Tother hand chapter 2 part 2

After she had drunk enough to feel better, her father put down the spoon and made expressive facial motions, widening his eyes and mouth, and moving his ears. This meant, relax and calm down. Listen.

He began, everyone knows the story of the Origin and how we came to the Earth. The first sprit was the air spirit, full of _druj_, or disorder and deceit. When I throw water into the air, it spreads and splashes. If I cup a stream in a bowl, it becomes orderly and calm. This is _asha_, or wisdom and truth. Lies cause confusion and distrust. Truth produces order and trust. Wind spirits whip around in disorder without discipline.

From the chaos of the air spirits, the water appeared but it was wild and thrown about by the winds and whipped into waves. The angry spirits prevailed. Air is the original spirit. It represents the mind. Water is the second spirit. It represents emotion. The mind darts about wildly while emotion is less restless. Thoughts flit by at the speed of a bird, but feelings and emotions travel more slowly into realisation. Nevertheless, they move freely.

Beneath the waters of the origin universe formed the fire spirits. Just as a son develops inside a woman’s body, fire was born from water. That is why to this day, fire spirits will enter water readily and conversely water will smother and kill fire. The fire spirits rose up from within the water and collected earth spirits about itself like a cloak. This fire-earth rose up from the bottom of the water and rose to form the land. The earth spirits settled down and formed the earth. The earth protected the lakes and rivers from the air. The air spirits were tamed by the land and the oceans wasted their energy on the shores.

The fire spirits collected in the sky and collected into the warm sun. The sun shined down upon the earth and cooled the hot tempers of the air spirits. The waters calmed and became orderly in their disorder, lapping against the ground. The fire spirits carry water into the air where it falls again to earth and goes back to the ocean.

All four elements were in balance now having arrived in this order: air, water, earth, and fire.

Order arose out of the disorder, but _druj_ can still be found here and there. We all know that the number 2 is the first letter of the ancient alphabet. It is the singular number of counting. When something is whole, it has no number. Split it in half and you have two. _Druj_ cannot exist by itself, and _asha_ cannot exist without mistakes and learning. Order arises from the chaos, at least at first. The first letter of my name is the opposition of forces: fire versus water and air versus earth.

The next letter is also the number of 4, when the two opposing forces split into two more pieces each. Fire and air versus water and earth. The number 4 is also the letter for death. When all four spirits are combined, they return to one: completely balanced but unmoving and silent. Death. This is where too much wisdom binds the mind and emotional balance has gone too far into ambivalence. Too much peace equals death. Boredom and inaction are the antithesis of life.

Between life and death, then, is the letter that has the number 3. It follows 4 as a counterbalance but it is too unstable. Nothing can rest on triangle, like your Iberian training blade. Anything that occurs in threes is unstable and becomes either two or four. Fire spirits enter the water and create vapour air. Too many water spirits smother the fire by separating it from the air it needs. Fire spirits in the air burn and scorch the earth without water intervening. Air spirits blow the earth around and create a haboob that blinds animals and stifles life without water. This is how unstable three degenerates into two.

The combination of three can become four in the following ways. Earth, fire, and air spirits join inside a volcano. The burning earth and air spirits move as water does, even though none of them have the water spirits. Out of this imbalance, the elements combine into fourths: metals, rocks, and glass. Similarly, fire spirits combine with wind and water vapours to move about, creating a fourth called lightning from the clouds. The lightning is so violent and angry that it strikes the earth repeatedly until it is spent. The sound that you hear in thunder is the expression of all this anger and violence.

2711 looked at his daughter. She knew this story by heart, but it filled her belly with warmth, just as the butter tea always did.

The 13^th letter of the alphabet is the number 7. It is called _hapta_. It means heaven. Anything that is above your head is called heaven. Heaven is the embodiment of the air spirits. It is above the _mazda_, the mind, and even above the _mainyo_, where the spirits are.

Her father continued, let’s jump to the last letter of the alphabet, which is the number 1. The number 1 does not exist alone in nature. A number is plural, but the number 1 is singular.  Thus, fire needs air to move and transfer. The earth needs water or it turns to rock. Water needs fire or it freezes into ice. Air needs water or else the world would be a desert without rain. Thus, 1 is _druj_ or disorder. The number 2 is _asha_, balance and wisdom. Any even number is balanced. Add one more to that number and it results in imbalance. That’s why 2 is the first letter of the alphabet and 1 is the last. My name begins with _asha_, order, includes _hapta_, heaven, and ends with two _druj_. The two _druj_ combine to balance each other.

Orderly heaven, truth composed of two lies, he said almost too proudly. He caught himself and turned sheepish.

Your name ends in _druj_. Disorder, violence, and fury. When you were born, your mother died. She transferred to you an imbalance that I have sought to help. You were always curious, but resistant to learning. You were always active, but without purpose. You have always learned quickly, but forget easily. You are impulsive and full of fire. You move quickly but without much impact or purpose. You have too much of the air. You are eager to be angry or petulant because you have too much of the water spirits in you. You do not have enough of the grounding and solidity required to become a healer.

The 26^th letter of the alphabet is 9. It means pain. Pain comes from an illusion. The difference from the illusion and reality results in a painful expression. The pain can be physical, emotional, or both. It depends on the illusion. A healthy person is under the illusion that they are well. Any illness in the body results in pain because the illusion of health is broken. Conversely, someone who is chronically sick will feel pain where some part of them is actually healthy. Similarly, the illusion of happiness is shattered when reality says that something that was expected is missing. If you expect a gift but receive none, you will suffer pain from a non-existent loss. The opposite is a sad person attached to grief who suddenly experiences a kind gesture or thought. Emotional pain registers and the person cries.

Your name is thus painful double expanse _druj_. Painful disorder. It is a sign of someone who struggles against their own nature. He looked at her significantly. She wanted to roll her eyes at his dramatics, but she loved the stories and it was just getting good.

The creator of all this was Ahura Mazda, the wise Lord. Just as nothing is whole unless composed of at least two parts, Ahura Mazda was contested by an _angra mainyu_, or angry spirit. We sometimes call this spirit Ahriman if we must mention him at all. Whenever Ahura would create a peaceful herbivore, Ahriman would create a predator. Ahura would create a peaceful and beautiful fish, to which Ahriman would send a shark to eat it. Ahura’s sparrows and doves were mere foodstuffs for Ahriman’s eagles and hawks. Soon the whole world was teaming with hunter and hunted, prey and food.

Then Ahura Mazda came up with a wise and wonderful plan to defeat the _angra mainyu_. Ahura created the human form of a woman. He dared Ahriman to retaliate, which they did by creating the human form of a man. While the woman exemplified the water spirits of emotion, the male displayed the traits of fire with aggression. However, Ahura had prevailed by creating the two halves of a whole: all of mankind was set against itself and each other. The mind was counterbalanced by the body (wind against earth). Emotional stability was counteracted by the aggression and destructive impulses (water against fire). Instead of Ahriman producing an evil creature in man, Ahura had created a woman with half of her being evil and half good. Thus, man was created half good and half evil. Both are born with equal parts of _asha_ and _druj_.

These halves are clearly visible in the symmetry of the body. The left side is slightly larger and stronger. It is orderly and expressive. The left testicle in men hangs lower and the left breast in women is larger. Conversely, the right side is bad, unkempt and sloppy. The left hand is closest to the heart and has the richest blood. Healers always lead with the left because it is the cleanest and most orderly. People who do not practice healing are right handed or evil by default. Healers are good by default.

Here 9001 pretended to agree as usual. She always felt self-conscious about her right hand and how she had to struggle with the left. Her father continued, caught up in his lecture.

Ahura had created woman first because she can give birth to a child and raise it from nothing. A man by himself can produce nothing that lives. Ahriman had been tricked. But in doing so Ahura also knew that He had created both something perfectly perfect and horribly flawed. Humans could choose to be evil or good. Depending on the choices they make in their lives, a person can create pure evil or beautiful acts of greatness. Most people do not make any choices at all or alternate between good and bad. They develop into forgettable individuals who are totally unremarkable and disappear forever when they die.

The people who default to evil and who continue to choose evil often express it in destructive and killing ways. They will consume food in excess, either wasting resources so others cannot eat, or consuming so much that the food cannot be replenished quickly enough. Those who choose instead to do good usually express it in terms of creation and life-giving ways. They grow food and tend animals. They cook and prepare meals that are sustainable and ensure everyone has enough good things to eat.

As I have said, nothing exists except as composed of a pair of opposing forces. Sometimes the pairs split for reasons that Ahura Himself only knows. So it is that a woman can have in her body one child that becomes two. These are called twins. The Elders have learnt that from twin children born at the same time to one woman, one child is created from the left side and it is born with more good than evil.

This is an imbalance that must be managed very carefully. Just as water will burst out of a dam that holds it back; and the wind will blow anything down in its path towards the low lands because it is too high; and embers that are covered up will flare when uncovered; and so with earth that is piled too high will come crashing down violently: so too will goodness break forth and become _druj_. This can be manifested as maniacal behaviours: sudden dancing and singing or joyous celebration without cause. Alternatively, too much good can manifest inwardly: the person can retreat into bliss, laying down on the floor and humming quietly, or squatting with both hands around the knees, rocking back and forth becoming unresponsive.

This is why the left-handed children of twins are taken by the Elders and raised as healers, like you and I. Your mother gave her twin children to the Elders and I was selected to raise you.

Here, the story was new and 9001 detected hesitation in his voice and deep emotion in her father’s eyes. She started at the realisation that she had a twin sister. 2711’s facial features softened and he continued with new features of the story he had not practiced.

Yes, I raised you as my own and your sister was the false half. The Elders were clear that I should raise you as a healer since 2387 had died. Here he stopped short and 9001 lifted her head and nearly cried out. The exertion and movement in her throat reignited the pain of her wound and she fell back on the straw bed. Coppery blood coated the back of her throat and she swallowed painfully. Her throat caught and pain seared her neck each time.

Her father applied more pressure with his left hand and reached to grab more strips of wool with the right. She thought she heard him cursing under his breath. He turned towards her and rewrapped her bandages more tightly.

He said, I should not have mentioned her name. You are too young to know the full truth yet. He paused, concentrated on the task of wrapping. She had difficulty breathing. She felt her pull pounding on the left side of her neck, feeling as if her heart would push the blood through her skin.

2387 is her name, he said slowly. It is _asha_, _mazda_, _spenta_, _hapta_. He covered his face with the memory. 9001 felt deeply ashamed for a reason she could not identify.

He continued, it means…but he could not continue.

9001 spoke the silent language so that her throat would not be hurt again. A robin twittered and his mate responded twice. It meant, ordered mind and bountiful heaven. She started to cry again. A rustle of wings faltered as the robin and his mate fluttered away. It conveyed the picture of a lost mother and grief. She wiped her eyes with the crook of her right arm.

Her father nodded and wiped tears from his eyes as well, except he let go of the pressure on her neck to wipe with the crook of his left arm. Mother, he said. Bountiful heaven that gave me my daughter. He tried to smile, but the corners of his mouth pulled down instead and tears streamed down his cheeks.

A river burbled and splashed on the rocks. It asked the question, a twin sister?

2711 wiped his eyes again

The right-handed children are obviously full of _druj_. It is too easy to imagine they could burst forth into _asha_ just as the opposite happens. However, Ahura has cleverly created some asymmetries that are not always obvious at first.