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Practical Philosophy, Thursday

The weather wasn't great, but it also wasn't cold or rainy - so Ender had invited his small class to attend here, on the dorm lawn. He was sitting on the ground, a bag of sandwiches and some bottles of water in the grass next to him.

He greeted the arriving students with a, "Sit down in a circle, please." He smiled briefly. "Well, there aren't many of you, so I'll accept any formation that makes all of us more or less equal."

He shoved his sandwiches to the center of the circle, so everyone could access it.

"Welcome," he said. "My name is Andrew Skywalker. I'm an alumnus of this school; I graduated several years ago." That was all they needed to know, as far as he was concerned. "And you might be wondering what you signed on for. I'll give you the spiel I give my students every year I'm here - but this is the only class that is prepared or rehearsed to any capacity. That, after all, is the point of it."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here primarily to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. In this class, we try to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. Above all, philosophy is about asking questions about everything in the world around us - and about everything we feel about it. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

He smiled wryly. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. Ask questions."

"You can even ask questions of me, if you feel the need. And maybe together we can get to the core of our joint and individual experiences." His mouth quirked a bit more. "That doesn't mean we're always going to be lingering on the existential questions - or staring at our belly buttons. It just means we're going to try and dig and come to some understanding about each other, ourselves, and the world."

He picked up a bottle of water. "As for today, let's open a dialogue," he said. "I think only one of you is new, but still: how do you feel about where you are now? You've been on this island for close to a week; is it speaking to you, in a metaphorical sense? What kind of experience has it been for you? As for the rest of you, how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?"

"We can talk about that. Or you can bring up something else you feel is worth questioning. I consider most topics fair game, as long as they're brought up with regard for your fellow students. I can't claim knowledge on most, but I can claim an ability to annoy you with questions about just about anything."

He grabbed a sandwich from the bag. "Every week, we'll reflect on something that happened since we last met, but I'm always open to talking about anything that comes to mind." He nodded at one of the students. "Anyway, I've talked for long enough. It's your turn."

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Like it's Thursday.

Mara Jade

Thorin

Hyacinthe

Or just eat a sandwich.

Answer his questions. Pose some of your own. Go wild.

"I've been here two years now," Mara began, "and I think the thing that still surprises me is how difficult it is to shake the general mood here. People shake off children showing up for a weekend, or having different sexual organs for a few days. That would not be done at home."

Ender had seen her name on the roster. So he wasn't surprised, exactly. Curious, though... yes.

"Why do you think that is?" he asked. "Is there something different about the people here, or does the situation simply render us different?"

"I think the constant strangeness just wears down the panic instinct," Mara said. "The weird becomes part of the weather, and people start waiting for the next thing to go wrong."

Ender nodded. "Do you think they're left feeling no effect at all?" he said.

"I think a certain kind of numbness sets in," Mara said, frowning in thought. "There's a certain lack of consequence to it all. I'm certainly not going to initiate the conversation with my boyfriend about the weird teenager that showed up looking like us while also having weird traits neither of has. That's just awkward."

"It didn't make you think about the future?" Ender asked neutrally.

Mara snorted a little indelicately. "Not really. I'm not going to have children."

Ender fought a smile and won, so his, "Why not?" still sounded neutral.

"I'm a dancer," Mara said, "and being pregnant isn't really something I can do at the same time."

That was a lie, of course, about being a dancer, but Ender was not about to call her on it. "Which is a sensible choice to make," he said. "Have any of these events ever touched you at all?"

"Does it make me awful if I say not really?" Mara asked. "Because not really."

"Why would it make you feel awful?" Ender asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think people are supposed to react?"

"Maybe?" Mara said. "I didn't exactly have the most traditional upbringing, at least here."

"Most of us haven't," Ender said, smiling faintly, "And so most of us react differently. Were you used to surprises growing up?"

Mara chewed her lower lip as she mulled that over. "A variety of experiences," she finally went with, "but I was generally prepared for them unless the surprise was part of what I was supposed to learn."

Hyacinthe chewed on his sandwich thoughtfully while he considered Messire Wiggin's questions. "It's been an interesting experience," he said. "I've never been outside the City of Elua ere this week and nothing on this island save the architecture is familiar. The lights that come on with a single switch is still a marvel that would cause even Shemhazai to wonder. And so, when everything is wondrous, 'tis almost like nothing is, if that makes sense."

"Our minds are usually only equipped to deal with a few new things at a time," Ender said. "You're having trouble seeing the forest for the trees."

He took a swig of water. "You're from another time, or another place?"

"Both, or so I believe Messire Constantine has conjectured," Hycinthe answered. "I am from a land called Terre D'Ange, which is across the sea. He says it is known in this time and place as...France?" Hya wrinkled his nose. It seemed like a name decidedly lacking in romance and imagination. "We are roughly a thousand years since Tiberium hung Yeshua ben Yosef on a cross, which seems to be how time is reckoned around here. It seems the Yeshuites do well for themselves in the intervening centuries."

"They overtook a fair share of the planet," Ender said wryly. "Though such things have a habit of ebbing and flowing, if given a large enough time period to do so in. They're no great faction of importance in your time, then?"

It had been incredibly important in France well before the 11th century, if Ender's memory of history was correct.

"Not particularly," Hyacinthe said with a shrug. "They've respect enough, but they have no true foothold there. D'Angelines offer them sanctuary, as they respect Yeshua for 'tis through him that Blessed Elua was born. I believe the Yeshuites also have enclaves in Caedicca Unitas and in the Flatlands, but then there are other places like Skaldia, Alba, and Bhodistan where there are likely none at all."

"Interesting," Ender said. "I suspect our histories diverged at some point, then. Who is Blessed Elua?"

He was careful to use the same expression Hyacinthe had used; there was no reason to offend.

Yeah, funny thing about that. In Terre D'Ange, Hyacinthe could never forget how much he wasn't D'Angeline. There, he was a Tsingano half-breed and proud of it. Yet ever since coming to the island, he was realizing just how D'Angeline he truly was, at least culturally.

He didn't worship Elua and his companions, exactly, but it oddly bothered him that no one else knew who they were. Especially since Elua was pivotal to both sides of his heritage.

"It's a story of some length," he said. "And has to do with the founding of Terre D'Ange. Are you sure you wish to hear the tale? I cannot promise to do it justice, either. Unlike the scions of Elua and his companions, I was not raised learning the story at my mother's knee or from the mouth of a priest."

"You're the only one from Terre D'Ange here, and I'm interested in my students first and foremost," Ender said. He shrugged lightly. "Your telling of the tale will say as much about you as it does about the story itself. That's interesting enough."

"As you say," Hyacinthe shrugged. "Though should another D'Angeline arrive, they'll likely be able to tell it better than a Tsingano ever could. And will make sure you know it, too."

Bitter? Hyacinthe? Well, maybe a little.

"When Yeshua ben Yosef hung dying upon the cross, a soldier of Tiberium pierced his side with the cruel steel of a spearhead. Later, when Yeshua's body was lowered to the ground, the women grieved, and the Magdalene most of all, letting down the ruddy gold torrent of her hair to clothe his still, naked form. The bitter salt tears of the Magdalene fell upon soil ensanguined and still moist with the shed blood of the Messiah. And from this union the grieving Earth engendered her most precious son; Blessed Elua, most cherished of angels."

What Hyacinthe lacked in knowledge of the story of Blessed Elua's birth and the eventual founding of Terre D'Ange, he made up with a Mendicant's flair for storytelling. "Abhorred by the Yeshuites, reviled by the empire of Tiberium as a scion of its enemy, and scorned by the One God of whose son he was begotten, Elua wandered the earth, across vast deserts and wastelands. He trod with bare feet upon the bosom of his mother Earth and wandered singing, and where he went, flowers bloomed in his footprints and animals wandered to watch."

"But the hearts of men are not as pure as those as animals and when he wandered to Persis, he was captured and put into chains by the King. Tales of his wandering had come to reach the ear of Heaven, and when he was imprisoned, there were those among the angelic hierarchy who answered. Choosing to flout the will of the One God, they came to earth in ancient Persis."

He paused to take a drink of water and to see if Messire Skywalker wished him to continue. He'd answered the original question, after all.

"Your people believe that angels came to Earth a second time?" Ender asked. He sounded interested.

"I did not know there had been a first," Hyacinthe said with a shrug. "But eight angels left heaven to come to Blessed Elua's aid. Azza, Shemhazai, Anael, Eisheth, Camael, Kushiel, Cassiel, and Naamah, the eldest sister. It was Naamah who treated with the King of Persis for Elua's freedom, offering herself and a night of pleasure in exchange. Besotted, the King accepted and the next morning, he let Elua out. When the cell door opened, a great fragrance of flowers poured forth, and Elua emerged singing, crowned with vines. Inside the cell, vines and flowers grew into the walls and the floor was carpeted with moss and soft grasses."

"Elua and his companions spent many years wandering, searching for a place to settle," he continued, eliding over a fair chunk of stuff, like Persis' betrayal and the trip through Bhodistan and the creation of the Tsingani and the Lungo Drom. "When they wandered through the wilderness, the animals saw that Elua had enough to eat; when they traveled through cities and towns, Naamah would lay down with strangers in the marketplace for coin."

Which led to Terre D'Ange's religion of sacred prostitution, yup! "At last, he came to Terre D'Ange, still unnamed and unclaimed, a rich and beautiful land where olives, grapes, and melons grew, and lavender bloomed in fragrant clouds. And here, the people welcomed him as he crossed the fields and answered him in song, opening their arms. For three-score years, they dwelt there, divvying up the land into six different territories to be claimed by each companion. Blessed Elua took none of those territories for himself, choosing instead to live mostly in the city that bears his name, and Cassiel stayed steadfastly by his side. Cassiel, the Perfect Companion, alone stayed true to the One God's commandment and abjured mortal love for the love of the divine, remaining chaste by Elua's side. The rest of the companions, like Elua himself, took mortal lovers of all stripes, from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, and thus does the world know of D'Angeline beauty, born in the bloodlines from the seed of angels. And first of all laws of our land is the precept Blessed Elua handed down: love as thou wilt."

If you're not tired of talking yet.

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Practical Philosophy, Thursday

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