Lend me your ears! [Basic Rhetoric, self mod]

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Early Cryxatum, Spring of Era 13 PF

A soft knock on the oaken door and the maiden slipped into the classroom, more than a little nervous. What if she failed the class? What if there were noble students and they all teased her? The Collegio gave the impression of a high-profile institute, and frankly Amelia, while perfectly bathed and brushed, looked a little out of place in there. Her clothes were those of a commoner, a strip of dark cloth wrapped around her forehead and almost covered by her bangs. Still, she entered the classroom, her chestnut locks flowing as her slender frame squeezed through the doorway.

The classroom was empty, except for the teacher himself. Apparently she was early; or no-one else had signed up for the lesson. In a few seconds' time, Professor Vijonek would explain that it was the latter, but for the time being Amelia was too busy keeping her gaze away from his hair. That combover was funny! And starting to giggle in front of the teacher just before class would not do, especially since she was the only other person in the room. Lebed Vijonek was an elderly man, wearing thick glasses upon a generous nose. He had a dreamy expression on his face that Amelia knew pretty well from having worn that very expression quite often, especially in the past.

'Look at the face, the face isn't so funny! The face, the face!' the half-elf repeated like a mantra. The Professor's gaze rose from his notes and he greeted his student. "Serale, and welcome to my Rhetoric class, by far my least popular course if I may add. You are Miss Amelia, aren't you? Why don't you sit down and tell me something about you and your expectations for this lesson? Rhetoric is about speech, after all, it's only natural that you'll be expected to talk a lot."

"Serale..." the girl murmured back, complying with the man's request as she took a seat and sat down on it, about as rigid as a broomstick. "I am Amelia Lynsdaughter, Professor... and I'd like to... um... learn to speak better." Her shyness, coupled with the fact that she was alone and no-one else could divert the teacher's attention from her - as well as his dangerously funny combover - made her body feel stiff and unresponsive, and Lebed immediately picked up on that. "You should relax, this class is usually very informal. Unlike my Law and Politics classes this doesn't get a lot of students, you see. Only a few aspirant rogators and advocates, and even then, not all of them. Many think that just because they have a mouth they necessarily know how to speak. I don't think you're a lawyer either, are you Miss?" The dreamy look persisted on Lebed's face as he spoke.

Amelia tried her best to relax and release the tension from her shoulders. "No, I'm not a lawyer... in fact, I hardly have any serious schooling, Professor," she admitted honestly, fidgeting with a fold of her blouse. Would he kick her out of the classroom now, judging her too ignorant to waste his time on? "I see, well, that's no crime. You still felt the need to improve yourself, and that is a big step in the right direction. You feel you need to learn to speak better; now I'd like to know why. I want to hear your voice as you speak, among other things."

With no other choices left, she cleared her throat and began to speak, her nervousness making the combover look much funnier than it actually was. No, to explain it without saying that most of her speeches had dead people as their audience... "Well... when I say something, I often get the impression that my listeners do not take me as seriously as I'd like them to... sometimes I get the impression they think I am stupid... and I used to think they were right... but now I'd like to get better at it. Does that make any sense, Professor?"

Lebed had listened to her words with an absent-minded expression on his face, but his eyes refocused on the girl as soon as she finished. "I'll tell you what I've garnered about you over the last few minutes, and I'll be frank about it. No other way for you to improve, so please forgive me if I sound harsh. No offense is meant, I assure you."

Amelia nodded ever so slightly. "Even now, you are afraid of judgment. You are waiting for my opinion of you as though your life depended on it, Miss Amelia. There is no need for you to say it; your body is telling me the whole story. Your hands, your legs, your position on the chair. You strike me as a person who is seeking constant approval from everyone around her; you probably tend to judge yourself too harshly when compared with others, raising all manners of defensive shields. In young people around your age, this is usually the mark of a troubled childhood. Want to hear more?"

"Ah..." Amelia was staring at him wide-eyed. This man had been able to read her in mere seconds, almost as though he were a Mage. There was something frightening about such a skill, yet listening as her inner self was mercilessly exposed also felt strangely... cathartic. As though someone were whispering lines she should have been uttering on the stage. "Please..." she nodded again, an expectant light in her blue eyes.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The Professor sighed slightly, his chin rising as he stared at the white ceiling with a dreamy air. "Let's see..." He stayed like that for a few seconds before replying, snapping back to reality as his eyes focused on Amelia from behind heavy and rather dusty glasses. "The first thing you need to remember is that people wear masks most of the time, whether they realize it or not. They do so for a number of reasons, interest being one, safety is another. In your case, I noticed a tendency to take short pauses whenever you speak. At first I thought you had a problem with translating your thoughts into words - a common issue, especially for an untrained mind, and one that can be solved with enough practice. But then I realized this was not the case."

Lebed rose from his seat and paced slowly across the classroom. "See, your sentences, while broken, make perfect grammatical sense when you remove the pauses. This leads me to think that you have absolutely no problem with putting your thoughts into words - granted, you need to learn many more words, but that's beside the point. No, you already have the words in your mind when you start speaking, which is remarkable for someone with no serious schooling. It's not because of that that you stop. I believe you do that because you are looking for signs of disagreement in your listeners, so that you can backtrack if you get the impression that they disagree. You do it out of fear."

Amelia said nothing at all, though she blushed a little. Once again the Professor had hit the crux of the problem, and the depth of his analysis left her dumbfounded. She had never imagined that someone could infer so much from a few spoken words. "The nature of your mask is obvious to anyone with a keen eye and some expertise. You play the part of the helpless girl who is too cute to reproach, and of course it's no surprise if people don't take you seriously, since it's what you expose for them to see. See, you are the source of your own problem, Miss."

"That's not true..." the girl murmured, lowering her gaze, though it was a weak protest, more an admission of guilt than anything else. She felt tears well up in the corners of her eyes, though even now she knew the Professor was right - crying was just another defense mechanism, after all. So she pushed the familiar instinct back and returned her blue gaze to Professor Vijonek. "And even if it were true... is it possible to change it?"

Lebed gave a slight smile, the first since she had entered the classroom. "That's something you should be asking yourself," he said softly, "this is a Rhetorics class, I can only teach you how to persuade others with beautiful words. Many orators of the past were just as shy as you, and yet they managed to overcome that flaw. Some did so in the strangest ways, like someone putting a pebble in his mouth."

"Pebble?" Amelia blinked, her tongue was already weird enough without the need for pebbles or anything like that. The Professor nodded and explained. "Yes, that was just an example. It just serves to show you that shyness is largely dependent on a specific frame of mind; changing a single factor can often solve the problem altogether, though practice always helps, of course."

At this point the half-elf's brain added two and two, and asked one question with a slight concentration frown of her brows. "Professor... does this mean that I might not suffer from this problem if I were to... express myself in another language, for example?" Lebed lit up at the question and nodded again. "You are correct, that was a very interesting remark. You may very well experience less discomfort when speaking a different language since you would feel safer with knowing that not everyone can understand what you say. The key would then lie in transferring that feeling of safety to your speeches in Common."

The Professor had given Amelia lots of food for thought, answering questions she had been wondering about for months. "Thank you, that was most helpful..." she smiled shyly, still not looking at the man's combover. "Very well, hopefully I've opened your eyes on the problems you need to deal with. If you have no further questions, I'd like to start the lesson proper." And since the girl had no questions and felt a growing sense of curiosity over what Lebed had in store for her, the lesson proper did indeed begin.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The Professor clasped his hands behind his back. "The first thing you need to remember about Rhetoric is that, while a form of art in its own right, it is one with a very practical purpose. Persuasion. You are convincing your audience - or your readers - that what you are saying is correct and agreeable." The girl nodded slightly; she had indeed found the ideal course to complement her path as a Spirit guide. As one who had to deal on a daily basis with creatures which needed to convinced, knowing how to use words to the fullest could make the difference between life and death.

"This, of course, raises the question of whether Rhetoric is the art of lying or that of making truth shine. People have argued either way, distinguishing between true and false Rhetoric in moral terms; but I do believe in a more practical approach. A good orator can just as easily argue something and its very contrary in a convincing manner; it's not about what you say, but about the effect you have on your audience. A good speech is not one that is beautiful, but one that works, even though the two things usually go hand in hand." Lebed's tone was monotone and his gaze lost somewhere above Amelia's head.

"Let's hear from you, then, what do you think makes a great speech?" the Professor asked all of a sudden, the half-elf slightly startled by the sudden question. "Probably..." she began, her fidgeting with the edge of her blouse increasing, "a good speech is one that... gives the audience what they want? Using the listener's personality... to move them emotionally?" Lebed pondered over the answer briefly. This girl gave him the impression of someone who already had some experience with speeches, even though she did not possess any formal training. Few students ever answered that question the way Amelia had. Most beginners who had never spoken in public thought of it as a business of words and perhaps body language, thinking of themselves as the focus. Lebed was a sharp judge of character, and he judged that this odd girl in front of him was no complete stranger to the Art.

He cleared his throat. "You have a point there, in that there is no perfect speech, but only a speech that is perfectly tailored around its audience. I am going to formalize these concepts a little, for your convenience. The words you are about to hear are Eunesian words, as the islands of Eunesia have a long and glorious tradition of great orators. To some among them, any argument, or proof, belongs to one of three types... ethos, pathos, and logos. Do you think you can remember those names, Miss?" "Yes, Professor..." the student confirmed; learning names had become second nature to her.

"Ethos is essentially an argument from authority," the teacher explained, "basically an argument that needs no proof because there is something about you that makes it unquestionable. For example, most students tend to trust what their teacher says without requiring a better proof. It is all about how the speaker is perceived, his or her authority. Clearly you need to be able to gauge your audience, not everyone will accept an argument from authority even if you do possess an aura of authority." Amelia nodded, she could understand it very well. She had never even considered questioning the things Lady Shiandi said to her. It worked.

"Pathos is an argument from emotion, much like what you described to me. Here the audience's emotions are the driving force behind the argument. That overrides their reasoning abilities and can often replace a logic proof, though it has its downsides. It requires great observation and sensitivity; it can easily backfire on you if used in the wrong way. It is even more dangerous if your audience is large, though I won't get into mob mentality in a basic course. Is that clear?" Here Amelia actually opened her mouth to speak. "So... what you did to me earlier... what you learned about me... you could have used it in a speech..."

Lebed nodded. "It's not that I could. I should use it in a speech. Observation is one of the primary skills of an orator, it is almost as important as being able to talk smoothly. If you think like your audience, you can touch their inner chords, and then they are yours. However, on to the third type of argument, Logos. Logos is an argument from logic, or rather an argument from reasoning as it doesn't have to follow strict logic. This is the most common argument and the hardest to master. It is the use of examples, reasoning, knowledge from other fields, and deduction to get your point across. It appeals to the audience's minds rather than the hearts."

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Amelia nodded slowly, trying to absorb the amount of information the Professor had shared with her. "Now, of course, this is all nice and good to know, but will do you no good unless you can actually use it in your speech. Shall we try?" Lebed's dreamy expression vanished all of a sudden and he stared at the girl from behind heavy glasses.

"Give me three arguments, one from each type, to convince me that I should not ask you to leave this classroom as of right now. One of ethos - qualities or virtues of yours; one of pathos - my emotions; and one of logos - my mind."

Then the world stopped for Amelia, the test dropping on her so unexpectedly - and a seemingly crucial one. Failing it meant failing the class. It was a familiar feeling, though, a game she had played before and with a far larger prize at the stake: her life. This was where the girl surprised Lebed for the first time by not panicking as he expected her to, judging by her insecure character. Instead, most of the effort on Amelia's part was focused on not accidentally switching to the Spirit Tongue, since the challenge reminded so much of her previous dealings with ghosts and spirits.

'Ethos... using my own qualities to convince the listener... but I have no authority at all on him...' the girl bit gently on her lower lip, with a slight frown of her brows as she concentrated. 'If I have no authority, then I must use other qualities... goodness? Willingness?' She thought it over for a few seconds and finally opened her mouth to speak. "Professor... I really am willing to learn and improve... I will work on my flaws and fix them in time. I am hard-working and really want to succeed!" What good-natured teacher could have denied such a student without even a chance to prove herself?

Pathos seemed much easier in comparison. Her face turned sad and she even managed a wet sparkle in her blue eyes. "Professor... it took me months to save up enough money... to attend this course... it means so much to me! If I fail one more time... I don't know if I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror again!"

And logos, hmm, she had an idea of sorts. Taking on a more neutral expression, Amelia continued. "Besides, you said it yourself, Professor... this is your least popular class... if word spreads that you reject your students for no reason... no-one at all will want to enroll anymore..."

Lebed said nothing in response, instead taking his time to analyze the answers. Amelia looked at him pensively, head tilted slightly to one side as she adjusted a stray lock of brunette hair. For a barely schooled girl, she sure was smarter than she looked, the man considered. She had brought up a minor detail Lebed had mentioned far earlier into their conversation, and had done so with but a few seconds of time to prepare her answer. Many students just replied that they would file a complaint or demand a refund, thereby applying direct pressure from the management onto Lebed. The girl's answer was more satisfactory as it achieved the result without resorting to open hostility with the listener.

It seemed that Adjuration, hard work and fighting for her life had turned one of Amelia's flaws - her short attention span when listening - into a strength. Again, Lebed found himself wandering what she needed a Rhetoric class for.

"Decent arguments, though your delivery is severely lacking," the Professor remarked, "which can cripple even the best speeches. I will see you again tomorrow, and then we can begin to work on unlearning your wrong habits and learning the right ones." He smiled a little and dismissed his student for the brightening. What a strange girl.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

The following brightening, when Amelia knocked on the door and entered the classroom, she found Lebed and his funny combover exactly where she had left them at the end of the previous lesson. The girl, not feeling as nervous as before, offered the Professor a polite greeting and seated herself without a further word. "Welcome back, Miss Amelia... unlike your last name, it does not sound like a Vagaran name, does it?" The student simply smiled and replied, "Indeed, it isn't." She added nothing more, offering a not-so-subtle cue that she was not going to elaborate on it. Lebed's curiosity would find no easy openings, it seemed.

The scholar smiled in turn and pointed at the blackboard resting on the wall of the classroom. Five words had been written on it with a white chalk, the handwriting pleasant but masculine.

Inventio
Dispositio
Elocutio
Memoria
Pronuntiatio

"Those are Ancient Allerian words," the man explained, "and they represent the five traditional canons of Rhetoric, that is the five major areas that the orator needs to study. If you ever take a higher-level course, you will have to spend a lot of time on each separately, but as of now you are only going to learn what they are, and the very basics of each."

New words to commit to memory, which Amelia did promptly - most recalled words from Common anyways. "Inventio sounds like invention, and it is the art of discovering effective arguments for your speech, like you did yesterday. The art of getting ideas, if you will."

"Dispositio is the art of arranging those arguments in the best possible order; the art of structuring your speech in a way that is powerful, easy to follow and never boring."

"Elocutio is the art of translating your arguments into beautiful words which give your speech the highest persuasion power; the art of decorating your speech."

"Memoria is the art of memorization, improvisation and adaptation of a speech to different situations on the fly. It is the art of quickly recalling notions and using them to your advantage."

"Finally, Pronuntiatio is not only the art of uttering your words in the most convincing way; it is also the art of demeanor, body language, facial expressions and so on. The art of making your speech come alive."

"For now, I will be content if you just remember these basic steps. When you address someone in either speech or letter, try and follow these canons when you can," Lebed said. "Now I'd like you to stand up and walk up to the blackboard. I will explain your next assignment shortly." This, this was no good. Clearly the Professor was doing to best to put Amelia in an uncomfortable situation to test her ability while under stress. Nevetheless the witch did as requested and stood near the blackboard, hands clasped together as she waited.

"Very well, now keeping in mind what I just said, I want you to concentrate and come up with a short speech for me. Are you familiar with sewerage pigs?" he asked, at which the half-elf nodded, a quizzical expression on her face. "Excellent, let's pretend I hated sewerage pigs. I hate them and want them outlawed for whatever reason. Your assignment is to make me change my mind with a speech. I want a praise of sewerage pigs." The part Lebed was playing in this was that of an irrational character in order to make it easy on the girl to find suitable arguments against him.

"Yes, Professor..." Amelia acknowledged the request. Praising pigs did not number among the things she'd imagined herself doing in this class, but she could see Lebed's point. If one could hold their ground in a surreal debate, doing so in a real-world one would prove easier.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

"I'll give you five minutes to organize your thoughts, then you maybe begin," the Professor said, looking out the window with his usual dreamy air. The Outlaw, on the other hand, gazed at the floor as she considered her next actions. Standing there, alone and vulnerable, did indeed make her feel uncomfortable, though she had undoubtably faced much worse odds in the past. For one, five minutes to think it over was a luxury she rarely enjoyed, though it also meant that Lebed's would likely nurture higher expectations.

Refreshing the names of the five canons with a flashing motion of her eyes, she decided to come up with the arguments first - what Lebed had called Inventio. Arguments proving that sewerage pigs were good and worthy of anyone's respect. Having come up with a few, she considered in what order she wanted to present them to her teacher, and then she tried to find convincing words to put them in. By that time, however, the five minutes had expired, and the Professor notified her that the time had come to give her speech.

Amelia sighed slightly and sort of shrugged to release some tension off her shoulders. She made a note of not stopping halfway through sentences if she could help it. "Sewerage pigs are very important to Nexus Prime. They collect filth and waste products during the darkening, keeping the city clean because of their presence. A clean city is a healthy city and one where people live longer and feel happier. If the pigs did not exist or were outlawed, then either the garbage would pile up in the streets, or people would have to dispose of it themselves. Most people would not want to do such a job, and that also means more expenses for the city, and then more taxes for its citizens. So, I think sewerage pigs are an asset to the city and should not be done away with."

Lebed cleared his throat. Amelia swallowed. "But!", he replied, snapping out of his reverie all of a sudden, "They are big, ugly, dangerous beasts! I heard they once assaulted a man who got too close and bit three of his fingers off! Should the city really sponsor creatures that threaten its citizens?"

The girl's face was screaming something along the lines of 'Hey, you weren't supposed to talk back!' Still, she had to come up with a counter-argument, fast, though that meant sacrificing her self-control in the process. "Well..." she began, "the pigs are only released in the darkening... well after most people have fallen asleep... besides, do you know why that man approached the pig? Is it not possible that... he was trying to assault the pig and it just defended itself? The pigs get their food from the garbage... why should they attack us?" At this point, she figured that smiling was the best course of action.

The man said nothing in response, he had already heard everything he was interested in hearing. "Very well, let me tell you what I have garnered from this discussion," he said. Again those troublesome words. "Exactly as I thought, you do not lack the ability to make arguments, which seems to be your strongest point, but the way you deliver them negates most of the benefit. The first part was fast, too fast. You were so afraid of stopping halfway through - and thus incurring in my criticism - that you overdid it and went too fast. The second part, when I dropped something unexpected on you, forced you to yield to your instinct, and then not only did you pause, but you also said half of it while staring at the floor."

The half-elf sulked marginally and wondered if that was it, end of class. She did not think she had done such a bad job of it, but obviously Lebed knew better, and clearly he had his reasons for criticizing her. "Let's make this clear, Miss, you do have potential, but the way you express yourself, the way you come across... that's what keeps you from improving. In these cases, the best solution is to have you look at the problem with your own eyes."

And with those words, Lebed moved a curtain aside that Amelia hadn't noticed thus far, revealing the oblong shape of a mirror.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

A mirror. The Professor motioned for Amelia to get closer and position herself in front of the item. A perfect reflection of the girl's body appeared as soon as she stepped into her new location, and Lebed nodded. "Of the five canons, you are weakest at Pronuntiatio, so I'm going to offer you some advice there. For now however, just look at yourself." All the half-elf could see in the mirror was another herself, though she would have to agree with Lebed that she did not exactly emanate an aura of charisma.

"You are too stiff and rigid when you speak, Miss, because you tend to act in a defensive way. You may not realize that - same goes for your listeners - but the mind still notices such details and uses them to judge your words. People will tend to not believe what you say even if they never really understand the signs of your nervousness. After all, if you are insecure about your speech yourself, you can't expect other people to believe you." Words of truth, she knew. Taking a closer look at herself in the mirror, she adjusted her stance to express a greater sense of relaxation. "What you need to convey is confidence - an ideal middle ground that does not come across as intimidated or arrogant. Back straight, look in front of you. You respect your audience, but you do not fear them."

It took her a while, but in the end she found a suitable position. "Good, now your arms. You spoke with your hands clasped in front of you, which is an obvious defensive pose. Gestures and non-verbal communication are an important part of Rhetoric, and without them your words do not have as much of an effect on your audience." Amelia raised her hands and looked at them uncertainly. "But... wouldn't gestures be considered rude?" she asked. "One thing about Rhetoric that you should always remember is that you, the speaker, must adapt to the audience, and not the other way around. Gestures, like tone and language, should be commensurate to the listener. Less educated audiences will react better to more gestures, simpler arguments and stronger language - sometimes even rude. It is the opposite with an elite, educated audience, of course."

The girl nodded slowly. Bringing herself to be unladylike and even rude would be no easy task for her, but she would surely remember this lesson. Blue eyes peered into the same blue eyes, studying the face to which they belonged. While by far not immune to a certain kind of vanity, Amelia had never examined her face in a scientific way before; today was the first time. She considered the muscles that made up her face, the way they moved and shifted as her expression changed, how those things might be perceived by a stranger.

"Whether you realize it or not, you have beauty, Miss, even though it would take some makeup and a little more personality for your kind of beauty to stand out," Lebed commented, at which the half-elf raised a brow. A man, lecturing a woman on how she would look best? "I know," she just said, blushing a little in the process, "but it's expensive and I can't really afford it..." The Professor smiled and replied, "It's fine, beauty can be a double-edged weapon for a woman trying to get her point across. Sometimes you will want to emphasize your looks, sometimes you will want to humble them. Like everything else in the Art, advantages are mostly situational."

"Now, why don't you repeat your speech in front of the mirror, keeping a nice, comfortable pace and trying to sound more confident in what you say?" Fair enough. "Yes, Professor," the student said, taking on the most natural pose she could find. She realized that looking at herself while she spoke helped her immensely, allowing her to visualize her own actions and making her words sound much more vivid and personal. The speech, while based on the same arguments as before, turned out to be a vastly different one from the first.

"I don't think you should hate sewerage pigs that badly," she began, offering a smile after the very first sentence, "they are actually very useful! They keep our fair city clean, so we can live in a tidy and healthy place. Without them, how would we dispose of our garbage on the streets? It would either pile up there, or people would have to remove it on their own. I sure wouldn't want to do that!" she accompanied the sentence with a second smile and a quick motion of her forearms meaning 'no way!' "People doing that kind of job would risk getting sick, and the city would have to pay for their services. Of course it would all come down to more taxes, if you think about it. But the pigs? They are content with just eating our trash, why should we do away with them?"

Lebed beamed. "Now, now this is the kind of things I want to hear! It doesn't even sound like it is the same argument as before, even if it still is! There is flow, there is continuity, there is non-verbal communication - can you feel the difference? Can you feel how much more powerful this second speech is?"

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

In fact, Amelia could hardly believe she had been the one delivering the speech in such a natural way. Was looking in a mirror and pretending she was talking to herself really the key to it? Then, maybe she could overcome the tension she usually felt whenever she had to speak by simply imagining the mirror in front of her! "Yes..." she confirmed, staring at her own surprised face as a smile slowly surfaced from the depths of her mind. "It's just as I said," the Professor said, "sometimes it takes a very simple stratagem to change one's frame of mind, just like with the pebble. You can go home now, we'll continue this tomorrow."

The next few brightenings, the student practiced giving speeches on various sample arguments. In the beginning, she did so in front of the mirror, watching her own expression and body language as she spoke. Soon however, she began to imagine herself speaking without actually having to use the mirror, simply learning her face and its muscles by heart. Lebed was sincerely impressed with her improvement in such a small amount of time, and taught her some basic breathing techniques for letting her voice out in an even fashion.

It was strange, but logical. She could become self-confident if she pictured herself speaking to the only person who would never disagree with her - herself. In doing so, she also imagined her mirror image moving as she did, and gained control over her own facial expressions and body language.

One more little step towards becoming strong.

On the final brightening of the cycle-long course, Lebed handed out her last assignment, which would determine whether she had passed this class. She had spent the darkening before the test helping Nei in the kitchen to clear her mind from all thoughts - and of course they had ended up making candied almonds. Amelia snuck one into her mouth just prior to entering the aged human's classroom as a token of good luck - nothing bad could happen after such a delicious omen!

"Ah, serale, Miss! Your assignment is written down here, on this sheet of parchment," Lebed held the thing out for her to see. Amelia seated herself gracefully and accepted the parchment from the Professor's hands, beginning to read it avidly. It was a summary of sorts, detailing what fictitious argument she would be working with on this brightening. It read as follows:

'In half a candlemark, devise a speech to convince your audience that the Nexian sumptuary laws restricting color usage on clothing to specific classes and occupations are undesirable.'

Now, this was not going to be an easy one. The main reason being that Amelia had no gripes about those laws deep inside, and in fact could only see arguments supporting their existence.

She frowned a little as she slowly realized the meaning of this test. 'The Professor chose a subject that he knew I'd disagree with, that's what the test is really about...' Lebed wanted to test his student's ability to sound convincing even though she was not herself convinced. Some would say he wanted to test her ability to lie gracefully, of course. But then, he had stated in clear terms that to him Rhetoric was not about morality. A good speech was one that worked, simple as that.

First thing first, she reflected, the arguments. How many would she need, and of which type? She would need some wit to defeat such a reasonable custom. Which had never been Amelia's forte. She began fiddling with a loose strand of hair as she sat, staring at the parchment. She would probably develop that kind of habit in the future - that of twirling her hair around a finger, that is. Strangely enough, doing so had a calming effect on her nerves, and it came natural to her since her hair tended to cascade forward as she leaned over the parchment.

Twenty minutes later, something interesting happened. There were three knocks on the door of the classroom, the Professor opening it as though he were expecting them - which he was. A young human, dressed in the clothes of the upper class though not a noble, entered the classroom and seated himself in the back. The Professor smiled at Amelia - who was beginning to connect the dots and realize that he had arranged for an audience. "I've asked some of my Law and Politics students to listen to your performance. I've made it mandatory for their own courses to attend and give you feedback."

The girl's eyes wandered about, instinctively looking for a hole to crawl into.

[Amelia Lynsdaughter]

Over the next ten minutes, more students joined in, each taking a chair and sitting down, impatience showing through their attitude. Clearly they were only doing this because Lebed had ordered them to, and would rather be doing anything but this. She could hear their annoyed whispers to each other, and even though she could not make out their words, she knew they were talking about her. It certainly did not help her think, but she did her best to filter them out. It could be worse. Much worse. She could be naked and bound to a stone altar. Been there, done that.

And so it was that the half candlemark finally expired - the Professor had been keeping track of it with an hourglass. By that time Amelia had gathered a few arguments against color laws, but still had to get them as organized as she wanted. Given that every moment of hesitation would make her audience's protests louder and harder to deal with, she decided she would improvise.

The girl rose from her seat and walked to the middle of the room, using a few techniques she had learnt to relax in the last few moments before her speech. "Serale, and welcome," she began, her voice as natural as she could. She looked at their faces, and concluded that out of the dozen or so Lebed had summoned, three quarters were merely bored, and would probably do everything in their power to make this as short and painless as possible - which was exactly Amelia's own goal. It was the remaining two or three she would have to watch out for, the know-it-all's who found it intellectually stimulating to argue each and every point just for the sake of it.

"I would like to speak to you about one law that is unique to our fair city," she explained, remembering to add an introduction but also that she had to make it short and unobtrusive. "It forbids any citizen to wear certain colors if they do not belong to a specific class or hold a specific position in the government. Black was arbitrarily chosen as the color of nobility, purple as that of local government, and red as that of Imperial government. To wear these colors without being entitled to it earns one a fine and the humiliation of having one's clothes torn in public."

"Now I will tell you why this law does harm both in principle and in practice." The statement of intent, short and to the point.

"I thought that the purpose of an Empire was to unite, not to divide; to defend, not to oppress. I thought that Law meant certainty, that Order meant safety, and that Justice meant fairness. Yet these fashion laws are a sad example that reveals how those noble values can be wrongly interpreted. They only prove that Law is whim; that Order is control; that Justice is punishment. For what are these laws if not whim? Laws are only written when there is a need for them, and what is the purpose of this one? What need do these laws fulfill?" Careful with rhetorical questions, she told herself. "They are laws of privilege, they serve no purpose but to stroke someone's pride. What is worse, ..."

"Distinction," came a voice from the audience. Amelia looked at the source, a tidy-looking boy about her age. That air about him, that voice, he was one of those Amelia feared. The know-it-alls who would turn her performance into Aeternia just because they could. "The ability to know one's status without having to address one's better; and for those holding status, not having to worry about being mistaken for the lower classes. Privilege is, after all, a natural way to encourage ambition, leading to progress. Not to mention that one could argue that status colors enforce the principle of The Truth shall be Thine Liberator, dating back to the Annarian Code."

Amelia could hardly believe it. What great wrong had she done to him, what great sin, for him to pick her speech apart like that? She could not have known that Lebed was well aware of the student's argumentative nature, and had picked him for that very reason. Regardless, she had to take back control or face disaster. A slight flush appeared on her cheeks as she spoke.

"Not if that privilege is created by taking a basic right away from everyone else," she retorted. "creating gaps that only bring divisions among the people. What is truly worrying about these laws is that they limit the freedom of four hundred thousand people in order to prove a point. It is, admittedly, a very small loss of freedom, but it shows that other laws might follow on the same path, the same ideals. Who knows what will happen when the guilds, or the nobles, decide they need more ways to tell themselves apart from everyone else? Will they decide what we may or may not eat? Words only they can speak? Because there is no connection between one's status and its benefits, anything is fair game."

Annoyance at the know-it-all had fueled her words, and she'd probably spoken a little too fast, but at least she had forgotten her shyness. As an interesting side effect, she was beginning to believe what she way saying, and the more her speech opposed color laws, the more she wanted to see them go.

There was a brief silence, and Lebed made a slight motion of his arm, as though he were about to call the speech to a close. Of course, that was when the know-it-all just had to move another objection. "Would you argue, then, that soldiers should not wear uniforms?" The other students spoke in whispers, but Amelia could swear they were annoyed at the know-it-all as much as she, for dragging their tedium on and on.

"Those are different," the girl said, frowning a little. She knew little about uniforms, men did not wear those when they did battle near her village, and even if they did, she would not know. Fighting was not womanly business usually - certainly not her business as she grew up. "Those serve an actual purpose, they are not merely an instrument of envy. Speaking of uniforms, I will remind you that those of the Crimson Tigers infringe upon those very color laws you are defending. Yet exceptions are made for them, proving that such rules are whimsical and lacking true purpose. It is no wonder that no other city in the Empire enforces them."

There was more silence, and the know-it-all opened his mouth to speak again, but Amelia found herself glaring at him. Her blue eyes, perhaps made more intense by her father's presence, pierced his. She was the kindest creature usually, but when attacked without a reason, she would show her thorns, like a red rose. The know-it-all fell silent, and Amelia smiled sweetly - both expressions sincere and whole-hearted.

Lebed told the audience that they could leave; which they did post haste.

"Not half-bad for a beginner. Of course they'd have agreed with you preaching the creed of Meephos just to be done with this, but you didn't do too bad. Remember: confidence and insight. All the rules about arguments, logic, and techniques will do you no good if you lack those." He cleared his throat and continued. "You passed the test as far as I'm concerned, Miss. I hope to see you again in my classroom."

Amelia sighed in relief as her shoulders relaxed. She wasn't sure why she had put so much importance into this exam, but she was glad she had passed it. She found that her throat was dry from the talking, though, and kept her reply short and sweet. "Thank you, Professor," said the maiden, curtseying ever so slightly. "I'll put what you taught me to good use."

She could have told them she didn't like color laws because she wanted a red dress, she considered as she walked out of the classroom. Problem was, she actually wanted one. Like, right now.

OOC: The end!

[Grim]

Approved.

-Grim