The House of Daena was a different world when one wasn't drowning in paperwork. The sunlight streaming through the stained glass felt warmer, the smell of old paper more inviting. Ren stood before the massive Ksharewar section, feeling like a kid in a candy store, if the candy was made of ancient engineering schematics and architectural theory.
He pulled a heavy tome titled Foundations of Kinetic Architecture from the shelf and settled into a comfortable reading nook. Lisa was nearby, browsing a section on elemental ley line resonance, but her gaze frequently drifted to him, watching with a fond smile as he devoured the text.
After an hour or so, she drifted over, leaning against the bookshelf with her arms crossed.
"You know, cutie," she began, her voice low so as not to disturb the other scholars. "I can't help but notice you're doing this the hard way. Again."
She tapped the Akasha Terminal she carried, currently inactive, clipped to her belt. "The Akasha is more than just a search engine. It's a curated index of the world's knowledge. If you wanted to know about kinetic architecture, it could feed you the summaries, the key equations, and the cross-references in seconds. It would save you hours of reading through dusty preambles."
She sighed, a wistful look in her eyes. "I don't use it much myself—I prefer my own mind to do the heavy lifting, much like I rely on my own studies rather than just my Vision. But for someone as hungry for knowledge as you… refusing such a powerful tool created by the God of Wisdom herself seems… baffling. It's like refusing to use a cart when you have a mountain of goods to move."
Ren closed the book, marking his page with a slip of paper. He looked at the terminal on her belt, then up at her. He knew he couldn't tell her the truth—the terrifying reality of dream harvesting and mind control. Not yet. It was a theory, a nightmare from another life, and without proof, it would sound like madness.
Instead, he chose a truth he truly believed in.
"It is a powerful tool," Ren acknowledged, his voice thoughtful. "The idea of shared knowledge, of instant access… it's incredible. But… I think it comes with a cost."
He picked up the book, feeling the weight of it in his hands. "When I read this book looking for information on gears, I might find what I'm looking for on page fifty. But on the way there, I might read about material stress on page twenty, or a theory about wind resistance on page thirty. Information I didn't know I needed. Information that sparks a new idea, a new connection."
He looked at Lisa, his glowing azure eyes earnest. "If I use the Akasha, I get the answer. Just the answer. It's efficient. It's fast. But it feels like… a cheat code. It gives me the destination without the journey. It robs me of the process of discovery, of stumbling upon something unexpected. It stops me from thinking around the problem because the solution is just handed to me."
He paused, searching for the right words. "Innovation… invention… it doesn't come from just knowing facts. It comes from connecting things that don't seem connected. From understanding the 'why' and the 'how', not just the 'what'. The Akasha… it feels like it wants to do the thinking for me. And I like thinking for myself."
Lisa stared at him. The playful teasing vanished from her expression, replaced by a profound, startled respect. She had expected fear of the unknown, or perhaps a childish stubbornness. She hadn't expected a philosophical defense of the intellectual process that rivaled the arguments of the Academy's oldest sages.
"To skip the journey is to miss the scenery," she mused, a slow smile spreading across her face. "And the scenery is often where the inspiration hides."
She reached out and ruffled his hair, her touch gentle. "For someone so young to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch—even when it comes to knowledge—is… a little unnerving, I admit. But," her smile softened into something deeply affectionate, "it also relieves my mind. A boy who knows the value of the hard way is a boy who won't be easily tricked or taken advantage of in this world. And that makes me very happy."
She straightened up, her own book tucked under her arm. "Very well, little genius. Read your books. Take the scenic route. I'll be right here if you get lost in the weeds."
Ren watched her walk back to her section, a warmth in his chest. He had protected his secret, but he had also shared a piece of his soul. He turned back to the book, to the ink and paper and the slow, beautiful process of learning, safe in the knowledge that his choice was understood.
He continued to read, absorbing the knowledge of Sumeru the old-fashioned way, while in the back of his mind, the shadow of the Akasha and its hidden masters waited, a puzzle he knew he would eventually have to solve. But for now, there were gears to understand, and a quiet library to enjoy.