The Few And The Many
Location: Council Chamber
Time: Later evening on Day 9, Month 2, Turn 3
Players: Laelle and Roa
Scene: Roa and Laelle discuss the ethics of individual rights.
Post dinner is a difficult time for the studious. The lack of classes means that students are free to flood such usual haunts as the commons or the records room and, by this time, a good number are ready to give up their work for lively conversation. Thus Laelle has sought out her new refuge for a bit of peace and quiet: the council chamber. Her work takes up little space on the large table, just two books, one open with a slip of hide marking the page, and two notebooks. The tall, thin girl is bent over one of those sets of notes, her body a long curving S with her ankles crossed under the chair and her head down.
The refuge is about to be invaded, and a less-tall girl shoulders the door open to enter with her own pile of hides under her arm. The weyrwoman's head is down as she heads for the large table, and her hides are set down with a flop. Then she looks up, and then she jumps back. "Woah!" There is not supposed to be anybody in that chair, and Roa shakes her head, swallowing. "Sorry. Hi. Surprised."
Just the noise of the door was enough to lift Laelle's glance, eyes round and caught. By the time Roa's hides hit the table, the Nerat woman is already making her apologies. "I'm sorry," she says hurriedly, the word overlapping the Weyrwoman's. "The Weyrleader said I could use this room if it wasn't occupied. I can clear out." She's already reaching for her books, to gather them up and give Roa the room.
"Don't worry about it," Roa waves off the apology with a shake of her head. "It's a big table and...haven't we had this conversation before?" She smiles faintly. "The weyrleader did?" Our brow arches upwards and her head cants to the side. "Huh."
Laelle's smile is bigger, relieved and amused at the repetition of this scenario. She leaves the books. "Yes," she confirms. "At the time, I didn't think it necessary but..." Her narrow shoulder lifts and falls. Still, her low-lidded gaze slips over the arch of Roa's brow. She mimics it with an arch of her own, silent curiosity.
The curiosity is met only with Roa shaking her head, pulling out a chair, and sinking down into it. "More history?" she asks with a glance towards Laelle's books. "or something else?"
"Ethics," Laelle answers, letting that curiosity fade without another thought. "It was just too difficult to concentrate in the commons. Sometimes it's hard enough in silence." She lets out a sigh. "More formations?" she wonders, lifting her chin at Roa's work.
"Ledgers," Roa replies. "Formations are more of a hobby, sort of. Ethics. G'thon's class. I was in it for a bit until...well...Tia went. What do you think of it?" And then, because the nosey little weyrwoman just cannot resist, "What's your topic?"
Laelle listens, ledges, hobbies, flights, each met with the same mild expression. She's thoughtful before she answers, though there's hardly a beat of delay. "I enjoy it. It's challenging," she says. "What about you? What did you think of it?" As for her topic, she doesn't share just yet.
"I thought it was going to end with somebody shouting before the turn comes full circle again," Roa replies with a small smile. "The topic of ethics cannot help but be controversial, and as the teacher himself has expressed, in his own life choices, equally controversial decisions...well, I was not overly surprised by the first assignment. Perhaps I'll just say that."
"Shouting?" Laelle repeats, brows pressing together. "I don't mind the controversy. It's interesting, what stirs people, but for the most part, people who are riled up don't debate well. Keeping sight of logic in a discussion seem like the greater challenge." She moves the pencil in her fingers, as if writing a stroke though the point doesn't touch paper. "Why weren't you surprised?"
A small nod from the weyrwoman as her hands clasp in front of her. "I agree. But as it is the greater challenge, fewer will be able to rise to it, and even logical debates can become heated. I suppose I wasn't surprised because I spoke with G'thon on occasion before he became an instructor, and it's the sort of thing he enjoys doing. Making others think about things they would rather not."
"I'd guess that he expects some will rise to the challenge when others cannot," Laelle muses, her eyes drifting down and over her page, lashes low in the dark shadow of kohl. "Is there really so much controversy in encouraging people to think?"
"In encouraging them to think about the flaws of society?" The weyrwoman laughs again, but just a single sputter. "I would say so, yes."
"But thinking isn't inherently bad, is it?" Laelle wonders, unmoved by the weyrwoman's laugh, or appearing so. "I'm not sure that a person could explore ethics without considering the society they live in. Does that make it a subject too controversial for the Caucus?" Her head tips slowly, a strand of her long, blonde bangs sliding free.
"Faranth, I hope thinking isn't bad. If it is, we've either got a whole lot of very bad people in charge of running the world, or we've got a bunch of ignorant people doing so. I'm not certain which is the more distressing thought." Roa leans forward, unlacing her hands so that she can rest her elbow on the table and her chin in her palm. "So far, Caucus seems to welcome controversial subjects. I don't imagine the Headmaster would have allowed the class if he'd supposed it was truly inappropriate."
Laelle's small smile seems to be in agreement with Roa's thoughts, a nod of pleasant concession for those evil thinkers and blissfully ignorant who run the world. "It seems strange to me that controversy seems to be such a sensitive and yet such a prevalent subject. I can't help but feel that controversy is just a gut reaction, the frustration that a person experiences when they feel they disagree with something and yet lack the ability to articulate a substantiated argument against it."
"I think it's more than that," Roa's fingers tap against her chin. "I agree that it can be that, or a basic fear of something unfamiliar or not understood. But I suspect that there are those who are articulate and who understand a quandary from both sides, and in that understanding, do not wish for people, in general, to reach a conclusion other than the one that has already been established.
"Or perhaps that both sides, even when well argued, present no clear winner," Laelle adds as well, connecting it with, "And then making that fear that people will join the other side all the more real?" She folds her arms over her notebook, fingers and pencil laying against the edge of the table. "But I think the controversy is still fueled by something other than thought, something less logical."
"Yes, exactly. For both. I think, often, it stems from a fear, well thought-out or no, of how things might change if too many people began to agree with the 'other' side." The weyrwoman studies the girl across the table. "We are creatures of habit. The unknown is frightening, and many will pick the danger they know over the danger they don't. They would want others to do the same."
While some might find discussion of such subjects with the Weyrwoman an uncomfortable situation, Laelle chooses to smile. It's an easy expression, a signal of some camaraderie from the restrained student. It lasts only a moment before it sparks a slightly different subject. "I know that you've come here to work, but I wonder if I might discuss my ethics assignment with you. I'd appreciate your thoughts." An arm unfolds to slide her notes out from under her elbow, just to have it in better sight, then she crosses the arm again.
Her chin dips down into a small nod, Roa's gaze remaining more on Laelle than the hides on the table. "I'd like that."
"You're familiar with the assignment" Laelle guesses and so she clears her throat to jump right in, more of a signal than a necessary function. "I know we were asked to choose something that we felt close to and I admit that I chose instead to pick something that would be academically interesting instead. My sentence is: the greater good outweighs individual needs." She pauses for a beat to let that stand, then adds, "I've had some trouble pinpointing exactly what standard of ethics it 'defies', as G'thon put it. Your thoughts, or your questions, perhaps, would be appreciated."
"The greater good outweighs individual needs," Roa repeats thoughtfully, her bottom lip nibbled as she ponders. "I can consider various contexts in which that statement might be relevant, and I can think of certain ethical ideas which such a statement could, possibly, offend. And some that it could -de-fend as well. Hmmm...he did want broad." The weyrwoman falls silent a moment before she asks, "You arrived after the whole rumor began and mostly ended, but did you ever hear the gossip of an unknown green dragon at Telgar weyr?"
Laelle's pencil flicks as if readying as Roa starts talking, but then the conversation shifts from the academic to the actual, or at least rumors of it. "No, I haven't," she admits. The lift of her brow is expectant.
"Well, then I shall preface it by saying that the rumors are unsubstantiated but, being juicy, spread quickly." Roa smirks and rolls her eyes. Gossip. Peh. "The story goes that around the same time the fourteen kidnapped boys were returned, a green dragon was forced to land over Greenfields Hold's land. Meanwhile, around the same time at Telgar weyr, riders reported an unknown green who was being silenced by a queen's edict and who would occasionally send out panicked flashes of an injured rider. The accepted story is that it was a rider from Ista, staying at Telgar to recover from some sort of injury. But, the rumors suggested something more sinister was afoot."
Laelle listens, her expression unchanging, unheated by whatever juice may have been delivered so far. "What are the implications of this?" she asks, seeming hesitant to jump to any conclusions on the 'facts' laid before her. "And what do the rumors suggest?"
"The implications are that the combination of a mindlocked dragon, panicked and unknown, does not line up with a rider quietly recovering. The implication was that the rider was not being assisted, but being harmed." Roa's lips thin a little. "The rumors suggest that perhaps the dragon grounded over Greenfields and this unknown green were the same. Perhaps it was one of the exiled, and perhaps the dragon was panicked because her rider was being detained and hurt for information or for vengeance."
She let's these images sink in for a quiet moment, her tongue moving thoughtfully behind her lips. Her lowered eyes flick to the Weyrwoman again. "Is that what you believe?" Laelle asks, as gentle as it is direct. "That Telgar was torturing them?"
"I believe some rumors come from truth and some don't." Roa lifts a hand and waves the question of her own thoughts away. "My point is this. Let us presume, for the sake of this discussion only, that Telgar did have an exiled rider and she was being tortured to glean information on why she was on the mainland and what her and the others were planning, if anything. Place that scenario against the statement 'The greater good outweighs individual needs' and tell me what you think."
"I would think," Laelle begins, her words slow though her mind has obviously turned back to the task of ethics without delay, "that people find torture unethical because they believe that an individual, even a possibly guilty or dangerous individual, has the right to be unharmed by his or her fellow man. Perhaps?" The question makes her uncertainty plain and the lift of her brow asks again for Roa's thoughts.
"I would suspect that that might be one argument for why people do not condone it. What do you think that your statement would suggest about torture?" Roa cants her head to the side, blinking.
"I think the sentence would condone it, my use of the sentence, as an injustice, would not," Laelle rattles off. That much she recognizes. But her lashes narrow in thought. "I'm not sure that I feel much closer to the ethical standard, though. Does society believe that an individual has rights? Is that the standard?"
Roa ahhhs softly. "You're arguing -against- the statement, I see. I suspect, and this is just a singular opinion, that society believes an individual has rights within certain parameters. A man is expected to tithe a certain portion of his crop to the main hold so that the hold can tithe it to the weyr. The right to his full harvest is compromised in order that people might thrive in weyrs and dragons might cover those same holds. But, that does not mean that the same man should be expected to, say, give up his home, his family, or his life for coverage. I suspect the average person, and society at large, would presume that as a wrong. An injustice."
"Yes, I'm claiming, for the purpose of discussion," she adds to clarify, "That forgoing the needs of an individual is unjust." But as Roa's words sink in, a more pleased smile comes to Laelle's lips, lifting her freckled cheeks. "Yes," she says, more for herself than her companion. "So the standard must be that an individual has some undeniable rights." She continues to smile. "Thank you. It seems so much clearer now. I expect, though, that G'thon would need me to define those rights. Home, health, safety, perhaps. I also believe I may have unearthed the controversy, as well. The gut reaction to say that those rights do cease when the greater good is at stake."
"Indeed, perhaps they do," Roa murmurs with a small nod when Laelle pauses. "Consider the whole mess with Nabol. The Lord, Odern, refused to tithe to the Weyr. In return, the weyr did not cover Nabol's cropland and it was destroyed. On the one hand, there was the rights of the Nabolese, whose livelihoods were compromised, to not suffer for the decisions of their Lord. There is, one might also suppose, his right to refuse tithe if he wished and accept that Nabol would not be covered. It was a controversial choice for High Reaches to refuse coverage, but if we had flown over Nabol despite the lack of tithe, what was to keep the other holds from following suit? And if nobody tithed, how could the weyr survive and fly fall? So, in a sense, the right of High Reaches' coverage area was put before the rights of Nabol."
That requires a breath, a nice deep breath that lifts Laelle's chest and straightens that relaxed curve from her spine. "The lesser of two evils," she says. "That seems to be the justification for protecting the greater good over an individual, or in Nabol's case, a group of individuals. The lesser of two evils, allowing Thread to reach Nabol and robbing its people of health and livelihood, while still evil, is preferable to the greater evil that would leave all of Pern to suffer the same fate." Her pencil flicks again. "I should write some of this down before I forget it. I've found it so easy for my mind to run along a path that I sometimes forget where I turned off from the last one." She unfolds her hands to flip to a clean page of her notes, to start scribbling.
"The curse of Caucus," laughs the weyrwoman. "You never reach the end of one idea, but another one's derailing you onto something else. I think I would agree with you, though. The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few, so long as what the many would suffer was equal or greater than what the individual would suffer. And, bear in mind too that riders flew illegally over Nabol and were only mildly penalized, but they also primarily only covered actual homes. They defended human lives, but not croplands. And, at the end of it all, Odern was replaced in the conclave. He right to lead removed because of how greatly he had failed his people."
Laelle seems to be only half-listening, as her eyes and pencil focus on her page, scrawling chunks of text and lines and diagrams. But she must be following at least a little because she comments, "It sounds like the Weyr came out on top." Her writing slows and her lips move together as she stares at the page. "I'll still have to figure out the what society deems are the right of an individual, but you have helped me immensely. I'm extremely grateful." She looks up again to smile at the Weyrwoman even as she moves to close her books.
"Considering Nabol was one of the most fertile portions of our coverage area and that we'd be lucky if it was able to produce anything in the next five or more turns, I'm not sure the weyr came out on top, but we do, at least, still receive tithe from the rest of the holds." Roa's smile is faint and perhaps a touch sad, but it warms with the rest of Laelle's words. "I'm glad to have helped, and I enjoyed the discussion very much."
"Five turns is not so very long. I'd imagine that the statements made by the Weyr and the conclave will have a more lasting effect," Laelle offers, her own brand of comforting. "I've enjoyed it, too. Very much. But I should let you get your own work done. I've kept you from it for too long as it is." She pulls her things into a neat pile and tucks them into the bag that was slung over the back of her chair. "Unless you think could offer some help," her smile is wry for that. "I owe you now."
"Perhaps so," is Roa's comment on five years versus other statements. But then she considers with a small laugh. "How good are you at math, Laelle?"
"Passable," Laelle replies, slowing, but not ceasing in her preparation to leave. "But I can't say I have any particular knack for it, not like some students."
"If you can add well, you could help with ledgers. But, another time. The thing about ledgers is that they're ongoing." The first hide is pulled from the top of the little stack and Roa begins to examine it before remembering herself and glancing up again. "Have a good night, Laelle. Good luck with your assignment."
"I owe you some addition, then," Laelle agrees with that wry grin still hanging on her mouth. "At this hour, I don't know that I'd trust my numbers, but I'm sure there will be ample time for me to return tonight's favor." She stands and pulls her jacket from the back of her chair, swinging it around and on, leaving a few strands of wherry fluff to float in the air. "Thank you again," she says with a smile, "You've been extremely helpful."
"My pleasure," Roa repeats with a small laugh. "Take care." And then, well and truly, her focus centers on the hides on the table.
"Have a good night." Laelle is at the exit before those bits of fluff reach the floor, the heavy door closing behind her.
Time: Later evening on Day 9, Month 2, Turn 3
Players: Laelle and Roa
Scene: Roa and Laelle discuss the ethics of individual rights.
Post dinner is a difficult time for the studious. The lack of classes means that students are free to flood such usual haunts as the commons or the records room and, by this time, a good number are ready to give up their work for lively conversation. Thus Laelle has sought out her new refuge for a bit of peace and quiet: the council chamber. Her work takes up little space on the large table, just two books, one open with a slip of hide marking the page, and two notebooks. The tall, thin girl is bent over one of those sets of notes, her body a long curving S with her ankles crossed under the chair and her head down.
The refuge is about to be invaded, and a less-tall girl shoulders the door open to enter with her own pile of hides under her arm. The weyrwoman's head is down as she heads for the large table, and her hides are set down with a flop. Then she looks up, and then she jumps back. "Woah!" There is not supposed to be anybody in that chair, and Roa shakes her head, swallowing. "Sorry. Hi. Surprised."
Just the noise of the door was enough to lift Laelle's glance, eyes round and caught. By the time Roa's hides hit the table, the Nerat woman is already making her apologies. "I'm sorry," she says hurriedly, the word overlapping the Weyrwoman's. "The Weyrleader said I could use this room if it wasn't occupied. I can clear out." She's already reaching for her books, to gather them up and give Roa the room.
"Don't worry about it," Roa waves off the apology with a shake of her head. "It's a big table and...haven't we had this conversation before?" She smiles faintly. "The weyrleader did?" Our brow arches upwards and her head cants to the side. "Huh."
Laelle's smile is bigger, relieved and amused at the repetition of this scenario. She leaves the books. "Yes," she confirms. "At the time, I didn't think it necessary but..." Her narrow shoulder lifts and falls. Still, her low-lidded gaze slips over the arch of Roa's brow. She mimics it with an arch of her own, silent curiosity.
The curiosity is met only with Roa shaking her head, pulling out a chair, and sinking down into it. "More history?" she asks with a glance towards Laelle's books. "or something else?"
"Ethics," Laelle answers, letting that curiosity fade without another thought. "It was just too difficult to concentrate in the commons. Sometimes it's hard enough in silence." She lets out a sigh. "More formations?" she wonders, lifting her chin at Roa's work.
"Ledgers," Roa replies. "Formations are more of a hobby, sort of. Ethics. G'thon's class. I was in it for a bit until...well...Tia went. What do you think of it?" And then, because the nosey little weyrwoman just cannot resist, "What's your topic?"
Laelle listens, ledges, hobbies, flights, each met with the same mild expression. She's thoughtful before she answers, though there's hardly a beat of delay. "I enjoy it. It's challenging," she says. "What about you? What did you think of it?" As for her topic, she doesn't share just yet.
"I thought it was going to end with somebody shouting before the turn comes full circle again," Roa replies with a small smile. "The topic of ethics cannot help but be controversial, and as the teacher himself has expressed, in his own life choices, equally controversial decisions...well, I was not overly surprised by the first assignment. Perhaps I'll just say that."
"Shouting?" Laelle repeats, brows pressing together. "I don't mind the controversy. It's interesting, what stirs people, but for the most part, people who are riled up don't debate well. Keeping sight of logic in a discussion seem like the greater challenge." She moves the pencil in her fingers, as if writing a stroke though the point doesn't touch paper. "Why weren't you surprised?"
A small nod from the weyrwoman as her hands clasp in front of her. "I agree. But as it is the greater challenge, fewer will be able to rise to it, and even logical debates can become heated. I suppose I wasn't surprised because I spoke with G'thon on occasion before he became an instructor, and it's the sort of thing he enjoys doing. Making others think about things they would rather not."
"I'd guess that he expects some will rise to the challenge when others cannot," Laelle muses, her eyes drifting down and over her page, lashes low in the dark shadow of kohl. "Is there really so much controversy in encouraging people to think?"
"In encouraging them to think about the flaws of society?" The weyrwoman laughs again, but just a single sputter. "I would say so, yes."
"But thinking isn't inherently bad, is it?" Laelle wonders, unmoved by the weyrwoman's laugh, or appearing so. "I'm not sure that a person could explore ethics without considering the society they live in. Does that make it a subject too controversial for the Caucus?" Her head tips slowly, a strand of her long, blonde bangs sliding free.
"Faranth, I hope thinking isn't bad. If it is, we've either got a whole lot of very bad people in charge of running the world, or we've got a bunch of ignorant people doing so. I'm not certain which is the more distressing thought." Roa leans forward, unlacing her hands so that she can rest her elbow on the table and her chin in her palm. "So far, Caucus seems to welcome controversial subjects. I don't imagine the Headmaster would have allowed the class if he'd supposed it was truly inappropriate."
Laelle's small smile seems to be in agreement with Roa's thoughts, a nod of pleasant concession for those evil thinkers and blissfully ignorant who run the world. "It seems strange to me that controversy seems to be such a sensitive and yet such a prevalent subject. I can't help but feel that controversy is just a gut reaction, the frustration that a person experiences when they feel they disagree with something and yet lack the ability to articulate a substantiated argument against it."
"I think it's more than that," Roa's fingers tap against her chin. "I agree that it can be that, or a basic fear of something unfamiliar or not understood. But I suspect that there are those who are articulate and who understand a quandary from both sides, and in that understanding, do not wish for people, in general, to reach a conclusion other than the one that has already been established.
"Or perhaps that both sides, even when well argued, present no clear winner," Laelle adds as well, connecting it with, "And then making that fear that people will join the other side all the more real?" She folds her arms over her notebook, fingers and pencil laying against the edge of the table. "But I think the controversy is still fueled by something other than thought, something less logical."
"Yes, exactly. For both. I think, often, it stems from a fear, well thought-out or no, of how things might change if too many people began to agree with the 'other' side." The weyrwoman studies the girl across the table. "We are creatures of habit. The unknown is frightening, and many will pick the danger they know over the danger they don't. They would want others to do the same."
While some might find discussion of such subjects with the Weyrwoman an uncomfortable situation, Laelle chooses to smile. It's an easy expression, a signal of some camaraderie from the restrained student. It lasts only a moment before it sparks a slightly different subject. "I know that you've come here to work, but I wonder if I might discuss my ethics assignment with you. I'd appreciate your thoughts." An arm unfolds to slide her notes out from under her elbow, just to have it in better sight, then she crosses the arm again.
Her chin dips down into a small nod, Roa's gaze remaining more on Laelle than the hides on the table. "I'd like that."
"You're familiar with the assignment" Laelle guesses and so she clears her throat to jump right in, more of a signal than a necessary function. "I know we were asked to choose something that we felt close to and I admit that I chose instead to pick something that would be academically interesting instead. My sentence is: the greater good outweighs individual needs." She pauses for a beat to let that stand, then adds, "I've had some trouble pinpointing exactly what standard of ethics it 'defies', as G'thon put it. Your thoughts, or your questions, perhaps, would be appreciated."
"The greater good outweighs individual needs," Roa repeats thoughtfully, her bottom lip nibbled as she ponders. "I can consider various contexts in which that statement might be relevant, and I can think of certain ethical ideas which such a statement could, possibly, offend. And some that it could -de-fend as well. Hmmm...he did want broad." The weyrwoman falls silent a moment before she asks, "You arrived after the whole rumor began and mostly ended, but did you ever hear the gossip of an unknown green dragon at Telgar weyr?"
Laelle's pencil flicks as if readying as Roa starts talking, but then the conversation shifts from the academic to the actual, or at least rumors of it. "No, I haven't," she admits. The lift of her brow is expectant.
"Well, then I shall preface it by saying that the rumors are unsubstantiated but, being juicy, spread quickly." Roa smirks and rolls her eyes. Gossip. Peh. "The story goes that around the same time the fourteen kidnapped boys were returned, a green dragon was forced to land over Greenfields Hold's land. Meanwhile, around the same time at Telgar weyr, riders reported an unknown green who was being silenced by a queen's edict and who would occasionally send out panicked flashes of an injured rider. The accepted story is that it was a rider from Ista, staying at Telgar to recover from some sort of injury. But, the rumors suggested something more sinister was afoot."
Laelle listens, her expression unchanging, unheated by whatever juice may have been delivered so far. "What are the implications of this?" she asks, seeming hesitant to jump to any conclusions on the 'facts' laid before her. "And what do the rumors suggest?"
"The implications are that the combination of a mindlocked dragon, panicked and unknown, does not line up with a rider quietly recovering. The implication was that the rider was not being assisted, but being harmed." Roa's lips thin a little. "The rumors suggest that perhaps the dragon grounded over Greenfields and this unknown green were the same. Perhaps it was one of the exiled, and perhaps the dragon was panicked because her rider was being detained and hurt for information or for vengeance."
She let's these images sink in for a quiet moment, her tongue moving thoughtfully behind her lips. Her lowered eyes flick to the Weyrwoman again. "Is that what you believe?" Laelle asks, as gentle as it is direct. "That Telgar was torturing them?"
"I believe some rumors come from truth and some don't." Roa lifts a hand and waves the question of her own thoughts away. "My point is this. Let us presume, for the sake of this discussion only, that Telgar did have an exiled rider and she was being tortured to glean information on why she was on the mainland and what her and the others were planning, if anything. Place that scenario against the statement 'The greater good outweighs individual needs' and tell me what you think."
"I would think," Laelle begins, her words slow though her mind has obviously turned back to the task of ethics without delay, "that people find torture unethical because they believe that an individual, even a possibly guilty or dangerous individual, has the right to be unharmed by his or her fellow man. Perhaps?" The question makes her uncertainty plain and the lift of her brow asks again for Roa's thoughts.
"I would suspect that that might be one argument for why people do not condone it. What do you think that your statement would suggest about torture?" Roa cants her head to the side, blinking.
"I think the sentence would condone it, my use of the sentence, as an injustice, would not," Laelle rattles off. That much she recognizes. But her lashes narrow in thought. "I'm not sure that I feel much closer to the ethical standard, though. Does society believe that an individual has rights? Is that the standard?"
Roa ahhhs softly. "You're arguing -against- the statement, I see. I suspect, and this is just a singular opinion, that society believes an individual has rights within certain parameters. A man is expected to tithe a certain portion of his crop to the main hold so that the hold can tithe it to the weyr. The right to his full harvest is compromised in order that people might thrive in weyrs and dragons might cover those same holds. But, that does not mean that the same man should be expected to, say, give up his home, his family, or his life for coverage. I suspect the average person, and society at large, would presume that as a wrong. An injustice."
"Yes, I'm claiming, for the purpose of discussion," she adds to clarify, "That forgoing the needs of an individual is unjust." But as Roa's words sink in, a more pleased smile comes to Laelle's lips, lifting her freckled cheeks. "Yes," she says, more for herself than her companion. "So the standard must be that an individual has some undeniable rights." She continues to smile. "Thank you. It seems so much clearer now. I expect, though, that G'thon would need me to define those rights. Home, health, safety, perhaps. I also believe I may have unearthed the controversy, as well. The gut reaction to say that those rights do cease when the greater good is at stake."
"Indeed, perhaps they do," Roa murmurs with a small nod when Laelle pauses. "Consider the whole mess with Nabol. The Lord, Odern, refused to tithe to the Weyr. In return, the weyr did not cover Nabol's cropland and it was destroyed. On the one hand, there was the rights of the Nabolese, whose livelihoods were compromised, to not suffer for the decisions of their Lord. There is, one might also suppose, his right to refuse tithe if he wished and accept that Nabol would not be covered. It was a controversial choice for High Reaches to refuse coverage, but if we had flown over Nabol despite the lack of tithe, what was to keep the other holds from following suit? And if nobody tithed, how could the weyr survive and fly fall? So, in a sense, the right of High Reaches' coverage area was put before the rights of Nabol."
That requires a breath, a nice deep breath that lifts Laelle's chest and straightens that relaxed curve from her spine. "The lesser of two evils," she says. "That seems to be the justification for protecting the greater good over an individual, or in Nabol's case, a group of individuals. The lesser of two evils, allowing Thread to reach Nabol and robbing its people of health and livelihood, while still evil, is preferable to the greater evil that would leave all of Pern to suffer the same fate." Her pencil flicks again. "I should write some of this down before I forget it. I've found it so easy for my mind to run along a path that I sometimes forget where I turned off from the last one." She unfolds her hands to flip to a clean page of her notes, to start scribbling.
"The curse of Caucus," laughs the weyrwoman. "You never reach the end of one idea, but another one's derailing you onto something else. I think I would agree with you, though. The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few, so long as what the many would suffer was equal or greater than what the individual would suffer. And, bear in mind too that riders flew illegally over Nabol and were only mildly penalized, but they also primarily only covered actual homes. They defended human lives, but not croplands. And, at the end of it all, Odern was replaced in the conclave. He right to lead removed because of how greatly he had failed his people."
Laelle seems to be only half-listening, as her eyes and pencil focus on her page, scrawling chunks of text and lines and diagrams. But she must be following at least a little because she comments, "It sounds like the Weyr came out on top." Her writing slows and her lips move together as she stares at the page. "I'll still have to figure out the what society deems are the right of an individual, but you have helped me immensely. I'm extremely grateful." She looks up again to smile at the Weyrwoman even as she moves to close her books.
"Considering Nabol was one of the most fertile portions of our coverage area and that we'd be lucky if it was able to produce anything in the next five or more turns, I'm not sure the weyr came out on top, but we do, at least, still receive tithe from the rest of the holds." Roa's smile is faint and perhaps a touch sad, but it warms with the rest of Laelle's words. "I'm glad to have helped, and I enjoyed the discussion very much."
"Five turns is not so very long. I'd imagine that the statements made by the Weyr and the conclave will have a more lasting effect," Laelle offers, her own brand of comforting. "I've enjoyed it, too. Very much. But I should let you get your own work done. I've kept you from it for too long as it is." She pulls her things into a neat pile and tucks them into the bag that was slung over the back of her chair. "Unless you think could offer some help," her smile is wry for that. "I owe you now."
"Perhaps so," is Roa's comment on five years versus other statements. But then she considers with a small laugh. "How good are you at math, Laelle?"
"Passable," Laelle replies, slowing, but not ceasing in her preparation to leave. "But I can't say I have any particular knack for it, not like some students."
"If you can add well, you could help with ledgers. But, another time. The thing about ledgers is that they're ongoing." The first hide is pulled from the top of the little stack and Roa begins to examine it before remembering herself and glancing up again. "Have a good night, Laelle. Good luck with your assignment."
"I owe you some addition, then," Laelle agrees with that wry grin still hanging on her mouth. "At this hour, I don't know that I'd trust my numbers, but I'm sure there will be ample time for me to return tonight's favor." She stands and pulls her jacket from the back of her chair, swinging it around and on, leaving a few strands of wherry fluff to float in the air. "Thank you again," she says with a smile, "You've been extremely helpful."
"My pleasure," Roa repeats with a small laugh. "Take care." And then, well and truly, her focus centers on the hides on the table.
"Have a good night." Laelle is at the exit before those bits of fluff reach the floor, the heavy door closing behind her.