A dozen pairs of eyes stared at Julius.
The desks provided for the students formed a semi-circle around the teacher, all filled with people except for a desk in the very center. Stepping forward, the man took in his fellow classmates out of the corner of his eye, looking at none of them directly. They all looked normal enough, native born Lhavitians all seeking to learn about the outside world. They watched him, trying to figure him out, just as he was doing himself. No words were spoken, barely a sound made except the shuffling of his feet across the wood.
Julius sat down just as the instructor rose to his feet.
Weathered best described the man who stood in front of the roaring fire. His faced was wrinkled, like a gnarled oak that grew on the mountainside. Ancient had covered his entire body, yet he still was a sight to his eyes. His skin, for example, was tan, whereas many native Lhavitians were pale, and his eyes . . . they were nothing like he had seen before, a shade of blue that no star in the sky could ever hope to attain. It complimented his silver beard and gray hair; with these eyes, he wasn't just some old man, but an old man who knew great things.
He stared at Julius for a moment, sizing him up with those sapphire gems, before he looked past him, to the rest of the class. His voice was as rugged as his visage, yet soft at the same time; Julius almost had to lean forward to hear the words he spoke. "Greetings, young ones. I welcome you all to Anthropology. My name is Nyolt." He bowed at this, inclining his small frame to the crowd. He continued speaking as he returned to his full height. "I've been an instructor at the Alluvion Academy for six years now, come Spring. Before that, I traveled the world as a Seeker, always in search of lost knowledge. Before that, I was the son of a Svefran fisherman and an Inartan glassblower, a child who always wanted to understand the world around him. Before that . . . well, the gods know what I was, not I."
He paused again, looking around the crowd. Lifting his hand up, he pointed a single, gnarled finger towards a girl at the end of the row. "You, tell me your name, and a little about yourself. Then, we'll go around the circle."
The girl, a small, brunette lass with coarse cotton, stood up. She bit her lip for a moment in nervousness, but then she spoke to Nyolt and to her classmates. "My name is Lyn. I'm a waitress at the Skyglass Restaurant. Um, I was born to a healer and a laborer at the shipyards." She sat down quickly, and the next student, a bald man wearing silk robes stood. And so it went down the row, with each student giving a little insight into them.
"My name is Vuris, Acolyte to the Shinya, son of two Shinya Protectors who protected the city before me."
"Name's Sarak. I work as an apprentice blacksmith at the Touch of Fire, but my parents were a miner and Sun Maiden, the Taiyang."
"My parents, who were tailors peddling their wares in the Azure Market, named me Nysima. I'm a dancer for the Ethereal Ballet at the Opera House."
Soon it was Julius' turn. He had sat there, as the others introduced themselves, formulating his response. So far, he had heard the accounts of those high in the social hierarchy, and others who stood at the same level as him. Some accounts were prestigious, some parents big names in the city; others wouldn't have gotten a second glance from him in the city streets. This classroom held representatives from all walks of life in the city. Was that Nyolt's point?
Julius didn't dwell on it long, for the student to his right had taken her seat, and he was up next. Rising gracefully from his seat, Julius set his hands on the wood beneath him as he spoke. "My name is Julius Starr, born to a father who loved his jewels and a mother her stars above. Though my name shines, I dwell in the shadows, specifically behind the bar at the Scholar's Demise." Julius returned to his seat, proud of his choice of words; it had definitely been the most eloquent of everyone thus far, not that it mattered much; this Nyolt didn't seem like one for eloquence, unless it was found in some old tome or from the lips of a foreigner.
A few others to Julius' left introduced themselves as well, and then the floor was all Nyolt's again. The old man looked around, waiting, watching. "Alright then," he said softly. "Now what did you just learn?"
The man to his left raised his hand, and when Nyolt acknowledged him, he blurted out. "I learned where all the beautiful women here work so I can visit them later." The males in the room laughed, including Julius; even Nyolt grinned a little, but he shook his head regardless.
"No . . . well, yes, but no. Look a little deeper."
Look Julius did, too. He looked to his left at the jokester, with his beak of a nose and greasy hair. He looked to his right at the ballet dancer, with her luscious blond hair and deep emerald eyes. He saw the Shinya, the blacksmith, the waitress, even the Seeker in the front of the room. Seeing was easy for Julius, but comprehending all that he saw was difficult, else he wouldn't have come here; anthropology was nothing more than looking deeper with the eyes.
"I see Lhavit's culture, boys and girls, sitting all around you. Look at your surroundings, at the classroom we sit in; this tells us that the city appreciates a good education, and even provide it to their citizens. Now look at the citizens themselves; I see countless professions represented here, from a simple bartender to a protector of the city. This tells you several things. One, education is accessible to all, not just a certain portion of the population. Two, the citizens, despite coming from vastly different backgrounds, all sit as equals in the same room. No segregated classes by your class. Now look even closer at the citizens. Note the facial cues, the skin tone, the eye color. Note how we are all the same, yet we all are different. Look and see culture reveal itself to you."
Nyolt gestures to the room around him. "This is why you are here, my children! You all wish to understand the world around you; thus, I implore you to look. Turn your eyes away from the horizon, away from the knights in their walled city or the the horse lords on their Sea of Grass. Before you can understand lands far away, you must understand your homeland. You must understand Lhavit, how it operates, how it lives. Most of you, if not all, have grown up in this city, so you know a lot of it; in fact, though none of you have lived half as long as I, you've lived in this city longer. Thus, this season I won't be teaching you the culture of Lhavit. Instead, I'll be using this city to teach you culture. Teach you how to recognize the foundations of cultures. Teach you how to break up society into sections for better comprehension. This season, you'll soon understand the concept of culture. And then?
Then you can look back to your horizons, where ever they may lie."
Silence in the room; Nyolt had hooked them all. Even Julius was mesmerized by the words, and he didn't even have a desire to leave the city. If he had doubted his decision to return to school, it had dissipated now; Julius wasn't going anywhere until he learned from this wizened man. Nyolt tapped his desk as he leaned against it.
"Now, let real lesson begin. Someone tell me the basic principle that Lhavit was founded on, over five hundred years ago." And with that, they had truly begun. |