[The Fleeting Comet] An Unsolvable Puzzle (Tao)

[Jiina]

27th Spring 511AV Food was always good for thinking. Brain power and such. Jiina had ordered that which was supposed to be good for thinking - braised fish with a side of rice with lots and lots of spice. She liked spice. Gave a bit of dynamics to the meal. But that was beside the point. She kept getting distracted today. She needed to concentrate on what was in front of her. She needed to think. Hence, the fish. Fish was brain food! A piece of paper lay in front of her. She had been sitting in the Fleeting Comet for almost three hours now. She had barely even touched her food, so intensely was she staring at the parchment before her. She had recieved many curious glances from the staff of the establishment, and while usually she would have been irritated they were encroaching on her privacy, she could not bring herself to care. She had bigger things to worry about. The paper was pristine, without any marks. It looked new. Jiina had two pencils, freshly sharpened with her knife at home, and a ruler and a spare piece of paper. The spare paper had scribbles all over it. The waiters and waitresses had been playing a game. They had been trying to figure out what was written on the paper that the lone girl (the only girl in the room who ate by herself) and why she was staring at it for so long. There was a bet running, too. Right now, the bet was on a break up letter from her lover. They were wrong, but they did not know that yet. So very wrong. Not even close. A flash of intuition ran across Jiina's face, as she made a grab for a pencil. Quickly, she jotted down something on the spare paper. Where she could find space on that thing was impossible, so many notes had already been written there. Her eyes jumped in between the papers, pristine and dirty, until her entire body seemed to slump. She placed her head in her hands, moaning over dramatically. She hated thinking. This was annoying. It was a terrible way to spend her 21st birthday. OOC-8kina for the dinner.

[Tao]

It was a fact of life that people gossiped, though he had never noticed it too much before he begun working at the Fleeting Comet. Every customer was someone well to do and important. Who was meeting who? What were they talking about? What were they wearing? The cooks and their assistants in the kitchen were not as involved in the chatter as the waitstaff, who whisked through the tables with their ears pricked up for juicy tidbits, but they were by no means out of the loop. Any unusual occurrences were dutifully reported for discussion over the clatter of pots and pans and the disapproving stares of their overseer. He never participated in the speculation side of it. Lhavitian was coming to him in leaps and bounds, but when everyone was talking so fast and naturally, shyness overcame him and his vocabulary went out the window. But listening was always interesting, and broke the monotony of some of the drudge work. Today's topic of interest was the girl sitting alone. It was rare enough that anyone came to the restaurant by themselves, but to order and never touch her food? At those prices? He listened to one of the other assistants go on about it, her tone plainly scandalised. If she was on the same wages that he was, he could understand her annoyance. He turned his eyes back to the task at hand; finishing up the sink full of dishes in front of him so that he could get home. Plates clattered together as his mind stayed with the conversation between the assistant and the waitress, picking words out of their Lhavitian and working backwards to understand what they were saying. It seemed like the girl was a part of the Twilight family. He presumed that Xi was a name of some kind, probably hers. Another person who he would probably be aware of if he had grown up in the city. He handed another cleaned plate to his partner, standing ready with a dishtowel. The current bet on what was keeping her occupied was a love letter. Why bother agonising over a letter? He wondered. Surely, if you're confused, you could just ask the person what they meant. He reached back into the warm water and found nothing left to grasp, startling him back to the task at hand. A quick search revealed that he was finished for the day, at least if he moved quickly enough before the next load was dumped in front of him. He pulled his hands back and wiped them on his apron, nodding to the other assistant before slipping off through the busy kitchen towards the lockers. After reporting to Chef Yoren that he had finished for the day (as usual, the man didn't seem to notice, but he knew better than to wait around and get underfoot), he quickly slipped out of his uniform, stuffing it haphazardly into his bag. Hiding a yawn behind his hand, he relaxed his shoulders and stretched out his arms. It was only after a long shift that he felt the strain of running constantly around a kitchen. Pulling together his things, he decided to slip out through the front of the restaurant. Technically, they were supposed to use the staff exit, but slipping through the entrance brought him straight into the middle of Surya Plaza, where he could go hunting for a quick dinner before heading home to give the rest of his food to his new roommate with the big, soulful eyes. Quickly checking to make sure that Yarena was not around, he slipped through the swinging double doors where the waiters and waitresses scurried in and out, bag slung over one shoulder. The air was cooler where the customers were seated, making him uncomfortably aware that he was sticky with sweat, making his hair more messy than usual and his shirt stick to his back. He glanced out over the customers as he made his way through. Naturally, his eyes were drawn to the girl sitting alone, the object of all the gossip that evening. Her eyes were trained on a note in front of her, and her hand grasped a pen darting furiously over a mauled scrap of paper covered in calculations. She looked familiar; he recognised the hairstyle, though he couldn't see her face clearly. Making his way to the door involved going past her table, and he couldn't help taking a glance at the piece of paper that so grasped her attention. It was beyond rude if she noticed his curiosity, but just a little peek wouldn't hurt anyone. The words on the page were written in Common, which was rather unusual, and made him pause a moment longer than he meant to. There were no discernible words, just a jumble of letters in some sort of vague sentence structure. A ciphered message, perhaps? The girl seemed to be finding it difficult; she groaned and threw down her pencil, slumping in defeat. He had spent a lot of time on puzzles the same way as they slowly sapped at his sanity. He leaned a little closer and started picking at the mess in his head, mentally rearranging letters. It's probably just a shift cipher. Maybe keyed. The letters are still repeating themselves logically by the looks of things, so it can't be too complicated. He thought, biting on his lip in thought. Maybe she didn't understand that. Her notes didn't seem to have any proper code breaking structure to them. “... You should try writing out the alphabet.” He offered, speaking in Lhavitian but using Common to describe the letters. “It's not too complicated. Just work backwards from the most common letters.” A slight blush made his face redden; he wasn't one for initiating conversations with strangers. “Erm... excuse me.” He turned to continue on his way to the door. Despite the lure of a puzzle, he didn't want to be seen bothering the girl at the center of all the gossip that day.

[Jiina]

Jiina did end up noticing him staring at the page. He was so intent on what he was looking at, his eyes quickly scanning the page, that he did not seem to realise who he was intruding on. Jiina, however, had recognised him instantly as Tao Kuroya, the little boy she had scared not too long ago. A smile made its way to her face as he scanned the page. It would not be long until he noticed her. People always noticed her. She rested her cheek on her hand as he spoke in Lhavitian, an improvement from the last time. She had no idea what she was supposed to be doing with this stupid thing. Nor did she particularly care right at this moment. She was more interested in waiting to see Tao's reaction when he realised it was her, that she didn't even listen to his puzzle breaking advice. She wouldn't have understood it, anyway. Jiina was intimidating, and skilled in a lot of areas. Brain power was not one of them. She nearly giggled when he blushed - he looked sort of cute, when he did so, in the same way a hungry puppy looks cute when they're pleading for food - but disappointment reigned as he started to walk away. She had ended up respecting him after that day at the Sartu Peak, even if he did not realise it. She did not want him to disappear on her again. "Hey, wait!" she called in Lhavitian. She waited for a second, hoping he would turn around, before she continued. "You seem to know what you're talking about ..." She paused here. She did not want to say those dreaded words. A shudder ran through her just at the idea of her even thinking it. Can you help me? No, there was no way she was going to say anything of the sort. Instead, she silently extended the pristine piece of paper which had the code she was boggling over for Tao to see. Jx tbsayqho Ecckb, Ybmmx qvhkqx dcopq icoqytbx, jx gluh. Cq ybp ihhk b mghbpsoh bkt b mocucghah ql ih xlso 'dbqyho' qyhph mbpq xhbop. C gluh xls bp jx lkgx rycgt, Ecckb thbo, bkt jloh ihpcthp. Cd lkgx xls fkhv. Qycp cp b qhpq ld pfcgg bkt ld iobckmlvho, jx thbo. C fklv qybq xls rbk tl cq. Cd xls rbkklq ... xls fklv qyh spsbg rlkphnshkrhp. Isq C fklv xls gluh qyhj. Sktxcka rboh, thulqclk bkt gluh, Xlso dbqyho Qbhql As she waited for Tao to take the paper and look it over, she grinned. "Good to see you again, Tao Kuroya. You've recovered from our last meeting, I see!"

[Tao]

The girl called for him to stop, and he winced, shoulders slumping like a child caught misbehaving. Tao turned back to her, embarrassment written clearly on his face. Every waiter and waitress in the area had frozen in place, eyes fixed on him as their ears strained for her next words. He looked down at the woman, who at least didn't look like she was annoyed by his interruption, but instead like she was about to burst into laughter. Probably at him. Looking at her face to face made him absently bite down on his lip in thought. He had seen here somewhere before, he was sure. Not too long ago, either. She spoke again once she had his attention, this time slowing to a halt, like the words had gotten stuck in her throat. Instead, she picked up the paper with the code, thrusting it towards him impatiently, like he expected him to know exactly what she was thinking. Seeing the paper more clearly revealed that the coded message had quite a bit of length to it. If it were as simple as he thought it was, that would be helpful; it gave a person more words to sample when trying to crack the code. He silently took the letter from her hands, feeling her eyes boring into his head. And suddenly, he said his name. His full name. It startled him, because he rarely gave out his full name unless he was trying to be polite or it was requested. His head jerked up in his surprise, his mouth parting to ask how she knew such a thing. She was smiling, amused beyond belief. Then he recognised her. The girl in the clearing. “Y-you...” Tao took a step backwards, partly in surprise and partly because the last time they had met, however brief it was, she had appeared to want to push him off the cliff they were standing by. He blinked at her for a moment, completely stunned by the twist of events, and the fact that she still remembered him. “... I-I'm sorry. I didn't recognise you.” He said, scrambling to recover from his shock; he didn't want to make any more of a scene than he already had. “I never heard your name...?” He placed the paper back down on the table carefully, a little nervous about touching it now that he recognised the fierce woman. She didn't seem as furious today, (was she asking for his help?) but he didn't care to take the chance.

[Jiina]

Peals of laughter broke forth from Jiina's lips as Tao recognised who she was. Her laugh was pretty, light, feminine. People who knew Jiina didn't really expect her to laugh like she did. But her laugh was light-hearted and fun, though few rarely got to hear it as she laughed now. The waiters and waitresses looked on incredulously. Several of them knew who she was, as she frequented the Fleeting Comet whenever she wanted food. But rarely had they seen Jiina Xi of the Twilight Family laugh so ... honestly. Her laughter died off as he stumbled his way through his words, apologising and stepping away from her. As amusing as it was, and Tao was really quite adorable in the way he was afriad of her, she needed his opinion on the puzzle. Jiina wasn't the best at logical thinking, and she didn't want Taeto angry at her. She wanted to impress him. She sighed at Tao when he put down the code. She needed his help. She needed this to go better than it had the last time. But she needed to be ncier for that to happen. It helped that a small part of her thought him lovely, but it was difficult for her to be nice on purpose. But, by the Gods, she was going to try. She arranged her face into a smile - it felt a little awkward, forced, and it probably looked that way, too. But that was what nice people did, right? They smiled and such? She attempted to do so. She made sure her arms weren't crossed, that they were hanging by her side palms out - Taeto had once said that was the universal sign for parlay and openness. "Jiina Xi," she said brightly. She cringed just a little at the cheer in her voice. Perhaps she was laying it on a bit too thick."Of the Twilight Family." She wondered for a moment, picking at the skin on her thumbnail, if she should bring up the incident again. "Well, we uh, didn't get off to such a great start," she said, her voice still confident and unwavering, but a lot of the arrogant tone had disappeared. She was going to continue, but she left it there. She was humbling herself for Tao, but there was a limit. There was no way in hell she was apologising. She quickly changed the subject. "It's my birthday!" she exclaimed suddenly, after a few seconds of silence. "My ... father" (not that that was really what he was) "has decided to write a coded note for me. As a challenge, or something. I don't know!" She would not ask for help, she would not apologise - at least, not verbally. Instead, she again picked up the code and thrust it into his hands. She suddenly sat herself down on her chair, and did something she had never ever ever done for someone. And probably would never do again. She gestured to the seat across from her, inviting Tao, the bumbling adorable boy she had met on Sartu Peak, to eat with her.

[Tao]

The woman burst into laughter, most definitely at him. If any of the staff hadn't noticed them before, that got their attention. He could feel their eyes boring into the back of his head, and if he had been blushing before, his face was a bright shade of red by now. Thinking back to the first time he had met her, when her eyes were cold with fury and every word dripped with sarcasm, it was something of a relief that her laugh didn't seem to carry any malicious undertone. If anything, her laugh made her seem like a completely different woman. Had she not known his name, he would have questioned if she really was who she claimed to be. Eventually, her merriment eased, and it was as though she seemed to properly remember how they had last parted on rather terrible circumstances. A soft sigh escaped her, her arms dropped to her sides, and she smiled, the action a little tense, like she wasn't used to it. Her name was Jiina Xi, and she was of the Twilight family. Some of what he had overheard in the kitchen was correct, then. He didn't really know the extent of the family's influence in the city, only that whenever a member walked into the restaurant, only the senior waitresses took their orders, and special attention was paid to their meals. So, she was important, then. Important enough that he was likely to be getting some funny looks his way from the other assistants. He made a note to suddenly lose his ability to understand Lhavitian over the next week, and focused back on the situation at hand. As she looked away to examine her nails, she uttered what was probably as close to an apology that he would ever get from someone so proud. He let his hands drop to his sides from the automatically defensive postion he had held them across his chest, beginning to fidget with the fabric of his pants. The next thing he knew, Jiina pushed the code into his hands, explaining that it was a puzzle from her father. He held the paper carefully so that he wouldn't damage any of the letters inked onto the page, easing out a crease in the corner. Looking back over at her, he noticed the other paper on the table, scrawled and scribbled nearly to the end of its rope. She didn't know how to handle the puzzle. Did she want his help? She sat down again, her movement stiff and awkward, and waved a hand to the free chair beside her. It was clear what she wanted, even if it looked as though saying the words would wound her pride harder than an actual injury. Hesitant, he considered his options once more. Sitting down now would likely extend his time of convenient language difficulties to at least a month, and at worst Chef Yoren or even Yarena would want a word with him. On the other hand, he had been invited by a guest, off the clock. Jiina was trying to be nice, and he had a feeling that this wasn't a normal thing for her to do. She was never going to figure out the code on her own if she kept at it the way she was doing... After a long pause, he pulled off his bag and sat down in the awaiting chair. With a clatter, all of the staff were suddenly moving at full speed again. He could only hope that this was the right thing to do; he had never been good at making decisions on the fly. Flattening out the piece of paper on the table, he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to relax. There was no point in asking her if she wanted his help; there was nothing else she would need him for. Turning to Jiina, the strange, proud girl from the Twilight family, and asked quietly: “Do you have any more paper?”

[Jiina]

She waited, impatient, for Tao to sit down. He didn't really have much of a choice. He may have been a foreigner, but he couldn't be COMPLETELY ignorant as to the influence of the Families. She was not a direct descendant, of course, but she was a part of them now. One did not reject the request of a Twilight Family member. There was no real debate about it. He would sit. And sit he did. Her eyebrows relaxed, her smile reappeared, and the staff seemed to exhale as one and keep working. She knew they were shooting glances at her. They always did when she came here. But she supposed there was even more reason now. Usually she came with Taeto, or another of their house, never alone. And NEVER did the great Jiina Xi invite someone to sit with her, especially not a lowly kitchen hand, or whatever it was Tao did here. She leaned forward onto her elbows eagerly, scrutinising him as he dumped his bag onto the floor. He looked uncomfortable. She didn't blame him. She didn't exactly have the best reputation of being nice and understanding. But a part of her was also rather pleased he had decided to sit with her. He was nice. She was not. It was an interesting contrast for the day, one she would like to explore further with him. See how far she could push him, as it were. Her perusal was interrupted as he softly murmured a question. She was so taken by surprise that she almost missed it. She looked around, trying to remember if she had only brought one piece of paper or two. She looked down at the paper, completely scribbled with potential words and phrases and the odd doodle of people when she got bored, and flushing, pushed it off the table and onto the floor. "Uh, no, I don't," she said, looking around for a supplement. "But you can use this napkin!" Quickly, she picked up the paper napkin that had come with the meal, and shoved both it and the extra pencil across the table to Tao. It was only now, that the pressure of solving the puzzle was alleviated somewhat, that she realised just how hungry she was. She picked up a spoon, and started scooping spoonfuls of rice into her mouth, most unladylike. Taeto would be embarrassed if he could see. "So, you like the puzzles, huh?" she mumbled, her mouth still full of rice. She spoke in Lhavitian, confident in Tao's ability to understand. If he did not, then too bad for him. Raising a hand, she called a waitress over to get a pitcher of wine for the two to share. Once it was brought over to her, she poured the wine into two glasses and handed one over to Tao. "In thanks of your..." she trailed off, not wanting to say the word. Glaring at the waitress, who had lingered to try and figure out what her and Tao were talking about, she turned to Tao. "Any ideas?" OOC-10kina for the wine.

[Tao]

Jiina seemed happy that he had chosen to join her, watching him get comfortable with a bright smile on her face. Tao was nervous about sitting there with her. She was someone important, very important and he was... well, he was nobody. Who knew if or when she would turn back into the angry woman he had met in the clearing? He was going to be the one taking the blame and the punishment. He managed a smile back, just as stiff and awkward as he felt, but at least it was an attempt at reciprocating her own attempts. Faking calmness and happiness were two things that he was well practised at if he had the time to prepare himself, but it became strained when he was put on the spot. I can't screw this up. Was the only thought running through his head. I can't make her angry. Jiina seemed embarrassed by her own attempts to figure out the code, tossing the paper to the ground, out of sight and mind. While she hadn't brought any more paper with her, she had not used her napkin, and that was better than having nothing at all. He accepted it and the pencil with a nod, putting it down in front of him and studying the code once more. While his new companion turned herself back to the no doubt ice cold meal she had bought, he began writing on the napkin, hoping that it would be as easy as he first thought. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z He turned to show the beginnings of his work to Jiina, though he wasn't sure if she was paying attention or not. “These are the twenty six letters in the Common alphabet.” He explained, deciding to stick to Lhavitian for a while longer. She hadn't much liked Common, if he recalled. “The way that your code is ciphered is simple. These letters have been substituted with the other letters.” Turning the napkin back towards himself, he began to quickly shift through the alphabet. It was a simple trick; all one had to do was take each letter and switch it out for the letter a certain number of spaces behind it. He had done quite a few of them before, and it was an easy thing to test. First line: Jx tbsayqho Ecckb Shift = 1 Shifted: Iw sarzxpgn Dbbja Shift = 2 Shifted: Hv rzqywofm Caaiz ... Jiina asked him a question, startling him from his attempts, so far unsuccessful. “I, er, yes, I do.” He said, after taking a moment to sort through what she said in his head. “I... well, I grew up quietly. I used to do these for fun.” And hopefully, you won't take that as badly as you took what I said about the stars. He added silently, finishing out the rest of the shifts in the meantime: ... Shift = 24 Shifted: Lz vducasjq Geemd Shift = 25 Shifted: Ky uctbzrip Fddlc So, it wasn't anything as simple as a shifted cipher. That made things more difficult, because after that, it could be keyed, or perhaps each letter had been randomly assigned. That could take hours to decode if it were the case. A waitress had approached the table, bringing a bottle of wine and two glasses. Jiina must have ordered them when he had turned back to the shifts. He started to protest (didn't she know how expensive wine was from the Fleeting Comet?! It was practically a day's work!), but she didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. So, he nodded his thanks mutely and accepted the drink, even taking a sip to be polite. The flavour was much stronger than what he was used to, which usually was more water than alcohol. He swallowed the mouthful quickly and put the glass a little out of the way. “Uhm...” He waited until Jiina's glare had scared away the waitress to a safe distance. “Well, I attempted the easiest decoding method I could think of, which was just to shift through the alphabet. It's, uhm, like, assume that a is equal to 1, and b is equal to 2, and so on? Then you add a number to that like 1, and then a is equal to 2 and b is equal to 3. That means that in the code, any 'b's would actually be 'a's... all the way until all the 'z's would be 'y's and all the 'a's would be 'z's.” He was beginning to ramble, a little flustered at having to explain how it all worked. He wasn't even sure if he was making sense. “A-anyway! You don't have to worry about that, because I just tested all 25 shifts and none of them work. It's probably a little more complicated than that.” He brought his attention back to the first thing he had written; all the letters out in a row. “It seems like all of the words are still intact, so... well, we can try and figure out which letters are which manually. It's more tricky, but it might give us a head start on how it is encoded.” Taking the original code, he pushed it towards Jiina. “The code is from your father, right? That means that there should be words that are familiar in it, like a name or something like that. Can you see anything with the same sort of... structure?”

[Jiina]

She was too busy watching Tao's reactions, his tight lipped smile and slowly relaxing body to really care about the cipher. She knew she couldn't do it. She was fortunate that he came along when he did. But now that he was here, there was no real reason to be paying attention, was there? He would do it for her. Her status ensured that. So instead, she watched him and she watched the other patrons. She liked watching people. She liked hearing other people's conversations. It was amusing to hear what was bothering people, what their focuses were in life, what was happening to them at that moment. People watching was a fun thing to do, especially when you needed to gather as much information as Jiina did. She was distracted from watching an older couple. They seemed to be only coming out together as an assurance to society, that they were doing the honourable thing as spouses and staying together. You could tell they really didn't want to be together. They rarely spoke - mainly just glaring at eachother - and when they did, it was to ask if they wanted a wine refill. Tao began to speak to her, knocking her out of her trance. She tried to keep the irritation out of her voice. She didn't want to scare him off ... again. She yawned as he spoke to her. It really made no sense. She didn't understand how he could be interested in it. "Subsituted... twenty six letters ... yeah, yeah, sounds great," she murmured, distractedly, taking another swing of wine. She was a little annoyed at Taeto for making her do this on her birthday. He knew she hated puzzles. Then again, that was probably why he set it. She stared at him as he rambled about shifts. She listened intently, trying to understand all that he said. A is equal to 1, and all that. She tried, she really did try but just ... nothing. She had no idea what Tao was talking about. But there was no way she could let him know that. "Oh, yes, of course," she tittered, coquettishly. "Why did I not think of that?" She flashed him a smile, but try as she might, there was a little hint of sarcasm in it. She nearly groaned at his next words. A little MORE complicated? She didn't even understand the simple things about this! Taeto was probably sitting at home in their rooms laughing, waiting for her to come back with a still coded letter. She was NEVER going to figure out what was in the letter. Taeto would be angry. Gah! Why was this so hard! She looked blankly at the code. Nothing seemed to spring out to her. Everything just looked like a jumble of letters. "Well," she said, drawing out the word in an effort to buy more time. "I suppose if it's a letter to me from him, our names would be in there. His name is Taeto, by the way." She scanned the letter, not really sure where 'Jiina' would have come up in it. But her eyes fixed on one structure, and she jabbed a finger at the word 'Qbhql', the last word in the letter. "There! That could be Taeto... it has five letters, like his name." She scanned the letter further, waiting to see if anything else would jump out at her. An idea struck her. "You know the Common word "I"? It's one letter. Maybe if we look at which letters are singular, we can figure out what corresponds to it?" She took a pencil and underlined all the singular letters, and what could have been Taeto's name. Jx tbsayqho Ecckb, Ybmmx qvhkqx dcopq icoqytbx, jx gluh. Cq ybp ihhk b mghbpsoh bkt b mocucghah ql ih xlso 'dbqyho' qyhph mbpq xhbop. C gluh xls bp jx lkgx rycgt, Ecckb thbo, bkt jloh ihpcthp. Cd lkgx xls fkhv. Qycp cp b qhpq ld pfcgg bkt ld iobckmlvho, jx thbo. C fklv qybq xls rbk tl cq. Cd xls rbkklq ... xls fklv qyh spsbg rlkphnshkrhp. Isq C fklv xls gluh qyhj. Sktxcka rboh, thulqclk bkt gluh, Xlso dbqyho Qbhql She threw down the pencil, feeling triumphant that she had finally realised something that might be helpful. A desperate moan escaped her lips as she noticed something, though. "Taaaaaaaooooooooo," she moaned, drawing the name out. She resisted thumping her head on the table in despair. "There are TWO singular letters! B and C!"

[Tao]

OOCSorry for this being a bit late! Also, I don't think the letters below are properly lined up, so I hope you understand! It quickly became apparent that Jiina wasn't following what he was saying. Her attention strayed around the room, and she seemed more interested in the couple sitting a table away than what he was trying to tell her. It bothered him, somewhat. Surely, if the puzzle was so very important, she would at least pretend to pay attention to the person trying to help her? Tao followed her gaze to the elderly man and woman that had so captured her interest. They were regulars, coming in once a week without fail. Nobody liked to wait on their table; they never tipped, shouted at the waitresses, and made everyone uncomfortable. It didn't make much sense to him. What was the point in going to a nice, expensive dinner with someone you hated so much? Finally, though, Jiina had turned her attention back to him. He now regretted wishing that she would pretend to pay attention, as it was even more insulting than when she was ignoring him completely. She didn't understand what he was talking about, if her sarcastic smile was any indication. Why couldn't she just say that she didn't get it? Maybe that was why she was so interested in the couple. All of them seemed excellent at lying. He took a deep breath to soothe his already frayed nerves. He ached from a long day's work, and it never put him in the most receptive of moods. Jiina was different to him, that was all. They were just different people, and that's why she was irritating him. This was the last day he needed to lose his temper! Exhaling through his nose, he watched as she actually focused for a moment and gave him some useful information, highlighting a certain name, as well as picking out the single letter words that would have been his next action. “'Taeto', huh...” He murmured, translating the Lhavitian syllables into Common letters. What an excellent name the man had, with three vowels! This would certainly be helpful. Quickly, he filled in the letters they corrosponded to on his written alphabet. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B ? ? ? H ? ? ? ? ? ? O ? ? L ? ? ? ? Q ? ? ? ? ? ? That was five letters filled in, if he was correct about the spelling. Meanwhile, Jiina had finished highlighting all of the single letter words, and had realised that there were two different letters used. It took him a moment to realise why she thought this was a problem. “There are two words in the Common language that have single letters.” He explained, glancing at her handiwork. “'A' and 'I'. We know that 'A' is equal to 'B', thanks to the name of your father. That means that 'I' is equal to 'C'. I'll fill that in.” A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B ? ? ? H ? ? ? C ? ? O ? ? L ? ? ? ? Q ? ? ? ? ? ? He looked at the letters filled in so far, hoping that a pattern would be beginning to emerge, but couldn't pick out anything significant. He sighed, knowing that they still had quite a long way to go. Although at least Jiina was being a little more helpful. “Okay...” He muttered, biting on his lip in thought. “So, let's translate the letters we have so far into the message. Then, we can figure out some more words from there.” It was a relief that there was a lot of space between the lines of garbled text, giving him plenty of room to write underneath. He took the paper from Jiina and began to fill in the gaps as best he could. Jx tbsayqho Ecckb, ?? ?A???TE? ?II??A, The beginnings of the translation revealed little, the message still frustratingly mixed. He didn't have enough letters picked out to make it anywhere near understandable. Only a few, shorter words caught his eye: 'qyh', which translated to 'the', giving them the letter 'h', and the unusual word with two 'i's at the top of the page. That had to be 'Jiina', as he had never even heard of any Common words with two 'i's! Literal Lhavitan words like that often translated to have unusual letter combinations. Quickly, he scrawled in the three new letters he had gathered from that information. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B ? ? ? H ? ? Y C E ? O ? K L ? ? ? ? Q ? ? ? ? ? ? “...Hmm.” He groaned a little under his breath. “I think this may be keyed. … That just means that someone used a keyword as part of the cipher. Probably this first part here.” He added after a second, remembering that Jiina didn't understand him. “If we could guess that, it'd be very easy to finish this.”