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Bettering Your Community & Yourself, period 3

Jon nodded as people filed into the classroom, fidgeting a bit. He was in his standard first-day-of-class appearance, which meant he wasn't as strung out as he sometimes got, and his clothes were neat and professional, albeit his hair was a bit rumpled from his nervously running his fingers through it.

When it was time to start and he judged everyone had made it in, he cleared his throat and stood up straight. "Welcome. I'm Jonathan Sims, and I'll be teaching this course. Although I suppose it's less teaching and more a sort of guiding." He frowned. "I don't know we're likely to learn new things, so much as experience them. Though I could be wrong."

Look, he'd just told the moose he wanted to do something, anything, where he could teach on his own. He'd given up trying to turn in actual outlines.

"Anyway. This class is meant to involve bettering the community and ourselves, and in order to do that, we have to know what needs bettering. And we've got at least a few people here I haven't taught before. So, let's introduce ourselves, and along with your name, give me one thing about the community and one thing about yourself that you would like to better."

He cleared his throat. "As I said, my name is Jonathan Sims. You may call me Mr. Sims or Jon. I am from London in modern Earth. I would like to see if there's a way to make the steps less slippery when it rains, and I suppose I could get better at relaxing."

He nodded stiffly to the students. "Now you."

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The Thran used the word differently - at least some of them did, Yawgmoth - but Liliana didn't know about that.

She just shrugged and looked at him. "I haven't any idea what any of those words mean, at least not together like that."

"Well, er. If it were from Earth, it would be someone dedicated to believing their race is superior and others should die, looking into the lowest caste of people, especially ph...oh. That's a lung disease." Thank you, Beholding. It was a terrible thing, so of course it told him about it.

"And given what eugenicists are like, they'd probably either be infecting them, or pointing out how much more susceptible to disease they are. Or at best, examining them without attempting to help."

He grimaced. "And if it were my Earth, this would probably be documentation of a place infested by The Corruption."

Upon further reading, it would turn out that this phthisis was not, in fact, the archaic name for tuberculosis, but something else, though part of the book was, in fact, charting the disease and its symptoms.

"I remain repeatedly grateful that Dominaria isn't Earth, and, most particularly, not your Earth," Liliana said crisply. "Which isn't to say that that isn't what the book will end up being about, but there's no guarantee that it will. So little is known about the Thran, other than the great artifacts that they left behind. Theirs was the first Phyrexian War."

Jon nodded. "Hopefully this won't be as bad. I...um. Do...I wonder if I should take it home and read it and take notes, or if you want me to read it to you."

"As much as I would love to know every word, it is very thick and I expect that such a reading with take hours," Liliana said. Regretfully. "Perhaps notes for now and we can figure out how I can get a deeper understanding of the text another time?"

She wasn't sulking about this. Not at all.

Jon nodded. "I can do that. I can maybe do a translation of a chapter at a time, too, but all of it at once would be too much."

Even typing, he'd get hand cramps.

"That would be wonderful," Liliana said, grinning. "Thank you, darling, I truly mean that. You're holding knowledge that no one has known for over ten thousand years."

Jon gave her something of a half-smile, half-grimace. "Well, secret knowledge is rather my 'thing'."

He frowned at the book. "I can tell you it says something about people living in the Caves of the Damned - sounds pleasant - and someone named...Yawgmoth? I'm not sure of that pronunciation."

Her grin fell off and her jaw dropped, eyes wide. "Did you say Yawgmoth?" she demanded. "Who? What? Are you certain? He's a person?"

"Er...yes, I think so. Some sort of healer. I...hope that's not a bad thing," he said, eyeing her nervously.

"That's impossible," she whispered, staring into middle distance.

"W-well, maybe it'll make sense once I read it," Jon offered.

The look Liliana gave him was supremely skeptical. "I would be shocked and amazed if it does, but I hope so," she said. And then, more to herself, "Yawgmoth."

Jon took a moment to reword his question as a statement. "If there's something I ought to know about them, you could let me know."

"Oh, it was only the god of our great enemy, Phyrexia," Liliana said, laughing in disbelief. "He was killed a hundred years before I was born, during the last war with Phyrexia."

"But you said this was about Thran." Jon frowned. She'd also mentioned the Phyrexian war. He sighed. "I should probably get a grounding in your geography at some point."

"I have a truly excellent map, though it won't help you, as Phyrexia is a completely different plane that invaded ours," Liliana said. "But yes, that's why I was caught so off-guard. Why in the Abyss would a Thran doctor have the same name as a Phyrexian god?"

"They could be named after the god," Jon suggested. "Unless they don't do that. It's not common in English, but there are a lot of Spanish men named Jesus, after an aspect of god. Maybe this Yawgmoth's parents were from Phyrexia and gave them a religious name."

Liliana shook her name. "Phyrexia doesn't have families, not like that. They're a melding of living organic matter and machinery and they wish to conquer the entire Multiverse and compleat every being to become just like them." She laughed, bitterly. "At least, those they deem worth compleation. The rest are simply killed."

"That sounds...unpleasant," Jon said, inadequately. "I suppose it's...er. Well, if it's possible, perhaps they..." he gestured vaguely. "Never mind. Maybe I'll find out in reading this."

It absolutely would not, but they didn't know that. "Thank you, darling," she said. "Do let me know what you discover. And if there is any way I can learn to read this."

"I would expect there to be some magical way," Jon said. Didn't you have Comprehend Languages, Lili? "You don't want my way."

Still that other Hasbro property, Jon.

"What is it, exactly, about harnessing the magic of death and ruling the undead makes you think, 'Ah yes, this will be excellent magic for reading foreign scripts,' darling?" Liliana asked, raising an eyebrow. "Furthermore, I do learn languages faster via magic, but I need somewhere to start. This is a foreign script in a foreign tongue. I need either familiarity with the alphabet or familiarity with the language to begin to make heads or tails of something. Honestly now."

And, because she was a teacher regardless of whether or not she was currently teaching, "What color mana would such a spell use anyway?"

"Oh." Jon blinked, not expecting the question. "Blue, I expect. But blue is adjacent to black, and it should be strong on an island, so I would think you would be able to make use of it."

Wasn't he a good student?

He was! Though he was still lacking in some of the basics. "Yes," she said, "I could access blue mana. In fact, I can draw upon any color of mana that I like. But why wouldn't it do me any good?"

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Bettering Your Community & Yourself, period 3

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