[ There's another long pause at that during which Sciel does a bit of natural introspection. Everything -- or nearly everything -- Jasnah says resonates. ]
Trust me, I get it. [ Spoken on a sigh as she returns another book to its place. ] Before we left for our Expedition, I-... Well, you can't know what it'll be like, just from hearing stories. The reality was...quite different.
[ More death than anyone could imagine, even for someone like Sciel who is comparatively unbothered by the concept. ]
Not to mention ending up here. [ There's a laugh at that, followed by the slotting of another book in the space above. ] So...trust me, I understand. Maybe not completely, but...enough.
[ Her own home had been turned on its head in even less time. Though there is a lot that's unknowable and fantastical about this new world, her recent experiences (and fairly easygoing sensibilities) have made the transition all the easier. ]
[ jasnah nods. yes, she can accept that one univeral constant is the concept of change. ]
Stories are helpful. [ she picks one up! leafing through it, pausing to read someone else's marginalia. ] They give us lenses. It's up to us to decide which direction we point those lenses. Backwards, forwards, inwards.
[ softly, she closes the book and places it too on the shelf. ]
— Have any good stories you'd stomach telling now?
Sciel's lip twitches as her hand slows its work. There are so, so many stories she could tell: her 32 years have been full of people and moments that make for good tales.
She doesn't opt for any of those, though. ]
...During the Expedition, we'd come across these beaches. Gestral beaches. Don't ask me why they existed, or why there were so many... I'd say: much as they love fighting, they also love chaos. And these beaches...were chaos.
[ There's a long inhale punctuated by a sigh as she puts away one book and then pauses the task to cross her arms. ]
One in particular... They'd built a tower, impossibly high. And impossibly structured. Not exactly bound by the laws of physics. It was - [ Here she raises her hands, stretching them vertically before her to emphasize the height, the unsteadiness. ] built of...furniture, debris, a literal carousel. And it just stretched high up into the sky, so far you couldn't see the top.
[ A complete waste of time, some might say. And yet... ]
The Gestral at the bottom said there'd be a fabulous prize if you could make it to the top. And we tried, all of us. It was Maelle who finally managed it. I think being a little smaller helped.
[ Her expression here shifts into something like faux-seriousness, the eyes sharpening, though her smile remains. ]
And the 'fabulous prize?' [ pause for drama ] ...A swimsuit.
[ y'know. it's a good story. steeped in just enough hubris (an impossibly tall tower? and attempts to scale it?) to speak to some universal moral or lesson or tenant of human nature. or, perhaps, gestrals nature. jasnah can't be too sure; she's got only a loose understanding of what or who these menaces might be.
it's not lost on her that she's listening to sciel's description of one impossible tower while standing within another impossible tower. funny, how that motif crops up... ]
A suit. [ eventually, jasnah half-echoes. ] ...For swimming?
[ ACADEMICALLY, she can guess at what's being described. rationally, she can understand why this is the punchline to this grand little tale of striving and succeeding. but she's also a product of a deeply repressed society with rather crotchety moral dresscodes and she's having a hard time imagining what, exactly, this prize of a swimsuit is supposed to look like. ]
Ah. [ Right, all that stuff. If it's rude to have her navel on display in front of the Alethi queen, Sciel's probably only been told as much once, or twice, or - ] A...stretchy fabric worn for swimming. [ Swimming, which Sciel detests: something clear on her face as she describes the necessary getup. ] At most, they've got straps on the thinner side and cover the torso, stopping just about here to leave your legs free.
[ She gestures from around her clavicle to just below her hips to show the extent of coverage. ]
Either way, what I mean is: it was an awful prize. And the one they gave us wasn't even for us, but for the Gestral we traveled with.
[ She'll spare Jasnah the horror of hearing about a wooden dog-like creature wearing the tiniest imaginable suit. ]
[ Certainly someone, somewhere, has tried to tell Sciel that it's rude to have her navel on display in front of the Alethi queen; however, that someone has never been Jasnah. She might cleave quite strictly to the modest codes herself — full havah, complete with safehand sleeve — but she also understands the arbitrary ways in which those codes come to be. Sciel's fashion reminds her of what a Riran woman might wear.
And...frankly, her description of a swimming costume trends in a similar direction. Jasnah isn't offended or surprised, but she does listen with a kind of attentive, fascinated expression. It's all data points, all the way down. ]
Perhaps the climb was the true prize. Or the boasting rights.
[ That assessment earns the queen a pleased, upward tug of her lips as Sciel returns to her task. ]
Exactly. That's my takeaway, anyway. [ Up goes one book, then another. ] Not everyone in our group had that perspective, though.
[ Read: Lune had been pissed. ]
Honestly, it was...a nice distraction. [ Back when diversions had been pretty damn necessary to keep your head on straight, otherwise surrounded by death and nightmares as they were. ] Their games made me think of my students. How they would've loved it all.
[ That she misses her class is plain on her face, in the way she grows a touch reflective. ]
[ The doctrine of aspiration, or even one of iterative improvement, is not an easy thing to swallow. Yes, Jasnah can imagine — without knowing the details of Sciel's group — that some might be disappointed in a challenge for it's own sake. Jasnah herself doesn't love the idea of wasted effort. But it's a practice, day in and day out, to remind herself of her oaths.
Her thoughts catch and snag there for a moment longer, idly shelving books, until Sciel says something else that's just a bit more tempting to chase. Her students? ]
I didn't realize you were a teacher.
[ She doesn't mean to sound so...doubtful. It's just that Sciel isn't quite like the scholar-tutors common to Alethi culture. Or even Rosharan as a whole. ]
I was. Before the Expedition. [ Sciel slows her work just enough to brush an idle hand across the bracelets that line her right arm. ] I loved it, and I miss those kids...so much.
[ Though she'd come to Roshar by accident, she's found happiness here (though Sciel is capable of doing that in nearly any situation). There's so much to see and do, so much life and vibrancy and, in many ways, a stability the likes of which she hasn't known...ever. But there are obviously parts of home that maintain their holes in her heart.
She glances briefly to Jasnah, smile present, though twinged with the lingering emotions of the loss. As if sensing the other woman's questions, she adds: ] Wasn't a lot of...choice, with our dwindling population. So we had some unconventional teachers.
[ Sciel included, maybe, though those who'd observed her in the role would argue otherwise. In the end, she'd fit the role so naturally you'd think she'd been born to be a maîtresse. ]
[ If Jasnah feels a pang of shame for the question she doesn't ask — but Sciel nevertheless anticipates — she does well not to show it. It's not that Sciel isn't clever or capable...but. Well. Perhaps Jasnah's expectations are unfairly high for tutors as it is for wards. For what it's worth, she doesn't consider herself to be a terribly good teacher either. There's a reason why she's accepted so few students in her lifetime. ]
I have no doubt you did well by those children.
[ Easy to tell the truth. Jasnah understands, now, that it's not just about the information you can put into someone's head — but how you put it there. ]
And — [ a pause like she's testing out the way empathy tastes on her tongue. ] I'm sorry. I won't complain that you're here, now, but I imagine it's hard to consider what you've left behind.
[ The words earn the other woman a deeper smile still as Sciel picks up a book, thumbing across the cover for a moment as she reminisces. The last class before she'd had to hang it up for a final stretch of serious training had been...such a sweet memory. Something she's held close through the worst of things. A mismatch of students with mingled faces of adoration and tears, a homemade banner strung among them, clutching at her legs and begging her not to go.
"In another life," as Sophie used to say. Maybe she'd have stayed. If the Expedition hadn't been to secure them all a future, then...yeah. She'd have stayed. ]
Thank you. I like to think so. [ There's a soft chuckle as she finds the tome a spot in the stack, continuing on without giving it much thought (beyond what's necessary, anyway). ] They were incredible.
[ All of them, in their own ways. It'd been an honour to help guide their lives, even for just a few years. ]
Oh -- [ The apology, though a sort of formality, surprises her. Sciel turns more fully to Jasnah now, waving it away with an easy brush of her hand through the air. ] No, that's all right. I'm very happy here. And you've been...a big part of that, I hope you know.
[ Presumptuous to assume some degree of friendship with the queen, her voice carries only the honest sincerity that Jasnah will have come to know from Sciel. ]
"Tomorrow comes." [ She echoes the words with a gentle pride. ] I'm still focused on helping build the future.
[ She accepts Sciel's recognition — you've been a bit part of that — with grace and a wordless nod. Not everyone in Urithiru, nor on Roshar as a whole, might be so...well-adjusted to the idea of a visitor from another world. There had been some unfortunate smoothing-over that had to happen during Sciel's earlier days. No fault of her own, just good old xenophobia.
But Jasnah had spotted the pattern. A woman, disruptive to the cultural norms, striding fully against the flow of their insular society. Even when taking into account the different groups of refugees in the tower. From there, it had been a quick and easy decision to try and bring Sciel under her purview.
Deflecting some of the darker topics, she goes back to the notion of Sciel teaching. ]
Hmm... [ With the...haphazard nature of Lumière's population, it hadn't been quite as formal or organized as she knows many schools are. As a result, Sciel herself had needed to learn a lot: to figure out how to both educate and do so with any surety. In the end, she'd become a tentative jack-of-all-trades, working with her class through the expected array of literature, mathematics, history... ]
Oh. [ There's a laugh as she seems to come to an answer. ] Well -- poetry. It isn't anything I'm particularly good at, but it made me smile almost every day. It's so cute, reading what my students came up with. To be able to see them expressing themselves that way. Between you and me, I had to try not to laugh...a lot.
[ Jasnah can perhaps imagine the capital-D Drama that kids might sometimes feel the need to put to paper. They'd been largely histrionic, to say the least. ]
There wasn't anything I really didn't like, though. 'Boring' subjects don't exist: there're just boring methods.
[ Well, hopefully that'd been the case, and her class had been happy with her style. Though...upon further reflection, Sciel isn't sure she's ever been accused of being 'boring' in any context, so. ]
Edited (when you notice a typo the second you hit submit :l) 2025-12-15 14:59 (UTC)
[ It's so...different. Different from what she knows. Different from what she expects. At that age, so much education happens within the home — laying a solid foundation of scholarship before an adolescent is placed with an older woman for her wardship. What chaos it must have been, with a class of small children... ]
— Don't you write any of your own?
[ Poetry, that is. It's such a second-nature type of thing. Jasnah can hardly be accused of being poetic, but she's written plenty. It's part of that same expectation so subverted by the idea of classes of children.
Although she does at least agree with Sciel on the distinction between boring subjects and boring methods. ]
Mm, no...not really. [ That had been more of Verso's territory, she'd learned, along the Expedition. ] I made an effort during the class, of course. Had to practice what I taught, for as much as I got out of my lessons. [ There's a laugh at her own expense as she recalls some of her attempts, nearly wincing at how dramatic some of them seem to her now in hindsight. ] But that's not where any of my talents lie, which is for the best.
[ Though, you know, she's adaptable. If ever someone desperately needs a mediocre poem written by a woman giving it her all, she'll manage.
Sciel slows near completion of her task, looking again to Jasnah with an inquisitive tilt of her head. ]
You write a lot. [ She states, voice weighted with what she considers to be the impressiveness of the feat. ] Do you have any favourites, or...is it usually less personal than that?
[ Nobody loves work they'd penned strictly as part of government work, probably. Nobody's framing their declarations and edicts. Or so she assumes.
[ At Sciel's question, she glances over her shoulder. Her more prized personal library isn't present in this particular reserve library, but there are a handful of old copies of Jasnah's work. Some with water damage, some with someone else's marginalia scribbled into the corners.
Storms. It's been a long time, yes, since she's done much writing of her own. Whole books, rebuttals, the odd ketek. Like the poem she wrote for Shallan and Adolin... ]
I have my favoured essays. [ She confesses with a sly, near-smile. ] Arguments I'm particularly proud of.
[ Sciel's expression lights up a bit at that hint of a smile, her own turning a touch mischievous.
Oh? Any...you'd tell me about? [ She won't ask for a recitation or anything, but getting the gist of it allows her an even deeper understanding of such a complicated woman. ] Not in any detail, just whatever you feel like sharing.
[ They'll be infinitely better than anything Sciel's written, and since it's a self-proclaimed weakness of hers, Sciel is more than eager to get a sense of how Jasnah puts her thoughts to words. And: which of those thoughts she considers to be particularly meaningful in her esteem. ]
[ Oh. Certainly. Jasnah feels little to no compunction over recommending some of her own published work — it's peer reviewed! She can vouch for how well-researched it is! And while she tries not to be boastful about it, she's proud. ]
I can have a copy or two sent to you. If you're curious. [ ...Sciel clearly is, or why else would she ask? ] There's a short essay on women's roles in Vorin societies. And a longer piece about Dawnchant linguistics.
[ Sciel perks up a little at that. She hasn't had a lot of opportunity for reading in general since her arrival, given...well, it's apparently complicated to be an interloper in someone else's world, but she holds a lot of respect for Jasnah and knows well her reputation (positive). Undoubtedly anything she's written will be compelling, even if someone not of this world doesn't grasp all the finer details. ]
I am. Curious, that is. [ If she hadn't made that clear. ] Shall I mark them up in red and send you my feedback?
[ A joke, of course, as it's not only far past the editing stage, but also...she imagines anything Jasnah's written is as flawless as they come. ]
[ This seems to surprise Sciel, whose brows lift considerably. ]
Really? [ And she goes from being taken aback to smiling warmly. ] Well, in that case, I'll...blow the dust off my old teacher's instincts. Think I can still remember how it's done.
[ Sciel is no scholar -- Lune would be a far greater resource for something like this, with all of her scintillating insights -- but that doesn't mean she isn't bright, or that she doesn't have her own insights to offer. ]
[ It can sometimes be hard to see the fondness in her careful, curated expressions. It lurks there — a slight softening of the eyes, a press of the lips. ]
Your current and everyday instincts will suffice.
[ Sometimes it's nice just to exchange thoughts, theories, debate tactics. As if she doesn't expect Sciel to extend herself so much as share herself. ]
[ "You really do see everything," Verso had once told her. In this moment, taking in the minuscule shifts in the other woman's face, Sciel does think she detects some of that fondness, if it isn't too familiar to think as much. ]
"My current and everyday instincts" it is, then. [ And she laughs a little, both amused and pleased by the course of conversation. ] ...In the meantime, Brightness, I think I'm all done here. Where to next?
[ Hopefully there's more to be done, as she's enjoying the excuse to spend more time in Jasnah's company, but...well, Jasnah is still a queen. There will forever be a to-do list, and most of it isn't anything Sciel can lend a hand with.
Maybe, though, her presence at least isn't so distracting that it prohibits her being there? ]
[ A thoughtful hum. Jasnah stands among her pillars of books, deciding carefully which one to next entrust to Sciel. None of them are particularly precious, so she doesn't have to interrogate the choice too deeply.
With a pointed finger (right hand, bare) she indicates a particularly numerous stack by the edge of the room's desk. ]
[ And Sciel is happy to oblige, moving to the stack (noting, pleased, that this might keep her occupied for a while yet) and beginning to find them homes on the same shelf.
The question slows her only briefly, giving her pause before she places the first book. ]
I...have, a little. There's been so much going on since I arrived that I haven't thought about it practically, but... [ There's another brief delay as she taps a finger against the cover of the next tome. ] Well, I wouldn't be opposed. I think I'd need some schooling of my own first, though. There's a lot to learn, and I don't want to mislead the local youth talking about the Fracture and the Paintress.
[ Of course, Lumerian history and 'current events' were only a fraction of the curriculum, but those things had also dominated all their lives so completely that it'd almost been a running current in the background of all else, even for children. And, obviously, those bits are irrelevant here, and there's so much of this world still to know. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Trust me, I get it. [ Spoken on a sigh as she returns another book to its place. ] Before we left for our Expedition, I-... Well, you can't know what it'll be like, just from hearing stories. The reality was...quite different.
[ More death than anyone could imagine, even for someone like Sciel who is comparatively unbothered by the concept. ]
Not to mention ending up here. [ There's a laugh at that, followed by the slotting of another book in the space above. ] So...trust me, I understand. Maybe not completely, but...enough.
[ Her own home had been turned on its head in even less time. Though there is a lot that's unknowable and fantastical about this new world, her recent experiences (and fairly easygoing sensibilities) have made the transition all the easier. ]
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Stories are helpful. [ she picks one up! leafing through it, pausing to read someone else's marginalia. ] They give us lenses. It's up to us to decide which direction we point those lenses. Backwards, forwards, inwards.
[ softly, she closes the book and places it too on the shelf. ]
— Have any good stories you'd stomach telling now?
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Sciel's lip twitches as her hand slows its work. There are so, so many stories she could tell: her 32 years have been full of people and moments that make for good tales.
She doesn't opt for any of those, though. ]
...During the Expedition, we'd come across these beaches. Gestral beaches. Don't ask me why they existed, or why there were so many... I'd say: much as they love fighting, they also love chaos. And these beaches...were chaos.
[ There's a long inhale punctuated by a sigh as she puts away one book and then pauses the task to cross her arms. ]
One in particular... They'd built a tower, impossibly high. And impossibly structured. Not exactly bound by the laws of physics. It was - [ Here she raises her hands, stretching them vertically before her to emphasize the height, the unsteadiness. ] built of...furniture, debris, a literal carousel. And it just stretched high up into the sky, so far you couldn't see the top.
[ A complete waste of time, some might say. And yet... ]
The Gestral at the bottom said there'd be a fabulous prize if you could make it to the top. And we tried, all of us. It was Maelle who finally managed it. I think being a little smaller helped.
[ Her expression here shifts into something like faux-seriousness, the eyes sharpening, though her smile remains. ]
And the 'fabulous prize?' [ pause for drama ] ...A swimsuit.
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it's not lost on her that she's listening to sciel's description of one impossible tower while standing within another impossible tower. funny, how that motif crops up... ]
A suit. [ eventually, jasnah half-echoes. ] ...For swimming?
[ ACADEMICALLY, she can guess at what's being described. rationally, she can understand why this is the punchline to this grand little tale of striving and succeeding. but she's also a product of a deeply repressed society with rather crotchety moral dresscodes and she's having a hard time imagining what, exactly, this prize of a swimsuit is supposed to look like. ]
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[ She gestures from around her clavicle to just below her hips to show the extent of coverage. ]
Either way, what I mean is: it was an awful prize. And the one they gave us wasn't even for us, but for the Gestral we traveled with.
[ She'll spare Jasnah the horror of hearing about a wooden dog-like creature wearing the tiniest imaginable suit. ]
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And...frankly, her description of a swimming costume trends in a similar direction. Jasnah isn't offended or surprised, but she does listen with a kind of attentive, fascinated expression. It's all data points, all the way down. ]
Perhaps the climb was the true prize. Or the boasting rights.
[ Journey before destination, Radiant! ]
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Exactly. That's my takeaway, anyway. [ Up goes one book, then another. ] Not everyone in our group had that perspective, though.
[ Read: Lune had been pissed. ]
Honestly, it was...a nice distraction. [ Back when diversions had been pretty damn necessary to keep your head on straight, otherwise surrounded by death and nightmares as they were. ] Their games made me think of my students. How they would've loved it all.
[ That she misses her class is plain on her face, in the way she grows a touch reflective. ]
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Her thoughts catch and snag there for a moment longer, idly shelving books, until Sciel says something else that's just a bit more tempting to chase. Her students? ]
I didn't realize you were a teacher.
[ She doesn't mean to sound so...doubtful. It's just that Sciel isn't quite like the scholar-tutors common to Alethi culture. Or even Rosharan as a whole. ]
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[ Though she'd come to Roshar by accident, she's found happiness here (though Sciel is capable of doing that in nearly any situation). There's so much to see and do, so much life and vibrancy and, in many ways, a stability the likes of which she hasn't known...ever. But there are obviously parts of home that maintain their holes in her heart.
She glances briefly to Jasnah, smile present, though twinged with the lingering emotions of the loss. As if sensing the other woman's questions, she adds: ] Wasn't a lot of...choice, with our dwindling population. So we had some unconventional teachers.
[ Sciel included, maybe, though those who'd observed her in the role would argue otherwise. In the end, she'd fit the role so naturally you'd think she'd been born to be a maîtresse. ]
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I have no doubt you did well by those children.
[ Easy to tell the truth. Jasnah understands, now, that it's not just about the information you can put into someone's head — but how you put it there. ]
And — [ a pause like she's testing out the way empathy tastes on her tongue. ] I'm sorry. I won't complain that you're here, now, but I imagine it's hard to consider what you've left behind.
[ Before the Expedition or otherwise. ]
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"In another life," as Sophie used to say. Maybe she'd have stayed. If the Expedition hadn't been to secure them all a future, then...yeah. She'd have stayed. ]
Thank you. I like to think so. [ There's a soft chuckle as she finds the tome a spot in the stack, continuing on without giving it much thought (beyond what's necessary, anyway). ] They were incredible.
[ All of them, in their own ways. It'd been an honour to help guide their lives, even for just a few years. ]
Oh -- [ The apology, though a sort of formality, surprises her. Sciel turns more fully to Jasnah now, waving it away with an easy brush of her hand through the air. ] No, that's all right. I'm very happy here. And you've been...a big part of that, I hope you know.
[ Presumptuous to assume some degree of friendship with the queen, her voice carries only the honest sincerity that Jasnah will have come to know from Sciel. ]
"Tomorrow comes." [ She echoes the words with a gentle pride. ] I'm still focused on helping build the future.
no subject
But Jasnah had spotted the pattern. A woman, disruptive to the cultural norms, striding fully against the flow of their insular society. Even when taking into account the different groups of refugees in the tower. From there, it had been a quick and easy decision to try and bring Sciel under her purview.
Deflecting some of the darker topics, she goes back to the notion of Sciel teaching. ]
What was your favourite subject to cover?
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Oh. [ There's a laugh as she seems to come to an answer. ] Well -- poetry. It isn't anything I'm particularly good at, but it made me smile almost every day. It's so cute, reading what my students came up with. To be able to see them expressing themselves that way. Between you and me, I had to try not to laugh...a lot.
[ Jasnah can perhaps imagine the capital-D Drama that kids might sometimes feel the need to put to paper. They'd been largely histrionic, to say the least. ]
There wasn't anything I really didn't like, though. 'Boring' subjects don't exist: there're just boring methods.
[ Well, hopefully that'd been the case, and her class had been happy with her style. Though...upon further reflection, Sciel isn't sure she's ever been accused of being 'boring' in any context, so. ]
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— Don't you write any of your own?
[ Poetry, that is. It's such a second-nature type of thing. Jasnah can hardly be accused of being poetic, but she's written plenty. It's part of that same expectation so subverted by the idea of classes of children.
Although she does at least agree with Sciel on the distinction between boring subjects and boring methods. ]
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[ Though, you know, she's adaptable. If ever someone desperately needs a mediocre poem written by a woman giving it her all, she'll manage.
Sciel slows near completion of her task, looking again to Jasnah with an inquisitive tilt of her head. ]
You write a lot. [ She states, voice weighted with what she considers to be the impressiveness of the feat. ] Do you have any favourites, or...is it usually less personal than that?
[ Nobody loves work they'd penned strictly as part of government work, probably. Nobody's framing their declarations and edicts. Or so she assumes.
Maybe one of the Highprinces... ]
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Storms. It's been a long time, yes, since she's done much writing of her own. Whole books, rebuttals, the odd ketek. Like the poem she wrote for Shallan and Adolin... ]
I have my favoured essays. [ She confesses with a sly, near-smile. ] Arguments I'm particularly proud of.
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Oh? Any...you'd tell me about? [ She won't ask for a recitation or anything, but getting the gist of it allows her an even deeper understanding of such a complicated woman. ] Not in any detail, just whatever you feel like sharing.
[ They'll be infinitely better than anything Sciel's written, and since it's a self-proclaimed weakness of hers, Sciel is more than eager to get a sense of how Jasnah puts her thoughts to words. And: which of those thoughts she considers to be particularly meaningful in her esteem. ]
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I can have a copy or two sent to you. If you're curious. [ ...Sciel clearly is, or why else would she ask? ] There's a short essay on women's roles in Vorin societies. And a longer piece about Dawnchant linguistics.
[ Girl's got range! ]
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I am. Curious, that is. [ If she hadn't made that clear. ] Shall I mark them up in red and send you my feedback?
[ A joke, of course, as it's not only far past the editing stage, but also...she imagines anything Jasnah's written is as flawless as they come. ]
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I'd — I'd welcome your thoughts. [ Her annotations, her marginalia. ] I'll be sure to source fresh copies. With lots of space for commentary.
[ There's a kind of careful eagerness to the not-quite-request. She's quite genuinely eager to engage in some kind of literary back-and-forth. ]
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Really? [ And she goes from being taken aback to smiling warmly. ] Well, in that case, I'll...blow the dust off my old teacher's instincts. Think I can still remember how it's done.
[ Sciel is no scholar -- Lune would be a far greater resource for something like this, with all of her scintillating insights -- but that doesn't mean she isn't bright, or that she doesn't have her own insights to offer. ]
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Your current and everyday instincts will suffice.
[ Sometimes it's nice just to exchange thoughts, theories, debate tactics. As if she doesn't expect Sciel to extend herself so much as share herself. ]
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"My current and everyday instincts" it is, then. [ And she laughs a little, both amused and pleased by the course of conversation. ] ...In the meantime, Brightness, I think I'm all done here. Where to next?
[ Hopefully there's more to be done, as she's enjoying the excuse to spend more time in Jasnah's company, but...well, Jasnah is still a queen. There will forever be a to-do list, and most of it isn't anything Sciel can lend a hand with.
Maybe, though, her presence at least isn't so distracting that it prohibits her being there? ]
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With a pointed finger (right hand, bare) she indicates a particularly numerous stack by the edge of the room's desk. ]
That one. Same shelf.
[ Sciel's help is far from a distraction. ]
— Have you considered doing any teaching here?
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The question slows her only briefly, giving her pause before she places the first book. ]
I...have, a little. There's been so much going on since I arrived that I haven't thought about it practically, but... [ There's another brief delay as she taps a finger against the cover of the next tome. ] Well, I wouldn't be opposed. I think I'd need some schooling of my own first, though. There's a lot to learn, and I don't want to mislead the local youth talking about the Fracture and the Paintress.
[ Of course, Lumerian history and 'current events' were only a fraction of the curriculum, but those things had also dominated all their lives so completely that it'd almost been a running current in the background of all else, even for children. And, obviously, those bits are irrelevant here, and there's so much of this world still to know. ]
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