Special Event: Mysterious Book II
You stare at the cover of the tome. The cover now emblazoned with a hunched figure, cradling a soft bundle in her cloak. It is a woman, you think, the nature of the image makes it difficult to tell. Her face is fractured, as if the very cover of the book is a piece of stained glass art. Your fingers trace along the lines, and to your amazement they feel in the same place as before. None of the lines have actually moved, but now you see a picture unlike before. You glance at the glass sitting next to you, which is almost entirely full. Alright, so either you're even more of a lightweight than you thought you'd be, or something is going on here. But when you try and see through…whatever is going on with the cover it makes you head hurt.
You put trying to decipher that off for the moment and begin flipping through the pages of the book with renewed vigor. Perhaps if the cover has unveiled its secrets the rest of the book will follow. And as you hold a one particular page up to the candle light, eyes focused on the complex and intricate diagram of interlocking circles that cover much of the page, you realize you are completely and utterly wrong. The book is just as utterly incomprehensible as before. You let it fall with a thump, and sigh in defeat, a flash of lightning sounds off in the distance and you hear the distinct sound of rain padding off your chamber windows. Wonderful, it looks like even the weather is reflecting your mood now.
You heave another sigh and take another sip of wine, it is getting rather late, and obviously the universe does not want you reading this book. With one hand you begin closing the aging volume, the yellowed pages falling back into place when something stays your hand. A page, half-folded, at the very front of the book stands out to you, the thought flicks across your mind that wasn't there before. And you're sure it wasn't. You've been reading through the book again and again for hours now, the first three pages of the book are blank, and none of them were folded. But now there are four, and as your hands carefully unfold the piece of parchment you discover this one is not blank.
Four blocks of text reside in the center of the page, and a flourishing signature sits at the bottom of the page. The text is written in the same blocky text as the rest of the book, but the signature is something else, or at least another version of the text you've never seen before. You think it's a name…maybe the author of the book? You don't know. Your fingers trace over the short-lines of text on this new page as you wonder just what this book is. It's clear by now this is no normal book. On a whim you pinch yourself, nope not dreaming. And you've only drunk half a glass of wine…so it looks like this is really happening. You're not entirely sure why you're surprised. "Magic Book" is quite a ways down on the list of weird things you've seen since you've taken the crown.
…At least it's not trying to kill you. Yet. You fix the book with a glare. Not today magic book, not today.
But now you have a chance to look at the text itself, the first thing you notice is the repetition. Many of the short lines end in similar characters, and there is a distinct pattern to the way the text is laid out. IS this a poem? Lyrics of some kind. The second thing you notice is that you actually recognize some of the words. Not a lot, but you're fairly sure you've seen some of these words before in other pieces of text. You dig through the pile of papers on your desk and pull out the journal you had been keeping. Andeszj had basically forced you to write down what you found when paging through the various scrolls in the Library.
You flip through the journal, past the hasty scribbles and blotted ink that were your first few attempts at actually cataloguing the vocabulary you uncovered. Past the list of all the different characters you've seen (somehow whoever wrote this managed to work with only 26 letter instead of something actually sensible), and your own attempts to see if you could work out the grammar rules. Which ended in disaster, both because you're not a linguist and if it does have rules whatever the language is doesn't appear to actually acknowledge they exist. But still, you've made some progress, even if it hasn't helped you hear. It was the first thing you tried, but it just read as gibberish then. But maybe this will be different.
You dip a quill in your inkpot and get to work. It is painstaking work, cross-referencing your own notes (You really need to improve your handwriting) with this…well you think it's a poem of some sort or perhaps an inscription. By the time your candles burns low your eyes are set in a dull ache from staring for too long and your hand is cramped. The paper you started with is long discarded, too full of scribbles and mistakes to be of any use to you. You're not on your forth sheet, and it is the only one that displays any progress whatsoever.
In the end you're only able to translate the opening lines, such as they are, but perhaps with this you can actually progress with the rest of the inscription. And with that, perhaps some clue as to what this book is actually about. Painstakingly you scratch out meaning of the infernal script onto a separate sheet of paper, until you are left with two lines of readable text.
What are they?
[ ] A mother's love, sweet, humble and kind. / Defines a man, from the day he lives, to the time they all die.
[ ] Blood is thicker than brine, and stronger than wine / But water is strongest of all, as it bears your line
[ ] Iron and Bronze shield many a man / But love and family protects where no armor can.
A/N: Illona cannot into linguistics.
