The Grey Tower

Numbers.

Dai had had some schooling in the village he grew up on, those lessons he took every morning before working on the farm, so he knew how to read and he knew how to write. When it came to handling numbers, the basics of arithmetic, he knew some but it was a lesser knowledge than the others. This could also have been because he saw less point to it.

The Grey Tower, of course, had other ideas. Truth was, the place had a lot of ideas that were "other" to Dai's, but it was okay.

Well, mostly.

One of the things insisted on for all Novices and Soldiers were classes in the basics. They knew that each learning rank came into the books at a different level than the rest, so these classes were created to make sure that everyone was on the same page as they progressed to the mid-ranks. Dai was presently in his arithmetic class, and he wasn't particularly happy about it.

The teacher--a pinch-faced man brought in from Hama Valon just for these "basic" classes--assigned pairs throughout the students to have them work together, check over each other's work and so on. Dai was paired with another Soldier, one that he'd never met before. As they sat with their papers and pencils, he offered his hand. "Dai," he introduced himself.

Zuin liked mathematics and arithmetic. He always had. It had set rules and it followed them, once you knew the rule that was that, you could use it. The rules didn't have exceptions, they were absolutes.

Normally he enjoyed studying maths but normal he was doing it alone and at his own pace and level. Unfortunately as this class was designed to bring all to the same level it was relatively basic. After all it had to cover the basics before teaching the advanced. As a result Zuin was bored.

His father had ensured that he had a very high quality education, one which is own study had advanced. He had learned what this class taught years ago.

He was almost relieved when they were paired up, it gave him something else to do. As they sat he shook the boy's hand and introduced himself "Zuin."

He hadn't seen or spoken to the boy before but he was still fairly new here although he was getting accustomed to things here, something he would once have though impossible. But he was learning both about the Power and about life and this would be another lesson in the latter.

So far, the young man seemed friendly enough. Dai had already met the type who seemed to disdain...well, everyone else. He had yet to learn what types they did favor, but maybe it was only fellow nobles and rich men. Dai's family had not been bad off, but they had been farmers. But wasn't everyone supposed to be equal here?

"It's nice to meet you," he said politely with a small smile. He knew that he needed to focus on the work before them, but he liked the idea of talking better. The battle between talking and working battled on in him for a moment. Finally, it broke when he asked, "Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around before."

The moment the battle was over and the decision made, he instantly worried that the teacher would come over and get them both in trouble, and he didn't want to get someone else into an issue. "I'm afraid arithmetic is not my best subject."

Zuin studied the other boy. He seemed nice enough. He didn't seem stuck up like so many here. Even though he was technically a noble Zuin had never really though of himself as one. He had never had to act the part and so was quite content to let that part of himself lie silent. He wasn't embarrassed by it but he didn't take pride in it either like so many here did. Who you were born didn't mean much, it was how you acted and what you did that really counted. The only exception to that was possibly if you were born with the Spark inside of you, that mattered but apart from that it really didn't matter about your birth. Those that thought it did were idiots.

"It's nice to meet you too. And yes I am fairly new, I've been here a mouth or so at most." He said. He was new but he was getting accustomed to life here already. He was slipping into the routines and rules which bound life here. It was easier than he expected, everything made sense and had rules regulating them. That made it easy to learn what to and what not to do. You simply learned the rules and you followed them. That way you didn't get into trouble and that stopped you from getting punishments. So far Zuin had managed to avoid getting any extra chores simply by keeping his head down and working when he was meant to.

"Don't worry about it." Zuin said in answer to the boys final statement. He himself was good but he didn't want to lie to the boy by trying to be modest or be truthful and seem boastful of his abilities. He skimmed the boys answers. It was a mixed bag, most were right by his mark but not all. Still it was reasonable and hardly bad.

Either this young man was very kind or the answers Dai had cobbled together weren't too bad, since his reaction wasn't too horrified. Dai was going to take that as a good sign either way. "I've been here for a few months now myself," he said. "It's not too bad a place, although pretty different from home for a lot of people."

He couldn't help but still feel self-conscious, however. Dai was concerned with how people perceived him, and how they reacted to him. It had been such a focus of his life, growing up so obviously different from the rest of his family and village, to work overtime to not stand out in any other way. And he definitely didn't want to stand out because he was bad at something!

"Are you good with numbers?" he asked hesitantly, his dark eyes flickering down to see the other boy's paper. Some of the answers were different from his, and they looked more...righter than his. He tried to not stress that. "Oh, I, uh, I didn't catch your name?"

Zuin studied the boy briefly, trying not to be too obvious about it. He was good looking Zuin supposed although he didn't really know much about that sort of thing. He forced himself to stop staring and brought his mind back to the numbers. "I'm Zuin."He said in answer to the boy's question before saying "And yeah, I suppose I am good with numbers."

He was good with numbers. They, unlike people, made sense. They followed strict rules and they couldn't break them. They did what you wanted them to and they came to what you expected them to. The only exception to that was when you did something wrong. The numbers weren't ever wrong, just the people using them. To him numbers were like tools, they could be used to achieve ends and goals but that was all. They were just tools of a trade.

He brought his mind away from maths and back to the sheets of paper in front of them. He skimmed down the page comparing answers from his to the other boys. He pointed at the first one which they disagreed on. "What did you do for this one?" He knew what he had done for it but wanted to see what the other had done so that they could figure out which was right and which wrong, if either were right.

For those few moments, Dai felt like he was being studied. For many a reason, he had grown keen to recognizing it, and almost felt a slight flush creep into his deep tan cheeks but then the moment was over. He wondered if he had just been imagining it. His instincts were usually alright, but they had led him awry on a view occasions. He often double-guessed them just on principle.

"Zuin," Dai repeated with a slight nod, bearing the name to memory. He wasn't sure of the pairings the teacher made today would be made again. If so, it would do to remember names.

The Soldier then turned his attention back to the paper, looking at the equation--as he had learned they were called, since coming here--he had worked on. To say it didn't feel right when he did it would not make a great deal of sense, since really none of them did. He bit the inside of his cheek to stifle the rising embarrassment and then flipped the paper over to where he'd done the scratch-work.

"Here," he said, a little more quietly. "I'm guessing I got it wrong? I tried to follow along like the teacher demonstrated, but sometimes he..." He trailed off a moment, looking up to see if said instructor was listening, then lowered his voice. "He goes a little quick for me to follow properly."

Zuin forced himself to remember that he had been tutored since he could talk. This boy had most likely no had any such teaching and Zuin couldn't blame him for getting a few questions wrong. "I'm afraid so but don't worry about him going to fast, you get used to it." Zuin said as he quickly wrote calculations. He had to make a mental note to not write so fast that his hand writing became unreadable. While he could read what he wrote then no one else could and for this the other boy had to be able to read the calculations which he wrote. From what Zuin could see he had got the question wrong during the rearranging of the equation but Zuin wasn't taking chances and so re did the whole question quickly to check it. And produce working which could be ready by another person.

Suddenly he wished he could draw in the air. It would be useful for thing like this. He could create diagrams showing everything that was going on. While he could do that on paper it only worked with mathematics and the like. Three dimensional things could only be partially represented in two dimensions. Drawing them in the air would be useful, perhaps there was a weave which would allow him to do it. It would need Fire for the light part but also something else to keep in together and safe.

He dragged his mind away from thoughts of weaves. He was a Soldier and had nothing to do with developing weaves. Instead he focused on the paper and equations in front of them. "Did you get that?" Zuin asked. "I can go through it again slower if you need."

Dai watched closely as the other young man went through the occasion, keenly watching his hand as he wrote. Zuin went slower than their instructor and for some reason, having it all played out right beside him instead of far at the front of him made it a little easier to keep up and he could see where he went wrong.

"No, I don't think I need that," he said. "I think I got it."

Examining what was done in that sequence, he then turned his attention back to the other equations. "I think I did the same thing wrong on these two," he said and then slowly went through both of them again, and came out with different answers. "Is that right?" he asked, lifting his dark eyes to Zuin and hoping he wasn't frustrating him with his slowness.

"I take it you studied a lot before you came to the Tower?" Dai asked, a touch abruptly, but it was obvious that Soldier Zuin had much more schooling than Dai had.

OOC: I'm so sorry this too so long. >.<