Mwyr // Chapter One
Title: Mwyr//Chapter One
Other: Started rewriting Mwyr. This is the first chapter. The Prologue still needs to be redone as I started do plan more.
Chapter One~
“Oh… crap… No no nooooo…” I squealed softly and hit my ‘enter’ key repeatedly. But much to my dismay, I watched as the character on my screen doubled over then fell over onto the ground. “Game over…”
The young man that sat across from me at the collapsible card-table glanced up. The white light from the document on his laptop screen reflected off his glasses. “What was that, Arika?”
I made a face, ducking behind my own laptop and switching from the screen asking me if I wanted to continue the game to an online text I was supposed to be reading for my anthropology class. “You’re seeing things, Philip,” came my reply.
He frowned. “The lights from your screen were flashing and changing colors for the past half hour… It was giving me a head-ache.” The blonde pushed his glasses up his nose and returned his gaze to his screen. “You’re playing that stupid computer game, aren’t you?
Gah, caught in the act… Cringing, I sat up-my eyes peering over the top of my screen and glaring over at Philip. “No. I just died.” With an indignant sniff, I tried to focus back on my reading.
“Arika…” Philip sighed, pushing himself away from the table. “How much of that art history paper do you have done?”
I bit my thumb, grinning sheepishly over my computer screen. “Only about four pages…”
He gave me a blank stare. “You know that-”
Emitting a low growl, I snatched the bottle of water next to my laptop. After taking a long sip, I lowered it fro my lips and sighed. “I know… I’ve just been busy with other things.” I dropped my hand back to the table, replacing the bottle and rested it on top of a small, unlabeled composition book.
Philip’s bright brown eyes followed my hand down, watching silently as I drummed my fingers over the surface. “You’ve been carrying that thing with you for the last few weeks.”
Startled, I drew my hand back and looked down at it. “I… It’s some notes.” Well, a half-truth…
“Not for school. All your school notebooks are labeled.” The young man ran a hand back through his neatly combed white-blonde hair before pulling off his glasses. “Starting a diary? Or are you making notes on all of the guys at school to see who you will date next?”
My eyes narrowed and my fingers curled around the edge of my notebook. “You seem to keep careful tabs on everything that I do…”
“Then it is a notebook on boys?” Philip replied quickly, sounding equally interested and surprised at the same time. “Do you have an entry for me?”
I made a disgusted face. “No! What do you take me for?”
With a light, mocking laugh, the young man fell back against his chair. “I don’t think going out with one of my brother’s ex-girlfriends would be in my best interest.”
“You make it sound like there might have been the possibility that I would date you if Jon wasn’t in the picture.”
He regarded me with an odd expression, his hard brown eyes traveling up and down my form; a slight frown formed on his face and the young man coolly slid the glasses back onto his nose. “Maybe. Had we not grown up together and you weren’t Charles’ daughter… I might have considered it at one point.”
The disgusted look returned, accompanied by a gurgle in the back of my throat. “I don’t want to even think of what might have happened if we removed those details…” A slight shiver raced down my spine at the idea.
Philip laughed again, a harsher sound than before. “You asked and I gave you an honest opinion, Arika. Have I ever lied to you?”
“No…” I replied slowly. “But sometimes I wish that your harsh truths weren’t always made at my expense…”
His careless chuckle made me grit my teeth. He watched me from across the table, and I could only glare back.
After a pause, his face broke out into a rather callous grin.
“Stop looking at me like you know something I don’t,” I snapped, saving my files and moving to turn off my laptop. “I don’t like it.”
With a smug smile, the blonde arched one eyebrow. “Jon hasn’t talked to you about it?”
My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to snap back a reply, but my voice died in my throat. “He hasn’t… but… I know…” I lowered my head and stared blankly at the top of my closed computer.
If Philip was capable of anything resembling pity or apathy, he didn’t show it. But as I was quite sure that any ounce of care for another human was absent from the young man, I took his silence to mean he was gloating again.
“Send me the files when you’re done with them,” I told him, gathering my things and standing up.
He looked a little surprised. “You don’t want to study together anymore?’
“I’m mad at you.”
“Tell me something new,” the young man retorted at my retreating form.
Outside the tent, it was a little darker than when I had entered. I glanced down at my watch, nothing that I had been working for over three hours. With a groan, I stretched my back and shifted the notebooks to my other arm. I started back across the small clearing.
Despite it being almost summer, there was a distinct chill in the evening England air. I took a deep, satisfied breath before entering my tent.
“Oh, hello Arika.”
I gave a startled squeak, jumping back and almost dropping my things. I blinked, taking a moment to get used to the light, before I was able to identify the laughing man. “Jon!” I shouted, sliding my laptop and notebooks onto my cot.
He twisted around in the folding chair in front of my desk. “You’re back early. I thought you were going to be studying with Philip until later.”
“I hate your brother so much.”
Jon laughed. “Tell me something new,” he said as I came around behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
I snorted, kissing him on the cheek before glancing at his computer. “What are you working on?”
“I got a sudden interest in those ruins you found,” he explained. Jon adjusted his glasses after giving me a soft kiss on my chin.
“The ones from like… two years ago?”
He nodded, returning his fingers to the keys of his laptop as I retreated to my cot. “I thought that maybe… they had a little more meaning than what we originally thought.”
I fingered the edge of the unlabeled composition book that Philip had pointed out earlier. “Listen Jon, about that-”
“Look here…” the man replied, cutting me off. He pointed towards the screen. “Now… you have the general inscription right around here.” His finger traced over a line of runes that I could barely make out from where I was.
Rising to my feet, I moved back towards Jon. “To those who wish for power… for those who wish to become a god… What lies behind within these pages will grant you those wishes…” I recited dramatically. I slid one arm over his shoulders as he wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me closer.
He nodded, zooming in on the picture. “But it was always these other symbols that interested me.” Jon indicated to three blocks of half-worn runes under the band of the inscription. “At first, I just ignored them, and we pulled out of the site a month or so later.”
I made a sound in agreement. “Have you told my father?”
The young man smiled at my language, but it faded rather quickly back to the serious face. “At the moment, Charles is busy with this site. I tried to approach him with it, but…”
With a short laugh, I lifted my hand and fingered the strands of hair by his ear. “I can try asking my dad… I’m sure if he finds the argument interesting enough, he’ll spare some funds for you to go back and check it out.”
Jon glanced up at me. Without saying anything, he reached out and pulled my head down to kiss me softly. “You always make me regret bad decisions, Arika,” he murmured. “You’ll forgive me when it’s all over, won’t you?”
I drew back, slightly confused. I opened my mouth to speak, but the raven-haired man was faster.
“Philip told you, didn’t he?”
My face darkened slightly. “I found out on my own.”
He arm tightened around me. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I stepped away from him, stalking angrily back over to my cot. “Don’t pity me, Jon. I won’t be offended if we break up, but don’t draw it out any more than it needs to be.” I paused, trying to busy myself with my notebooks. “Can you do me a favor…?”
“Of course, Arika.” The young man came over to me, leaning over and taking my hands in his own. “You’re doing me a big favor by asking Charles for me. What can I do for you?”
I turned my eyes timidly back towards him. “Don’t break up with me until you get back.” There was the feeling of burning tears threatening to spill over; with a frustrated noise, I ducked my head. “Damn it, now I’m crying.” I tried to laugh. “I don’t want to miss you more than I have to.”
Jon’s arms circled my shoulders, pulling me against his chest. He didn’t say anything as I tried my best to calm my breathing.
After a moment, as my body relaxed, he pulled back his arms and rose to his feet. I didn’t look up, choosing instead to listen as he crossed my tent and began to gather up his things.
When he approached my cot again, Jon leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the side of my head. “Of course,” he said in response to my request. “I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast.”
I could only nod dumbly, staring down at my limp hands. Once I heard the sound of my tent being zipped shut, I gave a distressed sigh and fell over onto my side-covering my face with one arm.
Why did I have to get so worked up? My stupid plea sounded more like a desperate high-school student than I would have liked. What was I expecting from this favor? That Jon would change his mind while he was away? “Yeah, right,” I muttered to myself. “Grow up, Arika.”
I don’t remember if I fell asleep, but the next conscious thought involved me realizing the fact that someone was entering my tent.
“What do you want, Philip?”
He laughed, lifting my feet so he could perch on the edge of my cot. “How did you know it was me?”
With a tired groan, I pushed myself into a sitting position, fumbling with my phone to see the time. “Two-fifteen…” I yawned. I guess I did fall asleep. “What do you want?”
The blonde rested his chin in his hand, leaning over on his knee to look at me. “You didn’t get anything to eat.” From the pocket of his dull green jacket, Philip pulled out two granola bars and tossed them onto my lap. “Is everything alright?’
I frowned, picking at the bars before running a hand back through my hair. “Do my ears deceive me? Is Philip Dawson concerned for my well-being?” It was rather odd to think that I might have to retract my earlier statement of the blonde being a perpetual prick. “Sort of?”
“Jon told me of your agreement.
Oh… Oh I see. Now I get it. Here it comes: his classic ridicule.
“If you really want…” he began slowly.
If I really want? I turned my head to the side, watching the young man carefully. He had me interested.
He in turn was staring up at the top of the tent. Philip spun his glasses idly between his fingers. “I’ll go with Jon back to that sight. And I’ll see if I can convince him not to break up with you if that would make you happy.”
I was unable to find my voice for a few seconds, small, inarticulate noises coming from my mouth. He was… serious! “What’s the catch?” I finally managed. “Surely you’re not doing this all for me.”
“Because if you and Jon break up, it runs the chance that my brother might lose favor with Charles, and that will cause me to lose my opportunities in the future,” he answered without missing a beat.
“Erk…” For a moment, I watched Philip in awkward silence before sighing and hanging my head. “I knew it… it’s always your best interests. You’re just finding another thing to hang over my head, aren’t you?” I planted my hands on my knees then pushed myself to my feet. “I’ll go apologize to Jon tomorrow,” I decided, scooping up my notebooks and laptop.
My fingers lingered against the cover to the composition book.
The young man frowned. “Arika-”
“Philip,” I cut in, then fell silent.
He didn’t answer. I didn’t expect him to. He just waited until I was ready to speak again.
Slowly, I sat back down on the cot, leaning over to rest my forehead against his shoulder and grip onto the sleeve of his jacket. “Philip, can I ask you to do something for me?”
There was a pause. “Hm?”
“I… will you go with Jon back to the old church? But don’t interfere with him on my behalf.”
“It wasn’t on your behalf in the first place.”
I winced, but couldn’t help letting out a short laugh. “Shut up for five minutes, Philip Dawson, and let me talk.”
The young man made a disgruntled sound, but didn’t object.
I sat up and released the sleeve, but I left my gaze on his face. “He’s going to investigate the runes in that chamber I found.” Carefully, I reached behind me and plucked the blank notebook from the top of the pile.
“Yeah, and?”
“You can read Old French, can’t you?”
Philip tilted his head to the side. “Kind of. It depends on the level of difficulty and how fast it needs to be translated. Why?”
“Promise me you won’t say anything to anyone else.”
“Why?”
“Promise me!” I stressed, applying my weight to the notebook as I leaned in over our legs.
He frowned and glared down at me-tapping his glasses impatiently against his other hand. “Arika, just tell me.”
It was my turn to frown. Without saying anything I flipped open my notebook and turned it around so he could read it.
The young man was silent, still glaring, as his golden eyes rolled down to the notebook. “This is in English.”
“This isn’t what I want you to translate,” I snapped back, defensively. “I didn’t take the books in Old French with me.” Sliding my laptop out from under the other notebooks, I rose to my feet and crossed over to my desk.
His gaze followed me, probably silently judging the interest of my case. “Books? Did you bring some back with you, then?”
I didn’t respond automatically. “I took a few pictures of the pages from one of two books containing Old French. There is a suitcase under my cot; can you pull it out?” Without turning to see if Philip actually decided to perform the task, I proceeded to concentrate on what I was doing. I knew his curiosity would win over.
“There are books in here,” the blonde replied, coming up next to me with two dark red volumes in his hand.
Nodding, I leaned back in my chair and took one from his hand. “As you can notice, they’re in English. Granted, it looks like some form of shorthand or possibly just scripted by someone who couldn’t write very well. The terminology and spelling predated Chaucer by a few hundred years, so we’re looking at something that goes back to around 1000 AD.”
Philip was silent through my explanation, gingerly leafing through the frail pages. “It’s so well preserved… that it’s unnatural.”
“I know.” With another nod, I set down the book that I was holding to turn back to my computer. “That’s part of what interested me in the first place. The other part was this symbol.” I clicked on a small icon in a folder, waiting for it to load.
The image was a dark blue book, similar to the ones I had with me. The edges were frayed and rather tattered, showing its age; but despite that, it still held together firmly.
“Is that the one in French?” he asked, leaning over my shoulder and sliding his glasses back onto his nose. “What’s that shadow on the cover?
“That’s what I wanted to k now.” I began to enter a series of commands into the image program-letting it brighten the colors and clear up the picture. “This symbol, at first glance, just appears to look exactly like a rune. Same angular lines, same simple form.”
The symbol itself, even after enhancing the image, was still hard to see. It was a simple straight line. From the top edge, another line slanted down right-mirrored on the reverse for the bottom tip. In the middle of the straight line was a diamond… and that was it.
“I looked through all of the rune books that I could get my hands on: Jon’s collection, the University’s library, even looked online.” I leaned back in my chair, only to sit right back up again when I felt Philip’s fingers curled over the chair. “I couldn’t find anything that looked like this rune. It’s similar to a few, but never an exact match.” With a click of my mouse, the picture changed to a shot of the inside of the book. “These are sample pages of the Old French.”
Philip leaned in closer, golden eyes flickering across the screen and mumbling something to himself. “It… appears to be simple enough to translate.” He tilted his head to the side, continuing to gaze curiously at my screen. “It looks like instructions to make something.” He had grabbed the mouse, going through the images on his own.
I made a small noise and pursed my lips. “That’s what I was afraid of…” I muttered, biting onto my thumb out of habit.
“What do you mean?” he returned, glancing down at me and releasing the mouse from his grip.
I picked up the red notebook I had taken from him earlier. “As I went through this and wrote down a sort of translation, I began to realize that the previous owner of these books was creating something.” My brow furrowed and I stared at one page-nothing exactly important, just one that I had flipped to. “At first, none of it really made sense to me. I was just translating one set of gibberish to another. It wasn’t until about halfway through the first book did I realize what I was doing.”
Philip was silent as I rose to my feet, stepping back so I could move over to the cot. He gave a confused, tired sigh, reaching up a hand to rustle his fingers through his pale blonde hair. “It looked like… a lot of scientific stuff. Numbers and equations…”
“Yeah, that’s exactly the problem.” I grabbed my composition notebook that he had left open on my cot. “I was copying down a lot of numbers… soil types, water salinity… None of it made sense, but I wanted to keep writing it down anyways.” I cast a quick glance up at the young man. “How stupid does that sound?”
“Then… what did you create?” Philip sounded hesitant. He eyed the notebook on my lap. “A farm?”
“Close. A world.”
“Oh.”
There was a pause, in which Philip turned his attention back to the red notebook in his hands. I waited, fingering the corners of my pages.
Suddenly, the young man’s head jerked up and he stared at me with wide golden eyes. “A what?!” he yelped, almost dropping the book. “That’s what all of this is?” He brandished the book in my silent face.
I couldn’t smile. I wanted to offer him something other than a bland expression, but it wouldn’t come. His reaction reminded me of what I had known to be true all along: There is no way in Hell that something like that was possible.
Creating a world was impossible. I’m not a god. I can’t create things out of nothing.
At least, it wasn’t a skill I was aware of. But after nearly twenty-one years of living… I’m pretty sure that ‘god’ was nothing something in my genes.
“Yeah,” I finally replied, turning away as I felt my throat tighten with disappointment and embarrassment. “How weird is that? Totally not logical.”
But Philip wasn’t listening. “Arika, this-this is ground breaking! Do you have any idea how powerful something like this could be?” His voice dropped in volume as he came to stand in front of me. “Arika… the power to create a world. It’s amazing!”
“It’s stupid!” I snapped back. “How does filling a notebook with facts and figures and descriptions of daily life actually equal world?” I rose to my feet, pacing nervously in a small line in the confines of my tent. “I have so many questions about it, and I don’t have any access to answers. Like… does the world actually exist now, since it has been scripted in part? Do two versions of the world exist-now that I have copied down the original or is there some other qualification between simply writing it out and it coming into existence?”
I feel silent immediately as Philips hands clamped down on my shoulders. We stood for a few seconds in silence, staring at each other with mixed expressions.
“Who else have you told about this?” the young man asked, finally breaking the silence between us.
“No one.”
He nodded, releasing my shoulders. “Good. Don’t.”
I looked away. “I wanted to tell Jon about it. He might be able to help me with the runes-”
“No. You can’t tell anyone else.” Philip crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me over the rims of his glasses.
Annoyed, I pouted and turned around to face him. “Then I’ll come with you two to the old site.”
“You don’t trust me,” he stated with a short laugh. He didn’t sound the least bit surprised.
“No, I don’t,” I replied hotly. “Who would trust you with something as big as this?”
Philip arched an eyebrow. “Then why did you tell me in the first place?”
I hesitated, eyes going wide as I stared back at him. Why… did I decide to tell him of all people? “I don’t know,” I admitted, dropping back onto my cot. With a muffled sigh, I fell over onto my side. I suddenly felt tired and a little hungry.”
The young man pulled off his glasses and sighed as well. “Well, you coming or not doesn’t matter to me. You’ll be the one pulling the strings to get your father to let us go, so it might be more logical for you to come along.” He frowned, placing the red book that was still in his hands atop the other on my desk. “We’ll have to leave after you finish that paper, though.”
I was too tired to argue. “Whatever,” came my mumbled response.
The blonde didn’t say anything as he left my tent-letting a breath of fresh air inside as he stopped out.
With Jon and Philip with me… I should be able to get the translations done. Philip will translate the books in time, and his brother will figure out what the runes say. And both of those will help me figure out just what I was doing.
I closed my eyes, not even mustering enough energy to grab one of the granola bars the young man had brought for me.
The only problem was now… I wasn’t too sure of what I was doing anymore. By returning to the site, I hoped that more answers would come to me. But I can’t create a world….
Before I fell back asleep, I opened my eyes and shifted my gaze to the computer screen. It was back on the blue cover of the journal. The strange symbol stared back.
Mwyr: a rune meaning ‘hope’.
Other: Started rewriting Mwyr. This is the first chapter. The Prologue still needs to be redone as I started do plan more.
Chapter One~
“Oh… crap… No no nooooo…” I squealed softly and hit my ‘enter’ key repeatedly. But much to my dismay, I watched as the character on my screen doubled over then fell over onto the ground. “Game over…”
The young man that sat across from me at the collapsible card-table glanced up. The white light from the document on his laptop screen reflected off his glasses. “What was that, Arika?”
I made a face, ducking behind my own laptop and switching from the screen asking me if I wanted to continue the game to an online text I was supposed to be reading for my anthropology class. “You’re seeing things, Philip,” came my reply.
He frowned. “The lights from your screen were flashing and changing colors for the past half hour… It was giving me a head-ache.” The blonde pushed his glasses up his nose and returned his gaze to his screen. “You’re playing that stupid computer game, aren’t you?
Gah, caught in the act… Cringing, I sat up-my eyes peering over the top of my screen and glaring over at Philip. “No. I just died.” With an indignant sniff, I tried to focus back on my reading.
“Arika…” Philip sighed, pushing himself away from the table. “How much of that art history paper do you have done?”
I bit my thumb, grinning sheepishly over my computer screen. “Only about four pages…”
He gave me a blank stare. “You know that-”
Emitting a low growl, I snatched the bottle of water next to my laptop. After taking a long sip, I lowered it fro my lips and sighed. “I know… I’ve just been busy with other things.” I dropped my hand back to the table, replacing the bottle and rested it on top of a small, unlabeled composition book.
Philip’s bright brown eyes followed my hand down, watching silently as I drummed my fingers over the surface. “You’ve been carrying that thing with you for the last few weeks.”
Startled, I drew my hand back and looked down at it. “I… It’s some notes.” Well, a half-truth…
“Not for school. All your school notebooks are labeled.” The young man ran a hand back through his neatly combed white-blonde hair before pulling off his glasses. “Starting a diary? Or are you making notes on all of the guys at school to see who you will date next?”
My eyes narrowed and my fingers curled around the edge of my notebook. “You seem to keep careful tabs on everything that I do…”
“Then it is a notebook on boys?” Philip replied quickly, sounding equally interested and surprised at the same time. “Do you have an entry for me?”
I made a disgusted face. “No! What do you take me for?”
With a light, mocking laugh, the young man fell back against his chair. “I don’t think going out with one of my brother’s ex-girlfriends would be in my best interest.”
“You make it sound like there might have been the possibility that I would date you if Jon wasn’t in the picture.”
He regarded me with an odd expression, his hard brown eyes traveling up and down my form; a slight frown formed on his face and the young man coolly slid the glasses back onto his nose. “Maybe. Had we not grown up together and you weren’t Charles’ daughter… I might have considered it at one point.”
The disgusted look returned, accompanied by a gurgle in the back of my throat. “I don’t want to even think of what might have happened if we removed those details…” A slight shiver raced down my spine at the idea.
Philip laughed again, a harsher sound than before. “You asked and I gave you an honest opinion, Arika. Have I ever lied to you?”
“No…” I replied slowly. “But sometimes I wish that your harsh truths weren’t always made at my expense…”
His careless chuckle made me grit my teeth. He watched me from across the table, and I could only glare back.
After a pause, his face broke out into a rather callous grin.
“Stop looking at me like you know something I don’t,” I snapped, saving my files and moving to turn off my laptop. “I don’t like it.”
With a smug smile, the blonde arched one eyebrow. “Jon hasn’t talked to you about it?”
My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to snap back a reply, but my voice died in my throat. “He hasn’t… but… I know…” I lowered my head and stared blankly at the top of my closed computer.
If Philip was capable of anything resembling pity or apathy, he didn’t show it. But as I was quite sure that any ounce of care for another human was absent from the young man, I took his silence to mean he was gloating again.
“Send me the files when you’re done with them,” I told him, gathering my things and standing up.
He looked a little surprised. “You don’t want to study together anymore?’
“I’m mad at you.”
“Tell me something new,” the young man retorted at my retreating form.
Outside the tent, it was a little darker than when I had entered. I glanced down at my watch, nothing that I had been working for over three hours. With a groan, I stretched my back and shifted the notebooks to my other arm. I started back across the small clearing.
Despite it being almost summer, there was a distinct chill in the evening England air. I took a deep, satisfied breath before entering my tent.
“Oh, hello Arika.”
I gave a startled squeak, jumping back and almost dropping my things. I blinked, taking a moment to get used to the light, before I was able to identify the laughing man. “Jon!” I shouted, sliding my laptop and notebooks onto my cot.
He twisted around in the folding chair in front of my desk. “You’re back early. I thought you were going to be studying with Philip until later.”
“I hate your brother so much.”
Jon laughed. “Tell me something new,” he said as I came around behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
I snorted, kissing him on the cheek before glancing at his computer. “What are you working on?”
“I got a sudden interest in those ruins you found,” he explained. Jon adjusted his glasses after giving me a soft kiss on my chin.
“The ones from like… two years ago?”
He nodded, returning his fingers to the keys of his laptop as I retreated to my cot. “I thought that maybe… they had a little more meaning than what we originally thought.”
I fingered the edge of the unlabeled composition book that Philip had pointed out earlier. “Listen Jon, about that-”
“Look here…” the man replied, cutting me off. He pointed towards the screen. “Now… you have the general inscription right around here.” His finger traced over a line of runes that I could barely make out from where I was.
Rising to my feet, I moved back towards Jon. “To those who wish for power… for those who wish to become a god… What lies behind within these pages will grant you those wishes…” I recited dramatically. I slid one arm over his shoulders as he wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me closer.
He nodded, zooming in on the picture. “But it was always these other symbols that interested me.” Jon indicated to three blocks of half-worn runes under the band of the inscription. “At first, I just ignored them, and we pulled out of the site a month or so later.”
I made a sound in agreement. “Have you told my father?”
The young man smiled at my language, but it faded rather quickly back to the serious face. “At the moment, Charles is busy with this site. I tried to approach him with it, but…”
With a short laugh, I lifted my hand and fingered the strands of hair by his ear. “I can try asking my dad… I’m sure if he finds the argument interesting enough, he’ll spare some funds for you to go back and check it out.”
Jon glanced up at me. Without saying anything, he reached out and pulled my head down to kiss me softly. “You always make me regret bad decisions, Arika,” he murmured. “You’ll forgive me when it’s all over, won’t you?”
I drew back, slightly confused. I opened my mouth to speak, but the raven-haired man was faster.
“Philip told you, didn’t he?”
My face darkened slightly. “I found out on my own.”
He arm tightened around me. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I stepped away from him, stalking angrily back over to my cot. “Don’t pity me, Jon. I won’t be offended if we break up, but don’t draw it out any more than it needs to be.” I paused, trying to busy myself with my notebooks. “Can you do me a favor…?”
“Of course, Arika.” The young man came over to me, leaning over and taking my hands in his own. “You’re doing me a big favor by asking Charles for me. What can I do for you?”
I turned my eyes timidly back towards him. “Don’t break up with me until you get back.” There was the feeling of burning tears threatening to spill over; with a frustrated noise, I ducked my head. “Damn it, now I’m crying.” I tried to laugh. “I don’t want to miss you more than I have to.”
Jon’s arms circled my shoulders, pulling me against his chest. He didn’t say anything as I tried my best to calm my breathing.
After a moment, as my body relaxed, he pulled back his arms and rose to his feet. I didn’t look up, choosing instead to listen as he crossed my tent and began to gather up his things.
When he approached my cot again, Jon leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the side of my head. “Of course,” he said in response to my request. “I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast.”
I could only nod dumbly, staring down at my limp hands. Once I heard the sound of my tent being zipped shut, I gave a distressed sigh and fell over onto my side-covering my face with one arm.
Why did I have to get so worked up? My stupid plea sounded more like a desperate high-school student than I would have liked. What was I expecting from this favor? That Jon would change his mind while he was away? “Yeah, right,” I muttered to myself. “Grow up, Arika.”
I don’t remember if I fell asleep, but the next conscious thought involved me realizing the fact that someone was entering my tent.
“What do you want, Philip?”
He laughed, lifting my feet so he could perch on the edge of my cot. “How did you know it was me?”
With a tired groan, I pushed myself into a sitting position, fumbling with my phone to see the time. “Two-fifteen…” I yawned. I guess I did fall asleep. “What do you want?”
The blonde rested his chin in his hand, leaning over on his knee to look at me. “You didn’t get anything to eat.” From the pocket of his dull green jacket, Philip pulled out two granola bars and tossed them onto my lap. “Is everything alright?’
I frowned, picking at the bars before running a hand back through my hair. “Do my ears deceive me? Is Philip Dawson concerned for my well-being?” It was rather odd to think that I might have to retract my earlier statement of the blonde being a perpetual prick. “Sort of?”
“Jon told me of your agreement.
Oh… Oh I see. Now I get it. Here it comes: his classic ridicule.
“If you really want…” he began slowly.
If I really want? I turned my head to the side, watching the young man carefully. He had me interested.
He in turn was staring up at the top of the tent. Philip spun his glasses idly between his fingers. “I’ll go with Jon back to that sight. And I’ll see if I can convince him not to break up with you if that would make you happy.”
I was unable to find my voice for a few seconds, small, inarticulate noises coming from my mouth. He was… serious! “What’s the catch?” I finally managed. “Surely you’re not doing this all for me.”
“Because if you and Jon break up, it runs the chance that my brother might lose favor with Charles, and that will cause me to lose my opportunities in the future,” he answered without missing a beat.
“Erk…” For a moment, I watched Philip in awkward silence before sighing and hanging my head. “I knew it… it’s always your best interests. You’re just finding another thing to hang over my head, aren’t you?” I planted my hands on my knees then pushed myself to my feet. “I’ll go apologize to Jon tomorrow,” I decided, scooping up my notebooks and laptop.
My fingers lingered against the cover to the composition book.
The young man frowned. “Arika-”
“Philip,” I cut in, then fell silent.
He didn’t answer. I didn’t expect him to. He just waited until I was ready to speak again.
Slowly, I sat back down on the cot, leaning over to rest my forehead against his shoulder and grip onto the sleeve of his jacket. “Philip, can I ask you to do something for me?”
There was a pause. “Hm?”
“I… will you go with Jon back to the old church? But don’t interfere with him on my behalf.”
“It wasn’t on your behalf in the first place.”
I winced, but couldn’t help letting out a short laugh. “Shut up for five minutes, Philip Dawson, and let me talk.”
The young man made a disgruntled sound, but didn’t object.
I sat up and released the sleeve, but I left my gaze on his face. “He’s going to investigate the runes in that chamber I found.” Carefully, I reached behind me and plucked the blank notebook from the top of the pile.
“Yeah, and?”
“You can read Old French, can’t you?”
Philip tilted his head to the side. “Kind of. It depends on the level of difficulty and how fast it needs to be translated. Why?”
“Promise me you won’t say anything to anyone else.”
“Why?”
“Promise me!” I stressed, applying my weight to the notebook as I leaned in over our legs.
He frowned and glared down at me-tapping his glasses impatiently against his other hand. “Arika, just tell me.”
It was my turn to frown. Without saying anything I flipped open my notebook and turned it around so he could read it.
The young man was silent, still glaring, as his golden eyes rolled down to the notebook. “This is in English.”
“This isn’t what I want you to translate,” I snapped back, defensively. “I didn’t take the books in Old French with me.” Sliding my laptop out from under the other notebooks, I rose to my feet and crossed over to my desk.
His gaze followed me, probably silently judging the interest of my case. “Books? Did you bring some back with you, then?”
I didn’t respond automatically. “I took a few pictures of the pages from one of two books containing Old French. There is a suitcase under my cot; can you pull it out?” Without turning to see if Philip actually decided to perform the task, I proceeded to concentrate on what I was doing. I knew his curiosity would win over.
“There are books in here,” the blonde replied, coming up next to me with two dark red volumes in his hand.
Nodding, I leaned back in my chair and took one from his hand. “As you can notice, they’re in English. Granted, it looks like some form of shorthand or possibly just scripted by someone who couldn’t write very well. The terminology and spelling predated Chaucer by a few hundred years, so we’re looking at something that goes back to around 1000 AD.”
Philip was silent through my explanation, gingerly leafing through the frail pages. “It’s so well preserved… that it’s unnatural.”
“I know.” With another nod, I set down the book that I was holding to turn back to my computer. “That’s part of what interested me in the first place. The other part was this symbol.” I clicked on a small icon in a folder, waiting for it to load.
The image was a dark blue book, similar to the ones I had with me. The edges were frayed and rather tattered, showing its age; but despite that, it still held together firmly.
“Is that the one in French?” he asked, leaning over my shoulder and sliding his glasses back onto his nose. “What’s that shadow on the cover?
“That’s what I wanted to k now.” I began to enter a series of commands into the image program-letting it brighten the colors and clear up the picture. “This symbol, at first glance, just appears to look exactly like a rune. Same angular lines, same simple form.”
The symbol itself, even after enhancing the image, was still hard to see. It was a simple straight line. From the top edge, another line slanted down right-mirrored on the reverse for the bottom tip. In the middle of the straight line was a diamond… and that was it.
“I looked through all of the rune books that I could get my hands on: Jon’s collection, the University’s library, even looked online.” I leaned back in my chair, only to sit right back up again when I felt Philip’s fingers curled over the chair. “I couldn’t find anything that looked like this rune. It’s similar to a few, but never an exact match.” With a click of my mouse, the picture changed to a shot of the inside of the book. “These are sample pages of the Old French.”
Philip leaned in closer, golden eyes flickering across the screen and mumbling something to himself. “It… appears to be simple enough to translate.” He tilted his head to the side, continuing to gaze curiously at my screen. “It looks like instructions to make something.” He had grabbed the mouse, going through the images on his own.
I made a small noise and pursed my lips. “That’s what I was afraid of…” I muttered, biting onto my thumb out of habit.
“What do you mean?” he returned, glancing down at me and releasing the mouse from his grip.
I picked up the red notebook I had taken from him earlier. “As I went through this and wrote down a sort of translation, I began to realize that the previous owner of these books was creating something.” My brow furrowed and I stared at one page-nothing exactly important, just one that I had flipped to. “At first, none of it really made sense to me. I was just translating one set of gibberish to another. It wasn’t until about halfway through the first book did I realize what I was doing.”
Philip was silent as I rose to my feet, stepping back so I could move over to the cot. He gave a confused, tired sigh, reaching up a hand to rustle his fingers through his pale blonde hair. “It looked like… a lot of scientific stuff. Numbers and equations…”
“Yeah, that’s exactly the problem.” I grabbed my composition notebook that he had left open on my cot. “I was copying down a lot of numbers… soil types, water salinity… None of it made sense, but I wanted to keep writing it down anyways.” I cast a quick glance up at the young man. “How stupid does that sound?”
“Then… what did you create?” Philip sounded hesitant. He eyed the notebook on my lap. “A farm?”
“Close. A world.”
“Oh.”
There was a pause, in which Philip turned his attention back to the red notebook in his hands. I waited, fingering the corners of my pages.
Suddenly, the young man’s head jerked up and he stared at me with wide golden eyes. “A what?!” he yelped, almost dropping the book. “That’s what all of this is?” He brandished the book in my silent face.
I couldn’t smile. I wanted to offer him something other than a bland expression, but it wouldn’t come. His reaction reminded me of what I had known to be true all along: There is no way in Hell that something like that was possible.
Creating a world was impossible. I’m not a god. I can’t create things out of nothing.
At least, it wasn’t a skill I was aware of. But after nearly twenty-one years of living… I’m pretty sure that ‘god’ was nothing something in my genes.
“Yeah,” I finally replied, turning away as I felt my throat tighten with disappointment and embarrassment. “How weird is that? Totally not logical.”
But Philip wasn’t listening. “Arika, this-this is ground breaking! Do you have any idea how powerful something like this could be?” His voice dropped in volume as he came to stand in front of me. “Arika… the power to create a world. It’s amazing!”
“It’s stupid!” I snapped back. “How does filling a notebook with facts and figures and descriptions of daily life actually equal world?” I rose to my feet, pacing nervously in a small line in the confines of my tent. “I have so many questions about it, and I don’t have any access to answers. Like… does the world actually exist now, since it has been scripted in part? Do two versions of the world exist-now that I have copied down the original or is there some other qualification between simply writing it out and it coming into existence?”
I feel silent immediately as Philips hands clamped down on my shoulders. We stood for a few seconds in silence, staring at each other with mixed expressions.
“Who else have you told about this?” the young man asked, finally breaking the silence between us.
“No one.”
He nodded, releasing my shoulders. “Good. Don’t.”
I looked away. “I wanted to tell Jon about it. He might be able to help me with the runes-”
“No. You can’t tell anyone else.” Philip crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me over the rims of his glasses.
Annoyed, I pouted and turned around to face him. “Then I’ll come with you two to the old site.”
“You don’t trust me,” he stated with a short laugh. He didn’t sound the least bit surprised.
“No, I don’t,” I replied hotly. “Who would trust you with something as big as this?”
Philip arched an eyebrow. “Then why did you tell me in the first place?”
I hesitated, eyes going wide as I stared back at him. Why… did I decide to tell him of all people? “I don’t know,” I admitted, dropping back onto my cot. With a muffled sigh, I fell over onto my side. I suddenly felt tired and a little hungry.”
The young man pulled off his glasses and sighed as well. “Well, you coming or not doesn’t matter to me. You’ll be the one pulling the strings to get your father to let us go, so it might be more logical for you to come along.” He frowned, placing the red book that was still in his hands atop the other on my desk. “We’ll have to leave after you finish that paper, though.”
I was too tired to argue. “Whatever,” came my mumbled response.
The blonde didn’t say anything as he left my tent-letting a breath of fresh air inside as he stopped out.
With Jon and Philip with me… I should be able to get the translations done. Philip will translate the books in time, and his brother will figure out what the runes say. And both of those will help me figure out just what I was doing.
I closed my eyes, not even mustering enough energy to grab one of the granola bars the young man had brought for me.
The only problem was now… I wasn’t too sure of what I was doing anymore. By returning to the site, I hoped that more answers would come to me. But I can’t create a world….
Before I fell back asleep, I opened my eyes and shifted my gaze to the computer screen. It was back on the blue cover of the journal. The strange symbol stared back.
Mwyr: a rune meaning ‘hope’.