Eirik led Narvik back to the prison cell in silence. Narvik had his head full of thoughts and Eirik could sense that it would not serve well to disturb those thoughts.

"Poor thing. To not only have his beliefs and understanding of the world shattered, but he has also been subject to destructive power the likes of which he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams. And all he has to look forward to, are many lonely nights in that prison cell." Eirik thought to himself as they walked. He was studying Narvik, trying to get a feel for the body language of the species. Glorpil, he remembered Narvik had called his people.

"... What is going to happen to me?" Narvik's voice cut through the silence and he looked up at Eirik. At least Eirik thought he did, those compound eyes made it difficult to tell.

"I am putting you back in the prison cell. Not so much because of what you did. You acted in good faith and did not know any better. I believe you when you say you truly had good intentions. The reason I am putting you back in that cell is for your safety. I have seen your reaction to things that are normal for us. As normal as a clay bowl and a wooden spoon. But to you, they are wonders beyond comprehension. Small miracles. Nothing short of magic.

Of course, I could have someone teach you all you would need to know to function in our world. But I am not sure I want to do that. Not because of the law, the law has already been broken simply by you being here." Eirik stopped as he explained and took the time to make sure Narvik understood what he meant.

"Because I got caught, right? I am unworthy!" Narvik responded with resigned despair filling his voice.

"No. That is not the reason, Narvik." Eirik reassured him.

"Then why will you not teach me?" Narvik pressed and crossed his 4 arms in what Eirik assumed was a defiant stance.

"...To protect you. You have to understand, Narvik, knowledge is a double-edged blade. Sure, I could teach you to function in our world and I am sure you would fit in quite well as soon as we get rid of the whole reverence thing you got going. But then, when I return you to your people, you would come to resent both them and your life there. And you would come to resent them because you would be changed. You would be informed. You would find your old life to be dull and your family and friends simple and boring.

You would try to change life for your people to something better, foregoing your own culture for the sake of comfort and innovation. Some of your people would love you, others would hate you. Some of them would try to kill you to preserve the old ways and in response, some of those favoring your new ways would try to kill them. A war would break out amongst your people, between those that favor tradition and those that favor progress." Eirik let the words hang in the air for a moment before he continued

"I am not sure I want to carry the knowledge of being the cause of an emerging civilization tearing itself apart. I am already the cause of 1 war. I have no wish to be the cause of another." Eirik took a deep breath and looked to the ceiling before he said. "But suppose it is not my decision." Fishing a coin out of his pocket, he looked at Narvis. "Heads or tails?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"What? Heads?" Narvik asked confused.

"Heads it is then," Eirik said and flipped the coin. While it was spinning in the air he mumbled "Allfather of the gods, do I make this choice or leave it to Narvik?"

With a *CLINK* the coin hit the floor and rolled around for a bit before settling. Eirik stared at the head's side of the coin.

"The choice is yours, though I urge you to think it over for a while. It is going to take a long time before we find your planet and your people." Eirik said and ushered a very confused Narvik to move on.

Safely back in the cell, Eirik spoke a final time before leaving. "I will return in 1 week. Then we will speak more. Until then, think some thoughts about what you want. Do you want to go through with this, spending the time in the cell, so you can return to your people more or less the same as you were before?

Or do you want to learn what we have to teach, and lose your innocence and connection to your own people? The choice is yours." As Eirik turned to leave but Narvik called out before he left

"What kind of choice is that??"

"The choice between wisdom and knowledge at the cost of suffering, or the blissful ignorance of a simple life at the cost of knowledge and wisdom. And it is yours to make." With that, Eirik disappeared around the corner.

________________

Las'Tai was waiting for him outside the prison area and Eirik raised an eyebrow as he saw her. "What?" He said in a combative tone.

"You like him." Las'Tai stated flatly.

"I pity him," Eirik said. "He is forced to make an impossible choice. live among the people he considers to be divine emissaries, but lose the connection to his people and family in the process, or spend gods know how much time in that little cell, waiting for us to find his home. And the yearning to stay is strong in him. But we cannot uplift his people. They haven't even discovered iron as a resource yet. I fear that uplifting them would ruin their innocent approach to life if Narvik is any indicator of the baseline Glorpil. "

Las'Tai chewed on his words for a while as she followed him through the corridors. "What do you think he will choose, Eirik?" She asked him and put a claw on his arm to stop him.

Eirik groaned loudly. "He is going to stay. I could see it in him as soon as I took him out of the cell. And he will want to enlighten his people as well, naturally. And we either cannot let him do it, or he will give up in despair because his advanced understanding will put him eons ahead of his peers. He will understand concepts that his people have not even begun or had a need to formulate into words.

He would become, to his people, what Terrans are to him. A prophet..." Eirik trailed off, the thought lingering in his mind, demanding attention. "...That could work..." he mumbled before walking away, lost in thought.

"Glad I could help!" Las'Tai called after him and began walking towards the sauna room. She had just earned herself some relaxation time.

________________________

Trasti was relaxing with a history book at his console, his job as communications officer leaving him with a lot of downtime while they were in FTL, but he still had to be on station, just in case.

He had just flipped a page before he heard a beeping sound that took him a second to recognize as the console he was manning. "A message while going through FTL? Rare." he thought to himself as he opened it,

5 seconds later he slammed his claw down on the intercom button and called for Jesper, David, and Eirik to come to his console immediately.