Outcasts of Gideon

Natuani'a'eravrahi

Houith was the great wanderer. She knew many worlds, moving about them and through them. She possessed them with an openness, an eagerness to know them completely. She sped about the enormity of myriad galaxies and traversed the length of many a comet's tail. Her natua spun giddily within countless pulsars. She spread herself across young nebulae and rode the curving surface of many a black hole.

Where there were colors and shapes, she bled with them. Where there were sounds and scents, she flowed through them and around them and became them. Overcome with elation, her natua swept her into turbulent swirls. Weighted by sadness, she might fall heavy to the surface of a nearby star.

Hers was a will born infrequently among her people. None in the memory of Aitaoperaa had exhibited such jubilation for the unknown. While they wandered, few sought the mysteries of space with such fervor. No one who came before had such a limitless receptiveness and wantonness. Few could equal her natua, the radiance, the warmth enveloping her. None approached her zeal for the unknown, the unexplored.

She traveled long, for the universe is vast. No inhabitants of Aitaoperaa could boast of more encounters with alien soil. None could claim to know the sweep of as many galaxies. She alone knew the farthest reaches of space.

When finally she'd ceased her wandering, she returned to recount her travels. She found that this was done at best with a faint hint of the impression left upon her. Long nights of contemplation were pale substitutes for surrendering to the adventure. Long days of oration offered little consolation. And this was with full possession of natua. At best she built inadequate bridges to span distances more vast than she had traveled. She did so regardless of the futility. This had always been the way of her people, so it was for Houith.

Many came to her, her radiance a beacon, her travels renown. Those who could gather near were often touched by her natua. It was a pulsating lodestar of memory and experience. This too would pass. With time, the mass of her audience declined, her legend now rooted in her people. She would persist in the tales passed from one to the next. The growing mythology only hinted at the journeys she herself had begun to forget. She entered the waning.

Can it be that there is no purpose without wandering? she thought to no one. Yet someone heard.

Purpose is with natua, replied K'rthan, his thoughts sweeping over her.

As it always has been.

And natua is with you.

As it always will be.

K'rthan moved toward her, around her. His shadow intermittently fell on her as he drew closer, spiralling into her. Does the search for purpose portend more traveling? For it is late.

My days of wander have come to an end. Her sight closed to his movement.

"So you have told," he said aloud. "Yet each day you stand before the star awaiting mystery."

She hadn't known that he observed her. How long had his thoughts been near? How long had her struggle been his? Sadness tinged the revelation that her power to observe was also waning.

K'rthan was far younger than she, yet he knew much that she knew. He had traveled to the stars in her stories. His mind was filled with wonderment, his thoughts now ripples of her awe and desire. "You filled me with life through your stories. Many days have I pondered the marvels you told. Many nights have I recounted them with Oonth, my sister. She and I share the warmth of your travels. They have possessed us. Ours is not a life of wonder. This would seem to be your purpose. You share the unknown, sow the seeds of curiosity and boundless joy in the mystery. Are there other wonders to tell?"

I'm afraid there are not. I've imparted all that I have.

"Surely, there is more."

Indeed, the secrets of the universe are many and ever evolving.

"So the journey is not yet done. For each event offers a new bend in the path."

The journey itself is never to end. But mine has. I have little more to offer.

"What of those who do not know natua?"

Far and wide she'd searched, galaxy upon galaxy. Where life took hold, she embraced it. Where worlds lay barren, she impressed upon them some hint of life. Where minds were alive, she met with them, her thoughts embracing theirs. Had she found any who did not know natua, who would not discover and revel in the majesty of being? Natua is being, and being is natua.

K'rthan ceased his movement. "The glorification."

"Do you not respond to litany?" she asked aloud. Her mind resemble a stone before him.

"You have taught me much, dearest Houith. With form comes the illusion that uncertainty is at bay."

She drank in his thoughts, her spirit emboldened by them, her mind reignited. K'rthan and his sister had long consumed her tales. There they found between her words the soft ground of truth. It was in this place she'd planted what wisdom she possessed. By recounting this, K'rthan stirred the embers of wonder that remained within her. He stoked a fire that so often seemed spent. "Uncertainty is not a thing to fear, is it?"

"Only in utaime can certainty be expected. Otherwise, the belief that unpredictability is at bay is an illusion. Deception is to be feared. Uncertainty is the way of things. Those who fear the way of things are lost."

She had never spoken the words. She embraced the unknown, the chaotic, the obscure, the uncharted. All were truth. This may have been clear to a mind such as K'rthan's. It appeared now that it was. She'd prepared the trap, and he'd fallen into it, his intuition provoking her being into the blaze it once was. She felt anew.

"And how might we avoid deception?" Her natua was aflutter.

"By embracing the formless."

"And what is natua?"

"The essence of being."

Reverence overtook her. It drew her back to the moment. "Natuani'a'eravrahi."

"The one precedes the many."

"Form precedes formlessness." She erupted in radiant thought.

There the two remained as the planet spun, the stars sweeping across its sky. Their shadows were long against the surface of the world when she finally lowered herself to him. "There are ideas between ideas. You have seen them."

So began their convergence. In time, they would invite K'rthan's sister Oonth join them. The three of them would strive to bring a renaissance of thought to their people.