Closed [Stone Garden] Cryptographic Signs. [Tabitha]

[Markus Andres]

28-Spring-514

The sergeant knight moved swiftly through the streets of Syliras. His days had been long and busy since his recent promotion to sergeant and there had been a lot to do. His hands were moving in intricate patterns. Trying desperately to make the fingers obey the thoughts. Though there were far from agile enough to properly shift from one sign to another. It was required that he learnt Ekeldi once he became a sergeant and he had every intention of learning the sign language. Only it wasn't as easy as he thought. He luckily carried a book in his backpack containing wonderfully drawn pictures of the signals themselves and he was going to take it home and commit every single image and word to memory. Then the practical training could begin.

The sergeant stopped and instead of heading home, he turned and went in an entirely different direction. He had spent enough evenings in his abode. The Stone Garden would be a perfect place for the studies. People around to make him feel a part of the city and not a shut in sitting in his apartment. There would be people, but they would respect the area enough to keep quiet. The best of both worlds.

The sergeant wore simple clothes. Entirely black. His own little personal joke about returning to the school bench. His little day of mourning. The teacher had not noticed, or he had simply not cared as the four bells of school had begun. By the end it was amazing Markus had kept himself sane throughout the ordeal. He looked to the gold miza in his hand. Given to him by the teacher to help him train his dexterity. He stepped into the Stone Garden. Peaceful area as he made his way over to one of the benches to sit down and peacefully read the strange book borrowed to him. First sign.

Peace... But of course. Will the next be civilization... Yep, sure is.

Markus smirked a little at how predictable the book was. From there it turned more practical and useful. He wondered if those two signs had been used by knights to identify each other prior to Sylir's return. Would make sense to have a secret sign to identify each other with. Although it was outdated now that Sylir had made it easy to recognize one another.

”Blessed be Sylir.” He mumbled as he continued to read the book and make the different signs.

[Tabitha Aryns]

Tabitha had been sitting quietly in the stone gardens on one of the benches, having of been there bells beforehand, prior to an incredibly stressful morning at work. Being at the Soothing Waters was not a very soothing experience at all, well, at least not when one was in the backroom repairing myriads of clothing. It had been when she first started working, it was an escape from the cluttered halls full of people, the cities stench and lack of fresh air, and the blatant overhead ceilings which hid the beautiful blue sky. When she had discovered the gardens, Tabitha felt as if she had found another gem amongst the grey stone walls, for the sky shown clearly, and the blue, with its splotches of white and grey scooting along so peacefully had been a welcome sight. There was even some greenery. Today, though, Tabitha had hoped to get to deciphering her father’s riddle, journal in hand, and an ink stick in the other she began scribbling into her book. Thoughts, unwritten, would accompany each section she wrote down. Trying hard to find the key within her father’s riddle as to what he had meant. Solve my riddle. She put down first, and then a small description of the key below it secondly. The key is made of silver, I think, and it has some sort of glass in the middle. Its all twisty and loopy. Doesn’t fit into any lock my mother owns. Several words. After that she wrote each of the seven words below the description in the order that they appeared counter clockwise. Destiny, Pride, Trust, Hope, Belief, Caution, Peace. A lot of the riddle didn’t make sense, and she wasn’t even sure if the key was apart of it, as her father had given no other utterances beyond what her mother had told her. At least so she thought, if her mother had hid some of the message, she would be cross with the older woman for having of done so. As it stood there was no key to this riddle. Pausing, Tabitha looked up to the sky, a thought coming to mind. Unless one counted the key as the key. She quickly scribbled that idea down. That would have been so like her father to do, put a riddle, in a riddle, into another riddle, until finally there were just so many riddles that it would be impossible to decipher but this felt mild in comparison. What if the amount of letters has something to do with this? Or the letters are numbers. Sliding a separate piece of paper out from the back of the journal, Tabitha set it on the opposite page she was writing on. Earlier in the year she had written this code out, simple, but done out of boredom, it followed the replacement key where a letter assumed a number. A to one, B to two, C to three, and so on. The journal, and its twin, had been one of the few possessions Tabitha had brought with her from Zeltiva, how fitting it would be to finish it with her father’s riddle. Or continue the second with said riddle. “Blessed be Sylir.” Tabitha heard a masculine voice say something, sitting next to her, she glanced up to see a man in all black holding a book. Blonde hair, and from what she could tell at her angle, greenish, maybe blue eyes? Her eyes strayed where perhaps they should not have, to the pages of the book, it looked well taken care of and- to be honest- Tabitha was curious on where one could find books in this city. There were no libraries, as far as she knew, and what rare occurrences of books merchants did sell did not hold much value to Tabitha. From her angle she thought she was seeing drawings, or sketches, of what appeared to be… Something. She wasn’t too sure, he had it at angle that made it difficult from where she sat to see clearly. Tabitha refused to lean over to skim the book, but she observed him, he made a sign, or, at least thats what she assumed he was doing. From the book? It was too much, she could feel herself bursting at the seams with questions. “Where did you find that book? What are you reading?” Tabitha near blurted the questions out at him. Maybe a little too loudly, but she didn't look away, they were genuine questions and she hoped the man would answer them.

[Markus Andres]

Fingers were a little tired from all the unusual gestures he was making with them. Strange patterns of movement and general stiffness plagued them as he tried his best to get through the different basic signs. Perhaps he should call it quits for the day. Not bother until the next lesson. Do his best to merely commit the images to memory rather than replicate them. He was too focused upon the pictures in the book to notice that anyone was observing him. That there was a woman right beside him checking him out. A ripple of shock went through his body at the sudden loud questions blurted in his direction. Markus looked up quickly and felt the warrior's instinct kick in and muscles flex and right hand clench into a fist. Which immediately sent a spasm of pain up his arm. Much too fatigued and exerted to be useful in a fight.

Which was perhaps for the better when his gaze fell upon the source of the voice. She looked vaguely familiar. But in a city like Syliras with its enormous population and generally cramped quarters, that didn't amount to much. Perhaps seen her as a face in the crowd. Though her accent, told him otherwise. Zeltivan, no doubt about it. A fellow Zeltivian, they were not rare in Syliras, more common than most other dwelling on the east coast of the Sylira region. Might have lived here for a short while and not yet shed her Zeltivan accent.

The brown hair had a reddish hue in the light of Syna and his gaze automatically went for her eyes. Brown, once more Syna made them a little lighter than normal, but without Syna he might have seen them as dark as a moonless night. The light did catch the silver on her neck, drawing his attention to it briefly. Only a silver necklace – an heirloom, or was the woman from a wealthy family? Gaze turned to the journals in her hands. He was not the only one of them reading.

Markus looked to the book she had asked about and wondered if the Ekeldi language was a secret language. Considering his own assumption about the first two signs being a call-sign for knights, it was better to assume so until he knew more about it, best not to let the girl peruse the book on her own. But that didn't mean he couldn't answer her question truthfully. After he had had a little fun playing with the over eager girl, but impolite woman. Might have been spoiled in her childhood – would support his idea that she might be a rich kid without manners around the 'servant' class.

”And a hello to you too.” A warm smile crossed his lips, a little amused at her forwardness. The eagerness to learn about the book. Something the woman shared with one of his ex-girlfriends. Markus refused to let the memory enter his mind and focused upon the girl once more. ”But I suppose there is no reason I shouldn't tell you.” He continued with a shrug of those massive shoulders as the dark emerald eyes returned to the book. Clasping it shut and holding it up before the woman. Out of reach, didn't want her to grasp it out of his grip.

”It is just a book I borrowed from the knights, to help me adjust to my new rank.” He didn't want to elaborate, only let that tidbit of information hang in the air and if curiosity took her, she could ask him. ”As for the content, I am not sure I am allowed to divulge it to strangers. My apologies.” The apology was sincere, his faith and commitment to Tyveth meant that keeping secrets was something he did not enjoy. Markus gave her an apologetic shrug. ”But you probably wouldn't find it interesting anyhow, just some knight business.” His gaze turned to her books. Or journals. Perhaps he should return the favour and ask a couple of questions.

”And your books? Now we are prying into each others' reading material.” The warm smile remained on the lips. Teasing the woman for her eager tone. Still finding the situation a welcome relief from the torture that the self-imposed studies had been.