"This word here means journey," Arsh said, pointing to a word in the middle of the notebook.
"No, it means to depart," Mes replied.
"But that's not what you wrote in your notes," Arsh said, holding out the notebook in his hand.
It was up to them to translate the incomplete parts. Professor Adams's translations were quite clean, but in the untranslated sections, the notes they assumed belonged to Professor Millway were in complete chaos. Unfortunately, Mes's knowledge of Nicaean didn't go beyond a few words either. As a result, they had spread out the textbooks and notebooks from his lessons and thrown themselves into the task of translation.
After three hours, however, they had managed to decipher the meanings of only ten words. Both of them were talented when it came to learning languages, but this one was unlike anything they were familiar with. They still couldn't make sense of its sentence structure.
As if the work weren't frustrating enough already, Juan kept interrupting with unnecessary comments. Fortunately, he quieted down a bit after taking a newspaper that Eleni brought, putting his feet up on the table as he read.
A moment later, the sound of the telegraph echoed through the library. Arsh and Mes both looked toward Juan, who was the closest to it. Juan, however, acted as though he hadn't heard a thing and continued reading his newspaper.
After staring at the telegraph for a few seconds, Mes shot Juan an annoyed look and got up from the table.
"What is it?" Juan asked when Mes picked up the telegram.
Instead of reading it aloud, Mes walked over and held it out for Arsh to see.
Then he gathered the notebook and his notes from the table. Without a word, the two of them stood up and headed for the stairs, leaving the library.
"Hey! Hey, where are you going? Are you ignoring me? You little brats!" Juan shouted after them, but they had already run up the stairs.
"That man isn't used to sit still without doong nothing. Whenever he's like this, he finds someone to pick on. Walter never shows his face around because of him." said Mes.
Arsh really hadn't seen Walter since he arrived. He had assumed Walter was spending his nights out somewhere again, but it seemed he was just running away from Juan too.
"When should we head out?" Arsh asked. The telegram they received was from Mrs. Burton. Since they couldn't progress with the translations on their own, they had decided to ask for her help. In response, she had invited them to her house that evening.
"Let's go now. We can hang around a little before going there. I'm bored," Mes said.
Arsh wasn't sure what they would find in the notebook. Professor Reiner's hope was that it would reveal what the Ministry of Colonies had been after. Arsh, on the other hand, hoped it would finally gave him a chance to go after Millway and his mans.
But, now he found himself hoping for something else.
He hoped it might contain a clue about the girl's identity. If there was anything in the notebook about the sarcophagus, it might help her recover some of her memories.
...
They headed to Mrs. Burton's house after spending some time wandering around the city center and grabbing something to eat.
Mrs. Burton's home was a modest house in a neighborhood not far from Professor Reiner's mansion. It was a charming two-story home with a small garden out front.
When they knocked on the door, a young woman opened it.
"Welcome, Mr. Vance. Mrs. Burton is expecting you," she said with a smile before stepping aside and gesturing for them to come in.
Since Mes had been here before, he already knew his way around the house, which was relatively small compared to the mansion, without needing any guidance. Arsh followed him as they went upstairs.
"Welcome," Mrs. Burton said, appearing at the doorway of one of the rooms upstairs. "Come inside."
It was a small study. After removing the books piled on the chairs and setting them aside, Mrs. Burton told them to sit down.
Without wasting any time, they got to work on the translations.
Unlike Arsh and Mes, Mrs. Burton was thoroughly familiar with the structure of the language and was able to translate most of the text without even consulting her notes. Whenever she came across a word she didn't know, she left it to Mes and Arsh to look it up.
After several hours, they had managed to make sense of most of the previously untranslated sections.
"Unfortunately, this still isn't a language we fully understand, so there's a good chance we've made mistakes or missed things. And you've probably noticed that several pages have been torn out. Whatever was on them may have been important. Or maybe Professor Adams tore them, who knows. For now, let's focus on what we do have," Mrs. Burton said.
Together, they went through the translations and discussed which parts might be important and which might not.
There didn't seem to be much to work with.
The only text that looked important was the one written by a traveler - the one that had already been translated.
"'The Land of the Blessed' probably refers to the capital of Ancient Nicaea. As far as we know, the king, his family, and people in important positions are called the Blessed. And I don't think it would be a wild guess to say 'the southern lands, where the desert spreads like a plague' is Kurshan. It is probably a time even before Kushka was founded. Whatever they hid there is likely what Millway found. The inscription here matches the one on the gate Arsh mentioned. So, whatever is there is a remnant of the gods of power. I really have no idea what this could be, but a gut feeling tells me it is important and dangerous."
"Yes, that's roughly what we had already guessed… but we need more clues," Mes said.
'Important… and dangerous…' Arsh kept circling around those two words in his mind. Whatever they were referring to, it was most likely inside his head. But it didn't seem like she remembered why she was important and dangerous. Or perhaps she did remember, and was simply using him until she regained her strength.
Remnants of the fallen gods' power…
He needed to decide whether he should tell the others about it, or keep it to himself for now. 'If I wanted to tell them, could she manipulate me and stop me?' he wondered.
"Hey."
"What?" Arsh said, breaking out of his thoughts.
"I didn't say anything," Mes said.
"Oh, sorry."
"Hey, it's me."
"What?" Arsh said again, this time in surprise.
"What is wrong with you? We didn't say anything," Mes said.
"Nothing."
"You don't need to speak out loud, I can hear you even if you whisper," the voice inside his mind said.
"Okay," Arsh muttered under his breath this time.
"I just remembered something. Take that notebook. There was something about the Western Sea. Read that. You will find something for your friend Ezra... I don't have enough power."
Then, just like that, her voice completely faded.
Arsh did what she said and took the notebook. He turned the pages to see what she was talking about. Probably, she meant there was something helpful for Ezra.
After turning a couple of pages, he found it. There really was something about the Western Sea. But the translation wasn't complete.
"Mrs. Burton, what about this text? Can you explain? It says something about the Isle of the West and Seyra of the unknown seas."
"Oh, this. I didn't translate it because it is something already known. But I was going to look at it later, I didn't expect to see it a Nicaen tablet. It is an ancient and controversial legend," she said, then laughed. "Let me tell you the love story of the goddesses of the two seas."