Dhivael now understood that supernatural beings had had to fight hard to gain the right to attend even segregated schools in the past. By the standards of aging kitsune faced, Meda wouldn’t have had much of a chance to study what she desired, but by human standards, she still would have had a great deal of time to do it.
Earth’s history made her grateful that she had grown up on ch’Havran. Her planet was peaceful, and discrimination wasn’t tolerated. With the way they followed logic over emotions, such irrelevant hatreds were practically nonexistent. Of course, there were a few who felt that primitive planets such as Earth were beneath their research, but that was probably the extent of any bigotry.
“I have already learned that all people are individuals in and of themselves. I have learned much about psychology on my home planet. Even among beings that do not have the same emotional severity, personalities differ. It is also possible for an educator to have spent less time being educated and to still be a competent instructor. Many may not be qualified, but many are.” It all depended on the individual. Meda held herself to a different standard than many other sentient life forms, but that did not mean hers was the only proper way. Dhivael respected that Professor Smith had decided to wait until she felt she was ready rather than rushing into things regardless, but her judgment wouldn’t be clouded by such a small thing.
She was curious about what Meda meant when she said that kitsune did not die in the same sense of the word as most bipeds were aware, but then she asked if Dhivael was younger than the professor. “I am roughly twenty-six Earth years of age. That is only a rough conversion, for there are many differences in time keeping and factors that contribute to such things, but it is as accurate as can be determined. I believe that makes me younger than you.”
Dhivael listened attentively as Meda continued to speak, trying to connect the fact that she was older to the fact that she’d been studying her world for all of her life. “I, too, have studied most of my life. I am well qualified in many subjects, but I have an aptitude for languages which has helped to reinforce my desire to study anthropology. My life has been spent studying the world in which I grew. It was there that I decided to study another world which is very different.”
A thought occurred to Dhivael when Meda told the Rihan she had not met another kitsune. It traced back to the thought she’d had of a kitsune’s sense of death. “If you have not met others of your kind, how can you be certain that you will ‘leave this place’ when you reach your eight hundredth year?” It seemed unlikely that someone who had neither met another of her kind or had faced that sense of death would know what would happen. It was possible that she had touched on a sense of religious beliefs, and Meda would feel that sense of offense that Dhivael encountered whenever she discussed something that could not be proven, but she was not one to hold back her thoughts when it meant she could learn something interesting.