Q: How did Amara Sholinar learn the ancient rune language?

A: Supposedly, her mother taught her when she was a child.

- - -

The sleep was intoxicating, but I had to wake up, even though it was pulling me to its deepness, in its tranquillity. I thought about giving in and then Yeriel’s image appeared in my mind, as well as the important stuff that I need to do, and then. I was wide awake.

The dim luminescent lamp was lit still, though the murkiness of the darkness was gone, replaced by mild light. While a lot of my exhaustion washed away, the head felt heavy. Well, it was like you woke up from sleep and feel like you were still sleeping. Shaking my head violently, I adjusted my vision, and found Shailyn awoke before me, while the knight—Noyar—was nowhere to be seen in the cavern.

William’s blindfold was off for now, as my aunt was questioning him, with one of William’s notebooks on hand. However, it didn’t seem the inquisition was going anywhere, with William being silent the entire time. Well, very few people are good with inquisitions and evidently, Shailyn was not one of those. Even though it seemed her fatigue was relieved a lot, and could control her emotion well, she still wasn’t taking the betrayal well.

“Is William even your real name?” Shailyn asked, and as usual, the warlock remained silent. “Come on, give me something. Don’t make it harder than it already is. The next ones that interrogate you wouldn’t be that civic.”

Shailyn shook her head and turned over a few pages in the small notebook to open a particular page where some pretty complicated magic circles were drawn.

“Tell me about this ritual?” Shailyn asked. “I can tell it's something related to the use of spirit beast as a medium to do something augment some spell or something evil.”

William chuckled, shaking his head. “You righteous fools,” he finally said something, “it’s always something evil when you don’t understand it.”

“Is it not?” Shailyn asked with a level tone. “Then why would you have to move in secrecy and kill innocent people?”

“Those people I killed, they are hardly innocent.”

“I’m sure that is enough to relieve your conscious,” Shailyn said with a flat look, but I could feel her frustration showing through her body language. She’s never really good at this, even though all magus are taught to stay calm against all danger.

“Here I thought there’s no camaraderie among warlocks,” I said, lifting my body up.

Some cracking noises came as I stretched a little, coming near Shailyn.

“What did they offer you?” I asked the warlock, coming face to face. “It should be pretty special to betray this side. Or is it just you don’t like good company?”

William only stared at me, eyes full of hostility, however, he was not like a rabid beast that would bite the moment freed. William is a master planner; if he’s silent now, then he probably has something to play. I need to figure out what. Sadly, my aunt won’t let me do as I please.

“How’re you feeling?” I returned to Shailyn.

“I’m alright,” she said. “Weird, what happened between you and Noyar? Before she went out to search, she told me I can depend on you?”

“There’s some wisdom in your Knight, Aunt,” I chuckled. “Yes, you can depend on me.”

Shailyn snorted, saying she would find out more when Noyar returns.

“The interrogation isn’t going anywhere,” I commented, as Shailyn covered William with the blindfold and then put a bag on top of his head.

“Noyar tried before I woke up,” Shailyn said, shaking her head, “though it’s mostly fruitless. We’re not particularly skilled at this.”

“I can see it.” Well, I’m sure these two maidens only used words against William, trying to coax him with some pardon, however , the warlock still seemed to have something in his hand to give in early. Maybe I’ll have to dirty my hand a bit at interrogation, not that I have any skills in it.

But of many things, I read, listened, watched, many things and many of them included intimidation, interrogation, and many shady things that I would never like to try my hands on. Still, I would need to get some free time with this warlock to find out how any of those would be helpful.

Shailyn let out a breath. “So, about this cavern,” she continued, “something feels off about it. Are you ready to talk about it?”

I considered for a moment and then nodded. “Aunt, there’s something you need to see.”

. . .

Shailyn followed Oscar with a bit of difficulty walking evenly. Oscar was not running, just walking at a normal pace, holding the luminescent lamp in hand, however, with his height close to two metres, following his large strides became a challenge to her.

Shailyn would never admit it, though. Even though she purged all the afflictions with Oscar’s help, the exhaustion remains. Fortunately, the place Oscar was taking her didn’t seem far.

There’s really something spooky about this place. Even with her exhaustion, she could tell, just could not pinpoint.

It took less than a minute for them to reach the end of the cavern as Oscar faltered before a wall, drawing most of the luminescent lamp—which was enough to enlighten around to a fair margin, though not bright enough to distinguish particular things.

“What do you want me to see?” She asked, finding nothing in particular around, and then she looked at where her nephew’s lamp was pointing.

The stonewall, it’s full of carvings, and with a simple glimpse of it, she could make out it’s something very interesting.

“Curious,” she said and moved forward, taking the lamp from him.

The first that she came across were cave paintings, not particularly beautiful, however, they seemed like a puzzle to her, which would need more deliberation. Then there were bizarre faces, eloped together, making a tall, daunting, hideous figure. And the last one was the simplest of them all.

It’s someone moving from one place to another at the Night of Brilliance. ‘Hmm,’ she thought, ‘does this depict the lost magic of spatial transportation?’

Even though the high arts had achieved many things that ancient magus never even considered, they were still behind in many aspects. One of the prominent ones was spatial transportation. There was ancient texts that proved that magus could open a gate between two places to transport on will, however, all knowledge on how they did it, was lost.

‘The figure in the picture was moving from one circle to another, but the five moons,’ she mused. ‘Why are they there? Is it particularly because on nights of brilliance, using high art becomes easier, and natural force becomes a bit unstable?’ Or was she missing something?

“Shailyn, can you make anything out of the text?” a voice said behind her and only then did she remember she came here with her nephew.

“Let me see.” She drew closer towards the writings, curious if there was anything left behind on the lost art of transportation.

Shailyn had some expertise in old tongues as most of the high arts were recovered from there and they still practice them in that tongue. Perhaps she could gain something out of the text. However, her shoulder slumped down in resignation the moment she peered onto the text.

“This is the oldest text, rune language,” she said, roughing her hair in frustration. “I can’t read it, and I’m pretty sure there’s no one else who could either. There are a few who research on Rune language; however, I don’t think they can recover it either. It would take decades before something gets discovered out of it.

“I’m sorry, Oscar. I’m pretty useless here. Rune language was another inheritance we lost in the fall. However, this is a fine discovery. I can’t make the value out of it, but I’m pretty sure many magi would be highly interested in it.”

She turned towards her nephew to find him a bit disappointed, but he shook that off.

“There’s something else other than the rune language,” Oscar said. “See if you can figure anything out.”

“Where?”

“Below.” Oscar came closer and showed her exactly where. There was something not in the Rune Language, nor in the common old tongue, which she could make out with ease. But that text, they seemed familiar.

A knit appeared on her brows as Shailyn sat down on the cold ground, eyes glued to the text. “Hold on, give me a pen and paper,” she said. “I think I can make out something.”

Oscar obeyed, bringing out a notepad and pen out of the side carry. Shailyn ran her arm to find the items on the second attempt as her eyes glued to the text. Oscar took the lamp from her and held it closer so that she wouldn’t have much problem reading it.

“ ‘Nira shak’nin amoi prana,’ ” she muttered and started to write down what she was reading. “ ‘Danashak’el no kor . . .’ ”

Oscar waited for her to finish noticing down everything. It didn’t take her long as there’re only about a couple of paragraphs on the complicated old tongue.

“Any luck?”

“I can make out something, but to be accurate I would need to check with some references, ” Shailyn said, showing the first lines of text. “Here it means, ‘Take my land concealed under . . . light’ no, not light; ‘concealed under life.’ Yes, it's life. ‘When night weakens the ‘land of space’ or is it ‘space of land’ ? I’m not sure. Then here, it is: ‘Beware of destroying it, then you not be your, but his.’ ”

Her nephew said nothing, probably confused by what she translated. Perhaps thinking his aunt was throwing nonsense at him.

Shailyn was flustered. “I’m not very good at it,” she acknowledged. “I’m not even sure if any of it makes sense. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Oscar said, standing up. “It's better than nothing. You know, it could be some riddle.”

“Yes, Ancient Magus has their way with words.” Shailyn sighed. “Honestly, I think I can do better than this . . .” She paused for a moment and looked at the text again. “A riddle . . . mhh . . . It's not land, but the word ‘Shak’nin’ could also mean ‘my treasure’, or ‘my power’, yes, something related to power. ‘Take my power concealed under life, when night or moons weaken the power of space.’ Ahh, this could be a riddle.”

Shailyn shot up immediately and moved to the image—she first thought was of spatial teleportation. “Nephew, do you know, in some part of Shrankor, water is a depiction of life?” she asked, rubbing the carving. “I think there’s something under the water, but we could only grasp it at the night of brilliance.”

Shailyn waited for a reply, or at least some excitement from Oscar’s part, but found none. She spun and met his gaze, raising an eyebrow. “You knew about it, didn’t you?”