Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [2]
‘Thales; calm down.’
He opened his mouth in surprise. ‘How did you know?’
She turned to him and he soaked in the sight of her intelligent oval face. ‘Your step was rushed and you spoke to Alambra brusquely.’
One of Rene’s more delightful quirks was that she never thought of their shared Made Intelligent moud as anything other than sentient. ‘But, as you ordered my favourite dinner foods before you left the upashraya, I’m assuming that whatever upset you occurred on the conduit.’
She held her arms out.
Thales ran to her like a child, kneeling to bury his head in her lap. A sudden desire somehow to subsume her into his being beset him. She was older than he but more beautiful than all the young women on Scolar. She would always be so. The beauty of her intellect held him in far greater thrall than any physical loveliness.
Rene let her hand stray through his hair. ‘Dear Thales,’ she whispered.
Hurt pride tore loose from a burning spot in his chest. ‘They have ignored my petition to study under the Entity and are moving me to OLOSS to be a Grievance Adjudicator at the Bureaucratie, Rene. This is because I oppose their staid ideals. The entire Sophos Pre-Eminence treat my arguments against their theories as though I am diseased. What happened to the acclaimed dissension of Scolar? What happened to lively discourse and the intersection of ideas? This place is dying, Rene. And we are in danger of becoming as stultified as them. It is little wonder that the great philosopher Villon abandoned this place.’ Thales stared up into her face.
She stroked his cheeks but her expression tightened. ‘Villon was a malcontent. We are a better society without him.’
‘I don’t agree,’ said Thales hotly. He pulled away from her grasp. ‘His dissent was what kept us honest. He believed in argument and change.’
Rene smiled. ‘A philosopher for the youth. Change cannot always justify itself.’
‘Don’t denigrate his beliefs, or mine, by such a bland dismissal. It is true that Villon challenged everything, even himself. But that is the only way to ensure that our ideas advance.’
‘Villon challenged the Pre-Eminence. He sought to displace them with an anarchic model of leadership that would have allowed anyone into governance. That might have made him a champion to the younger and the less prudent, but how could you know what his motivations were? Perhaps he simply sought influence and his own kind of respectability.’
‘Respectability! Rene! How stolid you sound.’
‘And you sound like a boy suffering from hero worship. Thales, you did not know Villon. It is most likely that he used dissension as a tool.’
‘A tool? Dissension has been Scolar’s life blood. We are not taught to study in school, we are taught to think. Why assume that anything is how it seems? Or how we are told it is? And yet we are governed by old men who want nothing more than the status quo.’
‘I do not need a lecture on Scolar’s education methods, Thales. Or a mocking precis of the Pre-Eminence. Have you forgotten that my father is among them?’
‘Have you forgotten what we learned?’
Rene frowned, and pressed her fingers to her forehead. ‘Dissension creates conflict, I do not seek conflict, especially not with you. It is uncivilised and stressful.’ She dropped her hand from her face and gave Thales an almost pleading look. ‘Equilibrium is our secret weapon, dearest.’
‘It is an excuse for much to be left undone.’ He grabbed her pale smooth hands to his chest. ‘We should leave. You could apply to study with the Sole Entity on Belle-Monde. The Sophos would not be able to deny you as they have me. The tyros are only Dieter’s, Lawmon and Geneers. How could they have a true dialectic with the Entity without a philosopher? It could be a new start for us.’
‘Thales, my exposition is almost finished. When it is accepted, you know I will be made Provost Laud.’ Rene’s expression softened. ‘Don’t you enjoy our lifestyle?’
Petulance boiled up in Thales.