A Court of Surprises and Twists

Chapter 5

"Which language did you know first?" Mor asked me after a beat of awkward silence.

"What do you call them here?" I asked, knowing it wouldn't be English or French.

"What we are speaking now is the Common Tongue, C'est l'ancienne langue," Amren told me. This is the Old Language.

"Ok, well I learnt the common tongue first as that is what my family spoke, then I learnt the old language at five, Azriel's shadow language at ten, and other languages in between and after," I told them.

"How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" Feyre asked.

"I'm fifteen, I know, I must be like a new-born to you, but before I got here, I was human, that's what I was freaking out about, the second time." I told them, Feyre nodded in understanding.

"You leant seven languages in fifteen years?" Mor asked, eyes wide.

"Yes," I said, uncertainty in my tone.

"You just got ten times cooler, I was going to guess you to be around sixty," Mor exclaimed.

"So, you and Amren can talk behind our backs with us in the room?" Cassian asked.

"Oh, mon dieu, nous pouvons, ça va être tellement amusant!" I exclaimed, causing Amren to chuckle. Oh my god, we can, this is going to be so much fun.

"I suggest, fleur, that you stick to the common tongue with him in the room, ne veut plus blesser son ego," she told me, brows raised. Flower. Don't want to bruise his ego anymore.

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Rhys, you're old and had a fancy education, did you not learn any of the old language?" I asked, looking over at him.

"A little, but not enough to even pretend I could keep up with your conversation just then," he replied, I nodded.

"Fair enough," I said with a shrug.

"Are you going to translate the book?" Mor asked.

"Yes, if that is what you want me to do," I said, looking at Feyre and Rhysand.

"You can do it in sessions with Amren each day, if that is ok with the both of you," Rhys said, I nodded and looked to Amren.

"Tu n'es pas obligé de dire oui, vous pouvez le garder comme votre projet si vous le souhaitez." I told her, I didn't want to trample on her work. You don't have to say yes, you can keep it as your project if you want.

"J'ai besoin de ton aide Ava, ça me prend trop de temps à le faire seul, pas que je leur avouerais ça." She replied. I need your help Ava, it is taking me too long doing it alone, not that I would admit that to them.

"Yes Rhysand, send her to my apartment each morning." Amren declared, standing and taking the book back from me.

"What time?" I asked.

"Nine." She replied before walking out.

"Come on, let's have lunch," Feyre declared, getting up and walking out, the rest of us following.

I sat next to Azriel, he made me feel safe and his shadows were a comfort. I watched as they all began to load their plates and eat, I didn't touch the food though, I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

"You need to eat," Azriel told me.

"I can't," I whispered.

"Why not?" He asked gently.

"لا أريد أن أمرض" I told him in Arabic when I realised the others were listening. I don't want to be sick.

"Was someone starving you?" He asked, anger lacing his tone.

"Not really," I told him, looking down and wrapping my arms around myself.

"What do you mean?" Feyre asked.

"It doesn't matter, really, I'll eat later," I told her, hoping that she would drop it.

"What other languages do you know?" Rhys asked, changing the subject.

"In the order I learnt them, English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese," I told him.

"Do you think any of those could be transferred over as well?" Mor asked.

"I'm not too sure, what other languages exist here?" I asked, trying to think back to the books.

"She has a point Rhys; everyone speaks the same language." Feyre said.

"I was thinking more about written languages, like Illyrian runes," Rhys replied, levelling Feyre with a look that made her blush.

"Do you have any Illyrian runes?" I asked, looking around the table.

Azriel drew a dagger from his hip and my breath caught but he flipped it, so he was holding the blade and showed me the handle.

"Have any paper and a pen?" I asked, Feyre made it appear with a snap of her fingers.

I wrote down the runes onto the paper.

"Truth Teller?" I questioned, looking up.

"Which language is that?" Cassian questioned.

"Hebrew, was I right?" I asked.

"You were," Azriel said as he sheathed the blade.

"Cool, although my Hebrew isn't as good as the others I will warn you," I explained.

"The fact you know more than one language is amazing to us, let alone seven," Mor told me with a grin.

"Can you say it without translating it?" Azriel asked.

"דובר אמת" I replied.

"Your blade just got cooler," Feyre told him.

He gave her a soft smile.