Nira's Conversion Ch. 1

We meet our characters and the story begins.

1

The old woman meditated on the cliff face, breathing the cool, thin mountain air, feeling the last rays of light from the setting sun caress her face. Bliss. Something she’d been searching for for nigh-on twenty years now. Ever since the Conflict, and her proclamation that had been shunned by all, this mountain had become her life. No more scientists spitting on her findings, no patriarchs excommunicating her for lack of faith. Didn’t they see that their one-sided views were wrong? If neither could explain all of the workings of the universe, it was simple logic that dictated that a balance must be reached. But no, her logic had been denounced.

It took a bit of effort to wrench her thoughts away from such contentious paths. Peace, she told herself, That’s all behind you. Focus on the mountains; think of their elements, each atom working together perfectly with the next. See the laws, then-

Her silence was interrupted by the slightest sound of gravel shifting.

Eyes opening, the old woman spun around with a spryness that defied her age. She was, of course, annoyed. Peace normally never found anyone with such distracting noises like that. She was at the top of a mountain, for the Creator’s sake!

The young woman trying to walk quietly up the path jumped and nearly fell of the cliff. Her arms pinwheeled, and she squealed, finally managing to regain her balance.

The old woman didn’t move at all to try and help the younger woman. The woman was really a girl; she could hardly be more than eighteen. Instead, the elder woman chuckled at the girl’s panic. “Calmly, child,” she said, “Care must always be taken on the Mount. Especially,” she added, suddenly becoming angrily sarcastic, “When you’re sneaking up on the elderly.”

“I’m terribly sorry!” the girl said earnestly, “Creator’s hands, I am. I just-”

“No, wait,” the old woman interrupted, “Let me guess. You came here to try and convince me to either renounce my heretical ways or see the scientific facts and renounce my religion. Is that it?”

“Not at all,” the girl said, straightening in pride, “I wanted to learn from you.”

Not many things surprised the old woman anymore. True, she could get annoyed by the occasional unexpected distraction, but she never felt true shock anymore.

Until now, it seems.

“Let me explain,” the girl continued, “My name is Nira, and I am like you.”

The woman snorted. “No one is like me, child. If you believe this, you should go see the scientists for therapy.”

“I am like you,” Nira insisted, “I have no faction.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” the old women shot back, “Many don’t side with either Science or Faith.”

“That’s not what I mean. The Doubtful may say they don’t side with either, but in their hearts, they see a difference between the two. You, on the other hand, thought differently. People still talk about the treatise of Gerya Outcast in hushed tones; they use it as an example of what happens when someone tries to mix the factions.”

Gerya rolled her eyes. “It’s nice to know that my shame is still publicized.”

“I do not think of it as shame,” Nira protested, “You took a different approach. Just because you were ahead of your time doesn’t mean it was false.”

Gerya didn’t say anything. Sometimes she found that that infuriated petitioners more than rejections did. “Who are you, Nira?” she finally asked, “Why do you trouble me so?”

“I am a child of Science, but not entirely.”

“..... You expect me to be happy with that answer?”

“Of course not,” Nira said, blushing, “I just thought it made me sound more mysterious.”

Gerya rolled her eyes. “That’s the mark of a girl who cares more about her own image than true education. Leave me be, Miss Mystery.”

“No, wait!” Nira said, “I’ll tell you the truth. What do you want to know.”

“Like I said: Who are you?”

Nira took a deep breath. “My identity is… complicated. My mother was Science to the highest degree; she wasn’t high-up in the hierarchy, but she believed to her core that Science was the only truth. Faith could go slap the Creator.

“She eventually devised an experiment by which she and her colleagues could somehow disprove Faith once and for all. This was all soon after I was born; my mother didn’t stop her work to care for me beyond basic survival, like feeding. It was, ironically, the sisters of the local Faith convent that cared for me. Anyway, the experiment went awry. I’ve studied what notes of the experiment survived, but even after all my Science education, I can barely make sense of them. My mother was truly one of the most brilliant of Science, and it shows in her notes. She died in the experiment.

“My father was distraught. He was of Science, but almost bordered on Doubtful. He didn’t think that Science could answer every question, but he understood how much it meant to my mother. After she died, he left me with the Faith sisters and disappeared. He’s visited me every year, but beyond that, I haven’t seen him. The sisters tried to instill Faith in me, but I was Science in my soul. The result is what you see; someone who believes that the two are not exclusive, that together they can answer the mysteries of the universe.”

Again, Gerya did not speak. It wasn’t that she was trying to frustrate Nira; this time, she truly contemplated the girl. She had never taken an apprentice before, though many had petitioned her before. Truthfully, she didn’t even know if she could teach; the things she knew were not easily taught, if they could be taught at all.

Another who believed in a connection. She may not even have an inkling of a thought that it actually existed, but Nira believed it was there. None of the others had. They only flattered Gerya, trying to learn her secrets out of pure selfishness.

Gerya wanted to accept this girl. She wanted to take this girl and show her everything she’d discovered, but she had kept these secrets too long. No matter how much she desired to do it, Gerya could not reveal anything. It was almost as if her knowledge was itself sentient, protecting itself against any outsider. She was its sole caretaker.

She sighed. “I cannot take you, child. Leave.”

Nira’s face fell. “But, Gerya-”

“I said leave.”

She looked about ready to burst into tears. Gerya steeled herself; nothing could overturn a decision as rapidly as pure sorrow. She had learned that long ago. It was a law that could not be broken.

“Yes, Gerya,” Nira whispered, turning slowly to descend the cliff. She stopped.

Gerya looked up, frowning.

“No,” Nira said in a louder voice, turning back to confront Gerya, “I will not accept this. Your treatise showed that you wanted other people to accept your findings. Now, when someone finally does, you dismiss them? You were once a woman of Science, Gerya. Think of the great faults in that logic.”
“Are you lecturing me on logic, girl?” Gerya demanded, standing up, “I wrote books on logic before you were even born! I was on the front lines during the Conflict! Don’t you dare think that you know more than me! Imply that again, and so help the Creator, I will throw you off this cliff!”

Nira once again looked down. “I didn’t mean to imply I knew more than you, Gerya.”
Gerya nodded and turned her back to the girl. It was a dismissal, and Nira should take it. She was not prepared for what Nira said next.

“I meant to imply that I know better.”

Gerya spun, eyes filled with rage. “How dare you!” she yelled.

Nira remained calm. “All your knowledge, and you cannot see what is right in front of your face. Your treatise emphasized the combination of learning and striving for inner peace. Have you so soon forgotten your teachings?”

Gerya froze. Instead of arguing about the purpose of Gerya’s treatise, as she had before, Nira was arguing about the information it contained. How did the girl understand exactly how to convince Gerya? For so long, Gerya had been trying to achieve exactly what Nira had just described, and she had so nearly done so. But not quite.

Perhaps she could learn something from this girl. But she had to know something first.
“How did you know this would convince me?” She asked.

Nira thought for a moment. “I… can’t explain it, Gerya. I just somehow knew, within my subconscious, exactly how you would react to those statements.”

Gerya nodded. Here was the final proof.

“First, you must dispose of all connection to the outside world. Your cell phone, your music player, everything.”

Nira looked mildly annoyed. “What is the point of losing all technology I hold?”

“You wish to strive to find inner peace, yes? To learn the craft that only one before me has? Well, technology is a distraction. A very large distraction.”

Nira grimaced, but pulled out her phone, a music player, and even one of the new touchscreen computers. Instead of giving them to Gerya for safekeeping, as Gerya expected her to do, Nira dropped them off the cliff.

Such determination, Gerya thought. “Why did you do that?” she asked.

“If they are a distraction, I must not hold any thought that I will eventually give them back. I am serious in my wish to study with you, Gerya. Do not think me a coward."

"I assure you, I never thought that, child."

"What else must I do, Gerya?"

"You must renounce all allegiance to both Faith and Science. What I do transcends the factions."

"I do so. I have no allegiance to the factions."

"Finally, I don't want you to address me as anything other than 'Gerya'. I won't have you calling me 'Mistress' or 'Great One' or anything like that. It gets on my nerves."

Nira frowned in confusion. "Others have done this?"

"Of course!" Gerya glanced at the girl; Nira still looked confused. "Creator's hands, Nira, you didn’t think you were the first to come here and petition me, did you? Many others had, but you are the only one who truly felt that my words we true. The others only heard rumors of my talents and wished to steal them."

Nira bowed her head. "I will admit, Gerya, that I wished to learn these talents."

"Of course you did, child. My point is that my talents were not the sole reason you sought me out."

Nira said nothing.

It was strange, but Gerya felt a sense of attachment to this girl. She wasn’t much to look at; Nira was small and skinny, her brown hair frizzy. How long had it been since this girl had taken a shower? It took two days to scale this mountain on foot, with the cliff paths being so narrow and dangerous. There were no places for a helicopter to land, so there was no other way for anyone to make it up the mountain. That is, there was no way for people without Gerya’s talents.

Gerya continued to study Nira. The girl seemed very shy; she didn’t meet Gerya’s gaze, instead looking at the ground and shuffling her feet. Her clothes weren’t much to look at, just a pair of jeans and a simple shirt. Not even a jacket to keep out the cold.

“Dear Creator, Nira, you must be freezing!” Gerya said, “Come with me; we’ll get you warmed up.”

Only now did Nira slacken her jaw, giving Gerya a view of her chattering teeth. “Th-thank you, Gerya,” she said, her teeth stuttering her speech.

Gerya threw her arms around Nira, trying to warm the girl. She concentrated, her mind searching out the law of the universe she needed. After twenty years, Gerya still wasn’t sure how she did it. She just saw, in her mind’s eye, the atoms and the law that dictated their behavior.

She found it. With it, she caused the atoms of Nira’s clothing to move faster, warming the cloth.

Nira sighed in relief. “Thank you. What was that? Some sort of heat pad?”

“Not at all,” Gerya replied, smiling mysteriously.

“Then what?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to learn. Later.” She gestured towards a cave in the mountainside, “Now come, let’s both get inside.”

**********************************************

The cave was nothing like what Nira expected. Once they walked inside, a metal hatch slid shut behind them, and the atmosphere immediately began to warm. She hadn’t been feeling as cold after Gerya somehow warmed her up, but now there was no more cold air around her to take away the heat.

They walked a short distance down a tunnel until it opened out into a large central chamber. What Nira saw surprised her.

She hadn’t really known what to expect, to be honest. She’d thought of Gerya as a remote hermit, living simplistically like some of the old Faith philosophers. What she saw before her was nothing like that.

"By the Creator's hands..." She said, trailing off in awe.

It was like a section of one of the Science university campuses set inside; the cavern was enormous. They stood at the end of a long red carpet that led out into the chamber. It branched off at several points, leading to areas designed for different purposes, none of them with walls to partition them off; each just kind of flowed into another. There was a large section of the cavern covered in bookshelves, another was clearly a kitchen, complete with pantry and oven. The pantry was the only thing with walls in the room, but they were made completely of glass. Nira could clearly see all the food stored inside.

Her eyes followed the carpet across the chamber, drinking in the sight of it. Besides the library and the kitchen, there was also living space, with a bed, couches, and even a television. Still following the carpet, Nira last saw a large patch of the cavern covered in strange green carpeting. It was only when she saw the bag of strangely shaped clubs that she realized what it was. "A miniature-golf course?" She exclaimed, "How do you have an entire miniature golf course in a cave?"

Gerya just laughed. "There are Science people who are incredibly paranoid; they built these kinds of places in the case of some sort of apocalypse. They thought that, very soon, all of Kohlib would be destroyed. My personal favorite was the 'death by zombies' theory."

Nira frowned. "Zombies?" she asked, "Like in fantasy novels?"

"Fantasy novels, comic books, television shows, you name it. I happened to find this place around fifteen years ago, when I was being pursued by both Science and Faith zealots who wanted to destroy me for blasphemy. It's strange; both of them used that word. You'd think Science would have said something more... Scientific.”

“So, were you one of these paranoid Science members?”

Gerya laughed, “Oh, no, definitely not. I found this while walking on foot over the mountain. I had to flee through a place they wouldn’t follow me through. This was a very lucky coincedence. Or it could have been the Creator’s providence. I haven’t ruled out either theory yet.”

Nira nodded, returning her focus to the amazing room around her. She noticed that the carpet ended at the other end of the chamber, next to another hatch.

“Where does that hatch lead to?” she asked curiously, pointing it out to Gerya.

“It used to be a second closed-off space within the cavern. Kind of like an inner sanctum. It was a fairly large room that didn’t look like it was used for anything, so I turned it into my laboratory.”

Nira’s eyes widened in eagerness. Libraries and mini-golf courses were fine, but having lived in a Science home with a focus on practical experiments, nothing excited her like a new lab. She had to see it.

“How large is it?” she asked.

“Big enough to house a completely up-to-date chemistry lab, as well as three neutron microscopes and a computer with access to every Science database.”

Nira gasped. “How did you manage to get all that here?”

“During the Conflict, I headed a project to hide all the most valuable and sensitive assets in a repository. After I wrote the treatise and was declared Outcast, they tried to glean where I’d hidden it, but I never told them. Later, I snuck into Khienca, recruited a few people who were still faithful to me, and brought it all here.”

“That must have taken a while.”

“It took me nearly a year to drag it all up here, but it was worth it.”

“What do you use it for?”

“Mostly experiments about fundamental laws of the universe. Sometimes, if I have a burning question I need answered, I’ll set up an experiment. I’ve grown older, however, and it’s fallen into disuse. I assume you’d be the perfect person to get it up and running again?”

Nira could have jumped for joy. “Of course I am, Gerya! Creator’s hands, I can’t wait to get started.”

Gerya studied her for a moment. “Don’t you think it’s interesting?” she finally said.

“What?”

“You’ve been raised in Science for your entire life, but you still swear by a being your faction refuses to accept is real.”

Nira thought for a moment. “You’re right,” she replied, “None of us stop to think about that. I guess it’s just become a phrase for cursing instead of an actual noun. It’s nonsense to our minds.”

“But not to yours.”

“Well…” Nira said, “Forgive me, Gerya, but it will probably take some time for me to become used to that train of thought. I’ve never even thought about the existence of the Creator before I read your treatise. I understand that nothing can be pure Science, but it still seems strange to me that there is some all-powerful being that I can’t see or study.”

Gerya studied her some more. The woman’s gaze was unnerving, like she was staring at Nira’s inner self rather than her face.

“Why don’t you go sit down in the living area?” She finally said, “You must be tired after climbing the mountain. How long did it take you?”

“Most of the day, Gerya. I do feel weary, though I took many rests along the way.”

“Go sit down, then. I’ll fix us some tea.”

Nira nodded. The rug was soft; she could feel that even through her thick hiking boots as she walked down the rug to the living area. She didn’t feel comfortable sitting on the bed, so she flopped onto one of the couches. Gerya returned about ten minutes later with a tray and a tea set.

“Here’s something I don’t get,” Nira commented on as she approached, “You told me to rid myself of all technology I carried when you agreed to teach me. What was the point if you have a TV and a computer within your cave?”

“The point,” Gerya said, setting the tray on a table and sitting in a chair opposite Nira, “was to make you get rid of all personal technology. Your cell phone and music player are good in many circumstances, but not these ones. The quest for a melding of Science and Faith does not work when your eyes are fixated on a tiny screen filled with games and songs about love.”
“I guess that does make sense,” Nira acquiesced, pouring herself a glass of tea. She sipped it. “Ah, that is refreshing. Where did you get the leaves?”

Gerya blushed a bit. “There are garden paddies a way down the mountain that I tend, but I will admit that I had to go down to the town to get these. I was disguised of course; my face is still bafflingly recognizable. I had no idea that it was as widely known as my infamy.”

“I guess a lot of the Science schoolchildren see your face in their textbooks. You’re mentioned in both the introduction to science and Science history courses. I remember your picture being displayed often.”

Gerya laughed. It was a jovial thing, nothing like the image of a grizzled old crone Nira had created for this woman. “For someone they’ve labelled an Outcast, I am quite famous, aren’t I?” She poured a cup of tea for herself and sipped it.

“Gerya?” Nira said, “May I ask something?”

“Of course,” Gerya said, somewhat taken aback by the question, “You don’t need to ask my permission.”

“What exactly will I be doing? You accepted me when I asked to be taught and to learn your talents. How will we start?”

The older woman smiled, accentuating the wrinkles that covered her face. “Why, that is an excellent question. To tell you the truth, I hadn’t really thought about it myself. I’ve never accepted someone to teach before; I’ve taught classes on both Faith and Science, but never both of them together. I guess I’ll have to think about it. Tell you what; it’s been an exhausting day for you. Why don’t you sleep now. I’ll think about it, and tomorrow we’ll start. Does that sound like a plan?”

Nira nodded. The tea had made her even more tired than she already was. The couch suddenly felt like perfection, almost like the mythical Paradise the Faith faction taught. She wanted nothing more than to lay down on this couch and sleep.

The thought had not finished in her mind before she realized that she already was.