"Interesting how?" Grandmother Ashes jumped at the opportunity to further her knowledge.

"Interesting in almost any way you can imagine. In their most recent iteration, that being their final one, there was a heavy emphasis on a concept I believe we have a fairly good grasp on. If I remember correctly the official term was called 'the presumption of innocence', a fine work of logic whose goal served to place the burden of proof on the prosecution."

"Would I be correct in assuming this means that the accused are not charged with a crime until it can be proved that it was indeed them who committed it?" Grand Elder Larson was not the most well versed with such scholarly topics, but the name seemed to give away the intent.

"That would be correct. I find it fascinating that someone could not only develop a justice system so similar to ours in an independent manner, yet improve on it in ways that would be deemed biased for us. Despite its inherent bias toward the defendant, I still feel that this system upheld our definition of neutrality."

Grand Elder Firche raised his voice here. "Excuse my ignorance if it is indeed the case I am, would bias towards one party not immediately violate neutrality?"

"In a vacuum, perhaps it might. However this system was built upon a written legal code, yes, written. Any person who could read could read the law and see exactly what it says. That being the case, the purpose of the judge, singular, was to keep the courtroom in order and make sure proceedings followed proper processes. The duty of this legal system was not to determine the presence of bias or neutrality like ours is, but to be a neutral arbiter of the written code of laws."

"But would the laws not have some inherent bias themselves?" Firche again wished to know more.

"Perhaps, but it was not the court's job to determine neutrality. In fact, they did not strive for neutrality. Instead they chose to search for justice, or at least something approaching the ideals of their moral code. They had their own separate legal bodies that would write laws and subsequently determine those laws' justice, but the courts remained a place whose sole purpose was to determine the legality of an individual's actions."

The Arboreal Maiden was wondering if she was getting through to them. She could probably count on Grandmother Ashes picking up some of the concepts she was relaying, but the other two displayed clear confusion. This was no doubt the side effect of a life spent searching for true neutrality.

"My lady," Grand Elder Szirpty spoke up, "you claimed that their laws were written, correct?"

The maiden nodded her head. "Indeed. I think you will find that these humans, they have yet to determine their race name, were all literate. I believe this to be a necessity borne from their inability to utilize split in conversation."

"That answered my follow-up question as well. As ever, I am impressed by your foresight. Would I be correct in assuming you know how to read this language of theirs? This is simply the inquiry of an old lady who wishes for something to do in her free time so you may disregard it if you so choose." She was certainly pushing the borders of familiarity with the implication she wanted to be taught.

"While I am afraid my station forbids me from teaching you, I understand the Scholar is somewhat fluent in their language. Would I be correct in my understanding that you have received a tool to assist you in your studies as well?" While not facing him, the target of her utterance could not be clearer.

"Yes! I did not bring it with me owing to ceremony, but it was called a 'Dictionary'!" He said the word aloud in English. "It has been very helpful in teaching me words, increasing my 'lexicon' so to speak." The childish part of him was boasting his abilities in front of his superiors, clearly looking for approval.

"Interesting... Might I request you come to my quarters tonight Scholar? I have been craving new realms of academia to explore and it would appear this 'aenglsh' you speak of will keep me busy for some time."

"It would be my pleasure!" He gave a somewhat awkward salute, what with the Captain still relying on him for support.

"How lovely. Now while I would love to stay and chat, I do have important tasks for the lot of you that are somewhat urgent."

The Arboreal Maiden tapped her staff on the stone with some force, creating a high pitched tock sound that signaled the close of the somewhat light mood they had been sharing.

"Librarian, Marshal, the pair have decided they will indeed be enrolling in the academy. As I understand it, a semester has recently begun correct?"

"A few weeks ago, but it should be no issue to shuffle them into classes at this point. The workload to catch up will not be too difficult for first years, not that they will need to do any given their status, but I can assure you it won't reflect on them negatively either." Grandmother Ashes was quite the accomplished teacher, if she thought someone could do it they could most likely do it.

Grand Elder Larson was a fair bit less optimistic about his school. "Finding an open spot in the military academy will prove... rough." He had been teetering on using impossible, but precedent proved otherwise. "All of the positions have been filled for low-level soldier spots, and low-level officer spots are hard to find in the first place. Even with that, the first round of competitions has already finished so they would be operating at a setback."

"Would there be anything you could do to remedy that situation? Even if it's the rare case you need to make an exception, he has demonstrated he wishes to finish life in the academy as soon as possible. I believe you would call the path he wished to follow the Master of War?"

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"He want's to be Marshal, Admiral, and Armada Head huh? I guess that isn't too surprising considering their situation, but I can't say I recommend it... I'll see what strings I can pull and what unnecessary work I can get him out of."

"I thank you. I will have the Captain and Scholar coordinate with the two of you in order to enroll them in what they need most. Those two are far more familiar with their level of knowledge than I am, so they are better suited for the task."

She waited patiently as those four left the room, left only with Grand Elder Firche.

"What do you need from me my lady?"

"You are familiar with the Sanctum's current material reserves correct? I, they, will need your assistance in requisitioning the proper materials to rebuild their industry."

"Industry? My lady there are only two of them, and they haven't even a planet yet have they? How could they possibly support an industry?"

"It is not your job to question their methods, Merchant, just know that they have them. It would not be an exaggeration to say they might be able to out-produce us in a matter of years."

- - - - -

Elder Firche considered himself fairly fit for his station. He didn't have the pot belly characteristic of his predecessors, and he was still fairly young, yet he found himself falling behind and gasping for breath as he followed the Arboreal Maiden.

The Arboreal Maiden who seemed to be in a rush.

"My lady! Would you mind slowing down a smidge for me? I simply cannot match your speed and endurance."

"I am afraid I will instead have to authorize you to use split to keep up, Merchant. The boy has woken up far faster than either the Great Csillacra or I had anticipated." She herself had started to carry her staff with both hands. "He shouldn't hurt himself, but it is my duty to teach them the basics of split."

"Would another teacher not be better? I mean no disrespect my lady but your efforts would best be focused elsewhere."

"The Great Csillacra can take care of itself for a few weeks without me, it has no plans of creating another planet anytime soon."

"I was referring to duties more administrative and ceremonial in nature, but you have made it clear your priorities will not change."

- - - - -

Don wanted to say it was bright, but he could tell that whatever was provoking that sensation around his eyes was not light. He could very clearly see that the level of light was the same as it was before he closed them. The biggest hint that it wasn't light making him nauseous was the fact that when he covered his closed eyes with his hands, it didn't go away.

Possibly the worst part was that the pain, more like irritation, was not actually located in his eyes. His retinas were completely fine. It was the area around his eyes that hurt, specifically the areas below his eyes and slightly outward on his face, the area where his cheekbone met with his eye socket.

Rolling to his side in order to try and stand up, he recalled the Arboreal Maiden's instruction to stay put, so he opted to only sit instead.

It was still his instinct to squint, even though it did not help at all. At this point he had realized that he was 'seeing' split, he wasn't so dumb as to forget the reason they were here, but he couldn't yet tell if there was a large amount of it or if this new sense was just raw, like a fresh patch of skin.

He figured that both were possible. In that way he was like a newborn baby. Up to this point he had not even had the chance to open his 'eyes', much less see light with them.

With his arms back at an angle to support his somewhat awkward posture, Don started to play with the split the Great Csillacra had left for him. He was putting some of it into that core thing as he was told, but he was also trying to shape it. A sphere was easy enough, just push on it equally from all sides and it would eventually take that shape.

Making a cube proved to be a bit harder.

He couldn't just imagine pressing with flat edges like he thought he might be able to. It resulted in something with six distinct edges, sure, but the faces were all bulging out. Clearly he would need to change how much pressure he was putting on different parts of the faces, but he hadn't yet figured out just how he could do that.

This wasn't exactly an intuitive process either, at least not yet. Maybe it was because he hadn't actually had the opportunity to flex whatever muscle-like organ was responsible for these changes. Maybe it was because it was still growing. Maybe there were some things that just weren't possible, and he was partaking in a fruitless endeavor.

But Don found this experimentation was kind of fun.

More than just taking his attention away from the dizzying sensation, it was like he was playing with a toy. His very own bit of sculptor's clay that he could shape to his will, granted he could figure out how.

To test creating a pressure differential, he once again started with a sphere. His first goal was to make the sphere imperfect, more ovular or otherwise misshapen.

He tried pressing harder, which only made the sphere smaller.

He tried pushing in a different direction, which only made it spin.

He tried pulling outward, which only made the sphere larger.

It was only when he tried REALLY hard to localize the forces did he notice a change, a small indent on the surface that lasted only a moment before it returned to its original shape. Several attempts at recreating that event passed before he could do it again. Once he got to the point where he could do it consistently, he marveled at how the reaction could cause small ripples in the surface if done fast enough. It was like a liquid punching bag.

Slowly he began to be able to keep the small indentation for longer and longer periods of time, leading him to the conclusion that there must be some form of muscle-like tissue involved with it. Further evidence of this was provided in the form of it getting harder to sustain. It wasn't weakening, whatever it was, but it was starting to hurt to use.

Had the Great Csillacra mentioned this would happen?

Was Donovan trying to run before he could even walk?

Would an injury at this point be detrimental to his growth in the future?

He didn't want to chance it, so he decided to open his eyes and look for Diana. Maybe they could share what they learned about how to work with split. The sensation was bearable at this point, he wasn't squinting or blinking when he opened his eyes, but it was a bit disorienting when he looked around.

It was like there was a brand new set of colors he could see but didn't recognize.