| Present day Ortal's home, The Spires The writer's hand was moving over the parchment, putting down the words and memories from his head onto the parchment. His hand, despite its old age and physical limits, moved quite fast over the parchment as he scribbled more and more words onto the parchment. They seemed to flow right out of the feather he used as his quill. Sometimes he would suddenly stop in the middle of a sentence, thinking about the words to use for the next sentence. |
| Fall, 25th, Year 464 The Undrykas moved swiftly through the library. He knew what he was here for and knew where he could find it. He had already spent some time here but it had been a while since he had been here last. The library was still as big as before and he maneuvered himself through the many bookcases and tables. The book was still in the same spot, hidden between two larger ones, obscuring it from sight. He pulled the book out from in between the others and opened it to the page he had left off last time. He walked himself to a table as he was already reading the words on the next page. His five word vocabulary really needed a boost and today was one of those rare days where the Undrykas had been thrown out of the lab and been told not to return for the rest of the day. He placed the book on the table and sat himself down in the chair. The wood was slightly uncomfortable and a little too hard to his tastes but the nuit probably never used the chairs or didn't bother with how it felt on their butts when they sat down. And what they didn't need in Sahova, nobody needed in Sahova. Those were the rules, in most cases. Wiggling a little, the Undrykas tried to seat himself in the least uncomfortable position he could find. The chair was soon forgotten as his mind dove into the notebook. Abase, Adra, Nadar Canoch and of course Djed. The extent of his ancient tongue. The Undrykas started on the next page. Ala. Up, Above, Sky, the unreachable. The Undrykas' mind already searched for synonyms of the words. Impossible came to mind quickly. As before, the Undrykas covered off the Nadar Canoch side of the page and tried to recall the translations from his mind. Then he switched around and did it the other way around. The page continued on, scribbled notes around the words, arrows pointing from one word to another, notes added to them in languages the Undrykas did not understand or couldn't read. Capos was next on the list. Color, tint, quality, variety, faction. A strange combination of meanings for one word. He wondered how someone had linked color and tint together with variety or faction. But it was set in stone, for who knows how many years already. Capos also linked to hue with an arrow. At least that meaning he could get from color or tint but faction... The Undrykas moved on to the next word. Cha was the word for blue, ocean, cool and relax. It related closely to the word Adra, which was liquid and water. The Undrykas made a mental note to ask someone if he ever found a Nadar Canoch user willing to teach him. As the words in his vocabulary increased, the Undrykas fished out a piece of paper and a thin piece of charcoal. He started writing down words and their immediate meanings, noting thoughts on the paper with arrows and other notes. From his mind, he wrote down the words he already knew and manached to get Ala correct as well but for Capos and Cha he had to check again to see if he had all translations. The writing was sloppy and probably only readable by the Undrykas. Daeq followed the other words on the paper. Shape, making by defining the boundaries. Another mental note. He didn't even know what that meant. Perhaps it was something like drawing or architecture, as it set the boundaries for a house. Or something. The Undrykas often went back to previous words and tried to translate them from his mind, without having to peek at the book. Dala, Daraq, Djas, Djunn, Furugu, this one made him smile, Glig, Gug and Isikai were next to be written down, all with their translations and notes partaining to the them. The charcoal quickly shrunk down as the Undrykas wrote and wrote. More and more arrows and notes filled up the space around the words, turning the paper in an almost unreadable mess if you didn't know how to approach it. Irst was veil, to veil or to be veiled in. At least this word had proper meanings that he could understand. A veil was used to cover something, perhaps to cover was also part of its meaning. The more he studied, the more questions formed in the young man's mind and the more he wished for a real teacher, like he had had in Zeltiva. At least there they made an attempt to better you, although mentally only, in most cases. Kasai was a nice word, something the Undrykas liked. Hope, looking forward to something and optimism. The Undrykas had a lot of Kasai in his life at the moment, the study of Nadar Canoch being one of them. His head was starting to feel heavy, overloaded. Rubbing his eyes, the Undrykas saw a golem swap out candles once again, already the fifth time since he had entered the library. Pushing himself for one more word he added Korad to his list. Rope, string and tying together. He wondered how it could be used in a sentence. Who used a word like that? Did people talk about ropes a lot in the protohuman times? Or perhaps they were avid string tyers. The Undrykas wrote down the last of the translation and pushed the paper a little away, leaning on his elbows. He massaged his temples softly, forming small circles with the digit of his middlefingers. His right hand left black round spots on the side of his head, charcoal sticking to the side of his forehead. He placed the book back in the long row of books and pocketed the scroll in his outfit. Fall, 29th, Year 464 The Undrykas worked quickly. He didn't have a lot of time before the master would return. The bone in front of him was a product of his own malediction. It had proven quite valuable when it had dulled his sense of pain while he was under another attack from Master Taren Alter. The kicks had felt like someone tapping his skin, rather than stamping their foot on him. At the time, he hadn't known it was active and had been distressed about the lack of connection he had left to his own body. But now he knew better. The bone was large, his fingers only barely wrapped around it and it was as long as his forearm. He needed it to be smaller, portable, hidden. With a bone saw in hand, the Undrykas pressed the bone on the table and started moving the saw. His arm made rhythmic motions as he started to work his way through the side of the bone, a few inches away from the circle in the middle of the bone. The bone dust fell to the table as he worked his way through the material. On the other side he did the same, sawing his way through the bone, getting rid of the excess material. The two outer pieces of the bone were pushed aside as the Undrykas bent over the middle piece, with the malediction circle on it. He turned it around his hands, looking at it from different angles and different distances. The strength he had wanted from it, for which the malediction circle had originally been carved, had turned out so completely different from the end result he was looking at now. He placed the bone on the table, one cut of side downards, the circle towards him. With the knife in hand he started to peel off the backside of the bone, removing large chunks of bone while constantly being careful not to harm the circle in any way. The back of the bone disappeared with every cut as the Undrykas worked his way closer to the inside of the bone. For the sides he worked more carefully, as he was working closer to the circle now. He cut off pieces but moved slower and made sure to keep a constant eye of what he was cutting. He ran a few small calculations in his head, trying to predict how much he could take off before he would cut the inside of the carved circle. His hand cut steadily, more and more bone disappearing from the original, turning into chips and shavings on the table. In the end, he was left with a small diamond shaped, when looked at from one side, piece of bone, about a tenth of the original size. At least this fit into his hand without a problem. The circle was intact from all side, he had stopped cutting before things got risky. Rather a slightly bigger malediction item than a piece of worthless bone with a nice carving on it. With the carving knife and a file, he started to smooth off the edges of the bone, dulling them and creating a smoother texture with the file. The table stacked up on more bone dust as his hand moved back and forth, dragging the file over the bone as he applied pressure on it, watching as it ate away at the bone. Every two or three chimes he blew on the bone, creating a small surge of bone dust in the air, from which he stayed away as to not breathe it in. Past experiences with that had caused him to cough for several bells before he finally got rid of the dust in his throat. His fingers slid over the ever smoother surface of the bone as he took breaks, resting his hands. The file was quickly picked up again, as time pressure and the desire to see the end product pushed the Undrykas on. The strokes of the file became more focused, more precise, only smoothing off specific, small areas of the bone, his fingers constantly moving over the surface, feeling and testing it, checking for bumps or possible cutting edges still. The longer he filed, the more satisfied he was with the end result. The piece of bone hung around his neck, a piece of string, Korad, had been pierced through a hole in the bone, above the malediction circle. One hand was resting on the table as he held the carving knife in the other hand. The only way to test if it was working still was to hurt. He could just wait for the master to get back but he wanted to know if he had made a mistake somewhere. The blood welled up from his skin as the knife drew over it. The cut was shallow and short as he really did feel the pain of the knife. His mind raced as he sucked on the cut on the back of his hand. Had he made a mistake? The malediction item floated in front of his eyes, held by his uncut hand as he inspected the circle, trying to determine why it had lost so much power. Was it because of the size? Was that why the master and his other apprentices always used entire bones or as much of a bone as possible? Did the size actually matter in Malediction? The Undrykas hid the necklace and bone in his shirt, pulling it up so it wasn't visible as he checked to see if his hand was still bleeding. His own fault, really. As the door opened, the Undrykas turned around, his back to the door as he started to wipe over the table, gathering all the dust and bone chips in the bin next to the table. Nobody paid attention to the Undrykas, the master's most hated apprentice in the past decade. It was fine this way, no interruption, not questions, no prying eyes. Just think of him as another golem. See what happens if you do. |
| Present day Ortal's home, The Spires The writer put the quill down. He was a little out of breath, having written so quickly. He had found more memories as he had been writing, adding onto the parchment as fast as he could, before he forgot again. A satisfied smile was resting on his face as he leaned back against the comfortable back of the chair he was sitting in. His right hand moved towards the left and his fingers, without the writer knowing, touched on the back of his left hand, moving over a very light scar in his already wrinkled and cracked skin. |
