I’m late to the party on this one, but Eblana’s “blessing” that slowly turns you into a walking corpse is a metaphor for revolutionary fervor, right? It’s a feeling inside you that pushes you forward to fight for freedom, then hollows you out so you no longer have the free will to do anything but kill the enemy.
In other words, this story heavily inspired by The Troubles asks “What’s in your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie?”