Entry 12: Riloth 19th the 10th

Dear Spellbook,

I’m so bored.

I thought relaxing all day would be great now that I'm feeling better and the exhaustion is gone. Instead, I'm getting antsy. I tried again at deciphering your mystery text, but it's still as mysterious as ever. Do you have anything that might help?

What languages are written in you?

Show me the first page of each language written in you.

A page of the mystery language, a page of Torcish, and Entry 1 appeared

Well, it seems I was hasty in assuming everything in your pages was written in that mystery language. I need to give it a name, let's call the language on the spellforms Bookish.

Hide the Bookish page.

The Bookish pages disappeared

Show me all the text you have in Torcish.

I guess you don’t know what that is unless I tell you.

The second page you revealed is called Torcish. While we are at it, the language I’m writing in is called Rilith.

Show me all your Torcish.

Field report sheet Z127, destroy by Illunia 30 or after mission completion

Emergency Field Report - Illunia 10

Master, I apologize for writing in this report now but my mission is likely no longer relevant. I’m writing from Containment Flow Regulation Station 3. All rune line communications have been cut and our wizard died in the first attack, this page is our only means of communication with the Hardune.

We have not received scheduled updates from any of our neighboring outposts and have just repelled an attack from the forsaken. I believe you should expect an attack imminently if you haven't already. Respectfully, I advise that you reach out to the Badaken to mobilize all dwarven forces.

The enemy has breached the tunnels surrounding this outpost. I fear we have lost control of the Kituh, which means they now have free rein of the Continent and access to the Torack.

We survived the first assault due to chance. A work crew was foraging in the outlying tunnels and heard the digging. They reported back and we were on guard when the attack came. We successfully repelled the incursion but this boldness is unheard of. How did they get so close? We are expecting further attacks.

A supply shipment is expected soon. When it arrives—if it comes—we will assign the guard detachment to remain as reinforcements. Please, provide any updates you can to the situation.

That isn’t what I expected to find in a spellbook. Was your previous owner some sort of gnomish wizard spymaster? This looks to be written in two distinct hands. It is hard to tell, being different languages, but I think the first line was written in the same hand as the Bookish text. Here, it wrote in Torcish using a quill, as opposed to the dull quill look of the Bookish text. The rest is very hastily written, but the writer used the proper Torcish ink chisel implement.

It's strange that this is the only Torcish entry in your pages. Were the others erased? Or was this the only one? The heading makes it seem like there were many.

There are a few Torcish words in there I didn’t know the meaning to but can maybe piece together. Torcish is made up of a lot of shorter words jammed together to form new ones. Hardune, Har means guard, and Dune means prison. Prison guard, jailor? That doesn’t make sense from context. Could it be some organization or rank?

You’re no help.

What about Kituh? Kit is bar or rod, and Uh is under, typically in the context of underground. So under rod? Under bar? From the report, I’d guess it was some sort of road or region underground. Maybe a tunnel system?

Lastly, there's Badaken, which breaks down to most-high-leader. What is that? It sounds like a king or emperor, but as far as I know the dwarves have no singular ruler. They interact with the surface world as a united front through the Dwarven Confederacy, but are themselves a group of smaller city states like we are up above. Maybe it's some local position.

Illunia 10, assuming that was this year, was the day the Dwarven Outpost near Edgewater was attacked. Whoever this agent was, their assessment was spot on. The forsaken led a coordinated strike against the Dwarven Confederacy. Did Ludvik and Deshiv know about this when they warned us about the attack in Edgewater? Did they let us go into battle knowing what we would face?

I’m being paranoid. They gave us no reason to mistrust them. If the communication black out was as complete as this note implies, I think I am just seeing treachery and deceit where there was only confusion and desperation.

If the invasion of Edgewater was any indication, that supply shipment brought reinforcements for the forsaken, not the dwarves. Maybe there was treachery involved, but not against me.

The fascinating implications of this note have little to do with its contents. Somehow this agent used this report sheet to send a message. How far away was this control station I wonder? If Edgewater was a guide, it would be located in the border mountains at the head of another river. The nearest being at least a hundred miles from where I found you. It could be a torn page that returned in the morning, but the heading and message imply that this was meant to be used to report back after some time, at least weeks, later.

Let's try this out. Copy whatever is written on the next page I tear out here onto this page.

That didn’t work. How did he do this? That report had a heading, maybe that's important. What if I title the page and assign it a number? I will create two pages labeled Test Sheet 1. Make anything written on one of these pages appear on the other.

Test Sheet 1

Test. It’s working! I’m writing this on one sheet, and I see the words appearing on the next page as I write.

I suspect the connection needed to be formed between the sheets when they are still in the book—in you. Does it work if I remove a sheet?

Test Sheet 1

Test. It’s working! I’m writing this on one sheet, and I see the words appearing on the next page as I write.

Test. Still working with one sheet torn out.

I can write on the sheet in you, and it appears on the torn out sheet

I can write on the torn out sheet, and it appears on the sheet in your pages.

I’ve now torn out the second sheet. It looks like they are still linked.

So, to summarize—let's call it twinning—if I twin two sheets before they are removed, anything I write on one appears on the other, even if they are both torn out.

Can we create a shorthand?

If I tell you to twin sheets, I am instructing you to copy all contents that are written on one sheet with that heading, to all others that share it.

Can I twin a third copy of a removed sheet?

Test Sheet 1

Copy Test Sheet 1 here

Twin this to Test Sheet 1

Well, this isn’t working

What if I put the sheets back?

They fall out. Can I make you accept them back without waiting overnight?

Spellbook, if I put a sheet back into you that was once torn out, reconnect it to you.

Test Sheet 1

Test

Looks like it is working. Will it work if I tear it out?

I am writing this on the torn out page

I am writing this on the page still in Spellbook

I am writing this after both sheets are torn out.

The sheet reattached.

And it is still twined to the copy that's loose.

Let’s see if I can twin more than two.

Test Sheet 2

Test

It's working. The other two copies are torn out and this is appearing on both of them.

Can I twin it again?

Make a copy of Test Sheet 2

It worked!

It appears that a connection must be made while they are in you, but if a copy remains in the book I can further copy it.

This will prove very useful. If I ever escape this day I can think of a dozen uses already. Magical communication is very expensive. Now I can just mail sheets of you to people and communicate instantly at the cost of postage. If I sent large numbers of pages to my father’s colleagues, that would revolutionize the way that they worked. How many pages can I twin at once?

Speaking of communication, that report made it seem like the dwarves had a long range communication system based on runes. Rune line communication. How could that even work? How could they hide something so useful from us?

Alright, enough of that. Looks like my vacation ended up being a working one.

I still don't know how your previous owner prevented the sheets from disappearing each morning, but that's not exactly something I can test now.

Finally I can relax now that I have something to occupy my mind with. I'll go soak and plan more uses for you. Enjoy your rest.