Persons inside the group are 'us.' All significant entities outside the group, including females, are 'them,' and all of them are either property, pr… - Sheri S. Tepper

I know you want me to believe all this, but it seems little different from the religious stories we learned in school, esoteric and relatively pointless.

Since they were not in the Dicta, knowledge of them would be considered evidence of heresy, or of imagination, which was almost as bad.

"And now you must decide which pain you will bear. That of being as you were. Or that of being as you are."
I brought myself up to my knees. That was as far as I could get. The hand that had held the tea cup appeared again, a full cup in it, the steam rising into my nose. I gulped it, interrupting the gulps with sobs. "Pain of being as I am? I don't understand."
"But of course you do. The pain of curiosity unsatisfied, of ambition unfulfilled. The pain of love unreturned, of devotion undeserved. The pain of friendship rejected, of leadership ridiculed. The pain of loneliness and labor. Silly child. Did you think living was easy?"