Many years later, Wraithvine travels back to where they gifted hair to a person who was desperately poor and had taken to thievery. They found the person had used the funds to feed themselves, get a home, and open a free trades-school so that all those who were like them could learn a solid trade, and get to their feet.
Sorry, keep forgetting to put in the link.
https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03613-i325-a-kindly-cut -- Anon Guest
Knowledge of what is precious is different to knowledge of what is valuable. Understanding this is key to existence. Value is what society assigns to something. Preciousness is assigned, generally, by an individual.
Knowledge is precious, too. Just ask anyone who's been to Lent Skills.
It used to be a manufactory complex, but it was a changed campus. Part boarding house, part trade school, part university. It teaches anything that anyone who comes there can learn. They even teach people to read and write. There's some who go in and just live there. Working on keeping the place clean and running for everyone else.
Here, and possibly here alone, nobody is worthless.
Lent was old when Wraithvine came to check on them and the place they had made. Nevertheless, the ex-thief recognised their saviour. "I was starting to worry I'd never see you again," they said, hobbling to greet the immortal Elf with an embrace. "Thank you. Thank you for everything."
"I'd like to see what you've done with it," said Wraithvine.
It was a long and slow journey through all the floors, all the rooms, and all the facilities. Lent was old and slow, and Wraithvine was willing to slow down for them.
It was time well spent. Every second, precious.
Some say pride is a sin. It's only such when the pride is strictly internal. When it's external, the pride in creation, the pride in assisting others, the pride in making the world better... That's hardly any kind of sin. It's the singular joy of accomplishment.
Lent Skills was an accomplishment. Something to change the world. Something to last, and something to grow. Something that would keep going long after Lent would pass into the next life.
There was only one cost to attending Lent Skills, and it was the motto of the entire complex. When you can, help. When you know, teach.
In comparison to the world, it was a very small thing.
In terms of changing lives, it was immense, and that made it very precious indeed.
[Photo by Adam Patterson on Unsplash]
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