Chương 130: 45. Hard to Believe

We've started to fall into a pretty comfortable routine. The way we share time isn't perfect, especially since we don't always have control over who is in front, but we've come up with a sort of scheduling system where each of us gets to choose our focus on any given day—provided we aren't getting pulled around. Thankfully, since our arrival in the city, things have settled down a little bit. On Maggie's days, we focus on training Nipper and practicing magic.

I don't tend to get involved much on those days, because as much as I like Nipper, I'm still not comfortable with magic. Weirdly, Maggie has pretty much ignored the thaumaturgy skill to focus entirely on fine magical control, while Violet spends her time fronting on Maggie's days exploring potential skill combinations without actually creating any spells. Instead, she's got a list of notes that looks something like this: [Retraced Steps] - Trail of fire? Guiding wisp? Questionable utility. [Strong Arm] - Fireball?

Firebolt? Potentially dangerous. Overlap with extant skill. [Retaliation] - Uncertain. Does it combine conceptually or mechanically? Fire shield? Fire buff? Stronger while on fire? Consult with Talla and Anna. And so on. She seems convinced that the potential of a spell remains flexible until it's actually created, at which point it becomes "registered" with the [World Engine] and can no longer change.

Except when one of our other headmates tries to use the same spell, which both requires the assistance of the person who made the spell in the first place and only results in a variation on the spell already created. Of course, that's all just theory based on one example, but Vi wants to get as much information as she can before experimenting with anything irreversible.

Personally, I think she's being a bit too cautious, but it would be hypocritical of me to tell them how to explore magic after deciding not to do it myself. I still have mixed feelings. I was the one who pushed for magic in the first place, and I still think it's super cool! It's just that when I think about trying to tap into that terrifying, infinite expanse again... no. In the meantime, Maggie's also made huge strides in Nipper's training thanks to her new friend.

And I was as surprised as anybody else when she managed to make a friend on her own. Fargo's pet "ferret" Taaka actually looks more like a weird cross between a cat, a mongoose, and a squirrel, but it's another one of those weird overlaps that emerges from the understanding of Fa'aun that we share with Evie. She's very cute, though, and apparently has similar magic senses to Nipper that she can even share with Fargo!

It gives me a lot of hope for Nipper's future, seeing him play with Taaka between training sessions. With the cat-ferret's help, we can now demonstrate for Nipper exactly what we're trying to communicate. It only took a bit of finagling to get him to start copying her, and once we got that far, training new commands became a breeze! He's a smart cookie!

Maggie gained a lot of levels thanks to that, and even though they didn't come all at once, Talla and Evie have been teaching me how to interface better with the [World Engine]. [Level up!] Tamer has grown from level 2 to 6. +4 Ego (Magdalena). No more confusion about how many levels we actually gained! Plus, I can get it to summarize different stretches of time or isolate specific classes. Once you know how it works, it's actually pretty responsive.

In a way, it feels less like interfacing with a machine and more like just asking nicely. Mags isn't the only one making progress, either. Evie's been studying hard, and even though she doesn't like it, she picks up on concepts pretty quickly once she gets past her own resistance. The biggest obstacle is that she isn't just bad at critical thinking, she almost rejects it on a conceptual level.

She isn't interested in discovery or exploration—she wants to be told what is, and if the new information doesn't conflict with her current worldview or understanding, then she accepts it. If it does conflict, then she discards it pretty much immediately and almost outright refuses to challenge any of her beliefs. I don't think that's a natural state of mind.

To me, it's like she's been trained to suppress her curiosity, resulting in a deeply held core belief that questioning things in the world around her is fundamentally wrong. I... don't know how to fix that. Still, she is progressing: [Level up!] Student has grown from level 8 to 9. +1 Will (E'ava'al'n). But, that's pretty much where the good news ends, on that front. Violet is still stuck at the cusp of mastering her [Savior] class, while I've made no progress in [Teacher] despite the lower tier and level.

Talla did say that it would slow down once we were out of the convergence point, but it's frustrating. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. Even most of the levels "I" have gained came from everyone else's efforts. All I've been able to do is run my mouth, bother people with my constant questions, and get us slapped in the face so hard that it's still a bit sore. Vi's as focused as ever, despite her lack of progress.

She visits Talla's clinic often enough that Katia is on a first name basis with her and Evie, and can even tell them apart sometimes. The people here are... surprisingly accepting of the idea that we have more than one person in our head. Pretty much you just tell them it's a skill and they shrug and go along with it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Anyway, if Vi is bothered by the fact that she's stuck at level nine, she's not showing it.

Not that she would, knowing her, but honestly I think that she's happy as long as she feels like she's working towards something.

"That's quite the scowl," Talla comments, snapping me out of my absent daydreaming.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd switched with Maggie or Vi." I sit up and stretch, sticking my tongue out at her. I'm getting used to kneeling on cushions instead of sitting in chairs, but it's still kinda hard on the back and knees. I'd say that it must have something to do with the Fa'aun's body structure being better adapted for it, but there are plenty of human cultures that do the same thing.

"I was just thinking," I explain.

"It's been so slow to level that I'm starting to worry that I might not be all that good of a teacher."

"I think you're doing fine," Talla replies, pouring herself a bit of tea.

"Evelyn is a difficult student, and it's pretty rare to take [Teacher] as a generalized first tier class like that. Usually, it's something more focused." I sigh and take a sip of my own drink—which is just water. We're outside under the shade of a little gazebo and I have no idea how Talla can drink hot tea in this weather—with fur, no less! I'm starting to get used to it, but it is hot in Stebaari.

"I just don't know what to do," I admit.

"I just don't like the idea of sitting here spinning our wheels when someone out there is trying to kill or enslave us."

"Spinning? I think you got all of those words right, but I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"Oh, sorry! It's an expression from home," I explain.

"It means putting a lot of effort into doing nothing. Like when a car's wheels are stuck in mud, putting more power into them doesn't do anything but spin the wheels in place."

"Huh... I think I get it. Self-propelled vehicles are much more common in your world, aren't they?"

"Yeah, it's—well, it depends on where you live, but in some places just about everybody is expected to have one." Talla leans forward, a familiar glint in her eyes.

"Tell me more about your world," she insists.

"You're always so cagey about it."

"I don't mean to be," I chuckle.

"My memory is just messed up. It's easier to answer specific questions."

"Okay then... how about this—how many stars are in your world's sky?" I snort.

"Not starting small, huh?"

"I know that there are a lot," she says.

"Our own scientists have identified thousands of unique lights—some of which only appear in one season or the other. I don't expect you to know all of them, but do you know how many there are?" I suck in a long breath through my teeth.

"Oh [geez], uh... only thousands?" She blinks.

"Is that bad?"

"I don't know. Our worlds are so different. I keep trying to compare this place to different periods in my own world's history, but it's all over the place. If I ignore everything but technology, then you're something like two hundred to four hundred years behind."

"That much?"

"Yeah, but even then it's inconsistent," I sigh.

"You've obviously developed in different ways than my world. Plus, there's magic. My world has no understanding of it. Most people don't think it exists at all."

"So you've said." She nods.

"And how does this come back to the stars?"

"If we're just talking about the ones that have been specifically identified?" I hedge.

"I don't have the word for [billions] in Fa'aun. Thousands of thousands of thousands." Talla freezes for a moment, then swallows a mouthful of tea.

"That... is the first of your claims that I genuinely find hard to believe. Not that I think you are lying, but are you certain you're not mistaken? Wouldn't the sky be constantly flooded with light?"

"It is. Most of it is just too dim to see with the naked eye," I explain.

"We've developed powerful tools to let us see further and identify dimmer and more distant stars."

"But you said that was only those that have been catalogued—the amount of paper that would take..." I grimace, and Talla huffs.

"You don't use paper, do you? Some other wondrous and supposedly non-magical invention?" Oh boy, how do I explain computers? The closest thing this world has to electricity is those mana stones, so I guess I'll start there.

"You're right, we do have a different way of storing information, but it's... really hard to explain, so bear with me." She nods, leaning forward to listen intently.

"You know how an active mana stone can trigger a nearby mana stone, which triggers the next one in the line, and so on?"

"Yes, of course. I'm the one who explained that to you."

"I know, I'm just laying the foundation here," I sigh.

"Now imagine that there were special stones that only activated under certain conditions, and then you've got millions of them, each as small as a grain of sand, lined up in special patterns."

"... you've lost me."

"Ugh, sorry, [computer science] really isn't my field," I groan.

"I'll try to skip to the end—we've developed machines that can manipulate and interpret those patterns. An active stone is a one, and an inactive stone is a zero, information is um..." I snap my fingers trying to find the word.

"[Encoded] sorry, I don't know it in Fa'aun, into those numbers, then read by the machines." Talla's eyes dart back and forth as she furrows her brows trying to understand.

"I... think I grasp the concept, but it still seems impossible to me. That sort of encoding would only increase the number of symbols required. You'd need entire vast warehouses of this special sand, all perfectly aligned."

"We did, at first," I say, nodding.

"Though the analogy is starting to break down. It wasn't actually sand. Over time, we refined the proverbial stones—called [transistors] in my language—to be smaller and smaller. Describing them as grains of sand earlier wasn't quite accurate."

"Of course," Talla agrees.

"They'd need to be a fair bit larger in order to actually work with them." I bite my lip.

"Talla, I am so sorry to do this to you, but I wasn't exaggerating. The truth is that a modern [transistor] is small enough to fit thousands of them in a grain of sand." She stands abruptly, actually scowling.

"Enough, Allie! This isn't funny anymore. If you don't want to answer my questions seriously, just say so!"

"Talla, I'm serious!" I protest.

"It's—""We can talk more later," she interrupts.

"I know you're bored, Allie, but I don't appreciate these sorts of games." Talla storms off before I can offer any further protests, leaving me to lay my forehead on the table and groan.

"I really do suck at teaching..." [Level up!] Teacher has grown from level 7 to 8. +1 Ego.... I think it might be making fun of me.