5

Rei Carlotta shelved another volume. It is unusual for people to prefer physical books these days. The majority of the actual books seldom moved off the shelves of the Ashram Conservatorium. The only reason physical copies existed at all was to have a redundant copy with a higher R rating. When the Conservatorium had first opened, people still flocked to the physical copies of books. Many users were asked why it was they preferred such an old medium, and they said that there was just something about turning actual pages that no virtual interface could successfully fulfill. At first, the Conservatorium figured this was a tactile issue, and so it was decided to make the holonosphere books "feel" more like normal books. This didn't succeed either. The only that had succeeded in changing user habits was time. With the scarcity of physical copies, people began to turn to the holonosphere more readily as they had no other option. So, the holonosphere never exactly beat out the physical book, it more obsoleted it by making it mostly unavailable.

Rei passed by the ornate statues of the shapers. Each one was posed in some ridiculously over-dramatic representation of thought or benediction. Rei kept it to herself, but she was an atheist. She had read the journals of the shapers, and she had concluded they were people like everyone else. As she passed the statues, she heard a hissing sound. She looked around to try to discover the source. There, off in one of the nearby reading sections specifically sanctioned for inspired reading with the blessings of the shapers, was an obviously annoyed patron. His face was screwed into nothing short of complete disapproval. He motioned for Rei to approach.

When Rei grew nearer, she could see the actual age of the patron was greater than she had initially thought. She believed the man imagined she was younger than he thought. Her long black hair pulled into a tight bun made it hard to tell at a distance. She stood near the man's chair and with a slight bend of her back whispered, "Can I help you?"

"Have you no sense of respect, young lady?" asked the man.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Rei.

"You moved by the Holy Ones without so much as a curt bow of the head."

Rei paused for a moment to consider what the man was saying. What did he mean by the "Holy Ones?"

"I'm not sure I understand you," said Rei.

"The HOLY ONES! Were you raised by itinerant vagabonds!?" the man exclaimed as he motioned toward the statues of the shapers.

"Oh. Yes. I didn't, you are right. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Yes, you can show your respect by bowing your head to the Holy Ones!" stammered the man.

"Sir, I work with my hands each day making sure their work is accessible to people such as yourself. When you get up and leave where you are sitting, I am going to bet you forget all about the Shapers and the protocol you wish me now to observe as you return to whatever it is your life is when you are not here. If you wish to take me to task for this particular instance, then I am going to have to ask what it is that makes you think your service is so great as to tell me how mine is deficient."

The man sat silent for a moment.

"Young lady, do you have any idea of who I am? Apparently not, as your questions betray your ignorance. I am Sigmus Practicar. Does that name sound familiar to you?"

Rei inclined her head slightly to the left as she considered the man's words. She drew her soft lips into a straight line as she narrowed her concentration. Sigmus Practicar. The name sounded familiar. Suddenly, in a flash, she saw in her mind's eye the picture of a book she had seen on the holonosphere. The picture as she recalled it had featured scales tipping out of proportion. She concentrated a little harder and remembered some of the words. The Debt We Owe, she recalled. The rest was starting to come into focus. Redressing the Short-Comings of Our Reverence. Sigmus saw the flicker of recognition in her eyes.

"I see that you have heard of me. What do you think of my service then?"

"I think you wrote a book discussing an opinion I do not share," replied Rei.

"Do you mean to say you do think the level of reverence is as it should be? Your actions would certainly support that assumption," said Sigmus.

"I mean to say I do not think statues of imperfect people worthy of religious reverence."

Sigmus raised his eyebrows. His forehead crinkled below his receding grey hairline.

"So you are a blasphemer, then. There were many of you in the beginning, but I am surprised to see such an educated young lady as yourself hold that position."

"As I've said," replied Rei, "I have read the works of the shapers. These were men and women who struggled with complicated issues. They hoped to receive guidance from powers on high. They did not claim to be those powers themselves. People worship their visages because they are ignorant, and because they have been told to."

"That is an arrogant opinion, young lady."

"It is an informed one, Mr. Practicar. If you need no actual assistance, I have plenty of work I should be doing."

"Before you go, young lady, I have one question. How is it people ever come to worship anything as a God unless they are first told to?"

Rei shot Mr. Practicar a final sharp look. With his greying hair and rumpled suit, he did not quite strike the pose as someone respectable. Rather, he had the appearance of someone who, the night before, had stayed up too late and remembered at the last second that he had a job interview that morning. It was a strange contrast against someone so adamant about the form reverence ought to assume. Since the holonosphere had come to be, most people did not worry so much about ironing their clothes because they could at least provide the appearance they had. For some reason, Mr. Practicar did not feel the need to augment or change his appearance but instead felt compelled to lecture people on piety. Rei turned on her hell and walked away swiftly and with purpose.

Still, something about the question Mr. Practicar had asked bugged her. The reason she identified as an atheist is because she did not worship the shapers. She was still surprised she had admitted to Mr. Practicar what her beliefs were. Such admissions could prove dangerous. She was vaguely aware of the history of other Gods and religions. Most of those books had been severely restricted in access. What she knew of those religions was that in each and every instance, someone had taken something or someone to be a God and had worshiped it. They all had been told to do something and had believed it. In that respect, the Shapers were no different. Rei inwardly huffed to herself. People must engage in that sort of behavior because they are not willing to think. Just because someone tells you something it does not make it true. Of course, it does not make it false either. If the Shapers had been before her and declared themselves Gods, they could be telling the truth, or they could be lying. The truth was, Rei did respect the Shapers immensely because they had been honest. Nowhere in any Shaper text had she read they considered themselves divine. Yet, it was widely believed they were nonetheless, and that wide belief was enough to make it so.

Rei had so much respect for the shapers that she had known when she was young she wanted to serve in the Conservatorium. Her parents had read her stories about the shapers, and she had looked to the shapers as idols. When she had grown up, however, she realized that her idols were mere people complete with the imperfections people held. People built legends around what they considered their forefathers. These legends elevated these forefathers into literal Gods. Perhaps it was human nature to take average people and speak of them as larger-than-life. It made it seem like God--provided there was one--had not abandoned them--that something immortal could still walk and talk among "regular folks"--and that when regular men and women could rise to be like Gods maybe there was still hope for regular people to do the same.

Reid rounded the corner and took a seat at the desk centrally located in the middle of the Conservatorium. She accessed her personal information interface, or PII as they were called, and began to rummage around for pertinent communication.

One thing the holonosphere had not discouraged was marketing. People still sent annoying messages to other people designed to persuade them to buy what they were selling. The difference was, that most of these pitches were in 3D interactive format. What had improved was the ability to sort through all the garbage. Rei quickly backgrounded several offers trying to entice her to spend her credits on products called Warbles. She was a little surprised she kept getting these messages since most people who wanted Warbles seemed to find them without needing to be told about them. A Warble was a lot like digital LSD, but whereas LSD actually interfered in the physical body, a Warble did no such thing. Different companies specialize in making different varieties of Warbles. There were some for relaxation, some for pleasure, and some for raising attention. When a user would "shift" a Warble, they would be greeted by an immersive 3D experience that would then be imposed into their neural pathways for a short time. Because everything was holographic, it was possible to pop a holon into pathways for a short time. Because everything was holographic, it was possible to pop a holon into or out of a neural net because the neural net itself was a holograph. Users had called it "shifting" because it "shifted" one's mind space. As opposed to the old-world phraseology of "getting high" one could "shift up".

Rei found such needs to be crutches. Those who needed them were generally seeking an escape--and what they were trying to escape ultimately amounted to themselves. One message caught her eye, though. As they expertly scanned the information, this message practically shouted. The subject line was addressed as follows--Attention High Priestess Rei Carlotta. Rei hesitated. She hesitated because, on some level, she knew that once she read this letter, her life as she knew it would end. She also knew that no matter what she did, this letter or one like it would find her. Rei took a breath and opened the message.