Date: 6/19/2001 - 9:23 PM – Self-Study Session
Location: The White Room – Advanced Mathematics Section
Perspective: Kaiser Everhart
We sat at our respective desks, but the gap between us had narrowed. Amelia had dragged her chair closer, her book—Advanced Spatial Trigonometry and Non-Euclidean Geometry—propped open.
I didn't study the book.
I studied her.
She didn't read; she scanned. Her eyes moved in a pattern, horizontal zig-zag, exactly 1.2 seconds per page. No pausing to re-read.
Her input speed is constant. Most students slow down when they hit a complex derivation, like the integration of mana-flux variables into a standard Pythagorean theorem.
She doesn't.
Amelia possesses an Eidetic/Photographic memory. She isn't "learning" the formulas; she is taking high-resolution snapshots and storing them in her temporal lobe for immediate retrieval.
"Complete," she whispered.
She began the practice problems. Her stylus moved with terrifying precision.
sin(theta) = Opposite / Hypotenuse → Mana Displacement (Psi) = integral from 0 to pi of [ sin(theta) / sqrt(1 − k² sin²(theta)) ] dtheta
She solved a ten-step spatial fold problem in under forty seconds. Then, she slid the parchment toward me.
"Kaiser," she murmured, her eyes flicking to mine before darting away. "Problem 12.4. I have attained the solution of Psi = 2.718. Is this... optimal?"
"It's perfect, Amelia. You applied the flux-constant exactly where it needed to be."
"Okie," she breathed.
She pulled the paper back, solved the next one—identical in structure, different variables—and slid it back again. "Problem 12.5. Verification required."
"Also perfect," I said, leaning in. "You don't need me to check these, you know. You haven't made a single error in the previous 67 problems."
"The… the practice needs some correction," she insisted, her voice small. She bit her lip, then slid a third paper over. "12.6. Is it... still correct?"
Why is she asking me for validation knowing she is correct?
"You're a genius, Amelia," I said, giving her a small, knowing smile. "But let's move to the next set. The Hyper-Spatial Folds."
She nodded eagerly, turning the page.
Then, she stopped.
The problem was a conceptual anomaly. It wasn't a formula-based calculation; it was a visualization puzzle. It required the student to intuit how a three-dimensional sphere would collapse if its gravity was inverted by a mental catalyst.
There was no standard formula for this.
You had to understand the why of the collapse, not just the how.
Amelia's stylus hovered over the paper. Her eyes scanned the page, then flicked to the previous pages, then back. She was searching her memory for a snapshot that matched this pattern.
She found nothing.
Her breathing hitched. She tried to write the standard volume formula, but her hand shook. She scratched it out. She tried the displacement variable. Scratched that out, too.
My analysis was correct.
Her gift is her bottleneck. In biology, memory and reasoning are handled by different sectors. The Hippocampus stores the "what," but the Prefrontal Cortex handles the "how." Amelia has a massive memory, but her processing power for creative synthesis is stunted
She is higher ranked than me because she can memorize the entire archive, whereas my memory is average at best.
But because I have to fight to remember, I am forced to understand. I have to build the logic from the ground up because I can't rely on a snapshot.
Amelia looked paralyzed. She began to zip past the problem, her eyes darting to the next page to find something she could memorize, her movements becoming frantic.
She's crashing—
I felt a small, hesitant tug on my sleeve.
I looked over. Amelia was hunched over her desk, she gripped the fabric of my uniform. She wouldn't look at me, but her head was bowed low.
"Kai—k-kaiser..." she stammered. "I... I can't... the formula is missing. I searched... but it's n-not in the book. Can you... h-h-help me?"
She had never asked for help in her life.
To her, asking was an admission that her "Designation" was a lie.
I felt a surge of cold satisfaction, quickly masked by the safety of the Champion.
"Sure, Amelia," I said, reaching over to gently place my hand over hers to stop the trembling. "I can help you. We'll find the solution together."
I looked down at the question. It was a theoretical nightmare.
Problem 14.9:Calculate the dimensional bleed of a 4D Hypersphere passing through a 3D mana-membrane, assuming the membrane's tension is a non-linear variable of the sphere's velocity. Define the resulting curvature of space at the point of intersection.
Amelia's voice was a frantic whisper of memory.
"Page 312, Line 14... The Cauchy-Riemann equations for complex variables. Page 549, Line 8... The Second Law of Mana-Thermodynamics. Page 112, Line 22... The General Theory of Relativistic Folds. I—I have the formulas, Kaiser."
"But... the membrane isn't static. The formulas don't... they don't fit together. The variables are... w-weird.."
She was trying to build a house by remembering where every brick was kept, but she didn't know how to mix the mortar.
"Amelia,"
"Stop looking at the book. Look at me."
She hesitated, her fingers twitching on my sleeve, then slowly lifted her head.
"Forget the hypersphere," I said. "Think about the Crystal Sea we read about. Imagine you're standing on the shore, and you throw a sapphire into the water."
She blinked. "A... sapphire? That is a mineral deposit. Its displacement would be—"
"Shh," I interrupted, smiling. "Just visualize. The stone hits the surface. It's a solid object entering a liquid world. What happens to the light on the bottom of the sea?"
She went quiet. Her eyes unfocused as her photographic memory pulled up the illustrations from The Atlas of Wandering Stars.
"The light... it bends. It forms patterns on the sand. Caustics."
"Exactly. The 'mana-membrane' is just the surface of the water. The 'hypersphere' is the sapphire. The 'dimensional bleed' is just the way the light changes shape because the stone is moving through it." I traced a simple curve on her notepad with my stylus.
"You don't need the Riemann equations yet. You just need to calculate the ripple."
I simplified the derivation, stripping away the academic fluff and turning the complex geometry into a series of visual waves.
To me, this was survival—I had to simplify things because my memory couldn't hold 1200 pages of raw text.
I needed the shape of the idea.
Amelia stared at my notes for a long time.
She wasn't scanning now. She was thinking.
"How...?" she whispered, looking at me with a mix of confusion and dawning realization. "How did you translate the flux-variable into a... a ripple? It is... remarkably efficient."
"It's just basic reasoning," I said, leaning back.
"No," she said, shaking her head sharply. "4 months, 2weeks, and 6 minutes ago, the Senior Instructor for Spatial Mechanics lectured on this specific intersection. I have the transcript."
"He said: 'The manifold intersection is a derivative of the eighth-order tensor field, requiring a simultaneous resolution of the mana-drag and the ethereal-friction coefficient.'"
She looked at my drawing of the ripple.
"His explanation was vague. It was a cluster of high-density definitions. But yours..." she trailed off, her eyes wide. "You removed the vagueness. Surpassing the lecture..."
I brushed it off with a casual wave. "You're overthinking it, Amelia. I'm just lazy. I don't want to remember the long words."
"You are not lazy," she said, her voice filled with a sudden, quiet awe. "Your explanations are... they are better than the instructor's. You understand the dimension of mathematics not just the rules."
"Prove it," I said, pointing to the paper. "Give me the answer."
Amelia took a deep breath. She didn't look at the book once. She gripped her stylus, and instead of copying a formula from Page 772, she followed the "ripple" I had drawn.
Her hand moved with a new kind of confidence, fluid and steady.
ΔV = (4/3) · π · r³ · cos(σ)
She finished the calculation. The answer was a single, elegant number.
"Is it... 1.618?" she asked, her voice hopeful.
"Perfect," I said. I reached out and patted her head, my palm resting on her soft hair for a lingering second
"Good girl."
Amelia's breath hitched. A soft, rosy hue crept up her neck and settled in her cheeks. She didn't look away this time. She leaned into the touch.
"Okie..." she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "I... I will solve the next one now."
She turned back to her desk, her movements slightly more frantic, her focus absolute. She wanted that praise again. She was addicted to the "Good girl," and I was the only one in the world who could provide the supply.
I turned back to my own desk, the smile disappearing from my face.
Her memory is a library, but her intuition is a blank page. By providing the "logic," I am becoming the operating system for her mind.
I am no longer just her classmate.
I picked up my stylus and began to write, the cold blue light of the Foundation reflecting in my eyes. The week was half over.
I stared at the symbol π pi on my parchment...
The importance of the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is, quite frankly, an obsession of the Foundation.
It is the skeletal structure of the physical world. If you want to calculate the perfect trajectory of a fireball, you need Pi. If you want to stabilize a vortex of air magic so it doesn't collapse and shred your own lungs, you need Pi.
In combat, a visualization of the 360-degree sphere around the body is essential.
To miss the angle of a defensive barrier by even a fraction of a degree is to invite a blade between your ribs. Everything circular, from the rotation of a mana-core to the arc of a swinging mace, is governed by this infinite, non-repeating sequence.
I leaned back, tapping my stylus against my chin.
After two months of grueling mental exercise, I have managed to memorize exactly 59 digits after the decimal point.
3.1415926535... and so on.
It is a pathetic achievement.
But my reasoning holds: Pi is infinite. Humanity is finite. Therefore, the pursuit of Pi is the pursuit of a God-complex.
However, accuracy is a game of diminishing returns.
If I use only the first ten characters, I get an approximation—a "close enough" that might suffice for building a stable table. But in the high-stakes theater of elemental magic, "close enough" is just a polite term for a funeral.
Consider the interaction of Fire and Earth. To encase a blazing core within a stone shell, the pressure must be equalized across the interior surface area (4\π r^2).
If I use 3.14, the stone cracks at the poles. If I use 3.14159, the shell holds, but the heat leaks. If I add just one more digit—the 2—the seal becomes airtight.
The closer we crawl toward that infinity, the more we can bend reality without it snapping back to break us.
It's the difference between a clumsy explosion and a surgical strike.
I let out a long, weary sigh, the weight of the numbers pressing against my temples.
59 digits.
I'm practically a primitive.
I felt a familiar sensation—a prickle on the side of my neck. I didn't turn my head immediately. I leaned over my notes, pretending to adjust a calculation for a Wind-Fire cyclone, but I shifted my peripheral vision.
Amelia was staring again.
She wasn't even pretending to read her book. She was leaning on her hand, her emerald eyes fixed on the side of my face with an intensity that suggested she was trying to memorize my face the way I was memorizing Pi.
I stayed still for a moment, letting the silence of the White Room stretch between us.
"Are you checking for spatial distortions again," I asked, my voice dry and quiet, "or am I just that much more interesting?"
Amelia didn't jump this time. She didn't even look away. She just blinked slowly, her expression unreadable.
"I have already memorized the volume," she stated, her voice carrying that tiny, new tremor of human hesitation.
"I was... analyzing your studies. You sighed. A sigh indicates a depletion of mental stamina or a frustration with the variables."
"It's the numbers, Amelia," I said, finally turning to face her. "They don't end. It's annoying."
"Pi is a constant," she countered, her gaze lingering on my lips as I spoke. "It cannot be 'annoying.' It simply is."
"And yet," I said, leaning closer, "it makes me want to throw this book at Directive Vance's head."
A small, genuine spark of amusement flickered in her eyes—the closest she ever got to a laugh.
"That," she whispered, "would be a dramatically poor decision."
"Amelia," I said, my voice dry. "How much do you know about pi?"
She straightened up instantly. "pi is a mathematical constant, approximately equal to 3.14159… It is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Its importance in the calculation of Euclidean geometry, specifically regarding the volume of a sphere and the area of a—"
I leaned across the gap between our desks and placed a single finger over her lips.
Amelia's eyes widened. Her mouth snapped shut, the half-formed word dying against my skin. A sharp, shaky exhale escaped her nose, her cheeks blooming with a sudden, violent pink.
"I know the definition, Amelia," I whispered, my voice smooth and low. "I'm asking how many digits you remembered."
I pulled my finger back. She looked down at her desk, then back at me, her expression shifting. She wasn't just answering; she was... flexing.
"182 Digits. In 1 week," she said bluntly.
I stared at her. My hand, which had been reaching for my stylus, froze in mid-air.
"182? In the last week?"
She nodded, a small, triumphant glint appearing in her eyes. She leaned in a fraction, her voice gaining a rare edge of pride. "I reviewed the appendix of the Grand Architect's Ledger."
"It contained the expanded sequence. I read it once, paused for approximately 3 seconds to categorize the groups of five, and then continued. I can recall them all now."
"It is... basic."
My 59 digits took 60 days. Her 182 took one reading.
I felt a cold realization settle in my gut. My memory is a result of labor; hers is a biological gift. It is genetic divinity. She doesn't have to fight to remember; she simply doesn't have the capacity to forget.
"That's... incredible," I murmured, making my voice sound breathless with awe. I reached over and didn't just pat her head—I ran my hand gently over her hair, a slow, intimate gesture that made her whole body go still. "You're amazing, Amelia. Truly."
"Can you tell me how you do it? How do you see the numbers?"
She leaned into the touch, her stiff posture melting as she felt the safety of my praise. She looked at her notebook, her voice dropping to a shy whisper.
"I... I do not see the writing," she explained, her fingers tracing a circle on the desk. "Whenever I read a number, an image... pops up. A three is a curved hook of blue light. One is a silver pillar. When the numbers are in a sequence, they form a landscape."
"To recall pi, I simply... walk through the forest of lights. I do not 'remember' the number. I will describe the trees."
Synesthesia linked to photographic memory.
I noted internally, my mind already dissecting her talent like a specimen. She isn't storing knowledge; she's storing sensory experiences.
"Thank you, Amelia," I said, giving her one last, firm pat on the head before pulling my hand away. "That helps me a lot. We only have a few hours left before the cycle ends. You should get back to your studies."
"Okie," she whispered, her eyes lingering on mine for a second too long. She hesitated, her fingers tugging at the edge of her skirt. "Kaiser? If... if I get stuck on the visualization of the next problem... Can I ask you?"
I saw it then—the hunger for affection masked as a request for help. She was already addicted to the "Good girl" I offered.
"Of course," I smiled, the expression practiced and perfect. "If you get stuck, I'm right here."
"Okie," she said again, turning back to her book with a renewed, almost frantic focus.
I turned back to my own desk. I looked at my 59 digits. They looked like pathetic scratches in the dirt compared to her forest of light.
I didn't feel jealous.
I felt the familiar, cold hum of the Reasoning taking control.
She has the gift.
I have the system.
She can remember the forest, but I will be the one who learns how to burn it down.
I picked up my stylus.
I will surpass her.
If I attempt to compete with her on a biological level, I will fail. My hippocampus is a standard human model. Her temporal lobe is a supercomputer.
The flaw in my current approach is the nature of the knowledge itself. Numbers are abstract. They have no weight, no scent, no history. The human brain did not evolve to store 3.14159… it evolved to remember which berries are poisonous and which path leads to the water.
I tapped my stylus against my chin.
Amelia said she sees "trees of light." She has turned the abstract into the sensory. She has cheated the system by forcing her brain to perceive numbers as physical landmarks.
If she can use her gift to do this, I can use a system.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Phase 1: The Phonetic Translation
I began to write. I needed a bridge between the abstract and the tangible. I would map the digits 0-9 to phonetic sounds—letters that could form the skeleton of a language.
0 = S/Z (The shape of a circle)
1 = T (A single vertical stroke)
2 = N (Two vertical legs)
3 = M (Three legs, rotated 90 degrees)
4 = R (The last letter of 'fouR')
5 = L (Asura numeral L is 50)
6 = J (A reflected 6)
7 = K (Two 7s can form a K)
8 = F (Handwritten 'f' has two loops)
9 = P (A mirrored 9)
With this, Pi was no longer a sequence of numbers. 3.1415 became M-T-R-M-L.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Phase 2: Biological Constraints
I looked at the notes, my mind racing through the chemistry of memory.
The human brain operates on synaptic plasticity. A single neuron firing in isolation is forgettable. But a network—a cluster of neurons firing in a specific, reinforced pattern—creates a long-term trace.
The working memory has a limit, typically cited as Miller's Law (7 pm 2 chunks). My mind can comfortably hold about 8 digits before the "data-overflow" begins.
Or rather, it can hold 8 units.
If those units are individual numbers, I am limited to 8 digits.
If those units are complex "images," I can store 8 entire stories.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Phase 3: The Fiction Factor
Why did I remember the plot of The Feathered Heresy after one reading, yet struggle with the trade routes of the Asura Empire?
History is a collection of checkpoints—static, dry, and objective.
Fiction is a world.
Fiction provides three components that history lacks:
Vividness: Colors, smells, and internal monologues.
Interaction: Characters do not just exist; they collide. They fight, they love, they betray.
Sensory Feedback: The "vibration in the chest" I felt for Ithyris.
Amelia walks through a forest.
I will build the solar system.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Phase 4: The P4A2O2 Framework
I formulated the structure. To memorize a block of 8 digits, I would create a single, bizarre narrative scene using a specific sequence:
P4 (4 People): Characters from the fiction I read. (e.g., Juliet, Ithyris, Darcy, The Count).
A2 (2 Actions): Violent or absurd interactions. (e.g., Stabbing, Dancing).
O2 (2 Objects): Tangible anchors. (e.g., A silver dagger, a poisoned rose).
A block of 8 digits becomes: Juliet (P) stabs (A) Darcy (P) with a poisoned (A) sapphire (O) while the Count (P) watches from a golden (O) chair.
The brain cannot forget an image that is vivid. It's too strange to be deleted.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Phase 5: The Kelic of the Void
Finally, I needed a place to store these scenes.
A "Memory Palace."
Amelia uses the trees. I will use the familiar. I will map these scenes to specific, non-overlapping boundaries within locations I know perfectly.
The corner of this desk. The mahogany shelf in the library. The foot of the bed in the nursery where Cartethyia's affection still lingers.
I will call it the Kelic Mnemonic System.
Amelia has a gift.
I have a factory.
She can remember what she sees, but I can create what I need to remember.
Talent is a fixed variable.
Thinking is an exponential one.
I looked at my paper. The names of the numbers were now the names of kings, villains, and lovers.
I looked at Amelia. She was still scanning.
She was fast, but she was still just a reader.
I smirked, the lead of my stylus digging into the parchment as I wrote the final title of the framework.
I understand it now.