Reaping Recollection (Part XIV)
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:31 pm
17 Ash, 121
The next morning, when he awoke, Rivin was greeted by a note with his breakfast, informing him that the doctor would be expecting him in the laboratory after the midday meal. The part-Lysanrin grinned over his stewed fruits and grain. His slightly-too-sharp teeth had made quick work of the meal, ripping pieces off the thinly sliced fried meat between bites of the mixture.
When it was done he went back to his notes, reviewing them with renewed vigor in the hours between his first meal and his second. He ate more sparingly when the maid arrived with his lunch, not wanting the food to dull his wits for what was to come. He did not change his clothing from what he normally wore, but he did check his appearance in the mirror that hung over the mantle before exiting. He did not know where the workspace the doctor used had been set up inside this new home, so he let the guard lead him without the need to tell the man where he was heading.
The walk was brief and he memorized the way so he wouldn't need to travel at a sedate pace behind the placid guard the next day. He would be called on the next day, or, rather, as used to the routine as they were, he would more than likely not be called, but be expected anyway.
Ilex greeted him with a grunt that meant he was engrossed in something and did not look up when Rivin entered. The younger man made his way to where they kept protective equipment and put on gloves. What else he might need would depend on what they were doing. Ilex had his eyes pressed to a scope, one of the new miracles to come out of Zaichaer, and, after a moment stood up and gestured at the machine.
"Look for yourself, tell me what you see."
Rivin obeyed, the thrill at being given access never quite left him since it had first trilled its way into his heart as a young boy and he leaned down eagerly.
The world that exploded into his vision made his eyes grow wide as though they were trying to see all of it at the same time. Tiny life forms swam here and there in the liquid between the two glass slides. He began to list them by name as he recognized them until he had named all but two. Admitting defeat was not something that would be punished so he pulled back and did so. Ilex informed him of the name of one of them, and told him the second did not appear to have a name yet. It was pleasing to know that he could identify new species, or new sub-species, with a fair degree of accuracy. The doctor had only received the scopes at the beginning of Glade of that year. It was something they had learned together, though the doctor had used them before, when helping some others with their experiments in Zaichear.
Rivin opened his own book of notes and jotted down the new name, as well as the classification for the nameless one. The afternoon progressed as they went through a large number of slides. They were on loan from a doctor of the Imperium who needed them cataloged and would be offering Ilex something valuable in exchange. Rivin did not know what was being offered, and knew better than to ask.
There were a great many things Ilex would tell Rivin, but there were categories that he would not, and within those, categories that would earn Rivin more time locked in a cell, if not something worse. He wouldn't have been able to explain what the categories were to someone if he'd been asked, but he did know them, knew the feel of them. When the work was done Ilex sat down at his desk and looked at Rivin, looking him over as though he might be a specimen himself, which, he supposed, he was. The expression was not unfriendly, however.
"I can't find fault with any of your work on the slides. You do at least as well as I do, and your young eyes don't ache from it as mine do." Had their relationship been other than that of slave and owner Rivin might have offered to do the work for him, but there was a formulaic way to their relationship, so he stood still, attentive but waiting, until Ilex gave a weary but pleased smile and said,
"You should do the rest of it. I'll check your notes but I won't check the slides." He trusted Rivin's knowledge and ability, even with work that, if done poorly might cost him. Rivin grinned back at him. They both understood. Standing Ilex stretched, groaning. He was older now, and while the change in Rivin from the time they had first met might be more dramatic, the doctor's changes were less pleasant.
"How is your working out going?" Ilex asked as he began to put the slides they had already worked away, labeling them. Riving came to his side and began doing the same, in this case, he was allowed to get to work without being told. "Have you learned all the castle's secrets and scaled the walls yet."
Rivin's grin changed a bit and he shook his head 'no'. He told of his reading and reviewing the notes, saying nothing of his dreams but admitting appreciation for the heated baths. Ilex had sighed, almost another groan in his own appreciation, talking about what good the hot water and minerals from the underground spring did for his old joints and bones. They kept talking, about the food and servants, sharing their finds from the extensive library and the beauty of the gardens.
Sometimes it was like this, like they were friends, or mentor and student, even father and son. When the work was done Ilex slung his arm around Rivin's shoulders and told him who they were having over for dinner, and how intolerably dull they would be. Rivin had laughed, a soft, wicked thing that matched the twinkle in the older man's eyes exactly.
The supper was boring, in a way, and not at all in another. The two researchers, Dr. Ilex and Rivin, made a game of sporting with nobility and other guests who were ignorant or too full of themselves. They were quite good at making themselves seem like the boring and ignorant ones while subtly batting jokes back and forth between them, trying to see how far they could take it without offending anyone or even being noticed at it. It was perhaps cheating that Rivin was mostly seen as a curiosity, an eccentricity of the Ilex's, and the doctor himself was seen as an old man too lost in his own hobbies. Rivin had learned who to tease and who not to in the same way he had learned what questions not to ask, by instinct and trial and error. It had been easier than the questions; mostly one did not tease scientists, unless their disciplines were ones that Ilex did not believe in, and one did tease nobility, unless Ilex thought particularly well of them. The way the doctor treated the two sets was different enough for Rivin to tell, almost immediately, just by the way they were greeted. Warm greetings were different from pleasant ones.
When dessert had been served and the guests for that evening were too deeply in their cups of excellent wine to be any fun to make fun of anymore Rivin leaned back in his chair and thought back to before he'd ever been allowed to attend dinners with the doctor's guests, and what had earned him the right.
~~~~
The books on math had been sent, and they were, thankfully, simple primers that explained things for beginnings. They contained sentences like: 'If you have one apple, in one hand, and another apple in the other hand, how many apples have you?'
The answer had been simple enough but the concept of addition had taken longer to grasp. Once he had it though, the proceeding concepts came more easily, and by the time Glade came he had worked his way through all the books Ilex had thought to send. On the day he asked for the next one and the guard said there was no next one he was disappointed and had pouted by the fire until his mother had made him get up and work through the slow dances until he was in a less disagreeable mood.
The next day he was sent for. It wasn't time for his next exam, unless the interval had been cut in half, and his mother was not asked to come along with him. Rivin did his best not to throw up, but the feeling faded when he realized he was not being taken to the exam room. Instead, he was led into a large room with more books than his mind could properly contemplate. Even with his new understanding of addition, subtraction, and multiplication putting even an estimate on their number was beyond him. He moved into the middle of the room and turned in slow circles just looking with his mouth open until Dr. Ilex saying his name snapped him to attention.
The doctor was sitting at a desk to one side of the room, the chair turned about to face the room, and Rivin, instead of the writing surface. When told to come there, Rivin did without hesitation. Ilex asked him if he had read all the books, and he nodded. A series of increasingly difficult questions followed, leading through all three disciplines he'd received books on. He could not do the harder multiplication in his head, but when he asked to be able to write it down Ilex gave him a sheet of paper, as well as a long slim object and a little jar filled with darkness.
It had taken the doctor a moment to realize the boy had never seen a pen and inkwell. Then he had laughed. The sound had startled Rivin, but then the doctor had shown him how to use the pen to write and he had forgotten, for a moment, to be afraid of the older man at all. He'd tested out the pen by drawing a long line, his eyes huge. He had made several other squiggles, and then tried to write some letters. His hand was not used to the pen so they looked a bit sideways and not as straight as he would have liked, but he smiled up at Ilex. Ilex had smiled back, which was what kept Rivin's mind, as it caught up to the fact that he was basically just playing instead of doing the math he'd been told to do, from panicking. Turning back to the paper he did the math.
Only once did Ilex have to correct his sums, and then he had finished them all. The doctor had sat back in his comfortable chair and watched the boy for longer than was comfortable for one so young, but Rivin knew better than to fidget. Finally, the doctor said,
"When you took my book, did you read it?" Rivin bit his lip hard, making himself not tremble or begin to cry as he answered,
"Yes."
Ilex's expression did not change,
"Did you understand it?"
"No, oh, well, some of it." Rivin tried to explain that some of the words had not made sense but Ilex held his hand up to quiet him.
"You mother has told you I am doing an experiment?" He waited for the boy's nod before continuing, "An experiment is when you come up with an idea and then try to find out if the idea is correct, or, sometimes, you try over and over again to make something work the way you need it to."
Rivin had remained still, but his attention was not something he had to try and do, now it was easy.
"You are a part of my experiment, and I kept you intentionally ignorant. Yet, you learned to read, and when given the chance, you have learned anything else that you have been allowed. I know you won't understand but you are quite remarkable." It was praise, that much Rivin did know.
Taking a deep breath through his nose the doctor had said,
"I am going to arrange for people to come to teach you things. You will learn what they teach, and you can ask them about other things if you think of things you would like to know which they are not teaching you." Holding up one finger he learned forward minutely, meeting the boy's eyes, "If they tell you that you are not to learn something you will listen to them and not try to learn on your own. If I find out that you have been trying to learn those things which are forbidden you will be punished. Do you understand?"
Rivin nodded, his voice caught in his throat between the deep joy that he would be allowed to learn and the abject terror that he would be punished.
"Good." The doctor said, already beginning to turn his chair back to his desk. The guard came and took Rivin back to his room.
The next morning, when he awoke, Rivin was greeted by a note with his breakfast, informing him that the doctor would be expecting him in the laboratory after the midday meal. The part-Lysanrin grinned over his stewed fruits and grain. His slightly-too-sharp teeth had made quick work of the meal, ripping pieces off the thinly sliced fried meat between bites of the mixture.
When it was done he went back to his notes, reviewing them with renewed vigor in the hours between his first meal and his second. He ate more sparingly when the maid arrived with his lunch, not wanting the food to dull his wits for what was to come. He did not change his clothing from what he normally wore, but he did check his appearance in the mirror that hung over the mantle before exiting. He did not know where the workspace the doctor used had been set up inside this new home, so he let the guard lead him without the need to tell the man where he was heading.
The walk was brief and he memorized the way so he wouldn't need to travel at a sedate pace behind the placid guard the next day. He would be called on the next day, or, rather, as used to the routine as they were, he would more than likely not be called, but be expected anyway.
Ilex greeted him with a grunt that meant he was engrossed in something and did not look up when Rivin entered. The younger man made his way to where they kept protective equipment and put on gloves. What else he might need would depend on what they were doing. Ilex had his eyes pressed to a scope, one of the new miracles to come out of Zaichaer, and, after a moment stood up and gestured at the machine.
"Look for yourself, tell me what you see."
Rivin obeyed, the thrill at being given access never quite left him since it had first trilled its way into his heart as a young boy and he leaned down eagerly.
The world that exploded into his vision made his eyes grow wide as though they were trying to see all of it at the same time. Tiny life forms swam here and there in the liquid between the two glass slides. He began to list them by name as he recognized them until he had named all but two. Admitting defeat was not something that would be punished so he pulled back and did so. Ilex informed him of the name of one of them, and told him the second did not appear to have a name yet. It was pleasing to know that he could identify new species, or new sub-species, with a fair degree of accuracy. The doctor had only received the scopes at the beginning of Glade of that year. It was something they had learned together, though the doctor had used them before, when helping some others with their experiments in Zaichear.
Rivin opened his own book of notes and jotted down the new name, as well as the classification for the nameless one. The afternoon progressed as they went through a large number of slides. They were on loan from a doctor of the Imperium who needed them cataloged and would be offering Ilex something valuable in exchange. Rivin did not know what was being offered, and knew better than to ask.
There were a great many things Ilex would tell Rivin, but there were categories that he would not, and within those, categories that would earn Rivin more time locked in a cell, if not something worse. He wouldn't have been able to explain what the categories were to someone if he'd been asked, but he did know them, knew the feel of them. When the work was done Ilex sat down at his desk and looked at Rivin, looking him over as though he might be a specimen himself, which, he supposed, he was. The expression was not unfriendly, however.
"I can't find fault with any of your work on the slides. You do at least as well as I do, and your young eyes don't ache from it as mine do." Had their relationship been other than that of slave and owner Rivin might have offered to do the work for him, but there was a formulaic way to their relationship, so he stood still, attentive but waiting, until Ilex gave a weary but pleased smile and said,
"You should do the rest of it. I'll check your notes but I won't check the slides." He trusted Rivin's knowledge and ability, even with work that, if done poorly might cost him. Rivin grinned back at him. They both understood. Standing Ilex stretched, groaning. He was older now, and while the change in Rivin from the time they had first met might be more dramatic, the doctor's changes were less pleasant.
"How is your working out going?" Ilex asked as he began to put the slides they had already worked away, labeling them. Riving came to his side and began doing the same, in this case, he was allowed to get to work without being told. "Have you learned all the castle's secrets and scaled the walls yet."
Rivin's grin changed a bit and he shook his head 'no'. He told of his reading and reviewing the notes, saying nothing of his dreams but admitting appreciation for the heated baths. Ilex had sighed, almost another groan in his own appreciation, talking about what good the hot water and minerals from the underground spring did for his old joints and bones. They kept talking, about the food and servants, sharing their finds from the extensive library and the beauty of the gardens.
Sometimes it was like this, like they were friends, or mentor and student, even father and son. When the work was done Ilex slung his arm around Rivin's shoulders and told him who they were having over for dinner, and how intolerably dull they would be. Rivin had laughed, a soft, wicked thing that matched the twinkle in the older man's eyes exactly.
The supper was boring, in a way, and not at all in another. The two researchers, Dr. Ilex and Rivin, made a game of sporting with nobility and other guests who were ignorant or too full of themselves. They were quite good at making themselves seem like the boring and ignorant ones while subtly batting jokes back and forth between them, trying to see how far they could take it without offending anyone or even being noticed at it. It was perhaps cheating that Rivin was mostly seen as a curiosity, an eccentricity of the Ilex's, and the doctor himself was seen as an old man too lost in his own hobbies. Rivin had learned who to tease and who not to in the same way he had learned what questions not to ask, by instinct and trial and error. It had been easier than the questions; mostly one did not tease scientists, unless their disciplines were ones that Ilex did not believe in, and one did tease nobility, unless Ilex thought particularly well of them. The way the doctor treated the two sets was different enough for Rivin to tell, almost immediately, just by the way they were greeted. Warm greetings were different from pleasant ones.
When dessert had been served and the guests for that evening were too deeply in their cups of excellent wine to be any fun to make fun of anymore Rivin leaned back in his chair and thought back to before he'd ever been allowed to attend dinners with the doctor's guests, and what had earned him the right.
~~~~
The books on math had been sent, and they were, thankfully, simple primers that explained things for beginnings. They contained sentences like: 'If you have one apple, in one hand, and another apple in the other hand, how many apples have you?'
The answer had been simple enough but the concept of addition had taken longer to grasp. Once he had it though, the proceeding concepts came more easily, and by the time Glade came he had worked his way through all the books Ilex had thought to send. On the day he asked for the next one and the guard said there was no next one he was disappointed and had pouted by the fire until his mother had made him get up and work through the slow dances until he was in a less disagreeable mood.
The next day he was sent for. It wasn't time for his next exam, unless the interval had been cut in half, and his mother was not asked to come along with him. Rivin did his best not to throw up, but the feeling faded when he realized he was not being taken to the exam room. Instead, he was led into a large room with more books than his mind could properly contemplate. Even with his new understanding of addition, subtraction, and multiplication putting even an estimate on their number was beyond him. He moved into the middle of the room and turned in slow circles just looking with his mouth open until Dr. Ilex saying his name snapped him to attention.
The doctor was sitting at a desk to one side of the room, the chair turned about to face the room, and Rivin, instead of the writing surface. When told to come there, Rivin did without hesitation. Ilex asked him if he had read all the books, and he nodded. A series of increasingly difficult questions followed, leading through all three disciplines he'd received books on. He could not do the harder multiplication in his head, but when he asked to be able to write it down Ilex gave him a sheet of paper, as well as a long slim object and a little jar filled with darkness.
It had taken the doctor a moment to realize the boy had never seen a pen and inkwell. Then he had laughed. The sound had startled Rivin, but then the doctor had shown him how to use the pen to write and he had forgotten, for a moment, to be afraid of the older man at all. He'd tested out the pen by drawing a long line, his eyes huge. He had made several other squiggles, and then tried to write some letters. His hand was not used to the pen so they looked a bit sideways and not as straight as he would have liked, but he smiled up at Ilex. Ilex had smiled back, which was what kept Rivin's mind, as it caught up to the fact that he was basically just playing instead of doing the math he'd been told to do, from panicking. Turning back to the paper he did the math.
Only once did Ilex have to correct his sums, and then he had finished them all. The doctor had sat back in his comfortable chair and watched the boy for longer than was comfortable for one so young, but Rivin knew better than to fidget. Finally, the doctor said,
"When you took my book, did you read it?" Rivin bit his lip hard, making himself not tremble or begin to cry as he answered,
"Yes."
Ilex's expression did not change,
"Did you understand it?"
"No, oh, well, some of it." Rivin tried to explain that some of the words had not made sense but Ilex held his hand up to quiet him.
"You mother has told you I am doing an experiment?" He waited for the boy's nod before continuing, "An experiment is when you come up with an idea and then try to find out if the idea is correct, or, sometimes, you try over and over again to make something work the way you need it to."
Rivin had remained still, but his attention was not something he had to try and do, now it was easy.
"You are a part of my experiment, and I kept you intentionally ignorant. Yet, you learned to read, and when given the chance, you have learned anything else that you have been allowed. I know you won't understand but you are quite remarkable." It was praise, that much Rivin did know.
Taking a deep breath through his nose the doctor had said,
"I am going to arrange for people to come to teach you things. You will learn what they teach, and you can ask them about other things if you think of things you would like to know which they are not teaching you." Holding up one finger he learned forward minutely, meeting the boy's eyes, "If they tell you that you are not to learn something you will listen to them and not try to learn on your own. If I find out that you have been trying to learn those things which are forbidden you will be punished. Do you understand?"
Rivin nodded, his voice caught in his throat between the deep joy that he would be allowed to learn and the abject terror that he would be punished.
"Good." The doctor said, already beginning to turn his chair back to his desk. The guard came and took Rivin back to his room.