How Many Words Are There (Taith, Serrif)

[Kail D'Rea]

18th Day of Summer Year 511 AV

The rays of Syna’s gentle light filtered through the dusty air and settled lovingly on the shining gold of Kail’s hair and the yellowed pages of the book she held open before her. The light in the library always had the unique quality that only came after it had passed through the dust of centuries, disturbed by gentle hand pulling ancient books toward reverent faces. The patch of light surrounding Kail seemed to have more of that filtered, dusty quality than usual, as the book she had just pulled for the shelf was a little-used volume that had probably been untouched since it was first placed on the library shelves at the founding of the institution. The language was unknown to her, but the writing was beautiful, clearly done by a skilled hand. She examined the lines and dips, looking for the stroke patterns that made the writing look so neat and yet so graceful all at once.

Always looking to improve her art, Kail spent any breaks or free time after work she had in the stacks, examining the oldest books she could find for a trace of the wisdom of the old authors, or in some cases scribes, who were writing when Mura was young or even before the first Konti came into being. Those where hard to come by and she sometimes had to ask permission to look, so today’s work was not so old, but still held the magic of a time long gone: of people who no longer lived. Kail resisted the temptation to replace the book without wondering about the author and she gently ran her slender, ink-stained finger over the brittle page and reached out to the writer of those words, wondering why these words were written. The impression from the past came softly to her mind, telling her this work was indeed done by the author, someone who intended not only to educate and enlighten future generation, but also to be immortalized by them, as they read his work and remembered that he lived and his work and now helped them gain the knowledge he once had. This was often the case and with forgotten books on dusty shelves, it always made her sad when her special Konti gift revealed to her that his hopes were in vain: that no one read and benefited from the work he had poured himself into.

Sighing, Kail took one last look at the unknown words on the page before replacing the book on the shelf. She didn’t feel better for having used it herself, because she wasn’t really using the book, just the writing that the author had probably given very little thought. She had learned not to worry too much, but it still nagged the back of her mind sometimes. She pushed it away and ran her delicate little hand across the shelf of books, looking for another that caught her eye and wondering if Taith would come before she had a chance to really examine it anyway. He had promised to pick her up right after work today so that could have a meal together and enjoy a little personal time before he became the fallen angel that was somehow more inaccessible to Kail. She loved this Etheafel being, but if she had to choose just one form, it would certainly be the hulking blue Akalak Leth gave back after sunrise. At that moment a book with a leather cover that was an unusual shade of green caught her eye. Undoubtedly a book given great care and attention at its creation, she pulled it from the shelf and opened to the first page.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Serrif had been in the library for some time now. It was another sleepless night for him. Something had been biting at him for a long time now. There were times when his mind would run a thousand miles an hour for no apparent reason. Things would flurry around inside his mind and create a kind of controlled humble chaos that prevented him from sleep. So he decided to use this time productively instead of blankly staring at the canvas ceiling of his tent. He had a short life and still much to understand if he wanted to have even a sliver of hope in becoming part of the Order. Unlike Kail he had no real understanding for the art of writing. He knew that people usually wrote for a reason, why else spend all the time and effort in doing so? He enjoyed reading the many tombs that the healers had on hand. He specifically wanted to research poisons and the like. For many reasons. The main reason was because he knew through understanding the poisoning of his past he could understand what was done to him. He could understand what was done and how to remedy it. He was so very tired of feeling so very sick. He couldn’t even begin to describe what was going on inside him; because he didn’t know. He had no way of understanding what was going on. He hadn’t even begun to really understand the art of healing yet. He just knew that he could heal by using herbs and prepared medicines. And he was striving to understand all this. Lym showed him that he did know how to heal he only had to sharpen the skills he already had. And that was why he was here. To sharpen his skills. He had been in the library most of the night sitting at a table nestled in a corner; he looked up through the stacks. There were huge stacks of knowledge; some of it would be completely inaccessible to him. Mostly because he only really understood common, nothing more nothing less. He wanted to learn more languages; but he couldn’t find a teacher for this and he really didn’t have time to learn any either. His days were chalked full of things he had to do as well. From training with Ildin and Lym then working as an apprentice with Lym as well. Every day was spoken for and every hour was full. The only free time he had was at night; like now when he should be sleeping. But instead his sickness kept him awake; but hardly aware. He saw a woman, not sure if she was a mirage or a figment of his imagination he watched her at first. To see if she looked and behaved like a real person or if she was indeed a figment of his imagination. But then again wouldn’t a construct of his imagination move like a person as well? He pondered this for a second and then shrugged. He had a few books spread out near him. A few of them were written in languages he couldn’t even begin to decipher correctly. But they had pictures. Pictures that he recognized as plants that had been used in potions on him. Poisons, the most horrible poisons that he could imagine. The poisons that lured him into darkness and crashed reality around him. He stared at the plant pictures in the book and turned the pages again and again recognizing the pictures but not the language. He grew frustrated and sighed loudly as he ran his hands through his short jet black hair. He looked again at the language hoping he could make some sort of sense out of it. He sighed again and couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. He tried to first discern syntax. The placing of words and how they were used…where they were used. He tried but his mind wasn’t sharp enough. He wasn’t a linguist by any means, he hardly understood common, he was frustrated beyond almost all belief. The information he needed so bad was here he believed. He KNEW this information would help him if he could only understand it, if he could comprehend it. But he didn’t know enough about languages or about this specific language at all. If only he were a little smarter, a little brighter and if he only understood a little more.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa came in after a long day of helping in the temple. He served as best he could with the knowledge that he already had. It was frustrating some times, Taithrosa knew that in his previous incarnation he had been a proficent doctor, one who had had a great knowledge of the Akalak healing arts.

He was glade to come and see his beloved though. The fallen son of Leth was only a slightly differen t person between his two forms, mostly because he was sadder and brighter in his true form. That was part of the reason that he meditated during the evening hours.

He walked through the library his large form brushing against the shelves as he walked past. His silver eyes looking both ways as he walked. He knew Syna was still mistress of the sky, but he could feel the hour of his father would soon come. He paused at one section and looked closely at some of the titles before nodding his head and walking farther into the library.

He paused as he heard frustration coming from one of the cubicals. He could see the Kail writting away as she consumed the beautiful writing of long dead writers. He found her love for words and there shapes beatiful and charming. She saw the beauty in one of the simplest and most important part of civilization. The written word.

He looked at the man as he walked past the desk. "You seem a bit frustrated can I help with something?"

[Kail D'Rea]

Kail looked up when she heard the deep tones of Taith’s gentle voice. She was surprised to find that he was not addressing her, or even look at her, but talking to a man. A human man it looked like, with some sort of markings. She couldn’t see him very well, but even from her few interactions with human or males besides Taith, she could tell there was something different about him. Maybe that was just an instinct. She was curious, but at the same time she didn’t know what was going on between the two males. Kail decided to watch for a minute and see if the dark-haired man appeared to be one of Taith’s friends or co-workers. If she felt it appropriate, she would join them in a minute. If not, well, she could wait almost indefinitely with a good example of early human calligraphy like the one before her now.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Serrif sat frustrated by the books inability to just give him what he wanted to know. The information would be endlessly useful to him but nevertheless it remained locked up behind this cryptic language. He didn’t see how it made sense. Syntactically it appeared like any other language, it wasn’t a string of nonsense and well at the same time it wasn’t divided up evenly into groups of the same. So this told him it was in fact another language altogether. A language that he himself would have to learn to try and decipher. He sighed and then heard someone address him. He looked up from his book and saw Tiathrosa standing near him. He hadn’t seen anyone of his kind in quite some time. At the camps the few ‘blues’ they got their hands on were tortured relentlessly by the slavers. But they never died easily, Serrif did remember that. So it was interesting for him to have an interaction with one. This man was enormous though, Serrif was tall but his man…dwarfed even him! He nodded and then tapped a page of the book. ”I’ve been looking this book over. I believe it to contain information I would like to know; information that isn’t available anywhere else. However; the pen it is written in is cryptic. And I am far from possessing the intellect needed to decipher the information contained within it. I recognize the pictures, but not the language.” He turned the book around so that the man could get a better look at it. “Anything you could offer would be a great help. Otherwise I will have to search for some catalog of this language somewhere in the library…which I am not adverse to doing.” That idea seemed like a possibility of an idea to him. It was likely that he would indeed end up doing that. He saw the woman from earlier was indeed paying them attention. But the man he was with was cure indeed worth paying attention to. He was hard to ignore.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

The large man looked over at the book that was spread before the frustrated young man. His silver eyes looked over the pages and paused as he saw the scripts. The script was archaic and fancy, which made reading the words difficult.

He leaned close to try and read the script "I think it might be tunkat, but the script is a bit more fancy then I am used to." He said looking closely at the text. The images he reconized as plants and some of them had a vague recollection. "I could translate it for you, but it would take a bit of effort to follow that script."

He looked over at the man and then motioned for Kail to join them. "You might like to see this book." His archaic pronuciation giving him a good accent.

[Kail D'Rea]

Still down the isle, Kail had heard the two men talking. She listened to their words, prepared to slip away if they seemed private, but they clearly weren't and at the end Taith even called to her. She was curious about the book. She had been studying Tukant with Taith for some time now, but she still wasn't even close to fluent in the difficult tongue. Books and script, however, she did know.

Kail shyly approached the table at which the new man was seated. She wondered if he felt she was an intrusion, and she looked at him as she walked forward, looking for signs of annoyance at her approach. She didn't see any. When she was almost there, she glanced at Taith and smiled, happy to see him. "Hi Taith," She quietly murmured and she approached the book and quickly looked it over. It was indeed filled with a complex and fancy script. It clearly wasn't old enough to be the original, but still was old and the copy, she guessed, was very close to the original, as practiced hands only wrote so illegibly with an effort.

She knew she could glean more with closer examination, but before she got too focused, she looked up at the new young man with a smile on her face. Her eyes couldn't help but touch on his markings, which looked like scars, but she did not allow her violet eyes to linger, moving instead straight to his face. She offered her hand, a smile still on her lips. "I am Kail, Taithrosa's girlfriend. I work here in the library as a copyist. I am happy to be of any assistance I can. May I have your name?"

Kail felt she was not just representing herself, but the library as well. She was an employee and whoever this young man turned out to be, he was a library user and deserved the utmost courtesy. He also appeared to be at least an acquaintance of Taith's, which was more motivation to be nice as well as professional. She was prepared to find him a librarian if needed, but hoped she could help herself if possible.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

”Fancy to you is illegible to me. I am used to maybe seeing common in writing.” He spoke the truth he knew no language at all and hardly knew common at all. He only knew what he learned at the lsaver camps and all, and what was coming to him in his vague memories. But he had become adapt and that was the point. His mind had evolved and he had become more in tune with what he was doing here. What common was and how it was structured. The process was tedious but he learned what he needed to. And knew what he needed to know to do what he needed to do. That and more. ”I am Serrif. I am interested in this book.” He turned the book so she could get a better view of it. He knew nothing of the language it was written in nor much of the written word either. He just knew that if someone wrote something down they usually had a good reason for doing so. And so he picked up this book and went through the toil of trying to decipher it even though he knew he knew nothing of it. ”Please go ahead.”He said as he leaned forward enough to closely study what she did next. Maybe he could learn something from this woman and what knowledge she possessed. He knew that he always could know more, tacit knowledge was priceless to him. “And whatever you could teach me would be much appreciated.” The book did have interesting contents. Laid out before her was a book of poisons. Obviously meant to be kept a somewhat secret as denoted by the more ornate, complex and fancy script. This book outlined the usage and preparation of several more ornate and deadly poisons. A true gem in the poisoners world. But what did this man want with it. He obviously noticed the books innards by the pictures. But what did he plan to do with the knowledge once he obtained it? This may worry her but he did want the knowledge for obvious reasons, he wanted to cure himself. But she likely did not know this. She would see the face value…or would she?

[Kail D'Rea]

Basic Tukant was not going to be enough for a complete and correct translation of this obviously complicated and intricate work. Kail was able to pick out enough words, ideas and even sentences to get the basic idea of the page before her. It was the middle part of some directions on how to cure some sort of poision. She turned a few pages back and forth and looked at their content as well. It took a little while to study the words and work through the writting, but then she was sure: these were complete directions on how to create, administer, and cure a specific poison.

"Well, Sheriff, you may have found a real treasure here for the Order. It has cures for poisons in it and with such old content and copies made, it's sure to be good and useful information. Maybe even something the order doesn't know yet." Kail's love of knowledge spilled over in her voice, not to mention how nice it was to find something that the healers could use to help people, maybe even save a life. "I'm sure Taith and I together can get you some information from it. Of course, if we do a translation it will turn out to be a short little book in common, maybe even a phamplet, but it could still be interesting. Maybe Taith can read it over and decide if it is new information worth working on?" She turned to the bigger man and offered him the book.

Kail looked again at Sheriff. As a Konti who had spent very little time away from Mura, she was natrually trusting. While she may wonder later, as the content emerged, at the moment it didn't even occur to her that in the wrong hands, this might be dangerous information. That maybe it would be safer for the world to leave some of the information hidden.

"Are you working for the Order? Will you become a healer?" Kail asked Sheriff, hoping that he didn't think the question rude, but wanting to know. "I just wonder if you can use this information for good? You know, to help people in trouble? I'm not a healer, but would like to know that I'm helping in my own way." Kail smiled at the man and hoped they could talk a bit while Taith looked over the book. She knew with that kind of writting to someone not used to decifering difficult hands, it may take time to get anything out of it. Naturally she would help, but maybe in between the harder words, she could discover more about this stranger in her library.

[Taithrosa Eldytia]

Taithrosa was fluent enough in his racial tongue and as he read through he was able to pick up more then his love. It was a book on posions. Yes it included some cures for the posions. The silver eyes looked back and forth traveling the text. He would have to take more time to make sure the fancy font was being read correct.

The son of Leth was aware as he read that the sun was begining to lower in the horizon and that soon Syna would give up the sky and Leth would take dominion.

He looked down and he turned to look at the man. "I could translate it yes, it would take a while. There is a fair amount of information here." He looked over at the pages some more. "Is there something specific you are looking for, that would help spead up." He looked at the book. While in the end it would be as thick, translating it would be a task. "I am learning healing here, and now how difficult it could be to find what you need."