Chapter 6 - History and Mistakes

Lucia walked out of the telepad station arriving back in Theophanies. A short watercar trip from the district tower brought her back to her home, an apartment complex similar to Azel's but with an iconic Theophanies style facade. She made her way to her apartment, thoughts of getting to work without wasting too much more time hastening her steps.

Upon entering her apartment, Lucia took a quick shower and then made her way into her bedroom, pulling on a fresh uniform. With that and a trip to the kitchen for a bit of breakfast, Lucia made her way out of her apartment and on to the Hall of Records.

Entering from a side door for employees, Lucia proceeded to clock in and headed to her usual spot in the lobby. Before she could leave the office, someone coming in from the same door she planned to leave through stopped her.

"Miss Santoro. You're quite late today. You were expected to monitor the lobby an hour ago."

"Ah! Mr. Cato, I-I was just about to…" Lucia started, staring up at the taller, austere barn owl responsible for overseeing the hall's operations.

"You are expected to maintain a certain degree of decorum as an employee of the Hall of Records. No excuses." Cato said, silencing Lucia immediately. "Follow me, I believe you need to be reminded of your obligations."

Hearing her superior's words, Lucia remembered she hadn't cleaned up the reading room after Azel's appointment. Her heart sank as she walked with Cato through the building to the room she had first bonded with Azel in. When they arrived, the room was in the same state as she had left it the evening before, with scrolls strewn unfurled all over the central table.

"You care about history, yes?" Cato said, interrupting Lucia's thoughts.

"Of course, it's the whole reason I work here."

"So you say. History as we know it only spans a little over twelve hundred years, plus an incomplete oral history of the times before that, transcribed onto scrolls like these on the table. The ones you had neglected to return to storage after yesterday's client finished looking at them. Hardly the sort of behavior that suggests you care."

"Right, sorry, sir. I'll take care of it right away…" Lucia reached for a scroll to begin refurling it for storage.

"See that you do." As Lucia tended to the scrolls, Cato continued to speak. "Tell me, Miss Santoro. What do you believe is the point of recording history?"

"The point? To preserve the knowledge of the past, right?"

"Close, but inaccurate. The point of history as I see it is to understand and avoid the failures and mistakes that led to the current day."

"That seems a little bleak."

"Is it? 'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,' so they say. Doomed. An apt term, as I see it. The knowledge in some of those scrolls shows glimpses of a truly dreadful era. I'm sure you are aware of the Silent Centuries."

Lucia stared at Cato blankly. "Of course. Every historian knows about the Silent Centuries."

"Some seven hundred years of literary silence." Cato continued on as if Lucia hadn't said anything. "History is defined by that time, to the degree that even the current era is considered to be 'After Dominion' in direct reference to it. I believe whatever party reigned during the time was aware of the importance of history, and were able to maintain their hold over Anduruna by depriving its citizens of the ability to learn from the mistakes of the past."

"And what about history after that? More failures and mistakes?"

"Your skepticism is noted, but misplaced. Surely you know how many different systems of government Anduruna has gone through in that time."

"Let's see…" Lucia paused to think. "There was the Dayraider dynasty, then the High House kings, and the Council of Seven after that, then finally the Viscounts, where we are today."

"None of those governments had managed to last as long as the ruling class of the Silent Centuries had. The current Viscount system is the only one to come close, because it was built on the knowledge of all those previous failures. Six hundred years of stability built upon six hundred years of mistakes."

"Hold on, you keep saying there was a certain ruling class during the Silent Centuries. Apart from the During and After Dominion terminology, there's no solid proof that there was such a government, or even that only one party ruled during that time."

"True," Cato conceded, "the proof of that theory is shaky at best. But the fact remains that the office of Viscount has been one of the longest lived social structures in history. There is however, one more that has withstood the test of time longer than that."

"And that would be?"

"Miss Santoro, I expected you would know by now. It is obviously Sacrare, the religion whose Hall of Records we stand in at this moment. The history of Sacrare dates back to before even the Silent Centuries, nearly two millennia at the least. It alone has outlasted all of these governments, real and hypothetical."

"Because it grows from its failures and mistakes?"

"You're catching on. Yes, Sacrare has managed to weather the ages by adapting from its past failures. Take its stance on powers, for instance. In the far past, the scriptures called for powers to be used and honed to honor the spirits. After the Last War of Powers left Anduruna a scarred waste however, Sacrare's stance changed dramatically. To move on from a period of destruction caused by irresponsible powers use, its stance began to shift to focus on moral values, with powers taking the role of a dangerous temptation."

"But not every power is destructive enough for that sort of reaction, right?" Lucia thought back to Azel's show, to his power of illusion, and the discussion the two of them had about powers. "Some could still be used for the good of society."

"Perhaps that is true, but for the ones that are dangerous, there is a terrible threat in their very existence. Even accepting the use of more benign powers would set a precedent that could lead to more destruction. Free use of powers was a mistake that the faithful of Sacrare knew not to continue to condone, and even the laws of today have taken that same stance."

"But what if those laws are mistaken too? You said it yourself that history is a series of mistakes."

"That is a dangerous line of thinking, Miss Santoro, and we have already strayed off topic enough. The whole point of this discussion is that you need to notice these sorts of mistakes and either avoid them or improve yourself by learning from them." Cato turned and made his way to the door. "I will leave you to finish tending to your mistakes from yesterday, after which you will take your station in the lobby as usual."

"Of course, sir. I'll take care of the rest of this, then."

"Take care that you do not fall into the trap of thinking that you are incapable of making further mistakes, Miss Santoro." With that said, Cato left the reading room, leaving Lucia to her job and her thoughts.

Making further mistakes, huh? Lucia wondered if Cato ever listened to his own advice, given his quick dismissal of her statement using his own philosophy against him. Still, she couldn't help but notice there were points to what he said. There were at least rational, logical reasons for Sacrare abandoning its prior teachings about powers. Lucia wondered if Azel would just as soon omit those reasons from his shows for the sake of promoting his own argument for powers. She'd have to ask him about his views on the topic sometime.

For now, though, the task of cleaning up the reading room remained. Lucia returned to refurling and storing scrolls, eventually leaving the reading room clean and returning to the lobby. Sitting down at her desk, she checked the lobby's data-scroll for any new appointments, sighing when she saw none.

Azel, it seemed, had been the only one to book an appointment in recent memory. Now that he had his research, it was unlikely that the Hall of Records would have any interesting clients showing up anytime soon. Lucia leaned on the desk, dreading the realization that her day to day life would be returning to a state of repetitive disinterest.

The remaining hours of Lucia's shift dragged on with little to do. She alternated staring idly at the data-scroll with gazing at the door at the end of the lobby, wishing someone would come in to kill the monotony. Lucia considered whether she was even needed at work besides giving Mr. Cato someone to chastise and preach his bleak philosophy to. In her more bored moments, she even considered heading to his office for another round of discussion, as that had at least involved talking about history.

Eventually, her shift came to an end and Lucia made her way back home. As the door closed behind her, she undid a few buttons on her uniform to breathe a little and looked around her apartment. She mused that Azel's and her apartments must have been made by the same company, since the layout was more or less the same: Corner kitchen, decently sized living room, and doors in the back leading to a bathroom and bedroom respectively.

The furniture in Lucia's apartment differed considerably from Azel's though. Where his apartment was relatively unadorned, Lucia's home had much more flavor. Large potted plants at the entrance were one of the first differences, giving a more lively air to the entryway. The corner kitchen had a small dining table near it which held the remains of Lucia's quickly eaten breakfast as well as another smaller potted plant in the center.

Like Azel, Lucia also had bookshelves, though hers were covered with history volumes and had a comfortable chair to read in nestled between them. Landscape pictures of scenery from all around Anduruna lined the walls that were visible from the chair. Lucia would often stare at the pictures after a reading session and imagine what the places they depicted were like in the times she read about.

As she looked around, Lucia thought about what she would do with the rest of the day. She briefly considered taking up her usual ritual of reading and fantasizing about historical events, but today the idea seemed depressing the more she thought about it. Spirits, I'm so boring. What do I even do for fun these days?

Once again, she thought back to the night before. The trip to Ruskol was an interesting diversion even without the context of seeing Azel's show behind it. Even if she didn't go down to the secret bar tonight, the legal facade of the Dry Vein seemed like a pretty comfortable place to spend time. Maybe she would even get herself some unique drinks, since the Dry Vein was ostensibly a brewery as well.

Besides that, she found herself in good company last night, and it couldn't hurt to see some of her new friends again. On top of that, I might even be able to see Azel and ask him more about how he plans to address the more uncomfortable history behind powers…

As she gave herself more and more reasons to go, Lucia began moving over to her bedroom to change into something more presentable for the night she had in mind. Settling on a backless black dress that she remembered accentuated her figure nicely while leaving room for her wings, she quickly started freeing herself from her uniform to get herself into it.

A few minutes of changing later, Lucia was almost ready to head out. Remembering the cold she had to endure previously, she looked through her closet and picked out a thicker white coat to cover herself with. I'll also want to pay attention to the time and leave before the telepad station closes, she thought, remembering the issues of the previous night. With her thoughts and outfit in order, Lucia left her apartment and headed to Ruskol for another night away from her usual routine.