Beyond The Veil,

"Nephele," the Reverend mother half yelled, bringing the room to total silence. The two women stared at each other, their eyes blazing. Nephele was furious because a total stranger was trying to control her life, and the Reverend mother was frustrated by Nephele's language, and rage, and defiance.

"You have nowhere to go," Reverend mother Beatrice stated and Nephele's eyes narrowed. So she was finally dropping the saint act. "This is Alvalhem, you're from Meplphet. You do not know your way around so why don't you stay here at the convent while you recover, then we can help you get back home."

Nephele didn't say anything. She was contemplating the offer. It was true that she didn't know her way around Alvalhem and there was a high possibility that she would end up getting lost. The old woman had a point. But who was 'We'?

"I'd like to know how I got here." Despite the knowledge that her half-brother was behind everything, she still needed confirmation. She still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Some traders found you near the border and decided to bring you here," the Reverend mother lied, her face remaining impassive.

When Nephele didn't respond, Beatrice sat down. "I'll ask sister Lucy to show you to your assigned room," she said hoping Nephele would agree. It would be easy to contain her afterwards.

Nephele just sighed, letting her shoulders drop in resignation.She could have resisted and fought her way out of the convent, but she really had nowhere to go. And it was a convent so it was harmless. Or was it?

….

The Wisteria convent was one of the oldest convents in the Vadronia Kingdom. It was over a hundred years old and remained the most popular convent in the northern part of Vadronia.

The convent was started by a man called Laban Ryker. There were stories passed down from generations claiming that Laban Ryker was a sole surviving demon after their extinction more than a century ago. It was said that Laban had feared humans after seeing what they did to his kind so he decided to hide away in the church. There he repented and devoted his life to prayer so that God would change the demon in him and make him human again. Others said that Laban Ryker was a force to be reckoned with. That he had instilled fear in the people of Vadronia, and when humans decided to kill demons, he went to hide away in the church to escape capture.

The only constant in the tales was that Laban Ryker was a demon, but no one could confirm if the tales were true.

Over the years, people had avoided the convent, but with time, it was re-invented by a council of the wealthiest families in Vadronia and many women had joined afterwards, deciding to renounce the works of the world and find peace and joy in the silence of the convent. Things had changed over the years, but the Wisteria convent still remained a powerful organisation ran by the council.

Vadronia was divided into four regions. The Northern part which was the capital was called Alvalhem. It was the most resourceful region and the wealthiest families, including the royal family lived there. It was also the most corrupt.

Meplphet was the western region where the Goldings and other influential families lived. It was the coldest region, but also rich with forests and wildlife.

Winslow was the South and Scarrow was the east. Winslow was a small area bordering Vadronia with Algarve.

Scarrow was the poorest region. Most of the locals were refugees from other kingdoms and from Alvalhem. Scarrow had all kinds of people. There were heirs to fortunes hiding there, criminals, dark magic practitioners. Scarrow was the place where you could find anything that was banned or considered illegal in Vadronia.

Nephele was born in Scarrow. She was raised by an elderly woman who gave her the name Nephele. Their living condition was poor and at times they would go for days without eating. The woman died when Nephele was seven and with no other means to survive, she joined other orphans in the streets.

Nephele was eight years old when she first met her adoptive father, Renny Golding. She had been urged by another street child to steal from Renny because he looked wealthy, and also because Nephele hadn't been contributing much. She had been caught in the act by Renny's butler. Instead of punishing her, Renny offered to buy her food and Nephele had readily agreed. Food was a rare commodity for street children. For the next week, Renny kept going back to check on her and had finally suggested for her to accompany him back to Meplphet. That was how she got adopted into the Golding family and had lived happily ever since, getting everything that she needed and more.

But now that she was in an unknown place with strangers surrounding her, the same loneliness she'd endured as a child after her old guardian died came back. Her dearest father was bedridden and could barely finish a sentence without coughing out blood, and the other person she'd known as family for the past fifteen years had betrayed and abandoned her. She was all alone. All over again.

The tolling of the convent bell snapped Nephele's senses back to to the present and she looked up with a frown. That was the third bell since she'd arrived. Her gaze shifted to Lucy who was standing at the door. The latter forced a smile that Nephele didn't bother to return.

Lucy had been waiting for the afternoon prayers like Reverend Mother Beatrice had instructed, to avoid getting attention from the other nuns. There was strict rule to avoid looking at each other in the convent, but no one knew what could happen if the nuns saw someone with odd clothes.

….

The convent was a simple four-sided group of rough stone buildings around a cloister dominated by the church. There were fifty nuns at the convent, praying in the church, and living in the cloister. No nun was ever permitted to enter the dormitory of another, except for Reverend Mother Beatrice.There was no recreation of any kind, only work and prayers. There were work areas for knitting, book binding, weaving, gardening and making bread. There were eight hours of prayer each day that every nun committed to religiously.

The women who shared their lives with the Lord lived together, worked together, ate together, and prayed together, yet they never touched and never spoke. The only exceptions permitted were when they had mass or when the Reverend Mother addressed them in the privacy of her office. No sister knew what the other looked like, except sister Lucy who had the habit of observing the rest while they prayed.

Inside the walls of the convent was a system of internal passageways and staircases linking the dining hall, the community room, the dormitories, and the

chapel, and everywhere there was an atmosphere of cold, clean spaciousness.

Thick-paned latticed windows overlooked a beautiful, high-walled garden.

The silence surrounding the convent was like a gentle snowfall, soft and hushed, and as soothing as the whisper of a summer wind.

Nephele couldn't help but look around in amazement, revelling in the sensation that washed over her. There were no convents in Meplphet so she had never been to one, but she was an avid reader and had read about the convent and the nuns' lives. She was fascinated by the concept when she was a child, but as she grew older, she couldn't understand why someone would give up everything and seclude themselves in a convent where there was nothing. But now that circumstances forced her inside the convent, all the prejudices vanished and she found the place nostalgic. There was something earthly and spiritual about the place that made her feel a deep longing for a place she'd never been to.

'What the hell?'