It just so happens that Gweneth's very first class of her academic career is "Galactic History 101" with Professor Hakeber. There are only about a dozen students, with Ghostwing taking up the desk in the furthest corner by the windows. Kalalani and Kai are also taking the class.
"Okay look, Professor Drinkandbeer's pretty chill, so you can get away with some things, but don't push it. She takes her lessons seriously. So, uh, pay attention. Mostly. Look, I don't care what a lot of other whatevers did either, but it might be important some day, so here we are. Mom wants us to know this stuff. I think. Maybe we're supposed to kill them some day-- er forget I said that. What I mean is-- Okay. Pay attention. Mostly. The. Professor. Is. Easy going. Relax. Don't wander around. Don't break anything, especially other students. No laser beams. The Hake's mom's friend, so she'll know if this goes badly, even if Spy wasn't here." Kalalani says 'Spy' almost like 'Kai', and it's all said in a whisper after everyone enters and Kala corners Gwyneth in the corner near the exit. "Got everything? Yes? You're smiling. That's probably good. And bouncing. It's very exciting, I get it. Okay your seat's in the front, so go on. You're on your own now, but we'll be here if you need us." And then Gwyneth gets turned towards the class and gently nudged to the fore. Gwyneth does move, saving her older sister form the embarrassment of being unable to even budge her.
And so Gwyneth makes her way down the isle, arms swaying, pausing to lean over and inspect this or that person, often with her brows up, much like she'd peek under leaves and in to holes back home.
"Everyone please take your seats," Hakeber says, looking at Gweneth.
Gwyneth, who had been examining a set of twins, perks up, looks to her seat, looks back, looks to Kala who makes a 'nodding and chair pointing gesture' and then drifts toward her seat as if compelled to it. She drops down on to it with a bounce, tail slowly swaying from side to side.
"Now then," Hakeber says. "Some of you may have had standard Galactic History as part of your prior education, but here we teach actual Galactic History, going back 5 billion years, before the age of the Starseeds." This causes a few of the new students to perk up. On the screen behind her a timeline appears. "Normally, history is divided into the Current Epoch and the First Ones Epoch. That's only half the story. We're going to cover the Outsiders, Ancients and Starseeds, as well as the Extinctions and Progenitors."
"Starting out with the secret stuff, I see," Kai whispers to Kala.
Gwyneth is probably paying attention. She does look around a lot, and also at one point taps the nails of her pointer fingers together with a look of abject concentration, before rubbing her nose, and then tilting her head to stare at a wall for about ten seconds.
"Yeah well it's never 'and the mystery is, you all get free money, drugs, and slutty people!', it's always 'this happened, and here's why it's a horror,'" Kala counters. She has her head propped on her desk, slouched back in her chair, idly spinning her pencil between her fingers in a feat of dexterity.
A list of names appears on the screen, at the very beginning of the timeline: Adad, Amon, Namrat, Beuu, Nergal, Irra and Nunn. "These are the names that have been given to the eight 'creator deities' that we're calling the Ogdoad. They have other names across time and culture, and have largely been forgotten by design. They are not deities, but entities from outside of our universe that set certain things into motion for their own ends. They started the age of Outsiders, referring mostly to the first 'life' created in the universe. If you noticed how I said 'life' instead of life, you're paying attention. Because these creations are not anything like life as we know it."
This causes a lot of muttering, except from the lone Silent-Ones student, who just gapes in shock.
"And then the school was discredited," Kala laments quietly, sighing.
Gwyneth doesn't react much at all, she doesn't perk up, nor look aghast. She seems very interested in her desk's surface, in fact, running a finger along its smoothness.
"Some cultures even called these beings dragons," Hakeber says, watching Gweneth. "In the classical sense of creatures that were too powerful and terrible to deal with. But they actually have no physical form, and are frankly impossible for us to understand. But every so often an artist will feel a glimpse of them, and that's how their existence has been passed down, even through the great extinctions. But that's getting ahead of myself! The age of Outsiders begins with the species known as Outsiders. Semi-mythical creatures of crystal and liquid helium, which may have created the original Galactic Library. These were the intermediaries summoned the other entities of this epoch, the Ogdru-hem. These were the slaves of the Ogdoad, beings that had one foot in our reality while still being of extra-dimensional origin. Through the Outsiders and the Ogdru-hem, the first true life forms were created, going on to become the Ancients. It may have been one of these first civilizations that created the Starseeds which spread life throughout the galaxy, and likely more than just our galaxy."
Gwyneth's head shoots up at the mention of dragons, the smooth-feeling finger moving from desk to point at herself questioningly. When nothing more forthcoming about dragons is told to her, the finger slowly drifts down in sad, rather forlorn manner, and her ears flatten a little. But at least she's paying attention now -- and perhaps was already.
"At least their ego is comprehensible," Kala says of dragons and Gwyneth, arching an eye at her reaction while seming to not be paying attention to anything much at all prior. Truly, the skill of lazy teens.
"Where does all of this come from, ma'am?" one of the students asks. "We'll be going over the sources over the duration of this course, and don't call me ma'am!" Hakeber snaps a bit. "Ahem. You may address me as Professor Hakeber." She also casts a look at Kala when she says that too.
Kala raises her arms in surrender at at the sudden focus of attention; Kai might get the impression this happens regularly enough, as Kala's expression doesn't so much as twitch at the unspoken accusation.
"Where was I?" Hakeber asks, and checks the display. "Right, the Ancients. These were the first civilizations in the universe, and some of them were very aware of and served the Ogdoad. They created the Galactic Library.. or the Pan-Galactic Library, as we have good reason to think there were at least 5 linked-galaxies back then. The Ancients grew and reigned for over a billion years, until one of the oldest and most advanced rebelled against the Ogdoad and managed to actually imprison them. This lead to the first great extinction. That civilization was known as the Xylphrim, or as we call them today: the Sifras. Yeah, they're that old."
Gwyneth perks up more at the mention of the Xylphrim, having, apparently, heard the name before, and there are only a handful of people that would have likely mentioned that name to her -- Tasha herself being the most likely. They are, after all, the creator of the worlds she and Hakeber were born on. It would make sense they might come up in a talk about where their mother comes from. "Pain-crystal is Xylphrim!" Her tail wags, she knows something.
"Yes, Gweneth, this outpost is made of Xylprhim Crystal. They were the only ones to survive the event that wiped out all other technological civilizations. Not just in the galaxy, but possibly the entire universe," Hakeber says, and pauses for that to sink in. "This reset things, and brought on the epoch of the First Ones, even though they were second galactic civilization. We haven't found anything to indicate for certain that the pentad of galaxies still existed during this time. The First Ones civilizations and Galactic society lasted up until about 2 million years ago, with the Elohim War leading into the next Great Extinction."
"War?" Ghostwing asks. "Elohim?"
"We will get to that in time," Hakeber promises. "This leads to the current epoch, which can also be called the Progenitor Epoch. I'm sure you're all familiar with the myths of the Progenitors?"
Gwyneth's enthusiasm falls somewhat as she does not, in fact, seem to know anything more to add. But she does appear to be listening, and her ears are up. How much she understands isn't clear, but sounds are passing in to her brain surely, or whatever she might have.
Well Gwyneth does know something about progenitors. "Horus!"
Kala sucks in a breath just as Gwyneth speaks, then exhales. "I was worried she was about to say 'uncle Mel and uncle Horus or something, it's different when you know one of them by name and occasionally exchanges awkward helloes and evasions about studies," she whispers to Kai.
"Well, Hakeber is also her aunt, and she hasn't mentioned that yet," Kai whispers in reply.
"Eh you got me there, but old Beer-- er, Professor Drinknwine isn't. you know, a Progenitor. Hey, do you think mom's a progenitor? Can I put her on the test? I could get like, double presents for my birthday or something with that," Kala counters.
"Now, because we have the most information on the current Epoch, we will start there and work our way backwards," Hakeber explains. "But even so, there will be a lot of new information not taught anywhere else."
"She's only a progenitor to you and your half-sisters," Kai quietly assures. "She may show up on the test when it comes to references though."
"Hey if we delay the test like, a million years, I bet she'll have a whole branch and civilization so, like, we should completely do that," Kala insists, with an ever so faint smirk.
Hakeber claps her hands together once, loudly. "So, who here knows about First Ones artifacts?"
Kala goes very still, like prey trying to avoid a predator. Kala frowns, opens her mouth, closes it, frown more deeply, and then her tail slows.
"Yes, Kalalani!" Hakeber spots. "Share!"
"Ugh," murmurs Kalalani, who sits up a bit and puts her hands together palms flat, perhaps a prayer to the memory and academic gods that she knows something correct and doesn't further reinforce her position as the worst of the daughter students. "Right, uh, artifacts. So, they're made of this liquid-crystal like material that the Galactics can't reproduce. They can generate effects that are kind of like magic, that vary widely, though most, like, almost all, are inert. You can't sell them legally because they're dangerous. They also draw Titanian attention. What else... Oh right, it's not really certain what powers them. Or, well, there are some guesses but the guesses are, like, a few class numbers above my pay grade."
"That's a good summary of Sifran Artifacts," Hakeber says. "But what about other First Ones?"
Ghostwing slumps down, which of course draws Hakeber's predator instinct. "Tella-kar, can you expand on this subject?"
"Oh those... The one I know pretty well," and here Kala slides Kai a thumbs up under her desk, "... is a material kind of like stone, but, not stone." Seeing someone else taking the heat now, Kala immediately slumps back down and forfeits -- indeed ejects from -- the floor.
"Well... First Ones artifacts are often made of unknown materials and the ones that work can seem to defy the known laws of physics and chemistry, at least what we're able to access from the Library," the Vartan mumbles. "Some of the 'older' races, like the Celestials, use artifacts as part of their own technology. Ship hulls and drive systems, supposedly. Races that have working artifacts seem to have an advantage over those that do not."
"Ah yes, the politics of power," Hakeber says. "Which is why trafficking in artifacts is illegal. And likely to draw the attention of the Titanians, as Kalalani pointed out. It is often speculated that the Titanians horde these ancient technologies, as they do not have access to the Library. Allegedly. You'd have to ask them to be certain."
There's some nervous laughter on the notion of asking Titanians about things.
"Hopefully we will be able to get one in as a guest speaker though this term," Hakeber says, sounding completely serious.
"Oh cool, I saw mom drinking with some once. I bet they have drinks that can just, like, kill you instantly. I'm so attending that lecture," Kala whispers to Kai.
Kai whispers, "You will attend every lecture, or you will not need to worry about a drink killing you instantly."
"So much for the cool friend facade," Kalalani laments with another sigh, sliding further down in to her chair and folding her arms across her chest.
"Oh, I'm lots of fun," Kai quietly promises. "I can easily revive you after all."
"What did I do to deserve this," Kala wonders at the world.
"You chose to be the popular one," Kai whispers.
"They hate me because I'm beautiful. Damn you Fiera and your offputting stoic demeanor!" Kala grumbles, head shaking, if all in a very muted way to avoid further attention and thus questions.
"During this course you will also get to handle some First Ones artifacts," Hakeber says. "Although there are some that are not obvious, like entire planets that have been moved from one star system to another, possibly several times. Is there something you disagree with, Kalalani?"
"My lot in life, clearly it's the curse of the Progenitors for disturbing their tomb," Kalalani replies with practiced and languid flippancy.
Hakeber sighs. "I think you should sit in the front row for the rest of this course, young lady," she sighs. "I was able to maintain my academics while enjoying a wild, hedonistic lifestyle of sexual escapades, alcohol and junk food so I expect you to be able to manage that much as well. Do you want Rebby to show you up?"
That also gets the attention of the others in class, many of whom are torn between looking at Hakeber and looking at Kala.
"Not everyone is so talented as you, Professor, I've only managed the sexual escapades and hedonisim part," Kala says with equally practiced and languid ass-kissing, though with a sardonic edge that suggests maybe she's a bit tired of it and would rather be elsewhere. "I'll sit next to my sister if you want. This girl Kai's too edgelordy for me."
"Then please come up," Hakeber says. "And for the rest of you, I usually throw an end-of-term party for my students.. the ones that score high enough. Miss Edgelord back there will even do a striptease, I imagine."
Kai doesn't comment but does smirk.
"Nooot my type," Kala says as she scoops up her books, then mases through students with the easy grace of a dancer made of muscles, as one would expect of a half-Phin. She makes her way down the isle and nods and smiles to various people, asking about their day, telling the twins they look great today, and otherwise proceeding like a politician in a hovercar motorcade before dropping down to sit next to Gwyneth. "Hey Gwyn, having fun?"
Gwyneth just beams at her sister, which earns her a ruffle of the hair and a hug before she slings an arm around her shoulders and resumes slouching in her seat, except now, front row. "Front and center Miss H. Sorry, Professor H."
"Kai is everyone's type when she wants to be," Hakeber mutters. Then she smiles again. "We will also cover the meaning of life, in an objective sense, during this course. Now, if anyone is uncomfortable with these topics, now is the time to drop out. Not you Kala."
There's some shuffling and fidgeting, but it's the Silent-One that eventually gets up and leaves, after giving a bow to the professor.
The hand had already been going up when Hakeber shoots it back down. "Discrimination!" Then kala turns to Gwyneth, and adds, "See that Gwyn?? Discrimination!"
"Discrimination!" Gwyneth then also declares, and then following her sister, also holds a fist up in a sign of solidarity and defiance of authority.
"This is a required course for you two," Hakeber says. "If you have trouble, then Sophia can tutor you."
"Oooo," says one of the other students who is apparently familiar with Sophia.
"Aaagh not that, can't you just execute me instead? Fine, I'll listen. You're the less insufferable Professor. Congratulations." Then Kala blinks. "You can put your fist down now, Gwyn. The rebellion is over, they used a weapon of mass destruction and we're forced to surrender. No one deserves to be tutored by Sophia. No one."
"No one," Gwyneth echoes in the same ominous intonation as her hand goes down, but her tail is wagging a lot, and so like her sister she switches to paying attention mode, perhaps because of her sister,
"Now, take out your pads," Hakeber says, and wipes the display. "We're going to start with the Progenitors, although of course they have many names. But each species has specific ones unique to them, while maintaining a very similar mythology across cultures - Terrans being a slight exception, outside of certain cults and traditions..."
The rest of the period is Hakeber going over the 'basics' of the Progenitors that are common to all Galactics and well known within each species. They deal with the notion that every species was uplifted from pre-sapient animals by a Progenitor, which helped guide them until they reached a certain level of civilization before vanishing.
What Hakeber gets is Kala actually taking decent (for Kala, and probably for any decent if not standout student) notes. Despite her class clownery, she seems quite capable for taking notes and following the narrative. She is a pilot, after all, and she still has a above-par education.
Gwyneth, well, she stares at her pencil for a long moment before trying to lick it, which Kala interrupts, whisper-explains she needs to write what the professor says, then she writes everything down verbatim while also using the pencil to doodle in little renditions of the various deceptions of Progenitors in styles ranging from childish and cartoony to eerily realistic, occassionally without even looking at her tablet as she does so. Her's is a flowing, whimsical script.
"Now, let's go around and hear everyone's Progenitor," Hakeber says. The expected answers of Eve, Horus, Mafdet and Ahriman are given by the students, with the exception of Kai claiming Lilith, until it comes down to Kala and Gweneth.
"Well obviously my Progenitor is my mother, Aldara Tasha Argentine, you can see her in such ancient artifacts as the pictures of her all over school and that statue in the quad. You know. Because we're mezzodes." And then Hakeber gets an exaggerated wink from Kala, hidden and blocked from the other students by her posture and by clever use of Gwyneth's wings and head.
And then Gwyneth answers, "Mamma! And... mamma!" And then Hakeber is treated to a startlingly realistic drawing of both Tasha and Gwyndrael holding hand-to-paw in a beautiful forest setting.
"Well, you can be said to have multiple Progenitors then, besides just your mother," Hakeber says. "All of them, pretty much, except for Ahriman. But, you also don't have a mythology yet, so we're skipping over you!"
"From the Progenitors we get the tradition of Uplift, with Patrons and Clients," Hakeber notes. "Some of you here are Patrons and some are Clients. There have only been a few 'generations' of this so far, and we don't know if the First Ones or Ancients practiced this or not."
"YES, finally! Reverse discrimination! Reverse discrimination!" And of course Gwyneth joins in, without appearing to really know why, other than her sister is doing it and it seems like fun; or maybe she does understand and it seems like fun. She did just generate near photo-realistic images without looking at her page while looking rather a little gormless.
Hakeber reaches over and flicks each girl's nose. "Aren't you both 16 years old now?" she asks.
"Hey I'm seventeen and a half," Kala insists, rubbing her nose.
Gwyneth also rubs her nose--
And then she is right there standing in front of Hakeber, and flicks her nose and it hurts! And there's Gwyneth, smiling, like it's a game.
"Woah, Gwyn! Hey!" Kalalani hurries up and guides Gwyneth back toward her seat. "It's just teasing, that was a bit... much. Are you alright Professor?"
But Hakeber likely knows, or at least has heard, how much worse that could have been. Gwyneth has the strength of a true dragon, and could probably crack sapphire with her fists, let alone someone's nose. It does hurt though, and is that blood..?
"Sit. Down." Hakeber says to Gweneth, in a rumbly mom-voice. "You aren't supposed to respond like that to adults, Gwen," Kai says in the girl's head. "Sit down and apologize. You were disrupting the class, and got punished. Blame Kala."
Gwyneth meets Hakeber's eyes with her own in an unblinking stare, nose up, eyes wide. She can feel Gwyneth's presence like a pressure, looming like mountain's shadow. And there she lingers as the voices roll over her, thinking in that familiar yet alien mind, pondering, or perhaps, too incensed to act. A dragon, affronted.
"Hey, uh, it's my fault. I should have warned her that might happen, I... " And then Kala falters, and something slips in her expression. Something like guilt, pained and real. Her own expression hardens and then she sits down, but does not pull on Gwyn any further. "Do what you want Gwyn. Whatever your heart tells you. I'll back you up... No matter what."
The words roll over Gwynetherion, and they seem to ease the sudden sharp edge, if not the defiance. "Don't hurt again," Gwyneth orders, and then she very deliberately and slowly sits down again, clearly making it painfully clear she is chosing to. She does not apologize.
Kalalani exhales a nervous sigh of what could generously be called relief, running her hands back through her fin-hair.
Hakeber dabs at her nose, and the chime rings signalling the end of the period. "You're all excused," she tells the class, but looks disappointed at Kala and Gwen.. and Kai too, who gets a 'fix this' look instead.
Kai comes up to collect the sisters. "You are supposed to be a better influence, Kala," she notes. "And you are supposed to be well behaved. Am I going to have to make you behave, Gweneth?"
Kala looks up, but her expression is uncharacteristically bitter. "Maybe Gwyn doesn't need you. She's going to go fight for everybody, she doesn't to kiss everyone's ass. Maybe they should kiss her's for the privilege of getting saved while sitting on their ass teaching."
Gwyneth turns to her sister and listens, frowning, but then she reaches over and rubs Kala's not-hair up, just as Kala always does her's. This makes Kale convulse in choke of emotion, suddenly sucking in a breath.
"We're not your puppets," Kala spits out in a tight, emotional breath. "Lets go, Gwyn." And then she rises, and Kala, frowning more, rises as well.
When they meet Kai Kala's expression is hard again. "We're not your puppets either. We get all this dumped on us, and we're all expected to just go with it, learn it, be nice to everyone and like it. I'm kind of sick of it. So you know what? Do your worst. I don't need your ship. I don't need any of this. If that's not good enough for you, if me doing what I do just isn't enough, then tell mom I'm sorry and I quit. And you know, one more thing. Maybe a dragon fighting the great horrors ought to be something more than a polite kiss ass bowing to a bunch of Galactic bumpkins who can't even handle the truth. Maybe she should be, you know, stronger than that."
"So you think Gwen should face it all alone?" Kai asks. "With none of the support structure your mother has been building? Do you think she should go into any fight not knowing when or how to back down when it's clear she can't win?" Kai sighs. "I'll tell Kainudy you're out then, Kala. Gwen will just have me to help in her education from now on. But you will not have a say in how I manage her."
"Manage." Kalalani repeats it like a curse. "Look, I get she needs people, that's fine. But you're all so full of yourselves. You ancient muckity mucks, the Professor up there, what happened to her? This happened to her. I think maybe you're bad for Gwen. Maybe you're bad for all of us. You and that old dragon. I don't know. But I do know I'm not letting you have her. I'll talk to mom before that."
And then Kalalani begins walking off, head shaking, body tense--
Only before Gweneth to reach over and take her arm. Kala looks back, opens her mouth to say something, then seems to think better of whatever she was about to say and just says, "Yeah, let's go. Let's let leave the old witch here. I guess she'll have failed, too? Eh? Let's go talk to mom."
Hakeber is frowning. "Just going to let them go?" she asks Kai. The apparent girl shrugs, and says, "It's Tasha's crusade. If she doesn't want Gweneth to handle it, there's always Fiera and Ashera. Just means looking for an alternative way to kill an Ogdru-hem."
Hakeber twitches at that.
Kai pats Hakeber, and says, "Don't worry, you won't have to go through all of that again like you did with Sedu-hem, I promise." Then she follows after the other two girls.
"It's everyone's crusade, because it's everyone's life. Who cares if you save the universe but can't even live the way you want? It's just tyranny by another name," Kala counters, reaching down and punching up her mother's personal contact, starting to type up a message. "And why do you care, it's not your universe? Do you even care about anything? I mean, you're the slave or something to that old dragon who can't keep her shit together, who ruined our party, and startled Gweneth. All you hard edged old fossils ended up doing was burning yourselves out, down. I heard your world got obliterated. What was it all for?" And then she looks to Gweneth for a long, long moment, bites her lip, and then rubs at an eye and shakes her head again. "Look, this is my fault, alright? I had to bitch and moan about all of this to her in the forest. I didn't think she'd even understand, I just wanted someone to talk to who was nice and peaceful and far away from all of this. I just wanted to say things and be with my sister. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
"Do you want to go back to your forest, Gwen?" Kai asks Gweneth.
Gweneth looks to Kai, then to Kala, then to Hakeber, and then Kai again, and then between them all several more times, frowning with increased worry, looking, in that moment, overwhelmed.
"She just got here, don't you ever let up?" Kala, who, flicks the tear off her hand to the ground. "Are you trying to turn her in to Kainudy or something?"
And then Gwen looks to Kala, who reaches out and snatches her hand. "You two bet your eldritch asses I'm not 'giving' her to you, she doesn't belong to anyone -- which makes me better than either of you. Because I care about her. My sister. Not some crusade or leadership or grand alliances. I'm not here to play kingmaker or godmaker or to throw my sisters in to the fire so everyone can stay warm. I am better than that. And you tell Fiera I said that, you'll be surprised when she tells you she's proud of me. They know what it means to care. You just pretend to. Let's go, Gwen." Kala heads out, and Gweneth follows, sparing a glance at the other two. "Don't bother following -- not that you'll listen!" Kala says, as she leads the two in to the building.
On a transport heading to the Dark Horse offices, a video plays out across Tasha's datapad. It's just a piece of the puzzle, but she doesn't need to have the whole to see the full of it. Kala, laying in to Kai. Kai, pushing her special brand of ages old direction back at Kala. Gwenetherion, looking lost and overwhelmed. A pained creases of the brow seeing Hakeber wince.
Tasha rewinds the footage and plays it again, replaying Kala's exchange, and then again, and again, stopping before Hakeber's wince.
And with every hold of the hand, with every cycle of Kala standing up, her own expression softs a little more, until she has a tired, but genuine, smile.
"You tell her, Kala." And the smile grows, like cracks in glacial ice. "What matters the world if we gain everything but lose our own soul."