Stralia - Week's end, Week ends.
#9 of Stralia
Stralia - Week's end, Week ends. ~~SnowDragon
Morning all! I've picked out the largest mistake I think I've made so far, accelerated by NaNoWriMo's quickly closing end schedule. Those of you with good eyes and logical brains will have picked it apart already but the end of the last chapter (Chapter 8) had Senia departing for school on a Saturday morning. My fault for not looking back upon the last couple of chapters before that. Alas, but this is why we have first drafts and edit passes and whatnot, so it'll all be fixed at some point down the line in time for the Furdu 2014. I'm also in the process of scoping for an artist to do a commissioned cover set for this book in preparation for finding an publisher of some sort, so if you're an artist and have been enjoying thus far, drop me a line! Now, as for what I'm going to do for now is actually shift the story back a day, Thursday becomes Friday etc, etc. That will correct the damage my awful mistake has made and prevents me from having to destroy some two thousand words I'd already written at the point when I'd realised. So, my apologies, but I suppose it was bound to happen when I take on such a stupid target for the month.
Now, without further ado, I present Stralia , chapter nine, this time, Week's end, Week ends. As always, enjoy!
Writing time: 2-3 days. Apologies, I lost track again! Length: Digital Copy Only, 8.8 A4 Pages Soundtrack: EVA 3.0 Betrayal, The sound of a super heavy storm, XCOM Enemy Unknown Battle 2 OST.
--- "As we understand that your world has used assassins, we believe mental contamination by means of magic to turn your soldiers into time bombs to slaughter anyone they saw was, is, and always will be, a viable and allowable means of espionage. After all, if your race is fine and in fact, encourages exterminating our smartest and most beautiful minds to the scale of wholesale genocide, then what right do you have to stop us?" ~Lord Yun, Speaker for the surviving Eastern Empire Holdings, at the 2014 February United Nations Security Council Meeting. ---
The grass was wet, freshly trimmed by some ground policy that required it be cut every day at the same time no matter if it snowed or if it rained and so the smell of the newly trimmed lawns joined with that of the ozone in the air to make an interesting smell, crinkling aside with every fall of her walking feet which joined to the sound of the falling round striking all around her and atop the umbrella that kept her quite dry despite natures best attempts against it. That wide open green expanse where they held sports had been her zone of peace and quiet that morning for the human media had not failed in it's task to send a message and her feathered face had been over every television in the city for the past day or so and it was attention she didn't need nor want. In the short time it took her to trek across grassland to the spread out light urban construct of the school grounds proper, pathways covered over by steel rooves which let her lower and fold up the umbrella into it's far more compact state, shaking it off looping the string handle to the shoulder strap of the bag she carried for easy access when she had to leave the grounds with it and thankfully leaving her hands free. In such a short time by the other attendees of this place arriving as they were dropped off or walked knew, at least what the news programs had told them. And they looked, and they stared, nudging their friends to get their attention onto their own little celebrity and by the time she had trekked from grass to the so thought safety of the school's miniature sized library she was quite frustrated by it all. Their attention would fade with time as it would with all things but until it did, she might just have to put up with the whispers and the looks from all directions bar none at all and perhaps most frustrating of all, the adults she thought past such things were in fact not above it at all. At least they were smart enough to avert their looks and go right back to what they were doing when she turned her angered, yellow eyed gaze upon them like she was eying up prey from a far off height ready to dive and strike.
When the feathered critter finally had silence and solitude combined rather than one or the other, she retreated once more into a deeper corner of the library, one of the more secluded desks in the corner buried in the non fiction shelves where few students tread except for those actually looking for materials of study and the hidden nature of the desk which would have made it desirable to the lawless elements of the educational structures was offset by it's only one chair and it facing the wall. Although she did shift the chair to the side so she was in a corner looking out into the library itself, granting her the ability to study without being snuck up by one soul or another which in her current state might have led her to challenge for first blood, thoughts swiftly switching into something much more pleasant as she reached into her left bag, hand hovering over the written record of the symposium as a stray thought crossed her mind... instead pulling from it Tauimen's textbook and set the heavy tomb down upon the table itself, running the palm of her hand over the leather bound hard cover. While she expected that a theoretical mind would be somewhat ahead of the current, accepted, curve, Vaalkazar's words spoken in the symposium almost directly contradicted Tauimen's words in his textbook, something considered to be learning material for all minds like her own, and these were truth, gospel to be taken as such until written to be otherwise. But it was here that Senia realised that she had two books, equally as filled with important information as each other, and equally as correct as another but in every case except this one. Tauimen said, on written record, in a textbook, that the light element was not actually a magical group, something that could be cast as a spell. She flipped the book open to the page in question, her yellow orbs again dissecting the information and not two minutes later coming up with the same answer, Tauimen had officially said, by means of omission, that light wasn't a castable element. Her own notes in the notebook she brought with her in the same bag as the two thick tombs reflected, what she thought to be an error, but their had to be another reason for such a difference between the educating minds, one didn't differ their opinion from a dragon's expertise in the field in writing without good reason.
She slipped a finger, then two underneath all the pages she had ignored to get to this section, looking at the very first page, the preface and copyist's notes. Maybe there was a time difference, and she had been silly indeed to assume that the two books had been written at a similar time, something she'd have to do much better at next time. No, as her fingertip traced underneath the written, copied date, 497PS, a full year after the discussion in the other book, making Tauimen either dangerously uncaring of his written opinion in an official text that directly countermanded that of a more superior mind in the subject or he simply wasn't versed in the topic or hadn't read into the discussion in relation to this textbook because it was beyond the scope of what he was writing, although that seemed somewhat unlikely. She ticked a few thoughts over that, then shaking her head at her conclusion, pushing it from her mind before she had more time to think about it. She didn't know enough about the time at hand to actually judge how rare of a copy the book was as compared to how it had been then, or how likely Tauimen had been to actually attend the symposium and make notes of his own, or how likely he had been to understand what the great eastern had said in the same way she had done. So instead of guessing wildly into the air, she made a mental note and... paused. There was one more thing that crossed her mind in that moment and she sat stilled for a moment at the implications. Censorship was an interesting topic on Erildisa, extremely hard to implement and harder still to enforce. The only example she knew of was Nerou over a hundred years cycles ago but it wasn't censorship so much as a strongly enforced rule as to what one could and couldn't read but the term censorship hardly applied since he grew his own faction and those that joined, joined willingly. While the Empire hadn't known it until years after the last conflicts had ceased, humankind had kept up with a sort of propaganda about the war itself. What had been a military necessity became an embarrassment to Earth governments all around as it became revealed to the eyes of both nations exactly how much lying had been done to keep up the moral of the populace during such trying times, that only arouse because of mankind's stupidity, she added, a lace of venom added to her mental tone.
Was it possible that Vaalkazar had taken more direct action than his typical aloof tone in the symposium indicated? Had he forced or perhaps convinced authors of texts like these against to intentional misinform their readers in an attempt to make lies truth as time passed on? And what on the higher planes did light based element casting do to make the implications so bad that falsifying hundreds of textbooks designed to teach truths to younger minds to ensure knowledge was correctly passed down from generation to generation and now with Collision forcing two worlds into one, whatever mistakes or errors had been written into these novels had become truth, the ability to determine what was real and what was false had simply become impossible. Vaalkazar had seemed so sure, so completely focused on what he had said but at the same time, Tauimen was right, there was no historical basing for when the parental warning about the Signs included the warning about the Light, and why it had become so serious. Even at that moment she wondered how she might have thought about this entire situation if she had read Tauimen's book first instead of the other way around, how Tauimen's mistake in listing elements and what Light actually was would have poisoned her mind in regards to Vaalkazar's words to be read later on. But by the same token, her mind had trouble taking the noble scaled creature that was the leading mind on magic until his death as having the want or the need to made such falsehoods, but was that her romanticizing a creature she held in such high regard, felt connected to in a way no else might have been to understand? This was a creature that had fundamentally altered the way the races saw a critical part of their lives, his changes quite literally changed the way every society within and without the Empire's borders operated and perhaps saved millions from needless deaths all over the world at any given moment, an act taken upon his own conscious decision backed by none, at least as far as she was aware. Maybe it was discussed later in the symposium, but it struck her as a topic that probably came many, many a cycle ago, a tomb likely to have been held only in the Nebiscarar library, location and survival of Collision unknown. She took a moment to examine the time and blinked, always in awe of how deep she could get into her studies lucky she had chosen then to take a moments silent thought than in five minutes when she would have done real damage.
So she closed the tome and with it her thoughts for now and slipped it again into her bag and departed such a small collection of books held in a building that could hardly really be called a library at all given it's collection and it's apparent purpose to serve no greater role than to provide a smattering of cover to protect children who wanted to break rules and provide computers to those who had none... or again to serve those who had no appreciation for the rules of the grounds they stood on. Shaking her head and again correcting her feathers, she had half a mind to fly just to avoid the crowds but deciding people as a whole was more preferable than some human adult telling her 'what was best' for a creature born for the air and the ocean based on a set of rules that hadn't caught up with the modern day times. Now what would they say if she turned into her dragon form, right her, and dived into the school pool? Would that be considered cheating in the yearly school swimming contest? Spreading one's wings and flying during a running race was considered against the rules, but in that case the sport was running, not flying, although it was considered poor form for the more aquatically adapted Erildisan species to engage in swimming contests against human competitors, the bias to the point where one had to physically attempt to lose in order to give the humans a chance, such to the point where the first combined Olympics had been forced to split the categories of swimming between human and Erildisan entrants, and that subject had been interesting as well, remembering her first class was history that morning, turning left down the path and heading for the building that held it. While the Empire was it's own country, with defined borders scattered across the entire planet as it now sat, with settlements scattered, some whole, some annihilated by the Collision and others melded with Earth cities entirely, and it's citizens were almost entirely Erildisans, with a few exceptions in of humans who were now trapped within Empire borders, integration had led to a larger number of Erildisan souls moving out of war torn areas to fresher zones where the harshness of battle hadn't arrived, where memories of darker times were not as prevalent. Even the Empire got it's own official entry into the Olympics, but simply dominating such contests in which Erildisans were the only competitors, raising anger in countries who lost on medal counts because of it.
She was late by virtue of being on time, the sliding glass door to the classroom had already been opened and some students were already inside, so at least she wasn't the latest arrival, wings rustling as she climbed the step between ground and building's floor itself, stepping onto the dark green carpet and taking her normal seat moments after slipping off both heavy bags and setting them underneath her desk, slipping into the chair with structure made of plastic and got out her notebook, and twin pens silently perhaps short of the sound they made when she sat them down upon the desk that was. ---END--- When she looked up however, all was not quite right in the domain of the classroom, noting that the normal history teacher, a fifty year old male who had been addressed as Mr Hansen, who hailed from from the country originally but from Germany, leading to his thick, clearly understood accented words and while she'd had trouble understanding him at first when Integration finally combined the two races, by sheer luck she'd been in every social studies class with him at the head, but today's case and perhaps for the first time she could remember, instead of the tan short sleeved human male instead they had an older female who definitely showed the signs of age more so that this woman had lived before and through the Collision years, survived the disaster and all the fighting and devastation that followed after it. She had wondered at times why, with the sting of the war still having such a horrible taste in the mouths of all involved as it would for dozens of years to come, the sign that perhaps the wounds had been healed over time being the Civil Pacification Unit being disbanded back to regular police duties... if that would ever happen now that the law enforcement services had spent so long with the upgraded powers and the civilian population being so used to being so well controlled and enforced by the military arm of the law. The discussion continuing from last session then would likely wait another week, as the new teacher had a different interpretation of the lessons planned, a different viewpoint, a differing method and often, a different opinion which by professional standards should never interfere with education but always did. it wasn't clear to her why exactly these classes of history focused so strongly around the military engagements of the Collision war with coupling links to technological breakthroughs, discovery and other times studies into how live was lived pre-Collision, before both worlds were turned upside down. She theorized that, by what she learned, that Human technological advances were almost entirely linked to a some form of conflict. Without conflict there was stagnation in their environment and in their development of all things, technological or societal and that had been, in fact, the subject of the discussion. The class was small enough to gather a true, proper discussion without being overly directed by the adult hand and for the most part as far as she was aware, without some grand scale of acting, everyone who currently graced the room was on some level attempting to learn the information being given to them, a somewhat refreshing change from most of the tomfoolery human schools and indeed their classes seemed to be awash in.
Most Collision Era studies were saved for later years when minds, hearts and opinions were not as inflamed but it as always remained a very sensitive topic which in turn made it hard to teach and required almost by necessity for the adult in charge to maintain a sort of closer bond to prevent any and every lesson from degenerating into a heated debate about the could-Be's and the would-have's, especially when, as she was almost sorry to admit to herself, when Erildisian students were thrown into the mix because their very presence prevented the teaching element from relying on the never heard outside of the classroom, never meant 'I agree with what was done by so and so' in order to calm a situation down, which was merely another difficultly added to when Humans had to realise that they were, the driving factor, in fact the only factor in causing the conflict that left so many dead, massive cities burned to the ground and an entire race exterminated out of fear and lack of understanding, perhaps the sorest of all topics. Some thought the events were too recent and too painful of a memory to be properly taught or not right at all to teach such young minds about the dangers and the damages but without such lessons, such mistakes were doomed to be repeated, something neither race could afford ever again. Touchy maybe, but she shared a somewhat deeper vested interest in the topic and almost viewed it as her personal mission to ensure that history never forgot what crimes humanity committed over those many years, for the Empire would never again accept such actions and lay down their arms at the request of greater peace and life saving. It was such a thought in her mind that began the lesson, adult lead of the class in temporary name alone and with little power other than the spoken word, at least in part resuming the lessons taught from the previous session. In particular, the series of military engagements the Humans fought as a running retreat from a Batch of Steam Fortresses that demolished them at every engagement until the advance could finally be halted by a forced development in the field of material and computer science, up until recently she simply hadn't had the slimmest idea of it's very existence. The higher levels were lost on her, but earth Armour, short nicked named as tanks were highly mobile, heavily protected gun emplacements, capable of striking at immense ranges with an accuracy that was surely only achieved through outright magic if it were for the fact that the humans lacked the ability entirely. And such a vehicle fired a metal rod that melted through materials in it's way at such a velocity that impact caused destruction. Dwarven Steam Fortresses on the other hand were the remains of an ancient, massive mountain flattened to make a city, the rocks taken in massive chunks to form a surface resistant to every form of attack. The smallest easily the size of a three story building, laid with magical protective wards, cannonry emplacements and often their own allotment of mages, encounters with these resulted in doom, death and destruction for all human forces that encountered them. It wasn't until an American scientist by the name of Axiom was able to not only fathom but invent, test and produce a sensor device capable of detecting defects and structural issues deep into an object's surface, a computer capable of deciphering the information gathered from this sensor in real time and also manufacturing a weapon and a munition that could be fired multitudes beyond the speed sound traveled at and an integrated system that could detonate a charge at the exact moment it reached just such an instability in order to destroy the armour that protected such monoliths. It allowed human forces to actually expect to win an engagement when Fortresses were involved. Until that point the Fortresses had been untouchable, even to aircraft carried ordnance but with no ability to make more, when losses started occurring, these massive weapons were held back in order to protect territory already under their control. In the years that followed and the peace involved, Axiom's device had become used in such a large variety of ways, from medical practices to full blown ore mining in order to increase the safety of the workers deep underground.
It had been her, perhaps biased and perhaps very correct opinion that most, if not all technological advancements, knowledge, materials, just about anything else where there was more to be learned happened as a result of conflict, of battles and of war and without such actions, such advancements stagnated. It had seemed to be the focus of the last few sessions she noted, as the educator stand in revised the information they already knew and had already learned to a fine point, capable of reciting without referring to their notebooks. The falcon had a growing suspicion that it was likely to be the examination subject of the year and she was liable to be needed to write a lot of large, well researched texts into the subject she was already well versed in. Having made the mistake of running off into her own thoughts, the teacher who was not their teacher made one of her own by singling her out for a response hoping to catch her with that feathered hand of hers inside of the proverbial sweet tin, pacing to a stop right in front of her desk and directing the question solely and commandingly at her form without so much as lifting a finger or saying a word to direct it, controlling and secure in her place on the food chain as it was. "What was Axiom, and what would have happened without it?"
She blinked a moment in thought to form her answer and in less time than it took one to take a breath in she had her answer and gave it as straight as she could, ensuring her clearness. This one would likely take any threat to her superiority in the class as a direct and dangerous act requiring stern punishment to slot the 'offender' back into line. "Axiom was a man, Lady, Responsible for inventing the sensor/weapon technology that allowed your kind to effective engage and, indeed, allowing Human Armour to have an engagement with Erildisan opposites and actually have a chance of success. I suspect and I daresay that without the man called Axiom, that mining raw ore would be a lot more dangerous, and you'd be an Erildisan Librarian telling me how Dwarves brag about single handedly won the war and how they were right brag all they liked between tankards of ale." While her to the line response netted a chuckle or two from the rest of the class, she seemed none to impressed at having been referred to as a kind, rather than as a person. Used to teaching human only classes where Integrating Erildisans hadn't penetrated yet?
"My kind?" she repeated again, as if she'd just been told to romance a tree trunk, blinking once. Senia, seeking peace instead of hostilities with this new woman she'd likely never see again in her entire life, elaborated on her answer.
"Yes Lady. Up until the widespread introduction of Axiom's invention in your Armour, Humankind had little to no ability to destroy, slow down or even damage the Dwarven devices they fought. I need not remind you of what happened in Denver when Fortresses Hasty Baron, Our Baron the Drunkard and Too much Masonry proceeded to wipe out an entire Armoured battalion in less than two days. Without Axiom, the war might, or perhaps I'll say would with a great deal of confidence, have ended in a very different way."
"And what other developments, then," the elder lady spoke almost in a sneer at having been beaten at her own game, "Caused a 'turning point' in the war, if you are so confident about that?" Her yellow eyes blinked quite in shock, aggressiveness she hadn't been expecting, the temporary controller trying to exert her control over what she said in such a way to bend it to her liking in such a way she'd never seen before, as if she desperately defended the idea of human superiority, as if nothing had ever gone wrong in the world and this was a dolphin of old times, an animal telling her how to file office paperwork in the correct order. Defending something that mightn't even exist anymore, fanatical to a point but not to a topic. She opened her beak to answer with any one, from both sides in the conflict, but she was beaten to the punch by one of the other students, a human child roughly the same age, plus or minus a Season.
"Psychology had to evolve, drastically, with the realisation that magic was, is and likely always will be a real, tangible thing. Not just from a medical standpoint either in which diseases that threatened the lives of millions all now curable in mere moments, the ability to communicate and travel massive distances in blinks of an eye individually, the sharing of information and the almost complete integration of an entire new race of beings. I would say, in fact, that the greatest turning point in our history was not when we fought, that we advance, evolve the things around us quickest not through conflict, but through a means of understanding, cooperation and trust in the fellow lifeforms that make up our planet." and that made Senia blink too, but before she could contribute any thoughts as to the topic, there was a knock on the glass door, still open to the raining elements, baring a human, one she recognized as Chris, asking the teacher not their teacher if she could take the falcongirl. While the elder lady looked at the class as if to wonder who they were out of neglect, she stood, collected her things, and headed for the door with bags slung over both her shoulders without another word.
She didn't know who he was, but that boy had given her a lot to think about.