“I bet people fought harshly about who would go pick the Tablet up and then some more to make sure they wouldn’t imprint it. And believe me, if someone gives in to temptation before going back home, hands are going to be thrown.” Lith said.
“Gods, that’s what you meant with the explosion of violence!” Judging by the yelling she could hear from the nearby houses, Solus knew he was right.
Even worse, she witnessed several people imprinting their Tablets the moment they came out of the Association just to gloat in front of their neighbors still in line. At the idea of the amount of arguing that a single moment of petty bragging would cause, Solus felt like she was to blame for it.
She sighed, her expectant expression turning into a frown.
“I’m starting to understand why my mother avoided people and never cared about how her creations were used. There is no winning.”
Lith was sad to have burst her bubble, but he preferred her joy to be honest rather than just a convenient lie to make her feel good. They never lied to each other, especially after how Protector’s fake death had cracked their bond of trust.
Lith took her hand, moving away from the Association and toward the residential districts. At the local school, Solus witnessed a classroom of kids where the teacher and the students had a Tablet each.
Miss Hawell used the device to project what she wrote on the chalkboard on the Tablets of the kids so that they could easily read and take notes no matter how back in the class they were.
Even learning math, the most dreaded and boring subject, had become like a game. Everyone smiled and laughed. Reading and writing were no longer a boring chore but something every student was eager to learn in order to master their new tool.
“How? Why?” Solus sniffled, her eyes swelling with tears while they moved from one classroom to another.
She witnessed the children’s awe as their teachers taught them about the development of the Kingdom. Thanks to the support of holograms, the students could witness the most crucial moments of the Kingdom’s history.
Pictures of Valeron the First, Silverwing, Menadion, and even Solus herself appeared based on whether the subject at hand was the founding of the Kingdom, the birth of the academies, or the War of the Griffons.
“Thanks to the Camellia.” Lith replied. “The gift that everyone nagged me about was the basis for the temporary imprint of the DoLorean and now has made this possible. These Tablets, like those of the academies, belong to the school, not the students.
“They can be imprinted at the beginning of each lesson and returned by the end, ready to be used by the next class.”
“That’s a great idea!” Solus’ smile was so radiant that it could have set the school ablaze. “But where did the Royals find the funds? The colonization is still in the early stages and they consumed most of what they gained from Thrud’s army to build the Wayfinder and the mainframes.
“Brinja lamented that the Crown gave her barely enough Tablets for the citizens of Derios. I thought that the schools of the capital of the region would have been supplied long before Lutia.”
“I’m sure the Royals found a way.” Lith shrugged. “I’m that important and they want to keep me happy.”
Solus didn’t believe a word he said. First, because Lith didn’t even try pretending to be sincere. Second, because she knew that if the King wanted to make Lith happy, giving Tablets to a school was nowhere on his wishlist.
“You did it!” She said in realization. “Did you ask the Royals or did you pay for the Tablets out of your own pocket?”
“The latter.” Lith shrugged again. “It’s not a big deal. It’s a one-time expense. Even if it wasn’t, a few coins are well worth your happiness. I know how much you care about our work and I wanted to show you the good you are doing.”
Lith didn’t clench his pocket in pain while mentioning the coins so he was telling the truth.
“Thank you for the beautiful surprise.” Solus sniffled, embracing him despite public displays of affection being frowned upon.
“You are welc-” Someone tugging at Lith’s Magus robe cut him short.
“Can you?” A six years old boy, wearing clothes no different from those Lith wore before learning how to hunt from Selia, was offering the Magus what was likely to be the family Tablet.
It had already several contact runes engraved while a Tablet belonging to the school would lose any rune along with the imprint at the end of each lesson.
‘How cute he is!’ Solus had yet to recover so the sight of the poor clothes and the big brown eyes of the boy moved her deeply. ‘He wants the contact rune of his hero.’
“But of course.” Lith took the Tablet from the hands of the kid and instead of sharing his contact information, he signed it on the back with his terrible penmanship.
‘What a jerk!’ Solus telepathically scolded Lith after seeing the shock and confusion on the face of the boy. ‘He wanted your rune, not your autograph!’
“Thank you, mister Magus!” The boy smiled from ear to ear, hugging Lith’s leg briefly before running to his friends and bragging about his treasure.
‘Jerk my ass. I can’t give my contact rune to everyone or I would be flooded with calls about the stupidest things.’ Lith replied. ‘I’m not going to make kids believe that they can ask me for help just to ignore them.
‘If you want to be the fairy godmother of the whole city, be my guest.’
Solus swallowed a lump of saliva at the idea. She was weak to kids and knew that if she gave her rune to anyone who asked for it, she wouldn’t have the time to enter her lab for years.
‘I forgive you only because you still made him and me happy.’ She changed the topic, smiling as the kid claimed that the mystical rune that was actually just Lith’s badly written name was bound to ward off evil.
The classmates turned the Tablet around, trying to understand what side was up and what was down, before agreeing that Lith’s signature was not a human word.
After leaving the school and on the way to the groceries, Solus witnessed small crowds of small children surrounding the family elders. They had been entrusted the Tablet so that while the parents worked, the elders could read a story and keep the rest of the kids busy.
A touch of the holographic page conjured the pictures of the heroes, the monsters, and their battles. Solus stopped for a few moments every time she listened to a different story, appreciating the effort Lith had put into that part of their work and the joy it brought.
“Is this your doing as well?” She asked.
“Yes.” Lith’s voice oozed sarcasm. “I paid the Lutians to read from the Tablets instead of using them to spank asses.”
“Not that!” Solus punched his arm in mock outrage. “I meant if you gave around extra Tablets to large families.”
