The Tower of Daelfaun (The Tales of Zanoth Book 1)

by Ethridge, Aaron J.

  “So that's what's doing it?”

  “No,” she smiled. “Actually, I'd say my mood was improving in spite of those things.”

  “I see,” he nodded. “In that case, what's the cause of the improvement?”

  “The company.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh yes!” she replied vehemently. “Alena's actually really a great person once you get to know her.”

  “I agree.”

  “And Nyssa is always in such a good mood you can't help but have it rub off on you.”

  “Of course.”

  “Sarrac is both wise and patient. He truly is an excellent companion.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “And Darek is really kind of bizarre. Which can be very amusing. You know he's still lamenting the fact that he can't get any more of that wine.”

  “Is he?”

  “He is,” she assured the young man. “I told him that if we succeed he can have the entire cellar full. I certainly don't want it.”

  “Did you?” Paul asked. “That was very generous of you.”

  “It feels good to be generous,” she laughed.

  “So then,” he continued. “You like being around: Alena, Nyssa, Sarrac, and Darek.”

  “I do.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Who else is there?” she asked playfully.

  “That other handsome young man,” he replied. “You know who I mean. The one that's more than half a foot taller than Darek.”

  “Oh him,” she replied with a coy smile. “He's alright, I guess.”

  “Well I'm glad you think so,” he chuckled. “But I've actually had more than your mood on my mind.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well,” he replied taking a deep breath. “Now that you're no longer a lich you should be able to get what you want in time.”

  “And what's that?” she asked, raising a single eyebrow as she spoke.

  “I mean children,” he smiled. “Now that you're alive again...”

  “No,” she interrupted him, suddenly becoming very serious. “No I can't.”

  For a moment the young man sat, gazing at her in silence.

  “You mean because you were a lich...”

  “No,” she interrupted again, her voice slightly edged. “I don't mean I can't have children. I mean I just couldn't.”

  “I don't exactly...”

  “Look, Paul,” she snapped, her eyes locked on his, “even if I had all the prerequisites, I mean like a husband to start with, I couldn't bring a child into this nightmare of a world! My parents decided to do that and look what happened! I can just imagine how that sick vampiress's dark heart would dance with joy if she could murder me, steal my child, and start all over again. I will never take that chance. I will never help bring another life into this pit of despair!”

  “I guess I didn't think...”

  “No you didn't,” she agreed with a dark laugh. “You didn't think at all!”

  “I'm sorry, I just...”

  “You just dangled someone's heart's desire in front of them,” she snapped. “Without considering how much it would hurt them to think about how they'll never have it.”

  “Myra honestly...”

  “Here's the thing,” she said, glaring at him. “This is Zanoth! That's where we are and that is never going to change. All we can hope is that the afterlife is better than this one. At least pursuing this pointless quest is going to help us find out faster!”

  Paul was a wise enough young man to know that sometimes nothing is the absolute best thing you can say. So that's exactly what he did say for the next hour or so. He just rode alone, soaking in her image and thinking about how beautiful she was, even when she was very unjustly angry at him. His staring eyes and smiling face slowly wore away the resolve of her fury. Finally she began speaking to him again, taking up subjects like the weather and how far they would likely get before they stopped for the night.

  By that evening the maiden had very obviously forgotten her former rage and, incredibly, seemed to be in a better mood than ever before. She laughed and talked with the rest of the band as they shared their evening meal and when the time for sleep came she took up her normal position at Paul's side, only making one slight alteration. The maiden snuggled up to his chest, while at the same time complaining of the cold. This would have made the young man feel good under any circumstances, but the fact that it was close to eighty degrees that evening made him almost ecstatic, not to mention sweltering. Fortunately, being from South Carolina, he could sleep in that kind of heat, even with a beautiful woman's hot breath blowing incessantly across his chest.

  Two-and-a-half days later they finally reached their destination. Sarrac led the band into the narrow valley through which the Maldor River ran at that particular point, and up to the edge of a waterfall perhaps ten feet high. The group tied their horses up before making their way carefully behind the falls. A narrow ledge gave the group access to the cavern behind the falls without them actually having to pass through it.

  The little cave was well lit by sunlight passing through the water, and Paul thought it would have been a fairly pleasant place if its entire interior wasn't constantly dampened by ice cold water. As they stood in the cool spray he began to truly consider the task at hand.

  “I just thought of something I should have thought of days ago,” he said, a tone of mild frustration in his voice. “We should have gotten some paper.”

  “Got it,” Darek winked.

  “What?” the young man asked. “What made you think of that?”

  “Well, while I was in town getting the horses,” he began, “I started thinking about the fact that the message is likely to be kind of like a riddle. And if that's the case it might take you a while to figure it out. And since we can only see it for a few minutes right as the sun sets it could take you months to figure it out if we don't write it down.”

  “Wow,” Paul replied. “Man, you're a genius.”

  “I know,” Darek nodded. “If you weren't so slow witted you'd have figured that out faster.”

  “I guess you're right.”

  “I know I'm right.”

  Just hours later the sun began to dip below the horizon. As its last rays of the day shot through the waterfall they painted a clear picture on the far wall.

  “You see,” Myra chuckled. “Lines and circles.”

  “It's actually ones and zeroes,” Paul said, with a tone of amazement.

  “You're splitting hairs,” she replied. “I mean, it's not like that's a number.”

  “We need to write this down,” he said shaking his head, and staring at the digit covered wall. “And even that's going to take days.”

  “No it won't,” the witch replied. “Darek, please get me a blank scroll.”

  Immediately the young man obeyed. Myra took the object from him and intoned a number of arcane words before lifting her staff and pointing it at the wall. A bolt of blue light lept from the staff, to the wall, to the paper. Instantly an exact copy of the message appeared on its surface.

  “Well that's handy,” Paul chuckled, taking the scroll from Myra's hand.

  “Does it mean anything to you?” Alena asked.

  “Absolutely,” he replied.

  “What?” Myra asked with a rising inflection of disbelief.

  “Nothing specific yet,” he admitted. “I just mean I know what it is and I should be able to work it out.”

  “Alright,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “If you know what it is, then what is it?”

  “It's binary,” he replied.

  “And what's that?”

  “It's a computer thing.”

  “And what's that?”

  “It kind of has to do with video games,” he explained. “Remember me telling you about them?”

  “I do,” she replied. “But I still don't understand.”

  “Don't worry,” he smiled. “The important thing is that I understand. You see, it actua
lly is a number, but the number is a code.”

  “I've got to admit,” Darek replied, “I don't follow ya.”

  “Alright,” Paul said. “Say that you and I wanted a way to send secret messages. So we decided to assign each letter in the alphabet to a specific number. Then you could write me a message using those numbers. To me it would say something, because I would know that each number was actually a letter, but to anyone that didn't know the code it would just look like numbers on a page.”

  “Right,” the young woman nodded. “But even if you're right there are only two numbers. What kind of message is: ABABBBABBAAB?”

  At this question Paul burst out laughing.

  “I know it looks like that,” he smiled. “But the fact is that those two numbers can be used to represent all the numbers there are.”

  “How?” the maiden asked.

  “Let's setup camp and I'll teach you.”

  After they had taken care of all their normal nightly duties, including training, Paul sat down beside the fire and explained to them how to count in binary.

  “Alright,” Darek said thoughtfully. “Let me make sure I've got this right: Eight ones or zeroes in a row is a byte and a single byte can represent the numbers zero to two hundred and fifty-five.”

  “Right so far,” Paul nodded.

  “And those two hundred and fifty-six different numbers,” he continued, “each stand for one of the characters in your alphabet.”

  “Basically,” the young man replied. “Strictly speaking, English only uses twenty-six characters. So, even including capital letters, you only need fifty-two numbers.”

  “Either way,” Myra said, “the point is that you can read it?”

  “I can. I just need time. I've got to read all the numbers and then figure out what letters they are. I don't have the ASCII code memorized, but I think a is in the sixties somewhere, so I should be able to figure it out pretty quick. I'm sure I'll be able to tell you what the song is sometime early tomorrow.”

  With this merry thought the companions decided to call it a night. All they had left to do was to read what was written and play a song. Compared to what they'd already been through, nothing could be simpler.

  Chapter 12: Name That Tune

  “Anything yet,” Nyssa asked, fluttering up the young man's side and gazing down at the scribble covered paper in his hands.

  “Not yet,” he sighed.

  “Well don't worry,” she said reassuringly. “It's only been two days.”

  “I know,” he replied. “But I'm beginning to run out of ideas. In ASCII, which I don't have memorized at all, it's clearly complete and total nonsense. I've tried to figure out what it might be in Unicode, but that seems to make even less sense. I even swapped back and forth between little endian and big endian, but it's still gibberish.”

  “Would it make you feel better if I pretended to know what you were talking about so I could seem to empathize?”

  “A little.”

  “In that case,” she said with a wide smile. “Yes, of course! One would think that the big endian could beat the little endian up and force him to help you find the ask key that would allow you to crack the Uni code. On the other hand, maybe the little endian is supposed to get away. Have you tried that yet?”

  “Not yet,” he laughed. “But I will on the next iteration.”

  “Is it giving you a rash?” she asked, a look of concern on her face.

  “No. Why?”

  “I was just wondering what was causing you iteration. Not that I've ever heard anyone pronounce it like that.”

  “I'm just tired.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “Either way,” he said smiling at her. “I better get back to it.”

  “Absolutely!” she replied. “And don't forget to try letting the little endian get away.”

  “Don't worry,” he chuckled. “I won't.”

  About an hour's worth of frustration later Myra sat down at the young man's side.

  “So,” she said thoughtfully. “I've been considering what you taught me about binary.”

  “Good, good,” he replied, almost dismissively.

  “And I've been trying to link that with the concept of music.”

  “Of course.”

  “Because it finally hit me that the message being a song title is crazy.”

  “Certainly.”

  “That is, if you're right about the whole secret code idea.”

  “Good, good.”

  “Are you even listening to me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good, because I think I might be on to something, but I need your help to be sure.”

  “Certainly.”

  “Are you just repeating the same three phrases?”

  “Good, good.”

  “Paul!”

  “Sorry! What?” the young man replied with a start.

  “I was telling you I have an idea!” she explained. “Are you going to listen to me or not?”

  “Of course,” he replied, laying down the paper in his hands and staring into her eyes. “Anytime you want my attention all you have to do is ask.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a hint of a blush. “What I was saying is that if your secret code idea was right this song has to have the longest name of any song ever.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “With all those bytes how many characters are in the message?”

  “A lot,” he conceded.

  “And how long is the average song title on Earth?”

  “Well...” he mused. “A good bit shorter than that. But I figured the message had more to tell me than the title.”

  “Like what?” she asked. “You don't know anything about music. What could it tell you about the song that would help you know how to play it?”

  “I see where you're coming from,” he replied. “But I thought it might give me further instructions.”

  “You don't need any more instructions,” she pointed out. “The prophecies tell you what to do themselves.”

  “Alright,” he nodded. “I follow ya. Go on.”

  “Well,” she replied. “I was just thinking that the numbers might tell you what notes to play.”

  “Explain,” he said, very obviously intrigued by her line of reasoning.

  “On Zanoth we divide musical notes into things called octaves.”

  “We do the same thing on Earth,” he replied. “That much I do know.”

  “Alright,” she continued. “Well, each of these octaves contains eight notes.”

  “Correct.”

  “So then,” the maiden explained. “One byte could be used to express the notes in thirty-two different octaves, eight times thirty-two being two hundred and fifty-six.”

  “Right,” he nodded.

  “Well obviously that's an insane number of octaves,” she pointed-out. “But what if you were to take half a byte at a time.”

  “A nibble,” he replied.

  “What?”

  “Half a byte is called a nibble,” he explained.

  “That's funny,” she laughed. “You guys used odd terms for things.”

  “Maybe,” he admitted. “But go on, you've got me genuinely interested.”

  “Alright,” she smiled. “Well a nibble would be sixteen possible notes, or two octaves.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Well, a lot of songs in Zanoth can be played across just two octaves.”

  “You know,” he said, his eyes locked on hers and a wide smile on his face. “The first time I saw you, I knew you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I didn't realize until this moment you were also one of the most brilliant I've ever known.”

  “You think I'm right?” she asked excitedly.

  “No idea,” he chuckled. “But your reasoning is next-level genius! So let's try it and see what happens.”

  Paul took a fresh sheet of paper and jotted down the first seven nibbles.

  “Alena,�
� he said, handing her the paper. “Could you play those notes for me?”

  “If they were notes I could,” she chuckled. “Those are numbers, Paul.”

  “I know,” he replied. “But pretend they represent the notes across two octaves. Make zero low and sixteen high.”

  “That I can do,” she said. “But I have no idea what the tempo is or how long to hold each note.”

  “Just play them one after the other,” he replied. “Maybe I'll be able to tell what the song is as well as how to play it.”

  She glanced down at the paper and played the notes as they were written.

  “Yep,” the young man nodded. “That's definitely familiar. Can you do it again?”

  Again she played.

  “Man!” he exclaimed. “It's on the tip of my brain! Once more.”

  She played once more.

  “Got it!” he cried. “I really think I've got it. And I can kind of whistle it. Play it like this.”

  Having said this the young man whistled the tune for the ogress, who immediately repeated it on the flute. Paul burst out laughing.

  “You know it?” Myra asked excitedly.

  “Do I know it?” he laughed. “Of course I know it! Almost every man in America anywhere close to my age would know it. It's the theme song to one of the most famous video games ever made!”

  “America?” the maiden asked.

  “Never mind,” he said with a wide smile. “The point is that you cracked the code! Now all I have to do is write it out and help Alena learn to play it.”

  “We cracked the code,” the young lady pointed out.

  “Oh no!” he replied. “You figured it out! You just needed me to teach you binary.”

  The young man immediately went to work and in less than an hour he had the entire song written down. It turned out that the tune was actually a combination of the themes of five different famous video games worked together. However, this proved no difficulty for Paul, who knew them all by heart. Before the sun set Alena had practiced until she could play the tune without a single mistake.

  That evening, as the rays of the setting sun made the message once again appear on the cavern wall the ogress played the song. Just as the last lingering echo of the final note died away a small wooden cask appeared in the center of the cave. Paul opened it to find a leather bracer within.