The girl waved to Shay and hurried over to the table, delight lingering on her face.
Shay tensed, then let out a breath. She had no reason to be nervous. Students showing up was perfectly consistent with what she’d told her friends about her life. If anything, this would only reinforce the lie of her public cover.
Mary smiled as she arrived at the table. “It’s funny to see you here, Professor Carson. I didn’t know you ate here.”
Shay shrugged. “Not a lot, but yeah, I do.”
The student waved to the others at the table. “I’m Mary. I’m studying archaeology and revised history at UCLA. I love Professor Carson’s lectures. They are so interesting.” She frowned. “They are non-credit, too, so it’s not like I’m just saying that to suck up to her.”
Everyone snickered as they looked Shay’s way. The tomb raider shrugged and forced a smile on her face as some of her discomfort returned.
“Revised history?” Bella asked. “What’s that, exactly? How is it different than archaeology?”
Mary pulled a seat from another table over and sat.
Thanks for asking, but sure. Go ahead and join us.
Shay cleared her throat. “Well, there are plenty of standard history classes and courses, but revised history specifically tries to focus on areas where normal history was wrong before we knew about Oriceran. It tries to explore both the truth of what occurred in the past and why it was covered up or misunderstood, whereas a lot of times in normal history, they’ll just focus on the actual events and the general impact and less about the how and why of the secrecy.”
Bella nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. I’m not that much into history, so I guess I don’t think about how all this stuff has to be changed now that we know about Oriceran.”
Mary’s eyes widened. “Oh, oh, oh. I have thought of so many questions since your lecture the other day. Like, how are we so sure they are dwarven, you know? The ancient tunnels you talked about.”
Shay shrugged. “Most of that is based off dwarven artifacts recovered from the lower tunnels, along with documentation found by Oriceran scholars and passed along to human academics.”
“But Oriceran doesn’t quite have the same academic standards as we do. I get that they have ancient records and gnomes and other guys who keep stuff for thousands of years, but it’s not like they’ve been concerned about absolute truth in the way we have been.”
Shay’s friends continued sipping their drinks and nibbling their food and watching in silence, but with obvious interest.
This is kind of weird. I’ve got to turn on my Professor Carson persona. Will my friends think it’s fake because I don’t even talk the same way I tend to talk to them? Ugh.
“You do have a point, Mary.” Shay smiled. “I’m glad you’re thinking, and you’re right. One problem even with modern revised archaeology and revised history, or related fields such as the history of extra-dimensional engineering, is that a lot of times we’re relying on cross-referencing information with the Oricerans, who have a very different frame of reference than human societies do. There are still many questions even on Earth about how the best way is to approach history and what frameworks to use.
“Every historian brings their own biases, even if they are literally just reporting what has been found in primary sources. The sources a person chooses to examine and the methods they use to support them, whether archaeological or historical, heavily influences this in the end.”
Mary frowned. “So the Oricerans might be lying?”
“In some cases, yes. Although things like the Great Treaty are masterpieces of diplomacy, the simple reality is that despite the use of magic and the diversity of intelligent species, Oricerans aren’t so different from humans. Some are good, some bad. A lot of them have motivations that the average human might not understand, but Oriceran is hardly a utopia.” Shay sighed. “The other thing to remember is that it could just be as simple as a perspective difference. An Oriceran scholar or official might not understand the implications of a particular question. They might leave out a piece of information they find irrelevant where as to an Earth historian or archaeologist it’d be considered vitally important.”
“I never thought of that.” Mary bit her lip and frowned as she pondered the information. “You make it sound like we can never know the truth.”
Shay chuckled. “Well, that’s not new. Without some omniscience spell, no one can totally know the truth. All we can do is continue to collect evidence and see the general direction it points.”
“That’s kind of depressing, though.” The girl sighed.
“No, if anything, it’s the opposite.”
Mary tilted her head. “How do you figure?”
Shay pointed to her cup of coffee. “There could be something at the bottom of this coffee that you can’t see, or there could be nothing. Just have to keep drinking until we know for sure, but the fact that there’s a mystery means it’s exciting. I’m interested in the truth, but the hunt itself is exciting.”
Janelle, Kara, and Bella all clapped lightly, and Shay’s head snapped their way. She’d completely forgotten her friends were there.
Her cheeks heated. Embarrassment. That was rare.
Mary stood. “Oh, I’m being rude. You’re here with your friends. I was just stopping by to say hi anyway. I’ll see you at your next lecture.” She waved.
“I look forward to it,” Shay replied.
The student wandered off, and the tomb raider picked up her coffee cup to take a sip and hide behind it.
Why the fuck am I embarrassed? Because I let my friends see there’s actually something I care about? It’s called having a passion.
Kara grinned. “Your job’s way more interesting than I thought.” She gasped and put a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry. That came out so rude.”
Bella and Janelle laughed.
Shay shrugged. “Figured it was just me
