地走著。她們與整齊的修女隊伍形成了奇特的對比。高挑的紅髮米蕾，長腿寬肩，更像是一位健康的農家女孩，而不是修女。她在修道服上穿著一件沉重的屠夫圍裙，紅色的捲髮從她的頭巾下散落出來。與她相比，瓦倫丁看起來顯得脆弱，儘管她幾乎和米蕾一樣高。她的皮膚顯得透明，白皙的膚色在她肩上披散的白金色長髮的襯托下更加明顯。她把頭巾塞進了修道服的口袋裡，勉強地跟在米蕾身邊，靴子在泥裡踢來踢去。

The two young women, the youngest nuns at the abbey, were cousins on their mothers’ side, both orphaned at an early age by a dreadful plague that had ravaged France. The aging Count de Remy, Valentine’s grandfather, had commended them into the hands of the Church, upon his death leaving the sizable balance of his estate to ensure their care.
這兩位年輕女性是修道院中最年輕的修女，她們是表姐妹，都是在可怕的瘟疫摧殘法國的早期喪失雙親。年邁的雷米伯爵，瓦倫丁的祖父，在去世時將她們託付給教會，並留下可觀的遺產以確保她們的照顧。

The circumstance of their upbringing had formed an inseparable bond between the two, who were both bursting with the unrestrained abundant gaiety of youth. The abbess often heard the older nuns complain that this behavior was unbecoming to the cloistered life, but she understood that it was better to curb youthful spirits than to try to quench them.
他們的成長環境形成了兩者之間不可分割的聯繫，兩人都充滿了年輕時代無拘無束的豐富快樂。修道院院長經常聽到年長的修女抱怨這種行為不適合隱居的生活，但她明白，抑制年輕的精神總比試圖熄滅它們要好。