Ken

Dear journal,

Amity... It didn't mean friendship...

The more I thought about it, I realized it meant peace. At least in the context of the family I had encountered. I chose not to escalate the conflict between me and the father of that family. Instead opting towards a peaceful withdrawal. A peaceful resolution.

I thought about what the Old Man had said. That it was time to open another one. Another door.

I can't be certain but I think this castle is some sort of place of trials. Individual ones, I'd imagine, as I haven't seen another living soul in the castle proper. Well, at least not a human one.

So, I picked another door. The one at the end of the hallway labeled: Ken.

I had no idea what that word meant so I got myself ready for anything. I opened the door and was greeted by a library in the middle of which, resting on a pedestal, was an open book. I looked around, there was no sign of any danger, so I came back to the book.

The text on the open page read...

I have no tongue, yet I tell of the dead. A sentinel for names of those in our stead.

Below the page there was an empty line. I tried to turn the page but the book wouldn't budge. I couldn't lift it either. I saw a pen rested in the folds of the spine.

The book was looking for an answer.

I thought about it for a while. No tongue, but tells of the dead... A sentinel for names...

A gravestone.

The riddle disappeared and was replaced by a new one.

I open for many, I open for all. Yet there are those who refuse my call. Sooner or later my embrace they'll receive. For time will grant them no such reprieve.

I could see a theme developing with these. The answer was: A grave.

The last one was much the same...

The man who builds it, doesn't want it. The man who buys it, doesn't need it. The man who uses it, doesn't know it.

This was an old one: A coffin.

The next question though...

Have you been here before?

I wrote: No.

It shot back with the words...

WRONG!

Suddenly, my vision blurred. My ears started ringing loudly. My legs, refused to work.

I felt like I was having a heart attack, I couldn't breathe. Things were getting dark.

I lifted myself up to the book and wrote Yes as best I could and suddenly, I felt normal again.

The book closed. And I heard something fall to the floor. A scroll that must have dislodged from it's pigeon hole. I unfurled it and it contained a single word:

ITERUMNE

Iterumne? What the hell does that mean? The scroll burnt up in my hands and the door leading out into the hallway opened. Suddenly, the rest of the library began to come aflame and so I ran outside and shut the door.

I tried to open it again. It stayed closed. I guess I passed the trial. That one wasn't half bad.

"What did you learn?"

The Old Man, for the...I don't know how many times, scared the heck out of me again. I told him I didn't learn anything. 

He just smirked.

"No? Nothing stood out?"

I told him about the word on the scroll "Iterumne" and he nodded his head knowingly.

"Yeah, that's you. Or rather, what you are."

I asked him what that meant. What did the word mean? Why did the book force me to say that I'd been "here" before?

"It didn't force you," he answered. "It just simply wasn't going to accept a wrong answer."

But the pain that I felt, wasn't that a punishment? Wasn't that the book? He squinted at me.

"Nope, just you slowly coming to terms."

He rolled his neck, which seemed to crack with some satisfaction for him.

"As for the word: Again? or Once more? It's Latin."

I think he could see the gears turning in my head because he got that grin on his face again.

"Have fun," he said. Before vanishing again.

You're going to help me journal. If I write it out, I can figure it out. Maybe.

The book says I've been here before. The scroll showed the word for "Again?" or "Once more?"

The pain I felt was me "coming to terms", according to the Old Man. Not because I answered wrong.

By answering the riddles in the book, and answering the final question as well as reading the scroll, the room sealed, indicating I had passed the trial. So what the heck does "Ken" mean?

Knowledge? I guess? The Old Man had asked me if I learned anything. Maybe that's what it was about? But I didn't learn anything. I guess I learned that I was "here" before. But why don't I remember? I'm pretty sure I'd recall wandering around a medieval castle and fighting God knows what creatures.

And those riddles: a gravestone, a grave and a coffin? What a morbid theme.

Iterumne. The Old Man said that's what I am.

I've been here before. But when? How? Why?

What does all of this mean?

Iterumne?

Again? Once more?