Tale 17- The Student who knew Everything

 One cold morning, the Traveler walked along a cobbled path toward a tavern, not planning on ordering anything in particular but simply needing a way to get out of the wind and rain. Settling in a booth of her own, a waitress approached her, offering a menu. Declining, she instead pulled out the book, and asked the woman for her best story. Bartering, the waitress asked what she could get in return, the Traveler thinking for a moment. She could give up her sword, but then she would be left with nothing to defend herself. And giving up the book and quill was obviously impossible. She didn’t have much else, apart from her cloak and the rags underneath, so she simply shrugged. The waitress stared at her, seeing how frail and young she was, and sighed. “Fine, you get it free just this once.” she spoke, sitting down opposite the Traveler, who was secretly glad. The woman watched as she prepared her quill, and started to tell the tale of ‘the student who knew everything’.

‘A while ago, there was a young girl, a student, who attended school. The teacher would sit her down and have her memorise one word over and over, writing it line after line, day after day. Stacks of paper could have filled entire books of the word the student was memorising, over and over and over, learning year after year. Moving from paper to notebooks, she filled up 3 each year, replacing them as soon as they became low on space for the word, which was written neatly on each page with ample spacing. Hour upon hour she would write, wrists aching and back constantly hunched over the papers, but she didn’t give up, writing the word as told all the way until she finished school. By the end, the student had memorised ‘everything’, but knew nothing.’

A curious tale, indeed, the Traveler writing it down and illustrating the notebooks filled to the brim. She nodded at the woman and, seeing the rain had stopped outside, stood up, shaking the woman’s hand. Barely visible, under the folds of her cloak, the glint of the silver sword shone in the light, the woman staring at the Traveler as she left. Who was she?

Outside, walking down the path, the Traveler began to think. Was it possible for a human to know everything? Or could they simply grasp the arbitrary and abstract concept of ‘everything’, the definition of which was constantly debated in the world around her? Family could constitute ‘everything’, friendship too, but so could food and drink, and things necessary for human survival. Grandiose concepts of space proved there was a greater ‘everything’ out there, one humans couldn’t touch yet. So, was there really a way to memorise ‘everything’? She wondered what ‘everything’ meant to her. Answers came and went, and she couldn’t easily explain it. ‘Everything’ was too much now- before, her definition would have been simple, because life had been simpler before. But now, her quest was everything.

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