Eden crossed her arms and frowned at Carver. "I'm still not convinced I should tell you any of this. It's no business of a non-witch's how any of our magic works."
"I am part witch," he reminded her.
"You're *male*." Instincts built up over centuries told her that he
(more) was uninvolved, not to be trusted.
But he wasn't allowing her an easy out. "It's how my mind works too, Eden."
That was undeniable, so she sighed and began.
"The human brain functions by interacting not with reality, but with a diorama of reality it creates based on information it already has. This is most clear when it comes to instinctive reactions-- the brain doesn't need to decide anew that a situation is dangerous, it just makes that decision based on what it already knows. This diorama is, of course, flawed in places due to unknowns and misinformation. For silents and most witches, that is."
Carver nodded, following her so far. "But not for information witches?"
"This is just a theory," Eden cautioned," but one that's widely accepted and personally makes a lot of sense to me. It seems that our subconscious dioramas, rather than being compiled experientially, exist either from birth or from a very young age in a more or less perfect form. They're *revealed* experientially-- thus we don't know everything from the start-- but the distinction becomes clear when someone tries to lie to an information witch."
"Ahh." Carver steepled his fingers. "Rather than that 'fact' being integrated into the diorama, it contradicts what's already there."
"Mm-hmm. And that leads to internal tension."
A slow excitement spread over Carver's face. Eden could see that the theory fit his experience as well as it did her own. In a moment, he began to chuckle.
"This is *amazing*." (less)
