Qualities of Kingship (28 Jun 2001) Agatha suffers through a literature class.

Ainigton Grade School Classroom
The grade school classrooms are fairly small, compared to the high school, each holding perhaps twenty students. Twin chalkboards adorn the front, topped with a pull-down projector screen, and the alphabet runs high on the walls, followed by the digits from 0 to 9, then repeated. A shiny red apple sits on the teacher's desk. Student desks are comparatively small and larger students are liable to find their knees bumping the desks, or their feet sticking out under the forward student's chair, where likely that student already has a books-filled backpack. A window overlooks the sunny outdoors, looking onto the Siege des Anges.

Ms. Christy teaches what is avowed by many to be the most boring possible English class in the whole wide world, though to be fair, she seems to be reasonably enthusiastic about her subject matter. It's just that her expectations of her grade school pupils seem to be rather inflated, so she'll spend much of the class talking about tropes and themes in stories, and character development, where most of the class has barely worked out that there was a plot in the story in the first place, much less what it was.

"Essays please, class," Ms. Christy says, walking by the front desks and waiting for students to pass their papers forward. "Have you all read Act IV from Macbeth? Good!" This despite a sea of head-shaking and some tentative nods. "We'll begin with looking at Macbeth's decision to murder his king. It may seem to some of you that it was simply wrong for him to do so, leading as it did to his eventual downfall, and others of you may be wondering that if he knew it was wrong, why did he do it anyway..."

Agatha tears her gaze back from the window, a direction she tends to look in anyway since she practically has to sit side-saddle at her desk, and digs her notes and homework out. She's probably going to explain that Tragic Flaw stuff again, the teenager thinks.

Many of the students are daydreaming, or doodling, some are passing notes back and forth and giggling, but Ms. Christy seems barely to have noticed as she is holding forth on the nature of revenge and dealing with one's grief. "Now, Macbeth does indeed possess ambition, and it is fanned by his wife, who scorns his scruples as something unmanly..." Fifty minutes to the bell. The clock's second hand seems to be dragging its heels until that blessed time when everyone can get back together and find out what exactly is going on with Rebecca.

Why do they put the dull classes right after lunch anyway? Agatha wonders. It's like they want us to fall asleep or something. This stuff might be interesting in the morning. With another teacher. And maybe some props...

Ms. Christy continues with her spirited introspective on the meaning of death, guilt, and Macbeth's recourse to prophecy again from the witches who beguiled him to seek the kingship. None of this really makes a difference, since she always insists students write down what they think in their essays, not what she said.

Half-daydreaming, Agatha thinks of a bubbling cauldron with three hags - played by the teachers of course - hovering around it. By the pricking of my thumbs, something BORING this way comes.

"Having committed the deed at the urging of others, Macbeth is unable to reconcile his own self with his actions and now seeks ..." Ms. Christy's voice fades away into daydream. "Prophecy. Do ye seek prophecy, highborn Lady? Do ye wish to know what doom will fell ye?" At least, it seems to Agatha, that would be what the witches would be saying if she had come along just then.

Agatha blinks and focuses on Ms. Christy again, wondering if she really was daydreaming for a moment there. For her English teacher to say something like that ... well, it would be like the biology teacher making a frog into a puppet in the middle of a dissection.

"... is seeking validation," Ms. Christy's nasal voice says. By the clock, it looks to be thirty minutes 'til the bell rings to save Agatha from tedium.

Agatha reads over her notes, to see if she missed something while zoning out. Validation for regicide, or for being a wimp? What was the teacher talking about?

It's not exactly clear, either from Agatha's own notes or glancing at a neighboring student's notes, and in either case, it doesn't seem to be important; one could make a case either way, and frequently one does. Ms. Christy continues with her in-depth examination of Macbeth's character. "Is he secure now that he has been assured he is invincible, since none can slay him, save one not born of woman, nor 'til the forest comes to the hill? What good precisely has prophecy done him?"

Agatha begins to zone out again, writing things down that seem to be important. Mostly she doodles a black horse in the margin of the paper though. If it wasn't from the stables, then could it be a wild horse? If she catches it, would she be allowed to keep it?

"... So he orders the death of Macduff, feeling insecure in his kingship gained by murder, because the throne gained by blood will never rest easily," Ms. Christy drones. The horse looks more interesting at the moment. Regal, even. But there's something missing from it.

Agatha chews on the end of her pencil, half-listening to the lecture. Was it wearing a bridle? That doesn't seem right. With a grin, she sketches in a spiraling horn, thinking of Alice's claim that it was a unicorn.

It seems to fit. Never mind that she couldn't possibly have seen one. As a picture on the paper, it looks quite noble.

Ms. Christy drones on. "The King's songs, as you remember from Act II, fled to foreign lands..."

Agatha thinks again of Alice's stuffed unicorn toy. Where could she possibly have gotten a black one? Nobody makes black unicorns. They're always white with silver or gold ... maybe pink. Never black, though.

The unicorn seems to feel that its color is quite fitting, and indeed, appropriate to one of its lineage -- if doodles on paper can be said to feel anything.

The girl doesn't have any colored pencils with her, so can't do much for the unicorn's mane. It should be red, she's sure, like the toy. A big black and red unicorn? Wasn't there a flash of red when it ran off, or was that just the light?

"... tests Macduff for his loyalty by pretending first to be a greedy and callous heir-to-be after the model of Macbeth, who craves power for its own sake, and would strip it from all others to ensure his rule. When he learns that Macduff will not be tempted, he reveals this was merely a test," Ms. Christy says in her nasal voice. Largely forgettable. "How does this reflect on his character as a potential ruler? Is it right to test the loyalty of others?"

The unicorn seems to feel that it is willing to let a small omission pass. It is more important to deal with certain matters first ... or at least that's how the look in its eyes would seem to read.

Agatha stares at the doodle, feeling the need to do something more. Are you testing me for loyalty, Lord Mel? she mentally asks. Do unicorns have shoes? Certainly they don't have saddles. She taps the pencil against her forearm, trying to figure out what's missing.

The unicorn seems to be trying to communicate some kind of warning, when it is distracted by the thought of shoes. Certainly not, its own hooves are quite-- "Your assignment for Wednesday is to write an essay on the qualities of kingship. What would make Malcolm a good king, and why is Macbeth a bad one? Two pages, please," Ms. Christy says. The minute hand is within seconds of striking the hour.

Agatha dutifully writes down the assignment, thinking the most important quality of kingship is to choose good knights.

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