Honor and Blood

by James Galloway

  "If anyone can figure it out, we can, Dolanna," Keritanima said confidently. "Let's get cracking."

  And they did. They entered the dome one by one, and Tarrin found it amusing that though they were moving quickly to pass through on the outside, it was moments before they managed to pass through to those on the inside. Tarrin had been first, and while he was waiting for them, he thought to Conjure more chairs for them. That had been his first big shock. Druidic magic wouldn't work within the area of altered time. A little experimentation showed him that Sorcery as well would not work within the altered time. That had surprised him, but in a way, it made sense. Magic was a function of time that existed in nature. It couldn't function within an area of altered time, because the magic was still bound by the laws of natural time. Of course, there were no strands passing through the altered area, so he wasn't sure if that was an absolute. If a strand was within the area, it too may be altered, allowing it to be used to draw magic for Sorcery. But that would be something for another time.

  For now, they had alot of work to do. And thanks to the Goddess, now they had some time to do it.

  Chapter 32

  It all started with a single act. As all things, this in itself was not unusual; indeed, most things that began did so through a single act, be it an idea or motion that began the sequence of events. But this act, carried out by a trembling, furry little hand, was in itself very significant for the very fact that that delicate hand with its short claws opened a book holding the entirety of the history of the known world.

  The Book of Ages was just that, a book that chronicled the history of the world. As the others looked over her shoulders, Keritanima opened it to that first page and indeed found herself staring at three simple words, three words that summed up the completeness of the book:

  In the beginning.

  Simple words, often seen at the beginning of a story, but those words formed the beginning of a vast chronicle of lore lost for thousands of years, knowledge unknown since before the peoples who created that knowledge disappeared from the annals of history, forgotten by their descendents. They all could not help but feel the great weight of the book then, to feel the tremendous burden it imposed on them, to know that they were responsible for protecting and safeguarding the recorded history of the world. Tarrin had carried the book with him for nearly a year, kept it safe within the elsewhere and there it stayed out of his mind. But now, to look down upon it and know that within its pages rested not only the information they needed, but the complete accords of the history of man and Selani, Wikuni and Were-kin, Vendari and all other races, it was sobering. It didn't look it, but the book held everything, every major event, every kingdom, every war, every atrocity, every revelation, every alliance, every intrigue that had shaped the world into what it was.

  There was just one small problem, one little thing that caused all of them to stare at one another in surprise, and for Tarrin's heart to lurch.

  The book was written in Sha'Kar.

  Tarrin's ability to hear the whispers of the Weave didn't seem to be affected by the altered time, for the memory of those symbols was clear to him, something common enough to evoke a response from the echoes of the memory that sometimes came to him.

  "Oh, great!" Keritanima snapped, pounding her fist on the table. "How can we use the book to learn the written form of Sha'Kar if the damn book is written in Sha'Kar!"

  "Patience, Keritanima," Dolanna said, reaching down over her shoulder and starting to turn pages in large blocks. "It will actually make things easier for us."

  "And how is that?" she asked acidly.

  "Simple, sister," Allia replied. "All we must do is find where we start seeing languages we can identify. Odds are, that is where the information is that we need."

  Keritanima looked at Allia, then she laughed ruefully. "Well, that is a good idea," she admitted. "Why didn't I think of it?"

  "You were too busy having a heart attack to think," Dar told her with a sly smile.

  "Oh, keep it up, Dar," she snarled at him. "Since we're all feeling so intelligent, help me. I'm going to file through the pages pretty quick. If anyone sees anything they think that they can identify, tell me to stop."

  The idea worked, and it worked well. For nearly two hours, Keritanima turned page after page, having to pause from time to time to lick her fingers or just give them a break, displaying page after page of those neatly spaced, symmetrical columns of spidery glyphs that were the Sha'Kar language. Keritanima continued until a new form of symbols appeared, blunt, blocky runes that Tarrin immediately identified. "Stop!" Tarrin snapped, causing Keritanima to nearly tear the page in her haste to pause in the act of turning pages. "Go back a page," he ordered, reaching over her as she did so. "I've seen these before. They're Dwarven."

  "Can you read it?" Keritanima asked.

  "No."

  "Then why did you stop me!" she snapped.

  "Because the Dwarves are one of the four First Races," he replied. "The Goddess told me that story a while ago. If the book is written in Sha'Kar, then that means that they kept the language of their ancestors, who were also one of the First Races. Since humans developed later than the Dwarves and the ancestor race, and I don't think the Goblins ever created a written language of their own, that means we should start seeing human languages pretty soon."

  "I wonder who wrote this book, anyway," Dar asked curiously. "Or how many. Writing it must have taken thousands of people their whole lives to do it."

  "This book was not created by a mortal hand, young one. The god of knowledge, the Younger God Denthar, is responsible for it," Dolanna answered him. "It is said that it was created by him, and that the book writes itself, each new page appearing at the book's end with every event worthy to be recorded within."

  "Then the book has no ending," Dar mused in a wonder-filled voice.

  "It has an ending, but none of us will be alive to read it," Dolanna corrected him.

  Keritanima cleared her throat, and then began again. She thumbed through the pages for another half an hour or more before Miranda suddenly told her to stop, right after she turned a page. "This is a different writing system," she announced, pointing to a line of rough, almost ugly marks on the page. The rough marks were interspersed in alternating lines with the Sha'Kar glyphs, a promising sign that a key to translating was indeed held within the book.

  "That is Hyralar, the root language of Hylar, the First Civilization," Dolanna announced. "It is said that from them, the true Ancients emerged. The ones that built the seven great cities and left ruins behind that we still find to this day."

  Tarrin knew something of the far history, thanks to the story that the Goddess told him. This Hyralar had to be close to the time when the Urzani conquered the world. That would put the book's dating still some seven or eight thousand years in the past. "Kerri, grab a good handful of book and turn it," he told her. "Go way ahead. We're looking about eight thousand years in the past."

  "How do you know that?" she demanded.

  "The Goddess told me a story of the great past," he replied. "She told me that the ancestor race split into two groups, and that one destroyed the other. Then that race, called the Urzani, conquered the humans. That was like two or three thousand years before the Blood War. If this is the first example of human writing, then we're not even to that part yet."

  "Urzani. I have heard that term," Dolanna said absently, tapping her cheek.

  "I'll tell you the story the Goddess told me some time," he told them. "I'm sure you two would find it very interesting," he noted, looking at Allia and Keritanima.

  "And why is that?" Keritanima asked.

  "Because your people and the Selani are descended from the Urzani," he announced flatly. "The Wikuni and the Selani descended from the Sha'Kar, who are descendents of the Urzani. You and Allia are cousins as much as sisters."

  "Truly?" Allia asked suddenly.

  "That's impossible!" Keritanima flared. "I mean, look at us! How could we be rel
ated to the Selani? We're absolutely nothing alike!"

  "Not now, but a long time ago, the Wikuni looked like the Sha'Kar, because they were the Sha'Kar. I'll tell you about that later, sister. Right now, we have another job that's just a little bit more important."

  "Oh, fine, go and drop a cannonball like that on my lap and expect me to just forget about it," Keritanima growled at him as she grabbed a good half-span of book and turned it, so hard that it made an audible thud when the pages turned. The page to which she turned was still written in Sha'Kar. "Alright then," she growled, starting to turn pages again.

  After about two more hours, they found what they were looking for. "Stop!" Miranda said excitedly as Keritanima turned a page. The fox Wikuni turned back a page as Miranda almost snatched the book out of her hands, pointing to a line. "Am I tired and thirsty, or is that High Wikuni?" she said excitedly.

  Keritanima feverishly looked over the page, and Tarrin saw her eyes widen. "Alright, we're in business!" Keritanima announced. "Everyone here thank my father, who's rotting in an insane asylum, for making them teach me High Wikuni," she said in a grand voice. "I can read this!"

  "You hope you can read that," Dar corrected.

  "Oh, no, Dar, I can read it," she challenged, putting a finger on the slightly angular scrawl. "'Herein lies the third generation of the script of the Shorian dialect of Low Sha'Kar," she read from the book. "A simplified system of writing adopted by the Sha'Kar for communicating with other races after encountering great difficulty teaching their writing system to the other races. Created by Shoria Do'Ara, High Scholar and thirty-fifth Keeper of the Tower of Sharadar." Keritanima gave out a squeal of delight. "Contained on the pages hereafter is the cross-indexed dictionary of translating Sha'Kar into Shorian Script!" she said with a laugh. "I guess this does mean that our ancestors with the Sha'Kar," she said with a look at the book. "If the root written language of my people was invented by a Sha'Kar, then it's only logical that my ancestors were also Sha'Kar." She looked at Allia. "I guess we are cousins, sister."

  "We can discuss that a bit later, sister," Allia told her, a bit impatiently.

  "But you're the only one who can read it," Tarrin objected. He knew the real answer to that, but he was too interested in getting started than he was in getting bogged down in a history lesson. They'd learn about that soon enough, if they read through the book. "If we keep looking, we may find where they have Sulasian."

  "Which would you rather do, Tarrin? Use up another six or seven hours looking for it, or start right here and now?"

  Given the choices in that context, Tarrin realized it wasn't much of a choice. "Well, alright then," he agreed.

  "Miranda, break out the books," Keritanima said. "Everyone take a seat. We're all going to have a little study session."

  "What are you talking about, sister?" Allia asked.

  "I'm going to tell you a word in Sha'Kar and point to its corresponding symbol. Then you're going to copy that symbol down in your own books and write the Sha'Kar word using a phoneticized comparison to whatever language you're most comfortable with beside it. That way you have to write it down, and it's always easier to remember things when you have to write them down. Trust me, I know. I speak from experience."

  "This is going to take months," Dar groaned.

  "About that," Keritanima agreed. "Sha'Kar is an unbelievably complicated language, with a vocabulary that has as many words as two other languages put together. Given that it looks like there are two systems of written language, it's going to make it that much harder."

  "Two forms?" Tarrin asked in dismay.

  Keritanima nodded, her eyes poring over the book. "Some of these symbols repeat. From what I see here, it's because those repeating symbols don't represent a word, they represent a phonetic syllable. Like a symbol that represents a block of letters instead of a single one. I guess they ran out of ideas for new glyphs, and adopted a syllabic format for all the words they invented afterwards." She grunted. "High Wikuni is also a syllabic writing style, using fifty-two symbols to represent phonetic sounds. But it looks here like there are quite a few more syllabic symbols than fifty-two."

  "Ugh," Miranda grunted. "This is sounding more and more difficult by the moment."

  "The syllabic format will actually be the easier one to learn, because repetition breeds familiarity," Keritanima said professionally. "It's the glyphic format that's going to be a royal pain to learn. From what I see here already, the words represented by glyphs are not translated into the syllabic form. We'll have to learn every glyph and its corresponding word, one by one."

  "It's going to take months," Dar groaned again.

  "Clear your calendar, boys and girls," Keritanima said grimly. "We're going to be very busy for a while."

  Months. In this strange altered time, that would be more like rides, but the sheer size of the task before them was intimidating. Mother, is there anything you can do to help? he asked pleadingly.

  You have but to ask, kitten, she replied lightly. I seem to recall that Dolanna learned Sha'Kar in a matter of rides. Maybe you should ask her how she did it.

  I know how she did it. She said she used a priest spell--can you do that for me? he asked immediately.

  You have but to ask, my kitten, she said in a teasing voice. And before you ask, yes, I can grant priest spells in that altered reality. Have Dolanna teach you the spell. In fact, have her teach it to all of you. Well, except Miranda, of course. She'll have to negotiate with Kikalli over this.

  "It will not take as long as you think, Keritanima," Dolanna told her patiently. "I once used minor priest magic to learn Sha'Kar. We can do so with this. It is a simple spell."

  Dolanna must have read his mind. "Dolanna, I was thinking the exact same thing," Tarrin told her gratefully. "Can you teach us the spell?"

  "It is a simple matter, dear one. Priest spells are prayers for a specific thing, using ritual words. I can teach you the prayer of aiding memory in moments, but be warned that it is not an absolute. The spell only aids memory. It does not cause you to automatically remember perfectly anything you see or hear. But it will cut down the time it will take to learn by a drastic amount."

  "I'm feeling left out," Miranda sighed morosely.

  "I can use Sorcery to keep you up, Miranda," Keritanima assured her. "Mind weaves can pass information from one mind to another. Since we're the same race, they'll work for us."

  "Oh. That's fine then," she said brightly.

  "Well then, Dolanna, I'm feeling particularly pious at the moment, and find I have an overpowering desire to pray," Keritanima said with a light smile. "Teach us the words, and we'll get this ball rolling."

  Dolanna did so, and after repeating the prayer over and over again until they had it memorized, they used it in earnest. It was the first time Tarrin had ever used real Priest magic, and he found it to be quite odd. He couched his request in flowery prose, as was taught to him by Dolanna, seeming to grovel verbally to be blessed with the Goddess' magic. It seemed odd to be so humble to one who laughed at his jokes and talked to him like a best friend, but if that was what was necessary, then that was what was necessary. Tarrin never forgot that the Goddess was his Goddess, and he was devoted to her and knew his place in their relationship. He chanted the prayer a bit self-consciously, but when he reached its conclusion, he could not deny the magic that responded to his words. He felt the finger of the Goddess brush against his mind, and he entered what he could only call an episode of exceptionally acute attentiveness. He became aware of absolutely every little thing around him, even beyond his normally inhuman senses, and the open pages of the Book of Ages on the table before them looked not quite so intimidating now. He actually felt confident in the upcoming task to learn the written Sha'Kar language. He actually felt much smarter than he did just a moment before, felt up to the challenge of the academic hurdle facing him.

  "Wow, I feel...enlightened," Dar said after finishing the prayer.

  "A strange effect," Allia agre
ed. "I have never felt so...smart."

  "That is the noticable effect of the prayer," Dolanna nodded. "It only lasts a few hours, and we cannot use it again until tomorrow, so let us move along, Keritanima. Even in this altered state, time is very much a factor."

  "Alright then," Keritanima said as Miranda started handing out blank books from one of the chests, then handed each of them one of those fancy, expensive Tellurian fountain pens and put a couple of inkwells on the table for all of them to use. "The book starts with a key for the syllabic form of the language. This is the first, it represents the phonetic sound shi."

  Time became blurred to them all in that alternating form of time.

  They would spend hours and hours--days even--within the realm of slower time, laboriously going over the written Sha'Kar script, hours and days spent in a silent unchanging light that seemed to eat at Tarrin's sense of normalcy, an eternal, quiet moment of daylight that did not end. It ate at his instincts, his sense of the natural order of things, and it caused him quite a bit of discomfort for much longer than it bothered the others. Symbol by symbol, glyph by glyph, one by one, they learned the Sha'Kar language. But the days and days spent within the boundary of the gift from Shellar translated to hours and hours in the real time of the outside world, giving all of them a strange sense of dislocation from everything else. Keritanima started with High Wikuni--or what she thought was High Wikuni--before realizing that the Wikuni had corrupted the language written on the pages, changing the meaning of many of the words. She could read about half of it, but for her, that wasn't precise enough. After that, they went through the book again, until they found the key to translating into Sha'Kar from Arakite. When they found that, Dar and Tarrin took over the task of training, since they were the only two who understood the written form of the Arakite language. It was here where Dar asserted himself over Tarrin, proving that his Goddess-boosted ability to remember and learn outstripped his old friend by many degrees. Tarrin happily allowed Dar to take over the sessions, since he preferred being a student rather than a teacher anyway. As they expected, Dar's memory when it came to images and things he saw--such as the glyphs of Sha'Kar--made him invaluable to them.