Displaced

Chapter 27

"So as you can see, three times 'x', then times 'y' is in fact equal to three times the result of 'x' times 'y'. This is known as the 'Associative Property of Multiplication'."

Samanta watched her captor scribble feverishly on a large, flat slate board using a piece of chalk, his other arm gesticulating wildly as he spoke. Every day, he'd usher her into a small room deep inside his fortress and proceed to talk at her about various subjects. The man's words were often hard to understand, his ideas even more so, but she did her best to soak in everything he said, memorizing as much as she could and asking questions when she needed.

She'd been a massive fool before, always fighting with him, resisting him at every opportunity. That night, when he'd banished the darkness from the city, she'd finally realized that she'd been going about everything all wrong. All the mightiest people in Otharia had gone up against this man and died. She wouldn't stand a chance against him anymore, so she'd decided to take a different tack.

This idiot wanted to share his every secret with her. He wanted to teach her how to stop him. How could she not listen? And so every day he would go on and on, and every day she would dutifully listen. One day she would know enough to save her country. Then he would pay for his crimes.

There was a subject, however, that was unlike the others. One that genuinely captured her interest in ways she'd never expected. Mathematics. Samanta had always been good with numbers, and she'd been very proud of that fact. Her parents would praise her, saying that she was better than even the children of the rich and powerful who got to go to the best schools. She didn't know if that was actually true, but she'd always liked to believe that it was just because it made her feel a little special. But then Blake had opened her eyes and shown her just how little she really understood.

This "algebra" that he kept talking about made her head hurt. Exponents, and factorials, and variables, and all these weird curving "graph" things... it was almost too much for her young mind to handle. To think that once she'd proudly boasted of her division skills! Still, this new world of numbers and letters, despite its complexity, left her intrigued. There was just one tiny problem...

"Any questions so far?"

"How is any of this useful? It just seems like moving letters around."

"It's not about its direct use. It's about how you see and understand the world."

"So it's useless."

"Not at all! It can be used in many fields. Architecture, for example. I bet that whoever designed the Grand Cathedral used algebra all the time."

"How could he?" she replied with a scowl. He talked about the Grand Cathedral like he wasn't the person who'd destroyed it. "There's no way he would know your Elseling secrets!"

Blake rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Sam, I've been trying to explain this to you for weeks now. Knowledge isn't some secret possession that only special people can have. Knowledge comes from understanding the world around you. Figuring out how it works. Its patterns. Anybody can do that if they put time and effort into it. It doesn't matter who you are or where you grew up. I'd bet everything I had that whoever designed the Grand Cathedral, or the arena in Eflok for that matter, used the stuff I'm teaching you now and will teach you in the future."

Samanta gave him a dubious look. How could shuffling numbers back and forth build a giant building? "Why would they need to? They could just grow the stone like they do now."

"You still don't believe me?" Blake sighed. "I wish I could just show... you..." His voice trailed off as his eyes took on a far away look and he started to smile. Samanta blanched. He'd just had an idea, and that was always a bother. "Let's end this here for today and go get an early lunch. Come on."