Titans of Chaos

"How else was I to deal with a dangerous race of world-destroying monsters? If I taught them toreason, maybe they could be reasoned with."

I said, "Why hide the truth? You did not tell us magic was real, for example, or that there wereOlympian gods running around secretly ruling mankind."

"We told you the tales in sufficient detail, that when the truth was ready to emerge, you alreadyknew what you needed to know."

"That cannot be the whole story. Why raise us at all? Why a school? Why not a prison, or aninsane asylum? What was the purpose behind all this?"

"Hrmm. Well, would you believe that I am actually the Lord Terminus himself? The real Boreashas long since retired, and is living happily on his pension in Hyperboria. You and your brethrenhave been raised as the last and only hope of peace between Cosmos and Chaos, and you weretaught your powers so that my sons and daughters, squabbling over a meaningless throne, wouldnot have the ability to destroy you? It was done entirely for your own protection, and also toallow the great and altruistic work of universal peace to go forward."

I said, "No, I do not think I would believe that. I suspect, rather, that you would not have had acommodity to sell had you raised us to be totally ignorant, and that we would have been evenmore dangerous to you than we were, had we been told everything."

"Ah, well, then the benefits of an education in skeptical thinking must already be apparent toyou."

"Pellucid," I said.

"Well, then," he said, "try out your powers of skeptical reasoning on this proposition: Withoutknowledge of your powers, and the ability, should the need arise, to use them, you might havebeen killed. Since your death would have instigated a war, it was thought best to see to it that youcould defend yourselves."

"Why teach us liberal arts? Why raise us among human beings, as humans?"

"You will not believe this now, but in times to come you may. The art and science, poetry andliterature, philosophy and thought and myth of mankind exceed the best efforts of the immortalraces. Our muses need their artists as much as their artists need our muses. What men had toteach was more rational, fair, and lofty and, in a word, better, than the lessons you would havelearned from the Olympians. They are the creatures of Prometheus."

"You wanted us to feel pity for them, a pity you do not feel yourself, so that when the time came,we would not be willing to see the Earth destroyed."

He stood up.