Chapter 28

Apparently Akharos has his own office in the castle that is kept just for his use whenever he visits, as infrequently as that is, and he spends much of his time there while Yliana visits with members of the court. When I bring my maps and the encoded page there the next morning, having asked to skip playing in the great hall today, I expect it to look similar to Khysmet’s office, which is interestingly decorated, but clearly used just for administrative purposes. However, Akharos’s office consists entirely of various desks and worktables, each covered in different sets of tools probably related to specific fields of study, interspersed with huge floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed full of technical-looking tomes. I can’t help but gawk at every different table, trying to guess at the uses of all the tools. It takes me a while to even notice where Akharos is in the room, but I eventually spot him toward the back wall at one of the biggest worktables covered in what I recognize immediately as chemistry equipment.

When I approach, he’s staring at an intricate arrangement of tubes and flasks, one with a small fire going underneath it, and scribbling notes in a small leather-bound book. I try to make enough noise, stepping heavily and coughing a little, while I’m further away so I don’t startle him by only making my presence known when I’m right behind him. He still jumps a bit.

“Miss Catarina,” he says, “welcome to my office. Please, grab a seat from another desk and make yourself comfortable.”

I do so, trying to pull one of the utilitarian stools close enough to see what he’s doing without breathing right down his neck.

“Good morning, Prince Akaharos,” I greet. “Mind if I ask what you’re working on?”

He turns toward me and smiles kindly. “It’s a simple distilling process, is all. Just concentrating a compound. My knowledge of chemistry is admittedly quite limited, but I still find the study deeply rewarding. There’s certainly always more to learn.”

I stare at the setup in fascination and chew my lip. “How, um… How would you recommend one get started learning about it?”

His grin widens. “I still have some very basic introductory books on my shelves here. You’re more than welcome to them.”

He must notice me looking around the whole room full of packed bookshelves, because he continues. “I’ll extend that invitation to any of the books in this room if you like.”

“Really?” I ask, trying not to sound too excited and failing.

“Really,” he confirms with a small chuckle. “Now let’s see these maps I’ve heard so much about.”

I turn to an empty section of worktable and unfurl my finished map, inked with the utmost precision and care, the miles of pathways crossing and intersecting in an elaborate spiderweb across the massive page. Despite what I said at dinner, I really am proud of it. After my legs recovered but before Akharos arrived, I went down one more time with Rhys and tied up the last couple of loose ends, wanting to actually complete my masterpiece. We also pulled out all of the signs and filled the holes in the ground back up with dirt so they would no longer be a threat to the castle’s security.

Akharos stares at my map for a long moment, then mutters a low, reverent “woah.” I glow with pride.

“You did this in a month?” he asks.

“Just about,” I say. “It’s far from perfect if superimposed over a real map, but the angles of the intersections are as precise as I could get them, and the way they’re interconnected is completely accurate. Anyone with a compass and a way of keeping track of which intersection they’re at at a given moment could navigate down there with this.”

“And there’s only one path that connects to the catacombs?” he asks, running his finger along the line that extends to the right edge of the page.

“Yeah. I don’t have that whole tunnel drawn on the map, though. It’s a three hour walk from this point to where it connects, and I have no clue what part of the catacombs it connects to.”

He stares for a while longer, and shakes his head gently. “This is truly impressive. I’m glad I didn’t find these tunnels when I was young, because I undoubtedly would have gone too deep and gotten lost in this maze.”

I let him admire my handiwork for a bit longer before asking my next question.

“There’s, um, something else I would like you to look at,” I say hesitantly, then hold out my rat-chewed paper full of nonsense words. “Your brother mentioned you have experience deciphering codes. I found this in the catacombs, and I don’t know what this is beyond the fact that it’s encoded somehow.”

“Let’s have a look, then,” Akharos says, and takes the paper from my hands. He holds it out and studies it closely, cocking his head as he thinks.

“It doesn’t seem to be a message of any kind. The length of the words doesn’t have the variety and patterns one would expect from actual sentences. I would guess that it’s a list. Most likely a list of names.”

My heart rate quickens. “How do you know they’re names?”

“Well, they’re in groups of three, and the middle word is always the same three letters. Sungian last names all correspond to locations – cities, towns, and regions in Veilsung – that indicate one’s ancestral origin, and they are always preceded by the word ‘tal’, which essentially means ‘of’ or ‘from’ in old Sungian.”

“Tal,” I say, “like the goddess?”

“That’s where the word comes from, yes. It means the point of origin. For example, my full name is Akharos tal Dimos, and my wife is Yliana tal Elkhara. So my best guess is, this is a list of names written in a simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher.”

“Okay, I was with you up to the word ‘monoalphabetic’.”

He smiles. “A simple monoalphabetic substitution cipher is a code where each letter corresponds to one other letter, and it’s the same letter for the whole page or message. So, here we’re assuming that the letters M, L, and X correspond to T, A, and L respectively. That means that all the M’s on this page are actually T’s, all the L’s are actually A’s, and so on for every single letter.”

“That makes sense. So how do we find out what all the other letters are?”

"That's the hard part. Without any sort of key, you have to go by the patterns of the letters. If it was a message, there are certain patterns in written language you could look out for – like if there was one letter by itself, you'd guess it's either an I or an A, because those are the only two single letters words in Basic. Names can be tough, though, especially since you're probably not familiar with many Sungian names and the common patterns in them. An easy one to keep an eye out for is that K and H are often seen together, usually with K in front, so you might look here for letters that are usually seen together. I see a lot of W's followed by Q's, so they might correspond to K and H. But you'll have to do the legwork and try things out until it all fits together.

"I would suggest you find yourself a good atlas of Veilsung, since the last names will all be locations. Many geographic locations end in the letter A or I, so that's something to watch out for. Pay close attention to the length of words and the patterns of repeated letters. Also, you might talk to Khysmet and see if he can get you a book of census data. That might give you a good idea of the more common Sungian given names. Oh, and I'll grab you a book on simple ciphers. If there is a key on this page somewhere, it could be helpful to know some common established patterns."

He hands the paper back to me. I heave a deep sigh, half relief and half frustration.

"Thank you so much for getting me pointed in the right direction," I say, "but I had half-hoped you would tell me that it's actually much more simple than I thought it would be."

He scoffs and shoots me an odd look.

"Oh, simple like mapmaking?” he says. “Or simple like playing thirty different instruments? Based on what I know about you, Miss Catarina, if it were simple, it would bore you.”

My face heats up at his words. There’s something about Akharos, about the way he looks at me, that makes me feel uncomfortably seen. I know I’m not hard to read, but it feels like he’s looking straight into my head with those intelligent orange eyes. Hopefully he doesn’t mind what he sees there. I haven't even known him for a day, but he seems to already understand everything about me. I'm desperate to know just what all Khysmet has been telling him in his letters

Akharos turns back to his distilling setup and stares at it for a second, scribbling down a couple of notes.

“I must say,” he says after a moment, “my brother is really quite taken with you. Did you know that?”

My breath catches in my throat. Shit. I was worried he was going to try to talk to me about Khysmet. I’m scared to find out where he’s going to take this conversation, but I don’t really have any option other than to answer his questions and hope he doesn’t hate me for my answers or ask anything truly uncomfortable. I swallow thickly.

“He’s… he’s made his interest fairly clear, yes,” I say.

“He’s rather selective about the people to whom he chooses to give the time of day,” Akharos says conversationally. “Always has been. The problem is that when he does find someone he likes, rather than showering you with his affection, he tends to, shall we say, inflict it upon you.”

I can’t help but smile at his incredibly accurate phrasing. “Yeah,” I say, “I know what you mean.”

“I must say, I’m amazed that he managed to avoid driving you off,” he remarks. “I have to know… What on earth did he do that made you stick around?”

“Well…” I start with a grimace. I’m pretty sure Akharos isn’t going to like the answer to this question. “He actually brought me on as a court minstrel. I signed a contract agreeing to stay here at the castle for a while to get funding for my troupe. I probably wouldn’t have stuck around if it wasn’t for that.”

“Seriously?” Akharos asks, whipping his head around to look at me incredulously. “He’s paying you to be here? That’s… that’s so messed up.”

He squeezes the bridge of his snout in his fingers and closes his eyes for a moment as though in pain. Then he looks back up at me.

“So wait,” he says, “do you even like him? Or is he just forcing you to spend time with him?”

I bite my lip and shuffle my feet nervously. Here it is, the million dollar question. I still don’t completely know how to answer it, but I have to try.

“Well…” I start hesitantly, “at first, it was definitely the latter. But… I don’t know. I’ve come to appreciate some things about him. I enjoy parts of our time together. I even choose to spend time with him sometimes. Well, sort of often, I suppose.”

I blush as I unwittingly think of Khysmet’s frequent evening visits. I hope Akharos can’t see into my head right this second, though based on the way his left brow shoots up, I have a feeling he can.

He hums thoughtfully. “And when your contract comes to an end… What will you do then?”

“I’m… I’m not sure yet,” I admit. “It’s for two years total, with an opportunity to leave every six months. The earliest I can get out of it is in about a month, but… I’m thinking I’ll stay for at least another six. Maybe.” I bite my lip. “Probably.”

Akharos sighs and shakes his head. “That idiot needs to get his act together and take proper care of you, or he’s going to lose you so fast.”

I blink. I don’t have the first clue what to say to that. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to expect a response. He turns away and starts moving things around on the worktable, seemingly searching for something. When he finds what he’s looking for, he turns back toward me holding two small wooden boxes. He hands one to me.

“What’s this?” I ask and take it from him.

As an answer, he scribbles something on the corner of his notebook, rips it off, opens his box, and drops the paper inside.

“Now open yours,” he instructs.

I do so, and inside is a torn corner of paper with the word ‘hello’ written on it.

I smile. “Nolara told me about these things. Can I see in your box?”

He opens his and shows me. The paper is still in that one, too. Amazing.

“What happens if we both try to take it out at the same time?” I ask eagerly.

“Don’t try that,” he advises. He puts two fingers into his box and they appear in mine, too, making me jump and almost drop it. I look closer. They look severed, but they move around when he wiggles them.

“That’s terrifying.”

“Yeah, it hurts to accidentally occupy the same space as someone else’s hand. Best to just drop something in and then leave it until the other person picks it up.”

“Does it actually injure your hand? Or does it just hurt?”

Akharos looks at me dubiously, like he thinks I’m going to try it. “Depending on what you do, you can accidentally sever someone’s finger. At the very least, imagine someone pushing down on the inside of your muscles. It’s a bad idea.”

“Hmm. Noted”

“Anyway,” he says, “When I head back to Elkhara, I want you to write to me. You seem to always be up to something interesting, and I’d like to be kept up-to-date on your various exploits, ideally through your firsthand account. I don’t think Khysmet generally has a good grasp of what you’re doing at any given point. I once asked him some specific questions about what processes you were using to map the tunnels, and the letter he sent back contained at least six instances of the phrase 'I don't know', plus several other variations on the same theme.”

I can’t help but grin at that. “I guess I should try to explain things better to him sometimes.”

“I wouldn’t bother. Khysmet is not an unintelligent man, but he’s also not much of a scholar. I have a feeling that much of what you do with your time would be lost on him. Plus, I think he likes the mystery of not knowing.”

I laugh nervously. “I’m not much of a scholar either. Not really.”

“Not yet, maybe. I’d wager you didn’t have access to many books being on the road all the time with your troupe. Am I right?”

I shrug. “We had enough nonfiction books among us to provide a basic education. And I would buy novels to read to pass the time between towns. There wasn’t much point in visiting libraries when we couldn’t stay long enough for me to finish a book and bring it back, though.”

Akharos smiles. “There’s a lot to be said about the things one can learn while traveling the world. But there’s a lot of traveling you can do without ever moving, just by learning as much as you can about as many subjects as you can. I have a feeling that however long you end up staying here, you’ll be making the most of your time one way or another.”

Just then, I hear the distant sound of bells signaling the turn of the hour. It’s now eleven.

“I think I’m going to try to snag Khysmet on his way to his lunch meetings and ask where to find the census data,” I say.

Akharos shoots me an odd look that makes me realize I called Khysmet by just his name without any honorific. I silently curse myself for getting too comfortable and forgetting to watch my language. The castle staff generally knows Khysmet has asked me to be informal with him, but I’m always careful in front of the nobility. Oops. He doesn’t remark on it, though. He just shrugs slightly and replies as though I didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

“Best of luck with your code breaking,” he says. “I’ll bring that book on simple ciphers to dinner tonight if I don’t see you before then.”

“Thank you so much for your help, Prince Akharos,” I say and bow politely on my way out. “See you at dinner.”