Story A Day 07: "Hierarchical Enlightenment"

The big day had arrived at last. Jing steadied her breathing as she climbed the steps to the examination chamber. One final test, and she would reach the second-highest level of enlightenment.

She took her seat at the flat edge of the half-moon table, carefully folding her burgundy robe beneath her. There were three examiners seated at the rounded edge, each cloaked in the sacred black and white of the highest elites of the Sisterhood. The keepers of the Truth Entire.

Maybe, one day, Jing would be one of them.

But first, she had to pass this test.

In the center sat Min, head examiner. Jing had faced her before. Each time had been a different challenge, unexpected and shocking. There was never any way to prepare. And each success had led to a new level of understanding, new information that the lower levels and the common people would never know, for the sake of their own safety and happiness.

At times, the tests would last for days. Many were physical challenges, but most were of the mind.

Min looked at the applicant sternly. This one would pass, she was sure. She felt pity for the poor soul who had no idea what she was getting into. No one ever did, and that by design.

After a deep breath, she asked the one and only question for this test. “Imagine you have reached the next level of understanding, and the information you receive contradicts everything you have ever believed, everything you have ever known.” A long pause for this to sink in. “How do you feel?”

Jing’s answer was perfect, of course, and Min’s heart filled with regret as she carried out the promotion ceremony. It was necessary, of course, for a few humans to fully understand the truth, to allow the masses to go about their lives in peace.

But, she thought later as she put away her robes, it was a shame that such a burden had to fall on the shoulders of such a lovely, pure-hearted young girl. She filled a glass with cold water and used it to wash down the pill that allowed her to sleep each night.

As she lay awake, the horrors of reality racing through her mind, waiting for the drug to take effect, she comforted herself with the knowledge that there was one more of them to share the burden. Some day very soon, she would take her leave of this life and its unhappy burdens, content to know that another waited to take her place.