Transcription of Professor Kaiser Von Gate’s Lecture
The dean sighed as she read the title alone, already bracing herself for the headache that was to come by the end of the paper.
She had finally convinced the eccentric shut-in of an enchanter to teach after his three-year-long “break.” Little more than ten minutes after his class, her phone trilled without end as furious students and parents alike called, demanding what nonsense was taking place in Thales Academy.
Her academy.
With a faint prayer to the saints above, she bowed her head at the paper on her desk, eyes flitting back and forth as she read the lines.
“Many inquire what the Laws of Secrecy are, why they exist, and why they seem to be doing a terrible job. How come millions know everything from spell tiers to types of magitech and more when the intense censorship of the arcane is in place?”
“While lines of scripts have been erased from books and geases engaged to lock lips, if you aren’t an idiot—” the dean winced “—you’ve come to realize that you are surprisingly well-informed. Before the life of an elementalist, you knew the essentials for a mage, you knew the stars of aether creatures, you knew the seven Paths.”
“The abundance of knowledge in the wrong hands begets chaos and was the catalyst for the Third Great War. Yet, all the same, the absence of knowledge stifles growth and we’d stagnate as a country rather quickly. So, students, how exactly did we find a middle ground known as the Laws of Secrecy? What aspects are hidden to create a semblance of a knowledgeable nation?”
“That’s easy!”
PROCESSING VOICE INFORMATION…
PROCESSING…
ANALYZED.
WORDS WERE SAID BY…
Lee Mark
RANK: NOVICE
PATH: BULWARK
ELEMENT(S): FIRE, GEO
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Every piece of technology had its perks and downfalls, the device transcribing Grandmaster Gate’s words no different. Each new aspect it sensed was recorded in full, including background information that usually aided the reader. Practically useless to her.
“The richness of knowledge is purposefully scaled to the halos, decreasing from the First Halo and—”
“Wrong!” Grandmaster Gate yelled. “That is highly biased and makes for an abhorrent environment, you fool. Anyone else?”
“They hide the very dangerous aspects and—”
PROCESSING VOICE INFORMATION…
PROCESSING…
ANALYZED.
WORDS WERE SAID BY…
Laten Pam
RANK: NOVICE
SPECIALTY: HUNTER
ELEMENT(S): DARKNESS
“Wrong!” Grandmaster Gate yelled. “We know of ice blasters, of scrolls, of knives. Are they not dangerous? Speak only if you have a smart answer, please.”
INDISTINCT CHATTER GROWS.
“I see,” the dean muttered. This was where things went downhill. These were children he was instructing, supported by family members carrying enough artillery to tank the declining reputation of the academy further.
He didn’t seem to care.
Her expression grew dark the more she read. By the end, an extra cup of tea would be needed in the near future to relax the tension forming in her gritted teeth.
“We allow unbound and typics knowledge of what a scroll does yet not how to make one. We allow them to know what familiars are but not where to find them. We tell the spell tiers while leaving out the reasoning behind the differences. The what isn’t hidden—the why, where, and how are.”
“That seems unfair.”
PROCESSING VOICE INFORMATION…
PROCESSING…
ANALYZED.
WORDS WERE SAID BY…
Riley Allen
RANK: NOVICE
SPECIALTY: STRIKER
ELEMENT(S): DUST
“Anyone who lived through the terrifying times of the most recent war would wager the Laws the better alternative. Either shut up and accept it or think of a damn better way.”
The transcript crumpled within the dean’s hands, thrown inside her paper shredder.
She hardly knew who gave her more of a headache: a defiant daughter who seemed to love playing soldier or a filterless professor who made it his life purpose to give everyone and anyone a hard time.
Gazing at the churning shreds inside the active device, the dean shook her head and muttered, “Why do I have a feeling this is a premonition for troubles to come?”