Following the confrontation between Disciple and Master, a drastic shift in dynamic had transpired within the cottage - Marie had now taken charge of the matter of her own advancement.
"Let's break it down all the way to the basics," Marie commanded.
"This isn't necessary-"
Marie shot back with a stern glare that caused Krish to choke on his words. He could see that she wouldn't budge on this issue, not one bit.
"How do you mean?" Krish acquiesced with a sigh.
"Let me get this straight - correct me if I'm wrong," Marie prefaced. "In order to advance into Foundation Establishment, do I need to alter a Constant event or experience the backlash from the Universe?"
Krish frowned contemplatively and asked, "Is there a difference?"
"Definitely!" Marie affirmed.
"How so? To my knowledge, altering a Constant elicits a backlash from the Universe. The two events are tied together," Krish rebutted.
Marie shook her head vehemently and stated her point, "I've been thinking about it a lot after I left yesterday. I remember learning something interesting during a lesson with Mister Larks. When it starts to rain heavily, with heavy storm clouds blotting the skies, you often observe lightning cracking frequently. What follows the flash of lightning is a loud boom of thunder. Kids who do not know what those two are, can often make a false connection and presume that since thunder follows lightning every time, therefore thunder is caused by lightning. Do you believe that statement to be true?"
Krish shook his head lightly and said, "That's false. Thunder and lightning both occur simultaneously. They are a result of a singular event."
Marie snapped her finger and emphasised, "That's it! You see, what we have here is a common logical fallacy labelled |post hoc ergo propter hoc|."
"What is that?" Krish blurted out.
"Umm... Mister Larks said that it means 'after this, therefore because of this,' in Latin," Marie responded while scratching her head.
"Latin?"
"Mister Larks said that it's a dead language..."
Krish narrowed his eyes and commented, "I've never heard of such a language before."
Marie clicked her tongue in annoyance and said, "Does that matter right now? Please don't distract me, Master."
Krish chuckled at his Disciple's stern warning and raised his hands in defeat.
"Basically, the phrase means that since event A occurred, then event B occurred, A is caused by B. Another example is that since the sun rises after a rooster crows, therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise."
"That's obviously incorrect," Krish confirmed.
"That's exactly my point. According to Mister Larks, almost everyone can fall victim to this fallacy if they do not maintain a healthy sense of criticism about what they see and observe every day. This is also a result of the poor transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. Master, why do you believe that process of altering Constants and suffering a backlash has a cause-effect relationship? Is it because you have personally experimented with and evaluated the two phenomena or is it because you took what your Master taught you and went along with it?"
Krish hummed as he reflected on his beliefs. As he formulated an answer to his Disciple's question, his eyes started to widen in shock.
"Are you saying that the Universe's backlash has nothing to do with altering a Constant?" Krish asked with an excited glint in his eyes.
"I don't know," Marie shrugged. "I haven't even observed a Constant with the Heavenly Eye, I cannot give you an answer to that question."
Although his elation was deflated, Krish was quick to grasp the implication of Marie's proposition. "If we can determine whether they hold a cause-effect relationship or not, we can then isolate the true condition needed to advance into the Foundation Establishment realm. Am I right?"
But then, Krish furrowed his brows and added, "How do we even prove this? In order to affect a Constant, we need to first identify it. However, to identify it, we need to utilise the Heavenly Eye. It's a circular trap..."
"I considered that logical trap as well!" Marie responded animatedly. "I arrived at that same conclusion. But then, I took a few steps back and observed the problem from afar, which in turn helped me remember something."
"One day, when I was chatting with Mister Larks, and he introduced a thought experiment called 'Schrödinger's cat'."
"Who's Schrödinger?" Krish interjected.
"I don't know," She shook her head and emphasised, "That's not the point. The thought experiment was used to describe the behaviour of subatomic particles. In it, a hypothetical was defined where a cat is placed inside a box with a hammer hanging over a glass flask of toxic poison. At some point in time, the hammer falls and breaks the poison flash which causes the liquid to vaporise and kill the cat. We, the observers standing outside the box, do not know when this hammer will fall. Therefore to us, the cat is both alive and dead until the box is opened."
"Can't you just use your mana sense to observe inside?" Krish proposed.
"That is the argument this experiment aims to address. If we don't use our senses to look inside, the cat's fate remains indeterminate. This thought experiment caused me to revisit the time of my transformation - when I achieved perfected resonance."
She then leaned forward and whispered, "Can we enter the upper dimension?"
Krish entertained his Disciple's request and activated the formation lined in his cottage walls. With a recognisable ripple, they were displaced and brought into the mysterious and isolated upper dimension.
Marie cleared her throat and said, "|I am an observer of Fate. I exist outside its domain, though my actions are governed by its ebb and flow. My aberrance shifts the trajectory of Fate at the cost of my existence, and my compliance moves it in its current trajectory. The cost of my aberrance is exempted if I am ignorant, for my actions unforeseen by the Heavenly Eye are by definition predetermined by Fate.|"
Krish tilted his head and said, "That's a part of what you had to say during your transformation."
"Although my grasp of the vocabulary and grammar in Ancient Tongue isn't anything to brag about, I managed to translate a segment of it through context clues. |The cost of my aberrance is exempted if I am ignorant, for my actions unforeseen by the Heavenly Eye are by definition predetermined by Fate.|"
"Within the verses spoken to activate my transformation, I noticed that we target the Heavenly Eye as the conduit that observes fate. In the above line, we are exempted from retribution if we are ignorant. And we are considered to be ignorant if we do not see the future through the Heavenly Eye. Therefore, if we do see the future - by that I am obviously referring to the Constants - without using the Heavenly Eye and then manage to change it, the shift is by definition 'predetermined' by fate and is exempt from retribution."
Krish raised a finger and countered, "But if the alteration is predetermined by fate, it isn't really changing anything, right?"
"Not if the one performing the alteration is an 'apostle of Fate'," Marie reminded. "|I can now see the future of everything around me, but my future ceases to exist|. I am no longer bound by fate's sequence. You shouldn't be able to see my future using your Heavenly Eye anymore."
"Smart girl!" Krish praised while sporting a proud smile.
"What we need now, is a way to determine whether the cat in the box is dead or alive without opening the box or using any of our senses to gaze inside. To translate that metaphor, we need to determine a strategy to divine Constants without the Heavenly Eye," Marie concluded.
"That's easier said than done," Krish sighed. "The Heavenly Eye has been around for many, many millennia. If there WAS a way around it, it would have been discovered."
"Master," Marie grunted exasperatedly. "I'd appreciate a little more faith in my abilities."
Krish smile apologetically and said, "Force of habit, I apologise. Now that I think about it, you might be the first one to make these connections and truly deconstruct the logic underlying our cultivation method. I'm sure you'll succeed in finding the solution!"
Those weren't empty words. Krish really did hold a glimmer of hope that his Disciple might achieve something great - something unheard of and unattempted throughout the Heavenly Eye's lineage. He knew for a fact that every one of his predecessors was quick to assume their Master's words as the absolute truth - even Krish fell victim to this frame of mind. Marie may be the first of their line to ever question what she was being taught, and properly critique the purpose, value and applicability of the knowledge she was being presented.
"I'll definitely figure it out!" Marie promised. "Until I do that, I don't want to hear anything about you sacrificing body parts for my sake," she then warned.
"Just as you're responsible for me, I am responsible for you," she muttered with an embarrassed frown. "I don't wish to lose you in any way. Not yet at least, and definitely not for something so trivial as this!"
Krish gazed appreciatively at his Disciple as a pleasant warmth washed over him. 'Is this what it feels like to have someone care for you?'
"I promise I won't do anything stupid, my dear Disciple," Krish affirmed with a light-hearted and mirthful laugh. "I'll wait patiently till you've finalised your decision."
