I took a week to plan out the next steps together with what little remained of my ‘League of Champions’ after the disaster of the inspectors last visit. As you can imagine, most jumped off after seeing that I wasn’t going to bring them freedom on a silver platter. Though, to be honest, I’d rather have friend who sticks with me through trying times, than 100 ‘friends’ who are only around as long as it benefits them. In hindsight, I’m somewhat sure they only signed up to see me fail. But if they thought that I’d give up just like that, they were dead wrong. Okay, admittedly I needed a little push to pick myself back up, but all that matters is the result.

During one evening I put down my plan before the assembly, which consisted of Toby, Fred and Rose (who, once again, acted as representative of Martha’s association, only that this time I actually knew that). I explained to them, that in order to alleviate the fears of the people, we needed to do what school is supposed to do for the children of my world: Prepare them for the world beyond these walls.
Toby was the first to raise his hand and ask, “Excuse me, but...what is this ‘school’ you speak of?”
I don’t quite remember what I was thinking back then, but I’m pretty sure my entire train of thought got derailed by this rather innocent question, which painfully reminded me once again, that I was not back home and that things were inevitably different here. I mean, of course, this was a medieval setting and while
I explained to them what a ‘school’ is as I understood it, drawing a few parallels on how I assumed the lives of the children of this world worked (being forced to work on the fields of their parents, etc.) and concluded with the words, “Reading and writing are essential skills to pass on knowledge, whereas mathematics are essential to conduct successful trade. So, who of you has any of these skills?”
Of course nobody raised their hands. They had heard of ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ but did not know how to perform them and, after a little querying, I learned that they at least had a basic understanding of mathematics.
After a bit of discussion back and forth, Toby was the one to ask the dreaded question, “Um, that sounds nice and all that, but what exactly do we need that reading and writing stuff for?”
I knew that question was coming. I had seen it coming a long way, because I had asked myself that question a countless number of times, albeit for more abstract topics like ‘The name of some capital river in Spain’ or ‘The year Alexander the Great conquered Persia’. Nice to know, sure, but other than in some quiz game absolutely useless. The latter even more so than the first. Fortunately, since I had seen it coming, I had also an example prepared to answer it.
“Imagine you’re going to the market. You want to buy...let’s say a bunch of apples or whatever. You see a stall which sells what you want. The merchant looks at you and tells you some price.”
“Then you decide whether the ‘apple’ is worth what he wants or not. Potentially haggle. Your point?”
I had intended to go on a tangent, how the prices would be marked out and thereby fixed, but Fred’s argument was very hard to dispute. Of course merchants in this world would not mark out their prices for all to see. They had to assume that most of their clients were unable to read. Quite possibly, most of the town merchants were unable to read or write themselves.
I cleared my throat while my mind started to run in circles.
Fortunately, Rose came to my rescue, “Lady Martha said something similar once, actually. If I recall correctly, she said, that ‘reading’ allows one to learn a skill without anyone having to explain or show it to them.”
Transfer of knowledge. Of course. I was so hung up on my merchant example, I didn’t even think about the most basic and most important use of reading and writing.

I cleared my throat again and said, “Thank you very much, Rose. And she is right. As it were, you always need a teacher to pass on a skill to another person. However if the ‘teacher’ wrote down instructions on how to do something, someone capable of reading could later pick up the instructions and learn how to do something even after the teacher has been long gone. A cooking recipe is a very good example for that. So your grandma came up with a great apple pie you loved to eat as a child. However she did not write it down and did not teach anyone on how to make it either. Then she dies and the knowledge is lost forever. You will never taste that apple pie ever again. If she did write it down however, you can recreate it any time you want, simply by following the recipe. Writing is long-lasting, while our lives are short. Writing is also unchanging. As long as something is passed from one person to the next alone, the knowledge is always warped by the understanding of the receiver. Let’s say the grandma taught your mother the recipe. The recipe itself lives on, but memories are fallible. Your mother might well forget about putting in the raisins or get the temperature wrong. The pie would never be the same again. With a detailed recipe, none of that would have happened, because as long as the written paper exists, so does the original knowledge of the person writing it down.”
“Great, now I want some of grandma’s pie,” Toby constituted and we all laughed.

After a little pause, Fred said, “Alright, so this read and write stuff is pretty useful, but still: How is it going to help us get out of here? It is not going to help us slay the demon lord’s minions, will it?”
“No. I don’t intend to go to war against that demon lord either. But the inspector said, that they are looking for people who can make a difference. So let’s make a difference. Let’s educate people in skills the general populace does not have. Let’s show the inspector, that there is neither a reason for them to keep us locked up in here nor for sending us to the battlefield.”
“Uh-huh and how are we supposed to do that?”
“Most of us here are misfits that got expelled from their respective societies, right? So, if we managed to prove that we can work in the grand society, that we can and are willing to contribute to the kingdom’s prosperity, there is no longer any reason for them to keep us locked up. I mean, it must cost them a crapload of resources to maintain this place. The fewer people are in here, the more of these resources, they can invest in stuff like infrastructure or whatever else they want. That’s why they keep sending in the inspector instead of just leaving us to rot. They want to get us out of here, but can’t as long as we are a lingering problem for the society out there. Once we get rid of that ‘lingering problem’ aspect, they need to let us out.”

My small group erupts into murmurs and finally Toby asks, “And what if they don’t?”
I place my palms on the table in the room, look around the people and say, “Well, in that case I must assume to have been imprisoned for no reason whatsoever. And that, dear friends, is not a state of things I am willing to accept. Cause you see, I am going home. The people in that city out there can either assist me in doing that...or they can try to stop me. Of course I’d prefer the first, but am willing to fight for my freedom if need be.”
Toby pats me on my arched back and says aloud, “Now you’re talking! Alright, so what are we going to do now? What’s the plan?”
I told them that, for the time being, we’d best aim for cooperation. But that it would be best, if we had some backup plan, just in case ‘Plan A’ did not work out. After everyone promised to think about how to enact that, we adjourned our meeting and each of us went their own way.

As I wandered through the streets towards my assigned dwelling, I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. After all, assuming that Plan A failed, Plan B entailed a prison break. A criminal act, which would put me and everyone else in here on the wanted lists of the kingdom. As such, I really hoped that Plan A would work. And I had less than one month to show some results. Certainly I could not teach the people how to read and write in that time, but if I could just manage to give them some prospect, some incentive to learn more, to fight for their freedom, the plan just could work.
At least that’s what I wanted to believe.