"So do you understand now?" Bryn continued to avoid Aran's eyes. She had been avoiding them for almost the whole second half of her story, and she knew that he could tell something was off. And it wasn't just her family this time. She actively avoided certain things. Like the confrontation in the ruins. Like her run in with the people of Evermeet. Like the fact that she wasn't nearly as redeemable as he liked to think she was. He was too forgiving, and the more she looked, the more she saw some of her brother in him. And that just made her sad, because she had only come to terms with the fact that she saw some of Killian in Stalar as well. So that made three people she would be letting down: Aran, Stalar, and Killian by proxy. That was why she had left in the first place. So that she would stop letting people down.
Aran's words finally drew her out of her thoughts. "If you want, we could work on decoding the impossible again." His voice was soft, and the hiss of draconic was a comfort. It was so different compared to the harsh sounds of dwarven that she had been listening to. Even common felt weird to her after she spoke for long enough in her friend's native tongue. She nodded slightly, and the papers suddenly appeared in her line of sight.
Maybe it was the fact that she had just relived the last ten years of her life. Maybe it was the fact that friends were on the mind, or maybe it was the strong drink running through her veins. But something seemed to click, and the symbols on the paper seemed to make sense. Not literally, though. No, they were still just as unreadable as ever. But it dawned on her, the missing piece. "This is a code." Aran looked at her like she had lost her mind.
"Yes, we've established that."
"No, no. Like it's not just encoded. It's a code itself. We have the code and not the key. And it's not just that, but the encoding for the code is in another language translated into another language. There's got to be like two other layers of languages on top of whatever it started as. Look, it looks like regular Iokharic script, right? But when translated, it makes no sense, and it seems really... weird, right? Flowy and flowery and shit? I was wondering why that seemed odd. It's because we're translating into common, when it should be elven! Or whatever they write in." Bryn beamed and Aran just continued looking at her as though she had taken one too many blows to the head. She pointed to the other parchment, the one they had written their makeshift translation on. "That right there. I was wondering where it seemed familiar. Try saying it." There was no need, though, because she attempted the very thing a second later. "It's like one of the words my friend used to say. Whatever this was, it was important enough for someone to either learn a bunch of languages to keep it from prying eyes, or they had a lot of people helping. Because no one just knows a lot of languages." Her mind supplied Stalar, but she ignored it and amended her statement. "Most people don't just know a lot of languages. It's not something you really think of." She saw recognition in Aran's eyes as well, and she knew that they had stumbled onto something.
"You're right. But how do we do this then?"
"I got it. But it's gonna take time. And energy. And you're gonna have to trust me. This wedding comes first, because honestly, I'm still really nervous about it. This has been a nice distraction, but now I have to really focus and make sure I don't screw this up." She left out the again. Aran nodded in agreement, and she smiled. Once the wedding was over and the excitement blew over, she'd ask Stalar for help with all of this. He knew a bunch of odd languages, and since one was Elven, she knew that he could help. It was exciting. Almost like stealing and disarming traps. Almost.
Her thoughts were far from the code, however, when the wedding occurred. They stayed off of it when she followed Rockwell to Goldpoint. And it may as well have been in a different plane of existence when they were fighting off the giants during what should have been the honeymoon. What a way to spend a wedding.
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