[Outside the Garden of No Return] Lower Education (Open)

[Keido]

That was an answer that Keido has never expected to hear. A tricky place like Alvadas having such goals for its people. Keido came from Syliras, and the idea was not too unnatural for him. It was only strange because this time it involved Alvadas and much to his experience, it is something that couldn't be. But Seidaku's words rang true if he did not think too much about it. More than once Keido has been either surprised or frustrated moving through the city.

"I am very sorry about my ignorance Seidaku. I think talking to you made me know more about Alvadas now" he said taking another drink.

Seidaku's answer to the last question was a very interesting one. Keido has never thought about stimulus. As a fighter it was all about pain, safety and health. He would act in order to avoid all the consequences for his inaction and therefore any stimulus was unnecessary for him.

"But if you know that something is going to hurt, would you put your hand into the flame first?" he asked Seidaku again.

To the final example. The one about drinking illusionary ale. Illusions as Keido knew it was not real because he has barely experienced enough of them during his stay in Alvadas. But he did know that if something is not real, they should not exist and if something does not exist, it cannot effect anything else.

"What happens if you live off this illusionary ale for more than three days Seidaku?" Keido asked once more because he knew that three days was the longest a man can last without any drink.

[Seidaku]

"Ignorance is, umm, nothing to apologize for," Seidaku said, waving the apology away, "You did not know something, and you, ah, asked questions. Worse would have been not knowing and, umm, refusing to seek knowledge. Persisting in ignorance is the, ahh, greater sin."

"But if you know that something is going to hurt, would you put your hand into the flame first?"

With a grin, he leaned forward as Keido came closer to seeing the reasoning behind it all, "And now you have, ah, accepted the reality of the fire. You have reacted to its presence by, umm, by not putting your hand into it. Whether the fire is real or not, you know that, umm, fire hurts, and you react to its presence accordingly."

Still leaning forward, Seidaku's enthusiasm dimmed and his expression grew somber at Keido's final question. He spun his mug slowly between his hands for almost a chime before he finally shrugged and replied softly, "I don't know... I suspect you would die, though."

[Keido]

Ignorance is the greater sin. To that Seidaku was right and that was one of the reasons why Keido wanted to learn whatever he could and take it back to Syliras. Alvadas for all its infamy which trickled down from Ionu still had its good points. Like the arts and people like Seidaku who valued knowledge and did not turn away Keido who came with questions no matter how odd they were.

"You don't? And I hope than either of us will never have to find out" he said finally raising his mug to a toast.

With such a somber answer, Keido did not feel like talking more about this and it was evident that Seidaku had nothing more to tell him because he has nothing more to ask. Such a waste that they ended up talking more about illusions than what Keido initially wanted to talk about. Now would be a good chance to start on that topic.

"So Seidaku, what prompted an outsider to teach here in Alvadas when there are so man other things which can be done?"

[Seidaku]

Seidaku sat, gazing into the bottom of his dwindling mug of ale. Their conversation on the topic of Illusion had been brought to a sudden, and rather depressing, end. With an insight borne of a lack of understanding, Keido had addressed directly an issue that every Alvad lived with, and was only rarely forced to address. Constant exposure to the Illusions of the city bred a sort of complacency, he realized. He still appreciated their atristry, and he was intellectually aware of the more overt dangers that the city could pose, but he very rarely considered the fact that everyone and everything in Alvadas was able to remain so on Ionu's whim.

It was a sobering thought.

He was on the verge of simply finishing his drink and bidding Keido a good night, his desire to question the other man's fitness to help with teaching dimmed in the wake of their discussion, when Keido brought the conversation back around to that direction for him. When he registered the question fully though, he blinked in confusion. An outsider? He supposed that was true, though probably not in the manner that Keido had intended. Because of what he was, and the direction his studies often took him, he spent much of his time alone. It was not safe to shout from the rooftops that one was a mage, and no amount of protesting that the stigma was unearned would change that.

He shook his head to dispel his musings and instead said, "For a, ah, number of reasons, actually. First, and, umm, most selfishly," he added with a grin, "A life as a teacher helps my, uh, life as a student. Teaching makes you reexamine the, umm, the things you are teaching. You look back on the basics with the, umm, the benefit of deeper experience. It is like learning it again, for the, ah, first time."

"Second," he said, growing serious again, "We lost so much in the Valterrian. Arts, science, medicine, technology... magic. Quite beyond the, umm, the staggering loss of life, think of the knowledge that was lost. There are texts that describe the world before the, umm, before the Valterrian. They mention things that, umm, that we would call miracles... they mention them as though they were, ah, were common place."

"Every year that we, umm, spend focused solely on survival, we slip further away from that. The only way we can, ah, recapture what was lost is to learn. But more than that, we have to, umm, pass on that knowledge, so that others can build upon it. None of us will, umm, live forever. There is a finite amount of learning that, ah, we can do. So, we learn what we can, and, umm, hope that those who come after use it to reach even further."

[Keido]

Keido frowned in contemplation as Seidaku explained his works. No matter how he tried to look at it, Seidaku's first reason could not be seen as selfish. Helping himself could be said as an extra reward for helping his students unless he meant more? Keido knew that some teachers taught for the sake of reward. Monetary gain for themselves but Seidaku did not seem like that man yet.

"The pursuit of knowledge should never be seen as selfish Seidaku even if you are using others to do it. After all, aren't your students benefiting the same way?" he confirmed.

"Yes, the Valterrian. But those things were from the past. If we are to better ourselves, they can only take us so far. There are more things in this world to learn and discover" he suggested with satisfaction.

Keido could only answer with what he knew and that was training and fighting. To excel in those fields meant to keep pushing himself forward because by always looking at his previous capabilities only, he will stay at that level and all his training would be for naught. Thus survival was important for him because to survive in this world meant that he needed strength.

"I do not believe that being focused on survival means that we slip away from the knowledge. After all do we not rediscover things when we need to? A painting then would show a beautiful city from the Valterrian but a painting today would show a city we can be proud of to have built and be a part of."